Budget For Interrailing

brendan_40

Hey,
my friends and I are all set on going interrailing this July (21st June- 21st July) for our Leaving Cert. holiday (this appealed to us somewhat more than a piss up in some asshole in Southern Europe... Santa Ponza anyone???) and have our flights booked and a general route made out.
We plan on flying into Rome on the 21st and fly out from Nice a month later. Our route is as follows:
Rome- Florence- Slovenia (possibly/probably Lake Bled)- Croatia- Hungary (Budapest)- Vienna- Munich- Switzerland- Nice, although tbh, I could probably take or leave Vienna and Switzerland given their expense.
The flights worked out at about 160 or 170 for both and they're both paid for and taken care of.
Anyway, given that we'll be trying to do this as cheaply as possible, what would be a reasonable budget? We won't be eating out every night (will cook ourselves if it's significantly cheaper) and will camp when possible.
Any help with this would be really greatly appreciated guys.
Thanks in advance!
Brendan

Dancor

I went for a month last year too. Personally I spent 2k, It was me and the girlfriend though, she spent about 1500. So eating out happened alot and also private rooms in hostels for obvious reasons can add up. Id say with a bunch of lads, big cheap dorms, cheap drinking and eating you will be fine with 1000-1500 yoyo with money left over.

Your going some good spots too. Id probably leave out Vienna and Switzerland aswell, Have you thought of Berlin? Great city, Also depends where you go in Croatia, Zagreb can be passed, Ive heard nothing good about it and didnt like it personally.

brendan_40

Thanks for getting back!
Yeah, we certainly thought about Berlin. Our original route was going to be Rome- Florence- Slovenia- Munich- Prague- Berlin- Amsterdam- Paris Nice but we decided that that'd be way too much to fit into one trip and that by going to Eastern Europe we'd get more bang for our buck (not in the prostitutey literal sense...).
With regards Croatia, we'd probably be thinking of somewhere like Dubrovnic (sp?) which I hear is nice. Any thoughts?

Dancor

Yeah I heard Dubrovnic(sp?) is nice too. A month is plenty, I got 14 places in last year. You could well manage what you want to do and a whole lot more.

Noelleieos

2 thousand is plenty for the month, I'd defo recommend seeing vienna and switzerland, they are expensive but well worth it. Really beautiful places. Don't make a very detailed plan, because it wont work. Know the places you want to see, but don't have strickt dates on when you get there and when you leave. Effort like! You hosteling or camping?

brendan_40

Hopefully camping mostly but we understand that they're will be nights when we'll just want to stay in hostels. Yeah, we don't have dates or anything, having deadlines would only lead to stress which really isn't what the trip is about. We'll be doing everything as cheaply as possible which means camping, buying food in bulk in shops/supermarkets and splitting it 7 ways rather than eating in restaraunts, cooking ourselves, buying big bottles of spirits or what have you rather than buying drink in pubs etc.

Valmont

Under no circumstances should you avoid Vienna, one of the finest cities in Europe. I had a blast there.

Zoodlebop

I'd recommend jumping on night trains/buses whenever possible. You don't need to fork out for a sleeping cabin. You learn to sleep upright in a chair and then you're grand. t'will save oodles on accomodation. I dunno if your railpass covers night travel though. I'd imagine it would if you go regular class.

Molberts

I won't be rushing back to Vienna anytime soon I have to say. The people are so RUDE as well! :eek:

CantGetNoSleep

I have done a fairly similar route to yours, and to be honest I'd agree with you on leaving out Switzerland and maybe Austria too. They are both nice places but far more expensive than some of the other destinations you have listed, i.e I recently got a cheeseburger meal in a Swiss Burger King for 15 CHF - about €10. I think this costs €2.50 in Ireland these days - you know those big ads with Brian Cowen on them on the back of Dublin Buses? Also, you can easily go back to either of these places - I regularly fly Basel to Dublin with Ryanair for under €3 (including all hidden charges), I paid €0.01 last week for it. They are worth visiting, but I wouldnt go there as part of a budget interrailing lads holiday, they would simply take up too much money that would be better spent elsewhere ie white water rafting near Lake Bled

On your route it sounds good, try to spend as much time in the less developed Eastern European countries, I just found them more interesting than Germany / France etc (although I have been there loads of times before). Certainly in Croatia, leave enough time to explore islands etc, you can rent a boat and do it yourselves fairly cheaply

On your budget, about €50 a day is usually ok (including where you stay for the night), you wont even need this much in some countries, but it is always good to have a little bit extra, ie if you decide for one night you want a hotel and not a hostel, or to go for a nice fancy dinner, or maybe pay the fine on a metro for fare dodgong lol

Shzm

Personally i'd go from Hungary -> Bratislava -> Prague -> Berlin or something along those lines. I went from Berlin down to Rome last year through Austria & Switzerland & those two countries definately do not rank high in the 'memories from my inter-railing trip' list.