Budget for Central Europe?

[susanb]

Hello All,

I am making a budget for a trip I am taking in the fall of 2013. I will be spending 11 days and 10 nights in Berlin, Vienna, Prague and Budapest. Hotels, flight, rail between the cities and breakfast will be part of my travel package and not included in my spending budget.

How much per person per day should I budget for lunch, dinner, transportation within cities and seeing the sights?

I am thinking $150 per person, per day, but am unsure. (There will be three adults in my party).

Thank you in advance for your help!

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Personally, that's a little high for two meals and incidental city touring costs only. But it depends on your tastes, your finances, and how much touring you're going to be doing. Or how much wine you want to have with dinner. ;D

[Tennesseer]

You should probably first determine average meal prices in each of those cities. The internet should be able to help you. Then find out if any of those cities have daily/weekly inter-city travel passes. Tourist sights probably have internet sites with rates posted.

[Deleted]

"how much wine you want to have with dinner."



Vienna will be your most expensive city. Then Berlin, Prague and Budapest.

Research whether it makes sense to get a multi-day or multi person pass. Many cities have these kinds of passes which allow you to take both streetcar, the underground service and bus. Of course walking is the most fun because all 4 cities are terrific cities with wonderful river bank walks.

Make sure to have Hungarian sparkling wine. It's quite good! ;D

Have fun!

[susanb]

Thanks for the feedback.

I am taking my parents to Europe for my father's 70th birthday. We won't spend much on drinking (my parents don't drink) or evening entertainment (my dad wants to be in early so we can get up early). Since my Dad is older and wants to see as much as possible, we will probably spend a lot on cabs and sightseeing.

We will eat a couple of expensive meals, but mostly probably pretty middle of the road.

[Deleted]

One suggestion on meals: find the local grocery store and head for their ready-to-eat section: sandwiches, salads, etc. You won't do this all the time, but DH and I enjoyed just flopping in our room for dinner sometimes. Good on the budget, and less hassle. Sorry I can't help you on the daily budget because it's been awhile since we were in any of those cities but $150 pp per day sounds good to me.

[pinkbow832]

I was in Vienna about 2 months ago, and found the prices to be pretty reasonable. Granted, I live in a HCOL area and prices were in euros, but it wasn't too bad. Keep in mind though that $150 is around 115 euros, and things are often prices in euros comparably to what we pay in the US in $$. If you plan for dinner at around 20-25 euros pp, lunch around 15 euros pp, that leaves about 75 euros pp/day for sightseeing and transportation, which should be completely do-able in Vienna and Berlin, with slightly lower prices in Budapest and Prague. Athena had a great idea for grocery stores and ready-made food, which is great when you're tired of restaurants and is very helpful with budgeting. We did this on our trip and paid about 5 euros for lunch for 2- had half a roast chicken, bread, and drinks from the grocery store.

One place our friends took us in Vienna that I would definitely recommend was a restaurant called "Schweizerhaus". The food was great, inexpensive, and the place was HUGE- it's a beer hall that serves traditional Austrian food located in the Prater. www.schweizerhaus.at/1024/eng/index.html

Normally when we travel, we do a lot of research and look for restaurants near where we'll be staying and sightseeing, so when we're hungry we have a list of "non-tourist trap" restaurants to check out. We use trip advisor to do the research, and so far have had pretty good results.

And one last thing- make sure you have the correct ticket for the transportation you're using, because getting caught with the wrong one and paying fines definitely eats into the budget. I found this out as a college student in Budapest, where you have to buy a new ticket every time you change lines in their subway system. Make sure you validate tickets after buying them, because the ticket checkers can be ruthless!

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

I second the suggestion to check for daily or weekly transit passes in each city. Some of them have other things included like discounts or passes to some museums or other sites. But not having to keep figuring out how - or spending the time - to buy tickets can be worth the price by itself. Although, like pinkbow mentioned, sometimes even with passes, you have to get them validated or something, so ask about that at the beginning. But passes can still make your life easier in a lot of ways. I always get them in any city I will be in, even if I don't plan to use them a lot. It's one less thing to worry about. You might even check with your hotel and see if anyone has left a pass at the desk. In Boston last year, a departing guest left her transit pass at the front desk for someone else, and we were able to use it for the rest of her week.

Check for passes for museums or historical sites for the city also. In Rome, we got an inclusive pass at a newstand for the Coliseum and the Forum that included several historical sites, but most importantly, allowed us to skip the *long* line to buy tickets and instead go right inside. That was worth the price alone! If your parents are not overly mobile, this might be a big help.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

susan, check out Rick Steves' line of guides (books and website) for Europe. I love his style of travel. He focuses on independent travel, but he also has a lot of good tips for avoiding crowds, saving money and time, and generally getting a more 'real' experience out of European holidays.

[Tennesseer]

When it comes to city restaurants, find out where the locals eat. Stay away from tourist oriented restaurants. The food isn't that good and the prices are high.

Ask the hotel service staff for good local eateries.

[Bob Ross]

I'd bring plenty of bribe money for people who want to hack you up like in that movie "Hostel".

But they'll probably still end up hacking you up like in that movie "Hostel".

You're pretty much screwed.

[Deleted]

My DS1 was in Vienna a few years ago for four months during a gap year. We went to visit him for three nights / four days in late October. We had a fantastic time!

- We drove out for a day to see the castles (that required a fair bit of walking / climbing).
- We went to a Mozart concert at the Musikverein. It was fantastic! It was early, and short, and the musicians were all in costume. Perfect for a young adult who didn't really want to go to a classical music concert (DS1), and a 10YO (DS3).
- DS1 was a competitive show-jumper, so we went to the Spanish Riding School morning training period to see them training the Lipizzaners (with music). It was beautiful. (We considered getting tickets to an evening performance because DS1 is "horsey" but opted for the evening Mozart concert instead, with no regrets.)
- We spent a wonderful half-day at the Hundertwasser House.

We took the tram a lot, we had schnitzels on the street, we had classic Viennese food, but we were amazed at how good and reasonable ethnic food was. We had an great Italian and Thai meal there too, VERY reasonably priced. I also remember that transport into town from the airport was inexpensive and incredibly fast / efficient, and it was interesting to look out the window.

Hope this helps!

I've never been to Prague but my sister and her boyfriend spent a week there, loved it, and used the Rick Steves' guide.

[Deleted]

Message deleted by debthaven2.