How to Book 3 Countries for 10 Days Under $1000
You've arrived in Paris...Now what? Queue the romantic music!
My "Bestie" and I packed our carryon bag and headed to Europe. We booked through expedia.com for our domestic/international flights and our hotels through bookings.com / airbnb.com . Keep in mind if flying country to country via #AirFrance you will need to pay $25-$35 per carry on bag. We found this out at the airport, which is a total inconvenience. But it seems like many airlines are trying this.
I've added the price breakdown of each flight. Here's how you book these logically.
HOW DO YOU DO IT in 7 Steps:
Search for the cheapest flight by choosing busy airports to other busy airports. examples: New York to #Paris, #Atlanta to Paris, New York to Rome, #Miami to #Rome.
The best combo we found was roughly $500 roundtrip a person was New York to Paris. Next we booked the flight to get to the departure airport. This could mean other options like, #megabus , renting a car, or local non international #airports like #Allegiance in Concord, NC. This doesn't have to be booked at the time you book the international flight unless the deal is good.
After all of that is booked, list out your excursions. This is outside of the $1000 transportation fees. I looked up the Top 10 things to do #TOP10thingstodo in each country and list them out with fees. You not have to visit all places but try to pick one objective a day. If you want to do an expensive excursion, book it in advanced. All other excursions like - Food Tours, Wine Tours, Ruin Tours, Museums etc can be booked upon arrival. I promise 75% of the time it is so much cheaper than #TripAdvisor , #Expedia, and random google searches. See the list of options we came up with below and the budget for each country.
4. Be mindful that traveling never goes as planned, so make sure you account for the unforeseen expenses by bringing 2x as much as the travel fees. So I brought an extra $2000 as a backup plan or a credit card. DO NOT CARRY THIS IN CASH. When traveling, bring two payment options from separate accounts. Why? Because people lose cards and god forbid you can't pull out cash while abroad. Not FUN!
5. Lastly, organize your flights, checkin early, and pack ONE CARRY ON Bag military style
This will save your life! So when traveling we all want to look cute, but if all of the locations have warm dry weather pack multiple shirts and equal or less bottoms. Sandals save room on shoe space. If you wear these at the airport you can pack one pair of backup shoes. Now, if the location is rainy, do the same and wear the raincoat on the plane. For colder weather, wear the coat on the plane and pack far more tops than bottoms (Less sweating so less bottoms needed lol)
6. Alright, bags are packed, excursions are picked out and you've researched the countries currency, culture, and food. Adjust the petty cash budget from here: Food, Shopping, and extra FUN. On average Paris ran about 40 Euro-60 Euro a day including alcohol. Rome was about the same unless like me, you can eat pizza everyday for lunch. Capri will run you higher at 50-80 Euro a day and Germany is much like a normal day eating fast food in the US. Get you a Doner while there, it's a must!
7. Keep in mind: Your passport should be valid by at least 6 months, pay your bills at home #NOSHADE and notify your family and friends with contact information, insurance information, and hotel information.
You can find out how my trip to Europe went HERE
You can find out how my trip to East Asia went HERE
