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Wanderlust

ciaralitchfield
Mar 6, 2015
3 min read

As summer gets closer travelling is on many of our minds. It could be for a weekend break, a weeklong session in the sun or a year backpacking around Europe. Many of us forget to look for the places slightly closer to home with long haul destinations such as Australia, Mexico and Thailand becoming more popular.

Money is one of the main reasons we dont get to see as much of the world as we would like. With flight from the UK landing all over Europe there is no excuse not to try somewhere new. If you are organised you can fit everything you need to see into a long weekend. Living in London it’s always a pleasant surprise when you see the prices of many other European cities. Fab hotels costs a quarter of the price and local food and drink doesn’t disappoint. I recently discovered in Budapest that many cities offer discounted entry to tourist attractions for under 26’s so bring your ID!

Below I have listed some cheaper European destinations:

Let’s start with flights... in a recent poll these 5 cities came out as cheapest in regards to flights

1 Brussels £69 2 Amsterdam £69 3 Paris £75 4 Madrid £80 5 Nice £83

Lets then look at accommodation

1 Budapest £28 a night 2 Lisbon £37 a night 3 Istanbul £38 a night 4 Barcelona £39 a night 5 Madrid £39 a night

If we combine your flight with a 2 night stay

1 Budapest £139 2 Madrid £148 3 Barcelona £150 4 Nice £162 5 Brussels £162 6 Berlin £163 7 Paris £165 8 Amsterdam £185 9 Lisbon £187 10 Prague £194

In terms of eating out these were the cheapest

1 Prague £3.27 2 Istanbul £3.77 3 Budapest £3.93 4 Berlin £5.05 5 Lisbon £5.89

If you’re looking at simple groceries..

1 Budapest £5.63 2 Prague £6.31 3 Lisbon £6.63 4 Barcelona £6.66 5 Split £7.48

Many other destinations come cheaper than a weekend in the UK. Sofia (Bulgaria), Minsk (Belarus), Bucharest (Romania) and Warsaw (Poland) are consistently good value.

Below is the European Backpacker Index for 2015, this outlines the average daily cost of visiting different cities (flight excluded). This gives a rough idea of how much you would need to save before heading off!

Kiev, Ukraine

Daily Backpacker Index: UHR385.00 = £16.11/day

Bucharest, Romania

Daily Backpacker Index: RON99.70 – £17.41/day

Sofia, Bulgaria

Daily Backpacker Index: BGN44.72 = £17.99/day

Krakow, Poland

Daily Backpacker Index: PLN100.60 = £18.34/day

Belgrade, Serbia

Daily Backpacker Index: €25.08 = £19.70/day

Warsaw, Poland

Daily Backpacker Index: PLN112.40 = £20.49/day