Europe will have to be a small series, or the post would be the longest post ever! Check back for pictures as well- my camera is being funny.
We had a great time on our trip! We went all over. Our plane landed in Frankfort, Germany. From there we went to Berlin, Amsterdam, Zürich, Rome, Naples, Pompei, and Florence. I must stress that we did not necessarily plan for this trip to be frugal. We were frugal so we could take this trip! However, we did many things that helped us keep costs down, and we actually came in under our trip budget. Keep in mind that this trip was taken by three adults. If we had children with us, the trip would have been very different and some of the money saving tactics we used many not have been as easy.
We had a Eurorail global pass, which was worth its weight in gold. For the most part, we were able to hop on to just about any train going anywhere in Europe, without reservations. We did pay a supplement a few times to take the night train, where we slept in little bedrooms with bunk beds, but that did not cost any more than a hotel and it saved us tons of time. I looked up how much it would have cost to take the train to the places we went, and we paid far, FAR less by getting the global pass. If you are planning on taking the train to many places, be sure to check and see if this option (or one of their many other options) can save you money. We rode first class for the same price as coach, and that was pretty easy to get used to as well. :)
We were quite disappointed in our Europe From 85 Dollars a Day book. It was not a bad guide, exactly. We used it a lot in Italy to help decide what attractions we wanted to do, since we were on a very limited time schedule, and it did have helpful information that we may not have gotten anywhere else very easily, but we were able to beat the 85 dollar a day budget quite frequently. and by a decent amount of money. Often the book made it sound like no other cheaper options were available for things like hotels, but we beat every single price listed for hotels on Priceline.com using the name your own price feature. It sounded like we got way nicer hotels by doing it this way as well. For example, we only had to walk down the hall to the bathroom at one place- the youth hostel we stayed at in Berlin. Everywhere else had in room bathrooms, coffee makers, hair dryers, etc. What we did not get (anywhere except in Naples!) was a free breakfast with the hotel stay. When I was a kid we lived in Germany, and we always stayed at bed and breakfasts or hotels that served breakfast. My mom said that these options were unbelievably cheap, but we did not find any of these options for under 200 dollars. Now they do serve breakfast, but it usually cost an extra fee that we could easily beat by walking down to the nearest cafe. We spent 50-120 dollars a night on hotel rooms for three adults, depending on where we were at the time. I think that the book would have been better in the days before internet was widely available, or would be good for people who are not comfortable using computers.
A word about hostels- they would be a very inexpensive option if you were traveling alone, but we found that we could get a hotel room with a bathroom for what it cost for the three of us to rent a bed each in a shared room with bathrooms down the hall. We only stayed in one hostel, and I am glad that we had the experience. However, I just did not feel comfortable sharing a room with strangers. You can also reserve non-shared rooms, but they were always booked at the hostels we looked at. I think that I would have loved the hostel in my early 20's, but I'm just getting too old for the late night partying crowd! Most hostels will take families and people of all ages, so it may be a worthwhile option to check, but we did not find it to be much cheaper (if at all) when you travel with several people.
Next Up: Eating on the Cheap!
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