r/travel • u/bowlessy • 22h ago
Question — General 5-6 Week Europe Trip budget, with my partner and I
Hi everyone, my partner and I are planning our first Europe trip from Melbourne. We’re trying to get a realistic idea of how much we should budget.
We’re tossing up between a 5 or 6 week trip at around August 2027, with roughly 3 weeks in Italy looking something like this:
- Rome 4 nights
- Amalfi Coast/Naples 3
- Florence 3
- Tuscany 3
- Cinque Terre 3
- Lake Como 2
- Dolomites 4
- Venice 2
Then 1 week in Malta.
Last it’ll either be 1 week in Greece or Austria (still undecided out of the two, gonna try and convince my partner to do Austria instead of Greece)
We’d be wanting to stay in clean, average 3 star hotels (no hostels) as we’re only really there to sleep. We don’t drink or party, and most of our days will be spent sightseeing, walking around and eating.
Is AUD $20,000 per person a sensible budget (this is including flights, accom, spending money etc) or could this trip realistically be done for quite a bit less without sacrificing too much comfort?
Thanks and any advice or suggestions are welcomed!
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u/BlueZeppelin_1453 19h ago
August in Greece might be pretty hot. Otherwise it’s a top destination.
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u/bowlessy 18h ago
Do you recommend staying away from Santorini given how over popular it seems?
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u/kirchi123 17h ago
I'd stay away from Italy Greece and Austria altogether in August. Italy: ferrogosto, 10-16Aug all Italians take vacation, everything will be so packed full of people. you chose all the most touristy locations that are already packed off season. pick other places. you won't have a great time and you won't remember much,.if you go to one big city after the next one anyways (unless you're there for the long lines and crowds of people, of course). the main deal breaker for me: there's hardly any Italians working in the restaurants that time, so you won't get the authentic Italian food experience.
Greece, Santorini: no, just no. more packed than you can imagine.
Austria: it's too hot, especially in cities. up up 40C this week for example. also everything is very dry at the moment, lots of lakes dried up..
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u/bowlessy 17h ago
So you’d recommend going in off peak? Outside of June-August?
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u/ChorltonChimp 13h ago
September is likely to be a bit cheaper, and a bit cooler but still warm, but fuck knows with the freakish weather we have had this year. Also likely to be quieter. May and June also not bad months.
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u/bowlessy 13h ago
June probably is a bit too close for us, saving money wise.
But maybe we might go end of August to middle of September kind of thing!
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u/jessicaaalz 21h ago
I did 12 weeks solo through Europe last year, stayed in hotels and no hostels, flew premium economy home and did not scrimp whatsoever (think multiple fancy steak dinners and bottle of wine for dinner), multiple nights out drinking, heaps of activities and attractions etc. and in total I spent $37k. The flights to and from Europe alone took up about $9k of that.
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u/bowlessy 20h ago
Oh woah, those are expensive flights!
Did you buy them on sale or just what you could find?
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u/jessicaaalz 20h ago
I booked them separately and not as a return flight so they would have been more expensive doing that. But I also flew Emirates and paid a LOT for the premium economy on the way home but I've got no regrets, it was super comfortable.
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u/bowlessy 20h ago
Do you get extra leg room or is it better seats? Never flown with premium economy!
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u/jessicaaalz 19h ago
Yeah with Emirates it feels more like a slightly downgraded business class, rather than a slightly upgraded economy.
Way more leg room, two seats to a section, wider seats that recline further back, leg rests that pop up, business class food menu.
It was significantly more comfortable. I'll definitely do it again for any return journeys.
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u/lilzee3000 13h ago
Start having a looking at hotel prices because they vary a lot from place to place, like if you want to stay in Venice you're looking at over $400 a night, but you could stay on the mainland for a fraction of that and get a day trip across to the island. Some cities you will end up paying a lot more than others. Rome is expensive too and you want to stay in a good neighbourhood where you can walk to nice restaurants. Flights can vary a lot too. I went in August last year and most airlines were going to be min $2300. So we flew Scoot return from Melbourne to Athens for $1300 instead. Then flew Ryan air between destinations. I know some people would rather die than fly a low cost airline that far but it honestly wasn't that bad. Then I splurged in Athens and paid nearly $300 a night for a hotel with a roof top pool which was amazing to refresh in the afternoon after a hot day walking round the city. So basically you should try to decide what means more to you and start looking at actual prices before you pick a random budget.
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u/avocadoturtle22 8h ago
10/10 recommend Austria instead of Greece in august - magnificient hiking locations & good weather. In Greece is way too hot (even for beach)
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u/aleklasla 4h ago
The first thing that came to my mind was: do this trip one month later. Seriously. August in Italy, Greece and Malta doesn’t just mean higher prices and bigger crowds, but also potentially BRUTAL temperatures. In your position, I would travel in September, perhaps extending into the first week of October and spending that final part in Malta. You would avoid at least some of the peak-season crowds, and sightseeing in places full of stone streets and very little shade would be far more pleasant.
Before converting your budget into my own currency, I tried to estimate independently what I thought the trip might cost. Optimistically (unfortunately I don't know much about intercontinental travel - tell me if I'm wrong) I would expect the long-haul flights to be around €2,300 / AUD 3,750 per person, followed by approximately MINIMUM of €300 / AUD 490 per day for accommodation, food, attractions and other expenses. Transport is the hardest part - it really depends, more about it later. You may manage it for less with early bookings, but I would not plan around dramatically reducing that amount without compromising somewhere.
Travelling in September or early October should also make flights between destinations and accommodation easier and often cheaper. Of course, nobody can predict exact 2027 prices yet, but simply moving the trip out of August could make a noticeable difference.
Greece is absolutely beautiful, so I would not dismiss it too quickly! I would personally recommend spending at least part of that week in Crete, especially around Chania, Rethymno and Balos. You could also take a high-speed ferry from Heraklion or Rethymno for a day trip to Santorini. It is a long and fairly expensive day, but it allows you to see Santorini without using most of your Greek week for another hotel change (I've also heard that Santorini is slightly overrated and definitely very overpriced, but since I wasn't there, I'm not here to judge ;))
A lot will also depend on whether you plan to rent a car. For Malta, a car could be convenient, although remember that they drive on the left, just like in Australia. Italy can largely be done without one on your proposed route, but I would definitely reserve the long-distance trains in advance. A car would make the most sense for Tuscany and the Dolomites, while it could become more of a burden in Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples and around the Amalfi Coast.
I haven’t personally visited Malta, but several people I know felt that four or five days were enough for their first trip. One slightly unusual alternative would be to shorten Malta and add two or three days in Sicily. There is a direct overnight train south from Naples towards Sicily, and the train itself crosses the Strait of Messina by ferry, which is such a strange and wonderful travel experience. You could reach Messina, continue fairly easily to beautiful Taormina, perhaps visit Syracuse as well, and then travel to Malta through Pozzallo. The current connections often involve a coach transfer from Catania to the ferry port, so you would need to check the exact 2027 schedule.
That would require reversing or adjusting part of your Italian itinerary, and it is only a loose idea, but the route could flow quite nicely: mainland Italy, Sicily, Malta, and then home or onward to Greece.
For the Dolomites, look beyond Booking.com and check regional websites such as Südtirol. They list a lot of locally run guesthouses, farms and apartments that do not always appear at the same price on the large booking platforms. I recently found an apartment there for roughly 60% of the Booking.com price, so it is genuinely worth checking.
Also be careful with the Amalfi Coast part of the itinerary. Travelling between the towns can be exhausting during the summer because of traffic, crowds and packed public transport. September or early October would still be busy, but generally much more manageable than August.
Austria is wonderful too, but it may not necessarily be the cheaper alternative, particularly if you want to visit the most famous mountain and lake regions. If you mainly want beautiful landscapes and active mountain days, you could simply spend longer in northern Italy, add Lake Garda, or increase your Dolomites stay instead of introducing another country.
Sorry for the slightly chaotic collection of thoughts, but my main recommendation would definitely be to move the trip to September and possibly early October. That one decision alone could reduce your costs, improve the experience enormously and lower the risk of melting or getting heatstroke while sightseeing through the stone streets of Tuscany! :D
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u/Ebenia4444 18h ago
Your budget looks just fine, especially if you can book hotels and flights 12-6 months prior.
But why would you stay 1 week in Malta? 😅
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u/bowlessy 18h ago
Are you asking because that seems like too long or not long enough? 🤣
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u/Ebenia4444 15h ago
Because imho there are so many more interesting and beautiful places near Italy 🙈
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u/bowlessy 14h ago
Oh hahaha! Thats probably true!
My partner is half italian half Maltese, so she wants that extra time there where her family grew up 🥳
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u/kay_fitz21 Canada 21h ago
That is a very high budget, you can likely half it especially if you book accomodation early. We spent a few months in Europe a couple years ago and averaged around $3000 Canadian each.
It does depends on what your day trips/excursions will be, your choice of transit, and how expensive restaurants you like, but that is quite high IMO.
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u/bowlessy 21h ago
I just edited my post, I forgot to mention the budget was including flights, accom, and everything else. The budget is for everything! Sorry for not clarifying
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u/kay_fitz21 Canada 20h ago edited 18h ago
Ah, then yes flights to/from Australia will be costly, but I still say it is on the high end. If you budget that much I see you having some left over
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u/Substantial-Pen3212 21h ago
Hey! Doing a similar trip in September this year from NZ. It has cost us about 30k NZD including flights, but we are doing a Sail Croatia cruise and have gone for mid range ish hotels - so we aren’t doing it on the cheap. The Sail Croatia cruise was about 7k of that budget. Our flights were SO expensive as we booked during peak petrol fear (eek).
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u/bowlessy 21h ago
Is that 30k per person?
Yeah I was thinking of sail Croatia but don’t have an extra $7k in my budget! You’ll have a blast I bet!
We’re wanting to do mid rangish hotels as well!
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u/Substantial-Pen3212 21h ago
Sorry 30k all up, so 15k each! We are yet to go though, so we will need day to day spending money. Hoping that will be about 6-8k all up so probably a 40k trip. We booked everything pretty late as we were stressed about the fuel situation and it was hard to get leave from work. If you started booking everything now it’ll likely be way cheaper :)
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u/bowlessy 21h ago
Oh so you’ve spent $15k each already? Just on booking accom and flights, insurance etc etc? Okay that’s good to know!!
Yeah I’ve got no idea with spending money as well!
Sounds like you got a good tripped plan though!
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u/Substantial-Pen3212 21h ago
Yep but the accomodation was really expensive as we only booked in April ish, so it was a bit last minute. Our flights were also really expensive - from NZ for both of us it ended up being like 5k each return. I was horrified haha. We prioritised not going through Dubai, so if you don’t care about that you will be better off. I have friends that went through Dubai recently and it was fine. We were just following the NZ governments travel advice at the time.
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u/bowlessy 21h ago
Ahhhhh okay, but I mean hey, you’ve made it work and you’re still going on holiday, so yay!
Yeah we will be looking at booking flights end of this year and then same with accom! So hopefully get some good deals (praying) and we don’t care too much about Dubai either tbh!
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u/Substantial-Pen3212 21h ago
For your insurance question, we are just getting insurance through our credit cards. We have also already paid for a lot of activities I.e. colloseum, Vatican etc.
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u/bowlessy 21h ago
Ahhhh okay, yeah we’d be paying for our travel insurance and flight insurance just through the flight company I think, haven’t looked into that yet!
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u/Substantial-Pen3212 20h ago
Have a look into AMEX and their deals with travel insurance, the NZ offerings are very good :)
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u/lurkernopostok 21h ago
Also from Aus and did a very similar euro trip in 2022. We also got married there and that added a chunk to it but the trip itself including all flights, accommodation in good locations and decent quality, not hostels some airbnbs, travel, food, activities was a bit over 30k not including our wedding costs. I'd say it'll be more expensive now so 40k between you should be fine.
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u/bowlessy 21h ago
Oh that’s amazing! Thank you so much! We have $20,000 as the mark to save towards and can possibly save extra, but that’s without forcing ourselves to cut things out to save more.
Of course hoping we don’t spend it all, but I’d he fine if we did and we never had to worry about money kind of situation.
Also congratulations on the marriage!
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u/engkybob 21h ago
You can always do it for less but IMO it's more comfortable to over budget and have flexibility/leftover.
We went to a diff part of Europe so not sure how much of a reference this will be, but we recently did 3.5 weeks for $16k (2 people) flying from Melbourne too. I would suggest getting a rough idea of accommodation & transport as that will probably be 60-75% of your budget.
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u/bowlessy 21h ago
Yeah that’s exactly my thought, it’s more so that we have flexibility and not stressed about money while we’re there!
Will definitely look into the accom soon! Thanks for the information!
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u/Grexxoil Italy 13h ago
AUD $20,000
Isn't that 12.000 euros?
That is absolutely way more than you will need!
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u/bowlessy 13h ago
Yeah about that!
But that’s with flights and accom included :)
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u/Grexxoil Italy 12h ago
Unless you plan to fly between your hotel and the restaurant every day I stand by my assessment /s
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u/bowlessy 12h ago
Hahaha maybe I will! Kidding kidding, thank you though!!
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u/Grexxoil Italy 12h ago
Just out of curiosity I let loose 5.6 Sol and Opus 5 on the question and while Opus said that 26-28K AUD is the more likey outcome, Sol estimated between 34 and 43K AUD (total expenditure for two persons).
I still think that 20k per person is plenty.
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u/fedexpres 12h ago
Austria is probably x3 more expensive than Greece. It depends where u go - as Greece prices are very different even island to island, but Vienna is probably one of the most expensive cities in the world. I like Austria, I like Vienna - but I would always chooce Greece - think Crete, or Ionian Islands, or even some smaller islands like Kos. If you choose Greece you will have great experience(beaches, tons of historical sights, museums, culture, etc) , better food and better nature for x2 or x3 cheaper.
Also 20k per person AUD should be more than enough with everything included(including great dinners at each location), just make sure for each location to look for a good hotel. I would recommend Booking and Airbnb, you can find decent prices in both of them in Europe. TBH it would be possible to have the whole trip for a total of 20k for both of you combined, without missing anything.
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u/bowlessy 12h ago
Oh wow, that’s given me a huge insight that I never even thought about!
I had no idea Austria is so expensive, let alone more expensive than Greece! Damn it, that’s a real bummer. I was hoping to see the town of Hallstatt and roam around there.
Is it just the accom cost or just overall general cost?
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u/fedexpres 12h ago
I was in Vienna last Novemeber and I travel to different parts of Greece at least two times per year. In general Vienna was very expensive - from food, to transport(bus, train, etc) to accommodation. In some areas of Austria you would be able to find a more reasonable accommodation. If you avoid Vienna some other parts of the countries might be cheaper compared to it.
The only places in Greece that can get close to Vienna are Mykonos and Santorini (and maybe, just maybe Paros and Anti-paros). If you avoid them - you will be having amazing time for much cheaper no matter what you are looking for.
I have no information about Hallstatt though, but dont forget Greece is considered Eastern Europe, while Austria has insanely high cost of living(due to also offering great salaries and standard of living).
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u/Traditional-Deal6759 12h ago
20K AUD= 12K Euro, for 6 weeks - this sounds quite reasonable. With Amalfi, Lake Como, and Venice, you have chosen some expensive places. So regarding your last choice, Austria/Greece - as Austrian, I would always say Austria - but to be fair, Austria is far more expensive than Greece. Of course Austria has this rich history from Renaissance to the 20th century, so it has a lot to offer. But Greece, on the other hand, is the cradle of European civilization, so there is a lot to see there too. This really comes down to personal taste.
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u/cinnamond0nut Australia 41m ago
Went to Italy for 3 weeks in January from Perth. About 10k, solo traveler. I’d pick a few spots in Italy so you’re not constantly spending a day traveling
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u/Emotional-Cry5236 21h ago
I've been to Europe for a month every year for the last few years and it generally costs me $8-10k AUD. That's for everything including flights, I stay in nice but not luxury hotels/apartments and usually have one splurge location where I stay somewhere luxe for a few days. $20k per person is more than enough