Caterina,

That sounds amazing. It’s always smart to be practical about your trips.

Hey Joey,

I appreciate the feedback and I 100% agree that things can be done much cheaper than what I’ve estimated. I purposely use the “average” cost of a hotel because I need to assume to assume that the people reading these articles are average travellers. I do try to throw in tips on how to save throughout the articles, but for the actual cost breakdown, I try to prepare people as much as possible.

Thank you for sharing your personal experiences.

Thanks again for your insight and great blogs. Anyone who isn’t familiar with Barry’s blog/website, it has great insight for many different things, credit cards especially.

So your latest trip estimator. While I do not necessarily agree with the price estimator you submitted, I do think that Paris (or major European cities ie: Rome) can be done cheaper or more expensively, however you like it. I go to Italy every year, as I have family in the north of Italy. I guess it really depends on how “comfortable” you are with travel. When I go to Italy, and then I usually take 4-6 days in another country, I almost solely use Airbnb. With that being said, I backpacked around the world in my 20’s, and I am someone who is very comfortable staying in either someone else’s home or even in a private room ie: Airbnb. Some people are not into that and would rather stay in a hotel and I understand So I think it should be noted that in your trip estimate, I would say that $150USD a night would be almost exclusively in hotels, or higher-end Airbnb, The other benefit of an Airbnb, which my wife and I always stay in, is that you can take a night off of eating out, and cook at home (we both love cooking, so it isn’t a big deal).

I often have people asking me at work about travelling top Europe, and how they want to go to Italy (I do understand it is a fair bit cheaper than Paris) but don’t want to spend thousands. With a quick Airbnb search ( I just found over 100 places available June 2020 near the centre of Paris for under $100CDN. So while I am not trying to be negative towards your well thought out article, it should be noted that with a bit of flexibility, skip eating a meal or 2 out (a bottle of wine in the grocery store is $4-$10CDN for an above-average bottle), buy a baguette, cheese, salami, fresh tomatoes from the market and basil and go sit in one of Paris’ magical parks, and have lunch there. If so, then I think this price could be closer to the $2500USD mark easily.

Hope I didn’t offend you, Barry, I just wanted people to realize Europe can be affordable and a big factor for that is accommodation and eating out (more so in Paris and say London, England then say Rome or Florence) if they go with an open mind, and are willing to think outside the box and cook a few meals and stay in an Airbnb instead of a hotel!