hedgehogs123
Traveller
113 comments
Posted 15 years ago
Ian and I have been planning and hoping to go on our interrail trip this September for over a year. We've posted on here, read up, done our budgets, planned our routes etc - and now we just want to say YES, we can go, and book our tickets. But we've been waiting on certain issues with finances: we know we have enough for our travel connections, tickets, kit etc, and all we need to cover the bills back home while we're away - but we only have £1000 spending cash for the two of us for a month (Holland, Germany, Czech Rep, Austria, Italy, France) and not much chance of being able to save much more (maybe a couple of hundred if that) - we've already cut our route down to the bare bones of the places we really wanted to see, we're going to camp as much as poss with the odd hostel and night train, eat as cheap as we can, niether of us are big drinkers (but I do smoke), but we're still unsure about booking our tickets and spending money on camping gear and travel plans if we really don't have enough money to spend while we are in Europe. We want to go so much, but after spending everything on necessities and tickets, only having £1000 left for the trip will leave us on a tight budget. We don't want to get half way around our route and find we don't have enough money! So, do we have enough to spend??? Shall we just 'bite the bullet' so to speak and buy our tickets and go with the money we have? We don't know if we will ever have the chance to do this again for a long time as Ian is starting university in September and I have children who will be staying with their Dad while we go - which may not be a possibility again so it's pretty much now or never.
If you think £1000 will be enough for us both for the month, please let us know so we will feel confident about booking our interrail tickets
Han & Ian x
Peter
Traveller
9333 comments
hej Han and Ian ...
1000 GBP for two persons for a month in the countries you mentioned aren't a lot...
you can definitely save money when choosing a cheap place to stay overnight.
always a good solution will be just to use a regional train and get out at a small village, walk one kilometer to a quiet place and sleep there - sometimes you can find showers or water at stations to wash.
this is a good solution for peaceful places. avoid sleeping on beaches - as you might get robbed or police dislike this behavior. don't sleep close to big cities at such places.
I always calculate like this:
food and water: EUR 7 a day
per 30 days = ~ EUR 200 and so on ...
Peter :)
hedgehogs123
Traveller
113 comments
Thanks Peter,
It does sound like it will be very hard on our budget. Perhaps we will need to think some more before we decide, or perhaps win the lottery! lol :P
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Definitely go for it; don't miss the chance!
-You can find cheap campsites everywhere (in September prices are lower than in summer), especially in Germany there are some night connections without supplements where you could sleep
- Bottle some tap water in the morning (where drinkable), so you don't need to buy at super-expensive little stores in the city centres.
- Go by foot instead of public transport
- Cook on your own
- Look for museum etc with free entry, discounts etc
- Stay at not so touristy places, they are cheaper
From time to time do yourself something good! :)
Just some suggestions! ;)
hedgehogs123
Traveller
113 comments
Silly thing to say but dont suppose you know anywere to stay thats a lil out the way so as not so expensive??? i.e not the touristy places we wouldn't mind going further out if it meant it would be cheaper but within reason because of public transport etc etc
Cheers :)
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Campsites I've been to:
[u]http://www.campingparis.fr/boulogne_infos.html[/u]
[u]http://www.stadscamping-rotterdam.nl/?gclid=CLHyhITA2JoCFcIWzAodykLlrA[/u]
[u]http://www.gent.be/blaarmeersen[/u]
[u]http://www.campingzeeburg.nl/[/u]
I've been to all of these in September, quite cheap back then in 2006. 8)
For Prague just check on google I found this for instance (20 min walk then metro, so not too bad):
[u]http://www.drusus.com/index.php?lang=en[/u]
I Austria there are lots of nice and calm places where you can have a nice time; I don't know though if you are interested in spending a few days in the countryside - at a lake maybe?
There is even a small campsite in my town, 30min away from Graz in Styria - last train in the evening from Graz 0004, first morning train to Graz 0449 (Austria isn't all about Vienna and Salzburg... :D )
That's all I can think of now... ;)
hedgehogs123
Traveller
113 comments
what are the police like in respect to people camping by lakes etc
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Can't believe they'll like it (except you're in Scandinavia).