<p>My friends and I are interested in going to Europe after graduation next year (without parents); we’re thinking Amsterdam and Ireland. We’ll all be 18 I believe. And we don’t care too much about staying in fancy hotels or the like - we just want to experience other cultures, and, most importantly, party Euro-style.</p>
<ul>
<li>Have any of you parents had sons/daughters go on trips like these?</li>
<li>What could you anticipate the costs to be if we stayed in very cheap places and ate at cheap restaurants? We are thinking between 8 and 10 nights.</li>
<li>How should we go about planning this? I’ve talked to my mom about it, but she’s not sure where to start either (never been to Europe).</li>
</ul>
<p>I’d suggest going to the library and checking out guidebooks to each place. We just got back from England and France where we found the Rick Steve’s guidebooks and the “DK Top 10” guidebooks to be extremely useful. You should be able to find them or something like them in the library - while not up to date, they should give you an idea to begin planning. </p>
<p>As for cost - that can vary widely. Biggest variables will be lodging followed by food. I would look at the cost of traveling around - going from Ireland to Amsterdam will be much cheaper if someone like Ryan air or Easy Jet has a direct flight. If not, you might want to alter your plans.</p>
<p>Europe has gotten very expensive because of the falling dollar – so you need to budget accordingly. Whatever you think it will cost, plan for the possibility that it will end up being twice as much. And obviously the rising cost of oil has a direct impact on airline prices.</p>
<p>You have to watch out for hidden costs for advertised cheap airline tickets, too. My d. is overseas and she just booked a “cheap” round trip air fare for $40… but taxes & other surcharges were $140, so the whole trip will cost $180. (ouch!).</p>
<p>That being said, Amsterdam and Ireland are both destinations where you can get by on much less than many other European cities.</p>
<p>Just to warn you, Dublin is VERY expensive. I’ve lived there my whole life, and put it this way: Myself and my friends found London to be cheap when we were there for a vacation. Don’t let that put you off though, Dublin is great and there is an awful lot to see there, and the pubs are great.</p>
<p>The drinking age is 18 here too :)</p>
<p>(Feel free to give me a shout if you have any Dublin-specific questions)</p>
<p>Firstly, you should check out the Rough Guides to places you might want to go. They have a tremendous amount of info about a really wide variety of places to see, stay, eat, and party, as well as good local history. (The emphasis is not on chain hotels and bland experiences, but on things and places that the more adventurous person would be interested in.) Some people also recommend Lonely Planet, but I haven’t actually used one.</p>
<p>Secondly, check out the international hosteling organization. Hostels are great places to stay for those on a budget who want something clean, safe, and comparatively inexpensive. (Hostels in major cities can be pricey, but they are still a fraction of the price of a regular hotel. You will need to make reservations.)</p>
<p>Another thought - the cost to stay in the city will be probably 2 times as much as in the country - when building your travel plans, think about getting out of Dublin into some of the other smaller towns… Ireland is an incredibly beautiful country - well worth seeing more than just the one city.</p>
<p>Since you won’t have your parents around to pay for things, make sure that you have 2 ways to get $$ while in Europe. Younger D’s ATM card was eaten by a machine–and she didn’t have an alternate source of money (except the tour people).</p>
<p>I just came back from a month in Europe as a graduation present and a result of a lot of personal saving. I went with a big group of friends. I can easily say it was one of the best experiences of my life. We went to a lot of different countries and relied heavily on trains. I spent around $3,000. Europe is very expensive, but not every country. I would highly recommend thinking outside of the eurotrip norm. We went to Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Munich, the Austrian Alps, Florence and Rome. Prague was by far the cheapest and really my favorite. If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me. I hope you can go!</p>
<p>Prague is the only place on hec2008’s tour that is in the former Eastern bloc. Although these ex-Communist nations are catching up, their income levels and costs of living are still a lot less than Western Europe. So of course they are cheap to people with dollars or pounds - worth bearing in mind. There are many places in eastern Europe that are worth seeing such as Budapest (Hungary), Krakow (Poland) and Tallinn (Estonia).</p>
<p>You’ll have a great time wherever you go, but it’s true that central Europe is relatively affordable. Prague is fantastic, as are smaller towns in the Czech Republic like Cesky Krumlov.</p>
<p>Trains have gotten rather expensive, so it pays to research them ahead of time, and try to book tickets on websites specific to European railroads to take advantage of their special offers. Don’t book trains through an American site unless money is no object, because they don’t offer the deals that the country-specific sites do. The bus is also becoming a popular alternative when trains are too expensive.</p>
<p>For a great source of advice, Rick Steves has a really good website, and you can get your questions answered on the “grafitti wall” section of the site. I’ve found that extremely helpful.</p>
<p>My S is currently traveling in Europe and has been for the past 5 weeks. Since his field work/internship in Uzbekistan ended, he has been traveling from Israel-Greece-Slovakia-Hungary-Czech Republic-Austria-Germany-Netherlands, returning home next Tuesday. The trip has been fabulous, but it has been more expensive than we originally thought it would be. Even 3 years ago (when his brother traveled), decent hostels could be had for 10 - 15 Euro a night. This time around the kids have been paying 20 -30 in Western Europe. The eastern European cities have been much less expensive and VERY interesting to them. And we had assumed that trains/buses would be the cheapest transportation alternative, while in reality they have found it cheaper to fly in some cases. They flew from Munich - Berlin for less than 1/2 of what the train would have cost. I think the key is to be flexible and to research all your options. Most hostels have computers and internet and you can book and make reservations along the way. Definitely research your hostels etc., because what is cheapest may not be the best if you have to take a lot of transportation to get to it, especially after being out at night. I second the Rick Steves books, and also the Lonely Planet guides and blogs. ,</p>
<p>a Eurail pass may be the way to go, if you plan to travel frequently. 6 or so years ago we got eurail passes and traveled almost daily on them. You have to plan though, which is the cheapest way for you.</p>
<p>Definitely check out the Eurail passes, but remember that they have to be bought in the US before you leave. You can’t buy them in Europe. We investigated this for the boys’ trip, but too much uncertainty about where they were going and how many “train days” they would need and in what countries eliminated the option for us. They were also VERY expensive for the tentative itinerary.</p>