How to Travel Europe for a Month with only 4k

This is my guide on how you can travel through parts of Europe for a month with only 4K

Of course, this guide is probably more relevant to Aussie travellers, as our dollar doesn’t go that far when we go overseas, so we generally need to budget a lot more than most in order to see and do as much as we can whilst travelling, without sending ourselves broke and without making a call to the parents (or anyone else) for a money transfer.

Whether you are planning to stay longer than a month, have more money that 4K to play with or you only have enough holiday plan time for a two week European stay, there are a multidue of ways to plan your holiday better so you can keep to a good spending budget and a the odd splurge here and there on a fancy meal or that jacket you have eyes out in the streets of Paris for more than two days now.

First things first – accommodation. I always prefer to prepay accommodation before I make the trip overseas. However, this is always an option given. So, paying at least for half of your accommodation is a great way of ensuring you will sell yourself short when it comes to fixing the bill of your accommodation on check out.

And, if you’re open to the option of not staying at a hotel then do check yourself into an Air BNB accommodation location. Air BNB, although it has taken the world by storm works a lot better overseas than it does here in Australia. We tend to get okay deals here, but still get a little ripped off when you look at accommodation closer to the city.

In Europe Air BNB stays have way cheaper and the plus is, you get a kitchen. Even if you don’t consider yourself a masterchef, or even a half decent cook, having your own kitchen to prep breakfast every morning and maybe the odd dinner here and there is brilliant for keeping your holiday dosh free for other more important things, like shopping, tours and the occasions side visit to another country if you wish.

Another thing to consider is your transport.

My partner and I do rent cars to travel around countries and explore as many places as possible. But, this can be a costly exercise, as some countries (like Ireland) have hefty price tags and insurance policies (which are mandatory in Ireland) on the vehicles and you end up spending half the price of your whole holiday on a two week rental. And yes, this happened to my partner and I in Ireland (sad face).

If you know you can get around without a car, then do it. Especially if you’re staying in the big cities. Otherwise, there are always great tours to hook up where they will take you to the same places you would explore in the car anyways. Or try renting a car just for one or two days instead and spend those two days taking drives to different areas to explore what a country has to offer in privacy before booking yourself into a more mainstream tour.

There are so many option when it comes to transport and when you’re staying in cities, you really don’t need a car, as it can often become a burden if there is no parking available where you’re staying. A common occurrence if you’re staying in an Air BNB apartment in the middle of a city.

Okay, so we have taken care of accommodation, transport and food. What’s left? Or yeah, flight and tours.

Here’s the thing, living in Australia can be tough when you want to travel. As the flights are often more expensive than the entire holiday budget. If you’re including the cost of a flight in the 4k budget, do yourself a favour and go see a travel agent for your flight (if you’re choosing to create your own itinerary outside of a travel agent that is).

Travel agents get the best deals (no lie), as flights (and even accommodation and tours) will always reserve special deals for customers who are affiliated with that particular travel agent. Meaning, they have negoitated deals for customers, already set up for use with specific hotels, tour companies and yes even airlines.

I always book my flight with a travel agent, as they give me the best deals. And, sometimes they will even tell me when a sale is about to happen (say in a week or two), where the public won’t know about it. So, they tell me to come back at that date to book the flights and you get an additional $200 off flights (amazing).

See, it’s not that hard to focus on where to spend money and where not to spend money when it comes to travelling. The easy part is always choosing the location, the hard part is always trying to find out how much money you need.

The decieving part is, you think you need more than 10k to travel overseas from Australia, when in-fact it is very doable to travel around for a month long holiday in a few European destinations with only 4k and who knows, you may even have some it wen you get back.