Last week, I was lucky enough to spend eight days in Europe with three of my closest friends. We spent two days travelling, three days in Paris, two days in Rome, and took a day trip to Pompei.
And we saw so much stuff.
And ate so much food.
And somehow, I did it all pretty cheaply.
Disclaimer: I am a young, single professional. For me, this was a budget trip. Whether it is for you or not, I hope you can find some of my experience useful.
My friends and I managed to jump on one of those crazy Groupon travel deals. Here’s a similar trip at a similar price. Because AirFrance was running a deal with Delta, we were able to fly nonstop out of Atlanta for a $20 fee, instead of having to find additional airfare to New York or Boston. We were also able to book tours through our travel agency, which cut down on time trying to find reliable vendors in the cities. From what I saw in the cities themselves, we got about the same deal booking ahead of time that we would have gotten booking on-site.
I chose to take 100 Euro per day that we would actually be in a city for the trip, but I came back with money left over, and could have bumped that amount down. I was able to eat, drink, and bring home lots and lots of souvenirs on that budget.
For transportation, we took the metro everywhere in these two cities. Even though we weren’t staying directly in the heart of either city, we were only a short metro ride away. It was so refreshing to be places where the public transit was effective and efficient! We even took a high-speed train to Pompei. Side note: Atlanta’s public transit is…not efficient, and I spent three years of my life riding it.
Finally, I saved money on food. Partly because I’m vegan, and pasta arrabiata is always one of the cheapest Italian options, but also partly because as a group we decided to eat one nice meal in each city, and go cheaper for all our other meals. We also always ate the free breakfast at the hotel.
I know that none of my ideas are groundbreaking, but for a long time I thought travel was too expensive for me, and that I would never be able to make it work. By carefully prioritizing my trip and my savings account, I was able to make a dream vacation happen for $1800, with different payments spread out over 9 months.
No that I know it’s possible, I’m so excited to find my next travel adventure!
Where is your favorite travel destination? Do you have any dream vacations?
Adventures in Living Lean 