One of the topics I'll cover in my Europe Travel Planning class is how to decide where to scrimp and where to splurge (for those of us that can't splurge on everything). I know it's a personal decision based on one's own preferences, but sometimes it may depend on where you are too.

For instance, I'll be in Dublin, Prague and Paris this October. I plan to take my entire food budget for the trip, and skew it waaaay disproportionately to Paris. I don't think there's much I would find worth spending much on food-wise in Prague, and to a lesser degree even Dublin. I'd rather put back just a few euros each day from a food budget in order to eat great in Paris for the one day I'm there.

One area I don't mind scrimping on is rental cars. Though I have learned the hard way that AC is not something to try to save a few dollars on. Driving through Slovakia when it's 80 (in April!) with the windows down was not ideal. In my early travel days I didn't mind saving by getting a room with the bathroom down the hall. Now I prefer to have a private bath. And I refuse to scrimp on sightseeing. Part of the whole reason I'm in a country is to see things. I'm not going to spend thousands on airfare, hotel and food to get there and then not spend the $20 or whatever to see the castle (or whatever the case may be). Sometimes that's hard, but I try to stick with this philosophy.

How do you decide how to divvy up the budget? (And do I have your permission to use general responses in my class?)

I agree if traveling with my wife I definetly go for some comfort,always a private bath.One think I think to stress in class though is that perfectly nice hotels can be found even in the 1 star category, if the location and other details work with a plan.

I try to find a good value with accomodations as we spend more on food and wine when traveling in Italy.I have spent as little as 50 dollars/night recently.

Here is how I look at value.In my opinion my 30 dollar timex running watch is a better watch than a 10,000 dollar Rolex.Even though there is no style and bling in my Timex it is more accurate (lost less than 1 minute in 3 years without resetting)and no one will ever kill me for my Timex.

I think if you have a passion for a specific thing then that is where the money goes.RR

Hmmmm...never thought about it like this. For me, I usually travel with my kids. I am a vegetarian and not a foodie, so I eat a lot pizza and simple pastas and fresh fruit and veggies when in Italy and it is all good with me. Plus, I don't want to spend big bucks on a meal my kids will eat 2 bites of!

In terms of accommodations, I lean more toward the nicer side. I just have a hard time functioning if I don't sleep well, for whatever reason. So, as my trip to Loire valley, I am spending more than $200 on a room in a Chateau. Would I do this every night on vacation? No, but I don't mind.

On airlines, I pay extra for a better schedule--fewer layovers, etc. Worth it for me.

I don't scrimp on museums or anything either. Nor coffee. I don't shop a lot while away. I buy mainly shoes and artwork.

So, in short, I guess I "scrimp" on food, although it just isn't that important to me and less so on other aspects of the trip.

Interesting question!

No contest, splurge on food and drink all the way. We like to stay in apartments because we like to cook. We splurge on food at the markets, on cheeses and meats we can't find here and go home to cook it. We probably buy more food that go out to restaurants. We will walk by a butchers anywhere in Europe and that is the first place we will go in, or a cheese shop, especially in Italy. We scrimp on shopping (clothes), and never do tours, we like to wander too much, don't spend much on museums or sights that cost money to see, unless it is incredible. We will NOT wait in long queues for most anything. We will look at the queues and then look at a bar or restaurant and go there and have a drink and chat with locals and forget all about the sights we were going to see. When we come home alot of people say "so you must have gone to see the blank" we're like nope...

For me even accommodation requirements 'depend on'.

If we are simply looking for somewhere to sleep en route then a clean room with a comfortable bed (ensuite goes without saying) will do.

If we are staying in a location for several days then I want more. The more may be a balcony if in a city, a swimming pool in the summer, a well equiped kitchen at an apartment rental etc.

Your course is going to be a bit like posting on ST. You point out the options and the pros and cons as you see them. If you have done your job well (which of course you will) your students will be capable of making their own choices!

This is easy-peasy for me...I always splurge on personal comfort!
~ a comfortable bed in a quiet bedroom and with a private bath
~ good kitchen area for meal preps
~ food from the markets, so I can try as many new foods as I can!
~ extra legroom seating on my flights, as in bulkhead or J class

I don't spend a lot of money on dining out, other than a few snacks during the day, an occasional lunch and a couple of evening meals. Maybe this has to do with some dietary sensitivities of mine, because I can have a severe reaction to eating a meal containing any of the additives that I am allergic to...sulphites, MSG, gluten or lactose, for example. That can ruin more than a few very precious days of my trip, and it's not worth it, believe me!

I also don't shop til I drop...I will spend money on a good piece of jewelery, great shoes, the occasional item of clothing and also on stunning art, always on art! I rarely bring home dollops and gobs of 'stuff', and my gifts for a few friends and family members are not usually lavish.

If I have a great place to stay, a fabulously comfortable flight to and from, and a luscious market in the neighbourhood where I'm staying, I think I've died and gone to heaven! Pretty simple tastes, I think.

"I define comfort as self-acceptance, when we finally learn that self-care begins and ends with ourselves, we no longer demand sustenance and happiness from others." ~ Jennifer Louden
Brenda

I like to find ways to have luxury on a budget.Things like doing lunch or high tea or a drink at highest end places or dinner maybe instead of sleeping there.Many times you can spend hours without spending much at all.

Cheap or free opera seats ( or homeschool free shows) etc.Sometimes getting a massage at some places allows you hours in a luxury environment before and after.We are always open to finding great deals or something great for free.

I really shop for airfare and accomodations and cars and we try to go off season to save money. I probably never will fly first class unless I suddenly become independently wealthy. (As in a long lost relative King, Queen, or Duke dies and leaves me a fortune). I do not scrimp on art of any kind, theater, opera, ceramics, paintings, museums, etc. We get front row, a great tour, or a fine painting. We do try to eat light for lunch and then indulge once or twice for dinners.

Ginger

This is very interesting - I'm glad you're all sharing.

quote:

Originally posted by suncoast:
I really shop for airfare and accomodations ....and we try to go off season to save money. Ginger

So do we.
That said, the hotel would be my splurge, closely followed by food.

For a hotel, it has to be in a good location.
And I have to feel comfortable enough that I don't mind spending time there.
I may want to put my feet up and read for a while, or write in a journal.
I want to look forward to a comfortable clean bed, and bathroom, at the end of the day.
I want a balcony if the room is small, or a window with a view if it is a bit bigger.

For restaurants, we have our favorites that we return to every visit, but still try new ones, usually those recommended in Maureen Fant's book, or on a travel board like this one.
And the cost really doesn't enter into the decision.

And even though we are retired, and tend to be careful with money generally, when travelling this just isn't part of the deal.
We really do travel as if this could be our last trip ever.

We haven't done an apartment rental yet, but hope to in 2007.
However, if I am going to be spending 2 weeks in an apartment, it has to be special so it probably will end up another splurge.

I have just erased a couple responses to this, as I changed my mind as I typed. I don't think my travel friend and I really scrimp at all. We tend to use the middle class of Virgin Atlantic to go to GB which is our favorite area. It saves me having jet lag so I don't see it as a splurge. We stay in apartments as we both like our own rooms and I like to cook. If we go to plays and we usually do, we get the best seats possible so we really enjoy the play. If one of us really wants to go to an event,then that individual makes plans to go as in last year she went to Wimbledon and I had a great three days doing my own thing. If we both want to go then we get tickets together but we aren't tied at the hip and don't feel that we HAVE to go with the other. I don't care much for shopping anymore so that isn't but if I see something I want I get it.
Until I started answering this question I always thought I scrimped but now I realize I save for the two years between our trips and then we do what we want.

One man's scrimp is another man's splurge. I've been in countries where some people make less than $100/year and live right next to the hotels I was staying. I almost always feel that I am splurging, no matter where I travel.

I think we probably don't really splurge on anything but we have been to (mostly Italy) enough that we get what we think is the best for a low price. We have managed to find rooms for a low price, clean with bath and a view. We buy excellent food, though it could be at a restaurant but might also be from the grocery store. We search for the best wine at the lowest cost. We always say, we should write a book called Lazy AND Cheap Travel. I do pay to see sights but not so many every trip. There is always a couple new things I try to see each trip that I might have to pay for. I never pass up a free church and try to see as many of them as I can get. Probably, I would have to say if we have a splurge, it is wine. It just takes a little research on websites like this to have a fine trip at the lowest possible cost. So if you do that, you can go on more trips.

BGE and I must have been sisters in another life.

I don't scrimp on anything of importance to me.
If there is an incredible restaurant that I want to dine, well, bring it on. We paid 600 euros for a once-in-a-lifetime dinner at Les Crayeres for our 10th wedding anniversary. I remember everything about it, including the special cake prepared for us with sparklers atop. We have paid mega bucks for a comfortable hotel room, and yet paid nearly nothing for one that was equally as grand, just because we were in Paris.

We are renting apartments for our next trip in Sept/Oct and I will have more to say about the pros and cons after that, but I suspect that price will be no consideration when deciding upon fresh seafood to be prepared in our kitchen at "home" or eating out. We love good food, but most of our favorites come from my own hands...

Shopping? Well, I grow tired of it quickly and usually know what I'm looking for when I set out. This trip will find me at the Frette shop in Venice ( another thread entirely ) and I'll also be looking for a special handbag and perhaps a new leather jacket. Also, hubby needs a new suede jacket. And jewelry is always welcomed. Also art...lots of art, whether in pottery, sculpture, prints, etc. It doesn't matter...we'll find a place for it.

I do much research online for good prices in the planning stages so that we are not limited by unexpected costs as we travel. We do not live an extravagant lifestyle at home, but we live well. We strive to do the same when traveling. So what if we waste a dollar here or there...it's not worth fretting over while you're on vacation...

Jennifer

Another great topic, Dana!

We like to fly non-stop, and leave out of our home city, so there is no scrimping there, although we do fly economy. We mostly stay in B&Bs, and on our most recent trip, in vacation rentals. I find these to be money-saving, over hotel rooms in general. Light on breakfasts and lunch, and then eat a nice dinner, but never over-the-top places - just not that important to us. We do love to include museum visits and a good show if we can on our trips. We're actually not splurgy kinds of travellers. We always rent economy cars, too. And we always have fantastic times.

Terry

quote:

BGE and I must have been sisters in another life.

Maybe we were! Wouldn't that be totally cool, Jennifer?

I want to add a little bit about my choice to rent an apartment, because that is often a luxurious treat to myself...my big splurge. I won't likely choose an 8' X 10' shoebox studio that is bare and plain...rather, I look for a gorgeous place, with a great kitchen, perfect bedroom and the best terrace/garden/courtyard that I can find. Often, I rent more space than I can use, because I absolutely love the rental photos or the location is perfect for me.

Because it costs me $1.44CAN to buy one Euro, I look at any trip where that is the rate of exchange as a splurge in itself. The only way for me to enjoy a trip when I'm losing nearly 50% of my hard-earned dollars from the get-go is simple...I do the best I can to pretend that one Euro is $1.00CAN, and I force myself NOT to do the conversion in my head, every time I buy something.

“Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, opulence is when you have three - and paradise is when you have none.” ~ Doug Larson
Brenda

"Scrimp" on accomodations by being a slow traveler. Rent apartments or houses by the week instead of hotel rooms or b&bs by the night. (In Europe this renting apartments and houses is called self-catering, because such usually have a kitchen.) Even if you don't cook in, the savings can be enormous. You'll usually have some laundry facilities, which is a great convenience and, if you're staying a while, as you should be, can save a tiny bit. Traveling with friends and sharing the cost of accomodations and perhaps car rentals can save even more.

Travel in the off-seasons, self cater, share, and many trips become suprisingly affordable, leaving you free to "splurge" on everything else!

I answered this a couple hours ago but have been thinking about it since then and I wonder if my answer wouldn't have been very different years ago when I was first starting to travel, buying my house and paying off those student loans. I would scrimp all year to save enough to make a tour, for the concept of slow travel wasn't in my mind then. I wanted to see the whole world and I wanted to see it now. But even on those cheaper trips, I did things to splurge, like the good theatre tickets or side trips that really were beyond my range but I did them anyway. I think in my year or more of planning I probably found ways to save money and didn't think of it as scrimping. Thanks to my mom's advice I started to travel and see those places I really wanted to go to, even if I had to work two jobs the next year to pay it off. I think in helping your class to decide what to scrimp/splurge on you need to have them decide what is really important and they need to plan ahead for it. Having said that, I would also tell them that if they find something they just have to have or a place they really want to stop off and stay, well, then do it. Who knows when a person will be able to return. This was a great question and has really given my household conversation the last couple hours.

I scrimp when I am planning. I do a lot of research to find nice places at a reasonable price and book them well in advance. But once I am there, if I want a bottle of Brunello sitting in some little square, I am gonna get it.

I don't care so much about mini-bars and giant hotel breakfasts, but I do prefer to be in a nice part of town and will always pay extra for that.

Also I will always walk, if I can, before I take a cab. Once someone I traveled with said "you are so funny - you'll walk a mile to save three dollars but then you'll buy the most expensive wine on the list." That about sums it up.

You might let your students know about the standing at the bar vs. sitting thing. Also about the menu of the day vs. A la Carte.

Hi

Good question...and a difficult question :-) When my wife and I travel we try to get to the location as cheap as possible. I guess we have found out that it is not always the best option...like when we came back from Malaysia on KLM and was stuffed into a older 747 cargo plane and there was hardly any room for the legs We also like to have a decent hotel with a private bath and we want to have an OK location so we don't have to spend hours on public transportation.

Rental cars is normally a place where we try to save money...as long as there is room for the suitcases and you get from A to B I'm more or less fine. The only time I have gone a bit overboard was when I rented a bright yellow Mustang convertible in Ohio

But I think in the end you have to realize that travelling cost...and if you have gone to a destination and don't want to spend the extra cash to see and do stuff there then you might as well stay home.

So we don't really travel with a budget...we just travel and try to be moderate and then we look at the bills when we come home and think "that cost us a pretty penny". But most of the time it is worth it

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

What an interesting topic. We do not splurge on accommodation and probably would not unless very special reason or very special place/view or whatever. That said we always do private bathroom. Our preference is to stay in a flat/apartment but if that is not an option (short timeframe etc)will stay in B & Bs or hotels - 3 star or less generally. Don't like 5 star hotels and resent the cost. In an apartment we would look for comfort rather than luxury and, depending on time of the year, a terrace or outdoor area. We have always flown economy from Australia but are now getting to an age where business class may start to be a consideration. We eat out a lot when away but not in fancy restaurants - out of choice rather than a cost saving exercise. We do not buy much but if we like something and can lug it back we buy it. We hire a car suitable for the country and amount of driving - but typically on the small side. I guess we just spend what we want and don't worry about it too much but we don't do extravagant things while away. We like to travel more rather than in more luxury. thahtew - toher .

This is a fun topic. We decided a long time ago we would rather take two trips a year to Italy and spend carefully than take one and splurge.

We always shop airline prices like crazy- to me, it is a means to an end, and never very pleasant, so I just want to do it as cheaply as possible. We have done some crazy combos and used budget airlines in Europe and it all works out fine. We will avoid very long layovers or some of those crazy flights that have you flying to three American cities before finally taking off for Europe!(Boston to Detroit to St. Louis, THEN Malpensa??? No way.)

Accomodations- the best value we have found is agristurismos, especially a bit off season (we usually go in spring and fall). We have stayed in stupendous apts for as little as 45 euro a night. And the kitchen is a huge savings. One of the things I love the best is to shop at a great market in Italy and then go 'home' and cook!

Economy car rentals, using public transport or walking vs. cabs also helps.

We always have some very nice restaurant meals, and usually do some (careful!) shopping. And we never flinch at paying for musuems or other things we want to see.

I guess our splurge is going more often!