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[quinnc]

so, i'm supposed to be trying to figure out how much trips to europe might cost to report back to my mother in order to convince the grandparents to help pay for it. but i don't really have any idea of how to go about doing that? do i look for plane tickets online? how do i know how much other things might cost? how do i plan this? where do i

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[evensven]

When I went, I think I spent about $20-$50 a day- it might be different now with exchange rate so bad. England is the most expensive place, and generally the more southern and eastern you get, the cheaper. A bunk in a hostel is $10-$20. In England and France, a very cheap hotel room will cost $50-$70 whereas in Italy it should be around $20.

Breakfast should come with your room, and if you picnic lunch you can keep food costs down. Buy your soveniers in the south. Keep a student ID on you, and try to get an Internation Student Identity card, because most everything in Europe gives discounts to students. I would pass on a Hosteling International membership because their hostels are usually more expensive than the private ones you can find all over. You'll need around $200 for a good backpack, unless you can borrow one. It might also be worth investing in some lightweight fast-dry clothing that you can wash and dry overnight in your room.

Plane tickets are a thousand bucks off the rack, but you can get a ticket in for around $300 round trip (or even $200) if you work at it. Your best bet is to look online, and see what air companies travel where cheapest. Then call those airlines and try to get a better rate. Often they will give you a better rate over the phone. Plane ticket prices are utterly arbitrary, so check as many dates, airlines and airports (SF, Oakland, SJ) as you can. Just tell the person you are talking to that you are extremely flexible. If you ask, you can often get a ticket with a changeable return date, so you can stay longer if you love it there. London and Amsterdam are usually cheapest to fly in to, but it really varies.

The Eurail pass is great if you plan on traveling around a lot in the north, instead of concentrating on a few countries. You can only buy it in the US. It's great because you can walk right on to any train (except the really high speed ones) without a reservation or anything. If you can sleep on trains, you can take night trains everywhere and not worry about a hotel room. But in southern and eastern Europe it isn't really cost effective at all.

Even though he writing for an older age group, Rick Steve's "Europe Through the Back Door" is one of the best books for this sort of thing. It's not a guidebook, but more of a guide to how to travel somewhat comfrotably in europe cheaply, and has a lot of really useful information (it's the sort of thing you can read in the bookstore without having to buy). I can't really reccommend it enough. He writes a general guide to Europe, which has a lot of the highlights and has some really nice hotel recommendations and guided walking tours. I'd also take along a budget travel guide- I think Lonely Planet tends to have better maps and more useful information like schedules and prices- but they are all pretty much the same. I think Lonely Planet also publishes a "First Time in Europe" travel guide which is like Rick Steve's but aimed at the rock bottem budget travellers. Usually their "First Time in..." guides are pretty fluffy and not as informative as Rick Steves.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!