Cost Breakdown: Accommodation

 

To provide full disclosure, we are receiving free accommodation for one week in London. It's my Mum's 70th birthday and my parents are paying for an AirBNB for all of our immediate family. Very generous!

Accommodation for the remaining four weeks is split between hotels and a Royal Caribbean cruise. Like our transport, I kept an eye on prices for a period of time and booked when the price was low. I also quickly realised that family rooms in Europe are in short supply and pretty expensive, so I have some tips below that helped us save money.

Accommodation

All prices are in AUD and include taxes.

London

$0: London AirBNB for seven nights

We're staying in an AirBNB at Chalk Farm. It's a few minutes walk to the tube station and a ten minute walk to Camden Markets.

Paris

$2185: Mercure Paris Montmartre Sacre-Coeur Hotel for five nights (two rooms) 

Mercure Paris Montmartre Sacré-Coeur Hotel Website

Booked through Accor Website

We stayed in Montmartre (at the Ibis Styles Paris Batignolles) during our girls trip last year and really liked the area. Again, during my research, it seemed more affordable than staying in other arrondissements around Paris but still close enough to access everything. The hotel is walking distance to Place de Clichy Metro, Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge, Place de Tertre, Galleries Lafayette and tonnes of shopping. There's a Monoprix down the road for ready made meals and fresh food, a chemist, a Starbucks, restaurants and a fair few sex shops interspersed amongst it all... if you're into that sort of thing!

We felt perfectly safe, though. Our hotel backs onto a beautiful cemetery which I'm looking forward to exploring, too.

I joined up to Accor a few years back and booked direct through them. They have a family offer on many of their hotels where they offer the second room at half price. We also get a free welcome drink.

You can already see the price on the screenshot below that I took today. The price for our dates has already increased by 30% in the time since I booked it. 

Screenshot from Accor Website

Amsterdam

$785:  Ibis Amsterdam Centre for two nights (two rooms)

Ibis Amsterdam Centre

Booked through Accor Website

Again, this is an Accor hotel so we took advantage of the family offer on the second room at 50% off. They had family rooms available for all four of us but they ended up more expensive, go figure. I stayed here last year on my girls trip and it was an awesome location, right next door to Centraal Station and walking distance to all the sights including the Anne Frank House, De Wallen (Red Light District), canal cruises and Tony's Chocoloney (that place is awesome!).

I have cancelled this hotel and rebooked twice (no charge) as the price kept dropping. Loving the flexibility! We have three full days here as our night train leaves at 8pm.

Munich

$831: Buddy Hotel, Munich for three nights (one family room) 

Buddy Hotel Munich

Booked through Expedia App

I stuffed this one up. Good location near the train station we're coming in on. Looks bright and clean. I found an excellent rate on Expedia (cheaper than the hotel website) and jumped on it, however I didn't take into account our night train. We technically only needed two nights as we head out to Rome late on the third night. It's non-cancellable, too... all good! 

Rome

$1282: Hotel Columbia, Rome for four nights (one family room) 

Hotel Columbia, Rome

Booked through Expedia App

Found a good rate on Expedia (It was a mobile app special). We arrive off the night train at 10am at Termini and it's a small walk to the hotel. Walking distance to Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Colosseum and close to a Metro station to get to Vatican City. All our hotels were chosen for easy accessibility to public transport.

Venice

$1240: Hotel Gorizia, Venice for three nights (two rooms)

Hotel Gorizia, Venice

Booked direct through hotel

We stayed there last year and the location was perfect. It's a flat five minute walk from the Rialto Vaporetto stop (no bridges when lugging suitcases) and in the San Marco district. It's an easy walk EVERYWHERE. 

I've included the video below showing the Rialto water Taxi stop and how easy it was to get to our hotel.

Greece

$7201: Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas for Seven Nights in a balcony room.

Explorer of the Seas 

Booked through RC Website

Well, shit. This is where the budget came unstuck. We were thinking of having a few days in Mykonos and a few days in Santorini; just soaking up the sun and exploring, but I found myself eying off the Royal Caribbean website instead. I kept a close look on prices (it was my husbands request to be in a balcony room, which I totally happy to do). Kept comparing a hotel vs the cruise, and in the end, we decided to bite the bullet for convenience reasons.

We get accommodation with a view. We get fed breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. We have pools, water slides and tonnes of stuff for the kids to do. We still get to see the sights around the Greek Islands but we can relax in between.

So yeah. $7201 buckeroos. Whoops!

Screenshot from Royal Caribbean's Website.

London

$453:  Novotel London Stansted Airport for 2 nights

Novotel London Stansted Airport

Booked through Accor website

Again, cheaper through Accor. Our home before we fly back to Sydney.

In total, our accommodation costs for five weeks in Europe for the four of us: 

$13977

Cost Breakdown: Transport

 

Just a recap: our trip is 34 days long. We live in Sydney, Australia, so all costs are in AUD.

TRANSPORT

$5361.16 Return economy airfares Sydney to London (Stansted) with Singapore Airlines for two adults and two children

Boy, did we get a terrific deal on this. We purchased the flights first in November 2024. I'd been keeping an eye on the prices since the middle of last year using SkyScanner and when these prices popped up on sale, I jumped on them.

Booked direct through Singapore Airlines. 25 kilos luggage allowance and because we had a child under 12, we were able to select our seats for free.

$368.39 Eurostar from London to Paris for two adults and two children

You'll need to wait for the booking window (horizon) to open on the Eurostar website, which is about six months ahead of the date you require. The sooner you book, the better. The prices rise the closer you get to the date. I booked in early January for the price listed. To get identical tickets for the same date and time, the price is currently showing as $786.

$201.42 Eurostar from Paris to Amsterdam for two adults and two children

Same as above. Book as soon as convenient to get the best price. We chose four seats with a table between us.

$688.80 OEBB Nightjet from Amsterdam to Munich for two adults and two children

A fair-dinkem night train experience! This was a bucket list for me. I liked the idea of going to sleep and waking up at your next destination. We already save $$$ by not having to pay for a hotel that night and we went all out and booked the deluxe sleeper cabins. Our booking includes two rooms, a private toilet and breakfast, as well as snacks and a bottle of Austrian sparkling wine. Both of the night trains booked are the new comfort-line model. You can choose the cheaper couchette or seat car alternatives. They even have 'mini' cabins which resemble a capsule hotel! Looking forward to reporting back on this.

$640.77 OEBB Nightjet from Munich to Rome for two adults and two children

Same as above. Overnight train in deluxe sleeper. Photos below are from the OEBB Nightjet website for reference

 

 

$174 ItaliaRail high speed train from Rome to Venice for two adults and two children

This is the only part of the trip that I haven't paid for, as the booking window is not available yet. Looking at closer dates, I'm anticipating it will be around the listed price.

$648 Round trip Transfer from Venice to Ravenna for two adults and two children

Upon anticipating a fair amount of dragging a teen and a pre-teen around Europe, we decided to do a Royal Caribbean cruise instead of Greek Island hopping. I think it'll be much better for the kids, as we can truly have days of down-time and enjoy what the ship has to offer. 

Getting from Venice to Ravenna seemed a little complicated to be honest. Upon my research, I discovered Royal Caribbean offer a shuttle service for the three hour trip. It's not brilliantly advertised and there is very little available about it on the official website. You have to call the guest services number. I contacted the RC Facebook page about it and they gave me the Australian number to call.

I don't think the Australian call centre knew much about it, to be honest. I was on hold for about 45 minutes while the staff member tried to find out about it from the other staff. When they finally found the information and booked me in, I was told I would receive a confirmation letter with the details.

The confirmation letter had the pier transport added, but no details regarding time or location, so I had to ring again to get further details.

I'll be including the actual cruise cost in the next post with the accommodation details.

$1008.78 Ryanair Flight from Venice to London for two adults and two children

We disembark the cruise in the early morning. Our RC transfer will return us to Venice and then our flight back to London leaves at around 11:30 from Marco Polo airport. We've given ourselves plenty of time to get there, as well as contingency/additional time if our flight is cancelled.

In total, our transportation costs for five weeks in Europe for the four of us: 
$9091.32

Europe 2025 Itinerary

 

So, I've spent the past six months scouring the internet, looking for the best deals for flights and accommodation. Bare in mind, we're from Australia so it costs a lot to get anywhere due to our proximity to... well, nothing, really.

The AUD is also generally pretty crap compared to the Euro and British pound - and has now dropped even further of late due to the inarticulate orange man currently in power in the US playing havoc with the stock market.

Sigh. 

Everything is now booked and paid for, luckily.

Here are the particulars.

About us:

We are a family of four:  two adults and two children (10 and 13)

Dates travelling:

14th July - 18th August 2025 (five weeks)

Itinerary:

All accommodations at the places above are hotels except for the Greece component. From Ravenna (Venice), we're taking a Royal Caribbean cruise around Athens and the Greek Islands.

In the next post, I'll get into how much this has all cost us total.

The Entree before the Main Course

Last year, I had an incredible opportunity tossed into my lap.

My best friend's husband called me up and and after some pleasant small talk, he cut to the chase. He was organising a surprise Christmas present for her. She has been desperately wanting to explore Europe for many years but he had no interest. Been there, done that. 

I'd travelled quite extensively in my younger years (I'm in my mid-forties now) so he no doubt knew she'd be in safe hands. He offered to fly me over for free if I was willing to accompany her. 

After picking my jaw up off the floor, I responded with an emphatic 'hell yes!' A girls trip without the husbands and kids? I'm in!

I caught up with her a few times over the next couple of months and said nothing of these secret plans... despite having had my passport renewed and the flights confirmed and ready, sitting in my inbox. I had to keep it a secret until Christmas morning, when I received an ear-splitting phone call after she had received her tickets.

Then the enthusiastic, gleeful organisation started. Our return flights allowed us two and a half weeks (we live in Sydney, Australia) so we chose London, Paris, Amsterdam and Venice as our locations to visit.

We had an absolute blast! We ate our way through four countries. We shopped to our heart's content. We navigated the public transport and drank way to many Aperol Spritzes. We fumbled our way through customs with dodgy passport chips, got done at least once for overweight luggage and accidently included a large expensive water globe in our carry-on luggage that was confiscated at the baggage check. The postage cost more than the item itself.

So when I got home and the memories faded, the travel bug I had in my mid twenties  resurfaced with a vengeance and was pulling me toward making more memories... this time, with the hubby and kids.

I'm planning a big trip for at least five weeks and will be very transparent about costs, spending money etc. I'm very frugal by nature - my husband would agree! I tend to put a lot of planning into things but I'm always on a mission to get the best bang for our collective buck. 

My next post will detail our itinerary.

Trip Incoming

 

Welcome to my blog! Over the coming months, I'll be adding information about our five week trip to Europe in July/August 2025. We're a family from Sydney, Australia, and I loooooove to travel. I spent my twenties seeing the world: from Phuket to Bali, the US and UK, Egypt, Singapore, Hong Kong and a great deal of Europe.

Having a family put the breaks on travelling for quite a while, but now that the boys are old enough to enjoy and appreciate it, we're now ready to tackle the world together.

These days, I'm really interested in budgets and cost cutting.  Europe is expensive AF when there's a group of you 😱. The research I've done indicates that most people wouldn't expect to get much change out of $50 000 for a trip like this (transport, accommodation, food and spending money/tours).

My budget is $40 000 total. I'm aiming for less! I'm an optimist at heart! I'll be very transparent in documenting how much everything is costing us and tips/tricks.