Rough daily budget for 2 in Europe?

[30dayss]

I know it's a how long is a peice of string question but I'm just after a rough idea. We're more street food than restaurant people and we're generally tucked up in bed by 10.

We will have booked most tickets in advance so it's really just food and drink, general incidentals (like bus fair) and random unplanned for stuff.

This holiday is going to be financially tight now so I'm trying to work out a realistic budget. On the other hand it's the last holiday for a while so I don't want to have to count every penny iyswim.

2 people spending 11 days in Amstadam, Germany, Austria and Brussels. Unfortunately Austria (which I understand to be very expensive) is the last part.

I have looked online but for example one site says that the average traveller spends £100 per day on food in Austria which seems excessive?

Are you staying somewhere you can self-cater? Eating breakfast and evening meal at home and taking lunch and snacks out with you from the local supermarket will save a fortune

search for best free activities in each place

When we travel I save on breakfast and take cereal bars, buy fruit/pastries to eat in hotel room. I reckon I could get by on £100 a day for coffees, lunch and dinner with limited alcohol.

Unfortunately all are hotels. Activity wise, we have already paid for most of the things we need to pay for.

No alcohol but I suspect that will be replaced with apple strudel and ice cream. 🤣

If breakfast isnt provided, we will have bread and pastries etc. Probably from a supermarket rather than a bakery most days.

I think 100 a day sounds about right. Me and DH went away last year (Spain) and that’s what we spent on average.

Apple strudel sounds delish! We went to Germany last summer and had a great time - it’s a very underrated country for holidays.

When we travel we also take a chopping board, bread knife, pairing knife and a peeler. We can then make sandwiches, prepare veg and fruit if we feel we need to balance out the naughty stuff we eat too much of! Also means you can save on a meal too 🙂

£100 each per day so round uo to £2500? Eek

Travel - look at the tourist rates as many places there will give cheap or free travel if you are staying locally

the bakery’s are often cheap and very good quality so you get a treat and something different without breaking the bank

having one meal out at lunchtime tend to be cheaper than evenings but if the weather or accommodation is good you can miss that easily enough

I doubt we would spend anywhere near £100 pp per day buying a picnic at a supermarket for breakfast and tea and a cheap ish lunch somewhere

take a water bottle of course

Remember if 100 is average then half of the people spend less than that

and since you know some people will blow 100 on one meal ….

£100 for both 🙂

Where in Austria are you going? I ask because my skint student niece and her friend wanted to go to Vienna and were horrified at the prices. So they went to Bratislava instead and took a cheap train down to V for the day. Couldn't spend their money in Bratislava. But you probably have things booked and paid for in Austria, and may be going no where near Slovakia!

Ah! Phew! 🤣 and breath!

It's been a very long time since I've been abroad and without wanting to sound like a dick we've never really had to budget on holiday as such and have just been sensible.

Circumstances have changed significantly in the past few months and really we should be cancelling this holiday completely.

Innsbrook. Only for 2 days. But one we will be captive for and have to pay whatever prices they charge (like when you are in a theme park).

Sounds fab, as does the entire adventure! Save as hard as you can before going, use the credit card if stuck, life is too bloody short to worry about a croissant or a pastry here and there. You will find inexpensive places to eat no matter how expensive a place is for tourists. Remember the local people have to live there too, and they are not going to fancy restaurants every night. They go local, follow them down the side streets. 😊

I'm not going to be following anyone down any side streets! 🤣🤣🤣 A change of plans means it's just me and my 15yr old daughter going now. I've never even been to Paris by myself. I'm genuingely scared. So we will be sticking to the main streets and tourist bits.

(I know you didn't mean it literally!)

Of course I wasn't suggesting anything dangerous! Just that very often if you walk a few streets away from the main tourist drag, the prices drop enormously. That's where the locals hang out.

I was in Amsterdam with similar aged dd recently and breakfast came from the local supermarket - very cheap compared to here for a pastry and juice. Lunch we just ate chips or had a pancake take away and had pizza one night for dinner that wasn’t expensive. there are definitely places you can go

bakeries will get you a cheap breakfast and lunch in Germany - maybe just make some salami sandwiches and get fruit at the supermarket

eta we didn’t spend more than 50 euros between us most days - except for the day dd insisted we go to the floating Chinese restaurant (don’t do that!)

Most supermarkets will make you a sandwich at the meat counter if you ask in Germany. Get your bread roll from the bakery section and ask for some sliced ham, cheese, whatever. They even have warm fillings like Frikadelle and Fleischkäse.
Coffee in Germany is not great and is fairly expensive. But use a bakery or cafe and not a chain.
Using an Imbiss for food is also much cheaper for eating - some have seating. kebab with salad for under 10€.
Can also find Thai and Chinese food cheaply in Imbiss style - the best Thai food I have had locally was from one of these places rather than a fancy Thai restaurant.
I have been to all of these places except Innsbruck (been to Vienna) and found Amsterdam fairly expensive in comparison to the rest. I haven’t been to Brussels for many years.
Brussels - you should really go for mussels and chips.
If you don’t drink that is a big bonus.
Also a lot of restaurants in Europe do lunch specials Monday-Friday to encourage workers to come in so have your main meal at lunch time if you’re a 10pm in bed person.
Start searching on trip advisor.
Try and eat like locals with traditional foods. Can’t go to Austria without Tafelspitz or Schnitzel.
One other thing, a lot of restaurants are closed on Mondays in Europe too, even in larger cities.
You could manage on 100€ per day for 2 people if you look.
If you are driving don’t use service stations to eat. Find a village near the motorway.

It depends where in those countries you are. The comment about following locals down side streets is actually good. Nothing dodgy but if for example you eat at a restaurant next to the Trevi Fountain, you will pay significantly more than if you ate in a restaurant as little as 5 mins away.
To be honest, I have travelled a lot of Europe and with the exception of Switzerland and Austria, prices are no higher than here in the Uk.

i took my 12 year old daughter to Amsterdam and spent about £200/day but that included entry’s fees etc (her favourite was the graffiti museum if that sounds fun to you). We aren’t foodies so that was breakfast at the hotel, pancakes for lunch most days and some sort of cafe type dinner. We found a fab street food place in Amsterdam and went twice - really fun and not terribly expensive. It’s not a cheap city though.

I would find the nearest grocery store and get creative. If the weather is decent you can eat outside and wander around. It gets a bit more challenging if eating outside isn’t an option.

And yes - if you are around a very popular tourist attraction just walk a few blocks in any direction and prices will drop significantly.

Hope you have a fabulous time!

Go to the bakeries and get nice bread and sandwiches for take away. Take water bottles and maybe a thermos cup for coffees. Look at what the locals eat and try it. You should be able to spend about what you would if buying ready to eat food daily in the uk.

Austria isn’t too expensive except for alcohol. Don’t drink much and you might be pleasantly surprised.

remember that coffee and cake mid-afternoon feels like as much of a treat as lunch out… so you can take a shop sandwich on a walk/to a museum but then get Austrian coffee and cake midafternoon.

For Innsbruck make sure you make good use of the summer card if you have a hotel paying tourist tax: free buses and even the cable car up the mountain. When we went to a similar town in Austria all we spent money on while we were there was food https://www.innsbruck.info/en/destinations/accommodation/welcome-card/welcome-card-summer.html

Also, take a water bottle and refill. Drinks really add up!

I’m sorry but no way are you feeding two people 3 meals a day for £100. No way!

Take a pocket knife, fork and spoons plus some small tupperware containers. In Amsterdam you will find Albert Heijn supermarkets who sell picnic food, fruit, fresh bread. That was always our lunch.

In Germany you will find bakeries everywhere. Plenty will also do filled rolls with cheese, ham, cold breaded chicken schnitzel to eat in or take away.
You will also often find butchers who have a "Heiße Theke"/hot counter and will sell sausages or schnitzel in a bun or even proper hot meals.

It's very unusual to get tap water in restaurants, if you order water you get it bottled.

Check if you have a minibar in the room. I often use these to store deli items and yoghurt.

Exactly - a week more like