It’s a pretty common question, and one that is asked frequently by young travelers about to embark on their very first backpacking adventure through Europe. So how much do you need to save, and how much money will you spend when backpacking Europe? There are a number of things that will affect the answer to those questions, but let’s take a brief look and see if we can answer some generally and give you some rough estimates.
Whenever I backpack, I like to stay in hostels, eat out every now and then but sometimes cook in the hostel kitchen, go out for drinks (but try and pre-drink at the hostel), I enjoy travelling by bus and train and cheap air flights for the long distance sections. If you want travel like I do, then I can give you some estimates on how much your trip will cost.
My last trip through Europe (which went for 2 months) cost me about $6,000 USD. I would recommend budgeting for around $6,000 – $8,000 for a 2 month backpacking trip. Trust me, you can do it a LOT cheaper then that, but it’s a good figure to aim for. At $6,000 for 60 days that comes down to about $100 a day.
Let’s examine that $100 a day amount. A hostel bed will cost you around $20, eating dinner out can range from $10 – $20, and alcoholic drinks will generally set you back about $4 to $8 each. You also need to pay entrance fees for a lot of museums and other tourist attractions, so budget $20 a day for that as well. Then there is snacks like fruit and other supermarket food to keep you going throughout the day, this can be cheap, so budget another $20 for that (way to much, really). As you can see, even with all that we’re still under the $100 a day amount.
Decide whether you’re going to factor in your flights and train tickets into your overall figure for ‘Europe’. Some people like to buy tickets way in advance, so have essentially payed for them before heading over with their budgeted savings. Flights over and a global Europe Rail ticket are not cheap – so factor this into your budget.
So, my final recommendation is $6,000 for the trip if you have already paid for your flights and global train ticket, and $8,000 if you haven’t. Easy!
I enjoy backpacking myself, so this whole article about backpacking Europe cost draws from my own personal experiences. If you would like to check out my website, it is ActiveBackpacker.com.