€3000 - Where do I go?

Hi

I recently finnished colege and would like to go traveling/on a holiday for some amount of time during the summer. I have about €3000 to spend and am very open to suggestions on where I could go. I want more than just flying somewhere, sitting on the beach for 2 weeks and flying home again. Any suggestions on routes, destinations, trips, any input at all as I am very open minded about where I could go. I am starting in Ireland so where to next??

Thanks in advance

Hi Squishyspu

That is a very broad question! I will try to give you some basic points you have to think about.

I think you have two options to go for. Depending on what you prefer to do you can either go and check out art, architecture and vibe in the big cities so travel from city to city for which I would recommend you the cities in western Europe: London, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Zurich, Berlin, Prague, etc.

Or, if you prefer a really active holiday with hikes, small villages, the real culture of the country outside of the big cities I would tell you to go to Eastern Europe. I prefer the cities and landscapes of east and south Europe combined with the small inland villages where you can see the real culture of a country.

If you are going for the big cities you can spend time in more different countries and you seem to have a good budget to do this. If I could give you an itinerary I would tell you to go cityhopping going from Ireland down to Spain and then via Italy and maybe one or two eastern European countries up to Berlin before going back home again. But I am sure you will get lots of different reactions from fellow TP-ers.

If you let us know what you prefer, how active you want to be, if your airplane ticket still has to be deducted from that 3000 or not and most important, how much time you have to spend I am sure we will be able to give you more details!

OHannemarie
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That really is a broad question! I would have to agree with OHannemari in saying it would be good to know how long you have and whether that 3000 is your budget having already paid for flights or not? Did you want to stick to Europe? Where are you travelling from?

Charlie
(BCP Airport Parking)

Ok, let's make it simpler:
1. How much time do you have for traveling?
2. Are you travelling alone?
3. Will you bring a tent with you or stay in hostels etc?
4. Do you have any ideas what you'd like to do or see yourself?
5. Do you speak any foreign languages? (Not really too important but may help decide some issues)
6. Do you have a student card?

If you can answer these few questions the people here on TP will be able to guide you much better
Good luck

Thank you for response

1. How much time do you have for traveling? - This is pretty much dependent on what I can get out of my budget. Budget is my main constraint so time is pretty irrelevent to me. I can get as much time off work as needs be.

2. Are you travelling alone? I may have 2 companions but they are only talking about it and their reliability should be questioned so for arguements sake I am going to say I am on my own.

3. Will you bring a tent with you or stay in hostels etc? I would prefer to stay in hostels - however if camping is a better option I am certainly not going to say no. (Like camping actually)

4. Do you have any ideas what you'd like to do or see yourself? Really want to see Rome, Barcelona and Paris, anywhere else I go is a bonus.

5. Do you speak any foreign languages? (Not really too important but may help decide some issues) I speak a little bit of French but certainly not at any fluent level

6. Do you have a student card? I have a normal student card that is valid until August 2009

I would prefer to do the major city thing. How long should one stay in certain cities? How long should my budget last me considering that all my travel expenses must come from the €3000 also.

I have recently traveled all around europe so I could give you a few pointers. With eastern europe, your money will go farther. Cities like Prague, Budapest (my favourite) Bucharest and the Black sea in Bulgaria are great places. Croatia SHOULD be another place on your list (dubuvnik, split and the islands). The ones that will cost you more will be Switzerland and Italy. Could throw in France too. Though Scandanavia is fantastic, but is expensive considering your cites of choice are more south. A trip to europe isnt complete without going to Amsterdam. Train tickets in eastern europe are cheaper than you think. A europe rail pass seems logical but is expensive considering trains are cheap in the east. Also, look into couch surfing as you can have accodamations for free if you search hard enough. Again, more money saved. Alot of cities allow to visit their musuems for free on a certain day of the month. Investigate that. Once in a city, a city tram pass for all day is a good buy, or like a caret in Paris (book of 10). Theres ways to save money, including eating in universites or chinese food (surprisingly, this is always cheap. You have time to do some searching and you have enough money to do whatever you want. Good luck and have fun.

It is possible to see the highlights of a big city in 2 days but if you want to get the real vibe of a city I would recommend you to stay 3 or 4. Count in your travel time, you should take 4 to 5 days per city. The longer you stay the more time you got to just sit down and watch the citylife go by and observe the locals. Also, you will have some time to go to a local bar or club and so see more then the regular tourist does.

Way2goeh is right about the fact that you can stretch your money further in the east of Europe and I also second him in the couchsurfing. Don´t know if you have heard about it before, people all over the world offer their ´couch´ (many times actually bed or at least matress) for free. check http://www.couchsurfing.com . You don´t only save on accommodation but also on food since you can cook yourself and you will be staying with someone who can give you the ins and outs of the city you are in. The website has several ways to show if people who have a couch available are trustworthy.
Camping is not necessarily cheaper then staying in a hostel and usually you will have to travel outside of a city to find one (costing you travelmoney and time) so I would stick with hostels/couchsurfing. If you are going with more people and plan to stay more then 3 days in a certain city you can look into renting an apartment as well, there might be some cheap ones available.

For your budget, count on 20-25 for accommodation. 15 for food (if you want to go to restaurants you will need more). The entrance for bigger museums is around 10 euro average. Clubbing in western European cities is quite expensive. average = 10 euro entrance and 7 for mixed drink, beer and wine can be between 2 and 6. Try to find some locals who can tell you about underground parties, usually just as fun (if not, more) and a lot cheaper.

If you have questions about a certain (west european) city let me know!

OHannemarie
(Oh-Holidays)

If you're into camping, I would suggest Butterfly Valley, Fethiye, Turkey.

The place itself amazing because it's located in an isolated valley which can be reached by boat only.

Check these blogs for further information:

All the info you need
..and some more.

Here's a cool panaroma of the valley

I would prefer to do the major city thing. How long should one stay in certain cities? How long should my budget last me considering that all my travel expenses must come from the €3000 also.

Plan to spend around a week in big cities like Paris or Rome. 4 days is usually the minimum.

For travelling around Europe you can plan on needing around 50 EUR per day if you do it super-tight (all food from the supermarket and only free or very cheap sights, cheapest mode of transport, camping with a tent), but if you want to have fun it would be better to have around 70 EUR per day.

Unfortunately you did not say where you are from (USA, Ireland, Australia, UK, mainland Europe?) so I cannot make any educated guesses how much it is going to cost you to get to Paris.

But I am sure you are capable of looking up flight tickets to Paris on your own. Then subtract the money for the flight ticket from your 3000 EUR and divide the rest of the money through 70 EUR. This will give you the number of days you can travel around in Europe on your budget.

BTW, since you are interested in Spain, consider travelling all over Spain and then going down into Morocco. Morocco is far more budget friendly than Spain or France. A day in Morocco costs you only around 30 EUR, so it is much cheaper than Spain. Similar is true for Turkey and Ukraine.

And if you are doing the big city thing, put some Eastern European cities on your platter. I can recommend both Budapest and Istanbul.

Finally: For touring Europe to the max on a small budget I can recommend cycle-touring. For somebody living in the UK or Ireland and cycling in the general direction of Istanbul with a tent and camping gear 3000 EUR would last roughly 4 months.