 Budgeting Food |
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| How much will food cost me? | |||||||||||||||||||||
 WhirledPeas Becky Shattuck Post Count: 14 Msg: #1 3 years ago, April 18th 2006 | I am planning a three week trip to Europe. We're spending most of our time in Germany and the Czech Republic, but we're also stopping in Poland, Italy and Austria. | Most of the hostels we are staying in have free breakfast, and we're going to take full advantage of that. Taking that into account, and also taking into account the fact that I'm going to have a difficult time passing up coffee shops (especially in Austria!), how much do you think is safe to budget for food?  Savage Mark Savage Post Count: 531 Msg: #2 3 years ago, April 18th 2006 | Not speaking from personal experience here, but Germany and Austria are going to be your more expensive areas. I have no idea about Poland, but Italy and Czech Republic (more specifically Prague) will be on par with each other. Outside of Prague will most certainly be cheaper. There are some great deals to be had in Prague, but you need to shop around for them. Be wary around touristy areas and places right outside some of the Hostels. While they may be cheap compared to your hometown standards, they're not by budget traveling standards. The coffee shops will hit your wallet, but a euro here and there you won't notice it right away. But do enough stops every day, and you find your money vanishing pretty quick. I'd stop for a drink or two waiting for the train, after a train trip, while walking around town, grabbing a drink and lounging outside on the sidewalk, next thing I know I've spent 10 Euros or more just on coffee. | Most of the free breakfasts are simply juice and croissant, or some similar combo. If you find somewhere that serves a huge breakfast cheap, take it and then have an earlyish dinner. If you're going to be drinking (booze) too, keep that in mind. Always a good alternative is to buy a bottle of wine and hang out at the hostel, but that doesn't leave much interaction with the locals... If you're really going to try to budget yourself, and money is tight, I'd figure about 20 Euros/day. This may mean supermarket eating (local cheese, bread, meats). I personally could never stick to this kind of budget not being a long term "backpacker", dealing with managing your money like that. I would personally figure about 35 Euros/day. This includes my coffee breaks, a bottle of water or two, sit down and eating in a restaurant, etc... and just because you budget that 35/day doesn't mean you HAVE to spend it. If you're starting in Poland, and you make it on 15/day, then it gives you that much more leeway when you get to Austria, and may allow a nice fancy restaurant visit in Italy. I took some friends in Italy out for dinner at a small trattoria... it was a very basic meal (good non the less) and a bottle of wine... it came to $140/US. When I say simple, it was basically meat and cheese selections and fresh bread/tortilla type of thing. This was also in a Village, not a city. Just a few things to keep in mind. I hope that helps maybe a little. Others hopefully will offer their input. EurfirstTrip Linda Post Count: 11 Msg: #3 3 years ago, April 19th 2006 | As another traveler heading to Europe and watching the dollar drop against the Euro, I know that food is one of the places where you can splurge or you can save money. Make some stops in grocery stores....in part because there are so many things you've never seen in North Am stores and you can save lots of money if you get food out of a grocery/department store deli and go on a picnic rather than dining out. You may be a bit early for the fresh vine-ripened produce that makes food in Europe taste so good, but do grab fresh tomatoes if you find them. You can get sandwiches and lots of other satisfying foods from sidewalk vendors for something in the $5 range and make a lunch/dinner of them. Where you will get socked is if you are into cold sodas, bottled water or coffee--expect to pay a couple dollars per drink minimum. Again, if you're traveling wth friends, pop into a grocery store and get a six pack. Also, you can find decent wines and beers in stores for much less than the cost of soda. The vices I brought back from Europe: Granitas in Florence (PEACH IS GREAT)--about $5 each; GAZZ--carbonated water, especially in the frozen form I enjoyed in Venice and Pepsi MaxX, a better flavor than diet Pepsi. You are lucky to be going before the heat necessitates lots of water, but if you love coffee and are likely to indulge: give yourself a drinking budget of about $15/day and another $15 for food if you don't decide to do a lot of classy restaurants but try to eat like the locals. Generally, we spent $4 on breakfast: pastry and coffee (the expensive part), $6 on a picnic/department store lunch and dinners ran about $10-15 in restaurants per person; you should probably budget a bit more so you can enjoy nights in pub/taverns/bars. I've got some other advice about saving money on food while you travel at my page on food and eating in Europe | WhirledPeas Becky Shattuck Post Count: 14 Msg: #4 3 years ago, April 21st 2006 | Your link didn't work for me. | So the general consenus is around $30 - $40 a day on food/drink? Perhaps I should just figure in for $40 and be happy if I spend less. Number of Users: 3 | Number of Posts: 4 | ||||||||||||
