Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The airfare sounds right for peak season, which January is not.
The hotel bill of $250/night seems astronomical for "comfort inn" (2-3 star) quality. For that price, I would expect boutique 3* in an ideal location, 4*, or even a deep discount 5*. This goes double if they "just returned". Paying $250/night in low season should include a breakfast. $30 pp would buy breakfast at a 4 or 5* chain hotel.
If they said they had an anniversary and spent three nights at the Zurich Ritz-Carlton suite along with the Comfort Inns then I could understand.
There's no Ritz-Carlton in Zurich.
I can usually find a very nice hotel - not a Comfort Inn! - in any European city other than London or Paris for $250, but I don't usually travel in high season. London high-season prices in particular can be ridiculous, with $250 getting you a very average hotel room.
Your friends spent WAY too much money on that trip. Too bad they didn't have a helpful travel agent to keep their costs down. $6-7000 is more like it for a budget-minded couple. You don't have to fine dine every evening and don't need to take every tour there is. Private motels booked on the Internet are far cheaper than sticking with a chain.
$100 per person every single day just on food??
$250 per night on hotel, and only at comfort Inn level?
that sounds very high. Unless of course they are wealth. I wouldn't splurge like that unless I made $150k+ a year.
Having some great food on a trip is necessary. But is it necessary to have a full 4 course meal every single day? I don't think so.
$250 for hotel is only reasonable for cities like London and Paris (maybe a bit too high for Paris). Practically all other cities are much cheaper. a Budget of $150 is sufficiently comfortable for cities like Rome.
This is why Americans keep saying "How do people have the money to travel?" - because they just assume whenever they are on a trip, they HAVE to live like a prince eating $70 dinner every night.
$1500 on trains/buses is absurd too. Did they book the ticket on the same day for every trip, and first class? I remember my TGV trip from Paris to Avignon cost only something like $35, and my Rome to Salerno train cost about the same.
Ironically, by living as if it's a once in a lifetime trip they've ensured it will be a once in a lifetime trip.
All that money on food! All that money on tours and trains! What's car hire for a week running these days?
Ironically, by living as if it's a once in a lifetime trip they've ensured it will be a once in a lifetime trip.
All that money on food! All that money on tours and trains! What's car hire for a week running these days?
Exactly, they could have been going this year as well.
You can get cheap car hires in Europe, I've rented them before in England, Scotland, Portugal, etc....however I think they made the right decision to stay with public transportation (but they didn't need to spend that much). A car is an unneeded and wasteful hindrance in Paris and Rome due to traffic and parking.
They spent an insane amount of money for the reasons already mentioned multiple time in this thread. I guess you did not mention if they tried to have a budget trip or it was kind of a once in a decade splurge? The prices they paid are possible only if they spend no time researching anything and just took the first, easiest option.
One other possible way to save money is to get an apartment instead of the hotel. We did this in Barcelona, Budapest and a few other cities. You get bigger space, working kitchen and spend around $100 - $150 a night. You don't get daily maid service and a fancy lobby. But you can save on food by let's say having breakfasts in your apartment. Going to a local market or supermarket to buy food for breakfast/lunch is a worthwhile experience that will tell you a lot about the every day life of people in the country you are visiting...
It is of course possible to spend $200 every day for food. But this means huge meals every day in expensive restaurants wasting a lot of sightseeing time. When my wife and I travel, we tend to go out to a fancy restaurant a few times a week. Try very hard not to go in touristy area. We tend to probably spend about $100 for both of us for fancy meal. The rest of the time we try to eat in the apartment, if we have it, or picnic lunches if weather allows.
The OP is clearly the former "I'm Retired Now" who used to regale us with similar threads in the past, always featuring a dubiously hypothetical couple or family member.
That aside, it is very doable to spend $10,000 on a ten day trip. I have, but we stayed in top of line hotels in prime locations. Dinners at a good quality Parisian restaurant, with wine, can easily cost as much as $200 for two people, and goes up from there.
And it's also very doable to spend half that on a ten day trip too. As I have also done in the past.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
