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Europe Trip Planning – The Schedule & Budget v1

I promised to deliver and update on the schedule and budget planning of my 2008 Europe trip for 2. With the long weekend approaching, I decided to take the entire night off and work on this instead. Whether or not this is a good idea has yet to be determined. There’s still a fair bit of work to do for school but this is far more enjoyable and relaxing!

The planned departure date is 8:35PM from Toronto on May 7, 2008. We’ll take an evening flight that will allow us to sleep through most of it. The estimated arrival time in London is 8:35 AM, giving us a whole day to recuperate, relax and enjoy the city. From London, the plan is to travel to Rome by plane and then visit Venice, Milan, Florence and Pisa by train. From Pisa, we’ll return to Rome and fly out to Paris the next day. We’ll stay in Paris for 10 days and then return back to Toronto on the June 10, 2008.

The budget is still 9K for planning + 1K for any unforeseeable costs. I’ve guessed some food and living costs and I’ve more or less exhausted the budget. If I hope to find some great deals through priceline, apartment rentals or just browsing the net to save a few extra bucks.

Here’s a more detailed look at the itinerary. It’s subject to many changes. I’m still looking for suggestions as to places I must visit, so ping me back with a comment or email!

Tags: Budget, Europe, Florence, graduation trip, Italy, London, Milan, Paris, Pisa, Priceline, Rome, schedule, Venice

. 19 Mar 08 | Travel | Comments (0)

Europe Trip Planning – The Budget

paris I’m currently in the middle of planning a two person 5 week vacation to Europe. The places we intend to visit are: Paris, London, Rome, Venice, Milan, Florence and Pisa.
The Budget is 9K for everything with 1K as contingency for anything we can’t plan for. Items like bus fares to local attractions, taxi rides around the city etc will be lumped into this group.
I’ve put together a quick spreadsheet of some known costs. We don’t plan on staying in any 5* hotels, so the goal is to keep every night under $100CDN. The plan is to find cheap hotels/bed&breakfasts and avoid hostels. In Paris, the plan is to rent an apartment for the stay, this will keep the average nightly cost down and will allow for buying and storing local food in a fridge. I haven’t factored in any budget for food yet as I’m not sure what that will cost in Europe. If you have any experience on daily food costs in any of the areas I’m visiting, please let me know!
If you have any suggestions on how to keep the cost down, or things that we should plan and do, please leave a comment!

Item	Local Currency	In CDN Dollars	Qty	Total	Date Looked Up
Flight: Toronto to Paris	1474.8 CDN	1478.8	1	1478.8	03/16/08
Hotel in Paris		100	1	100
Breakfast/Lunch/Snack				0
Dinner				0
Train: Paris to London	240 USD	240	1	240	03/16/08
Hotel in London		100	3	300
Breakfast/Lunch/Snack				0
Dinner				0
Flight: London to Rome	61.64 GBP	123.56	1	123.56	03/16/08
Eurorail: Italy Rail Pass	294 EUR	452.83	1	452.83	03/16/08
Hotel in Rome		100	4	400
Breakfast/Lunch/Snack				0
Dinner				0
Hotel in Venice		100	4	400
Breakfast/Lunch/Snack				0
Dinner				0
Hotel in Milan		100	4	400
Breakfast/Lunch/Snack				0
Dinner				0
Hotel in Florence		100	5	500
Breakfast/Lunch/Snack				0
Dinner				0
Bus: Florence to Pisa		0	1	0
Flight: Rome to Paris	159.44EUR	245.58	1	245.58	03/16/08
Hotel in Paris	50 Euro	75	11	825	03/16/08

Grand Total				5465.77
Budget				9000
Remaining				3534.23