Travelling Europe on a budget

It will depend on the countries you visit. But if you are starting in Athens and working your way through Eastern Europe it will last longer then being in Western Europe. 6000 pounds on a budget trip should last you 3 months, no worries. But you could easily make it last longer.

There are a lot of variables though that could make dents into your budget. If you are a social drinker then you will travel for less time on the money available. Transport can make a big dent as well. Steer clear of the rail passes and pay as you go. Maybe check out Hitchwiki.com for the basics of hitchhiking to see if that appeals to you. It can save a lot of money and as you have no set timeframe is a viable option.

Give a bit more information to us about what your rough itinerary is, your interests, how you plan to travel and stay etc and the future posters will be able to give you a more accurate estimate on your timeframe.

£6000 can last you 1 month or it can last you 3 years. Have a read here: http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/qa-with-leon-logothetis-a-5-a-day-traveler/

For many people, it seems enough for about 3-4 months.

Well my friend and i would quite like to visit Istanbul, but It seems like we will either go there or the Greek islands. I expect this portion of he trip to be a little more expensive as it's the only part I plan to be travelling with someone else. I've heard good things about the black sea coast of Bulgaria, but I don't know much if anything about the country. I'm a big fan of romantic poetry so anywhere that Lord Byron visited on his European tour holds significance and based on that I'd love to see Albania. I'm especially keen to go to Croatia to. don't really know eastern europe well enough to have a uge long list of places I want to see, I'm hoping to just discover it as I go, but I'm flicking through the travel guide and things keep jumping out at me
I'm considering beginning the trip by taking a land route to Greece from the uk, but because I'm meeting my friend at a certain time, I would only have about 10 days for that journey. I could go down through france to italy and get a ferry to greece. I've heard of people hitch hiking to Istanbul in a week, so i could possibly hitch hike some of this journey.
I went to Germany for Chelsea's champions league final last season and found it beautiful and so under rated as a destination but I was only there for a day, flew into Frankfurt and got a train to Munich and went straight back so I'd love to see more of Germany.
Then I find myself thinking I've got friends who may be in the south of France towards the middle of my trip who could put me up if I could get there, but This is talking about going a long way now and I really want to stretch the budget as far as possible.
I'm perfectly willing to camp from time to time in the interest of saving money, and I'm looking at the possibility of WWOOFing to.
Any tips on saving money and any suggestions on places I absolutely have to go would be welcome.

Thanks for the replies
Oli

Tip 1 to save money is do not go the the Greek islands. It is expensive to get to them and travel in between and you will drink your weight in booze.

As well as WWOOFing there are other sites not based around organic farming but on the same principle. You work maybe 3 to 6 hours a day for food and lodgings. Unfortunately I cannot remember the names of the sites at the moment as I have never used them myself. To lazy.

Gerard, not everyone who goes to the Greek islands spends a lot of money or drinks their weight in booze. A hostel dorm bed for example may be 10E, hardly expensive.

http://www.hostelz.com/hostel/60356-Rodos-Youth-Hostel

The generally accepted basic backpacker budget for Europe is 50E per day. That does not include transportation and allows for hostels and supermarket food along with the odd beer or museum entry. In the last few months on the Europe branch there has been a shift towards suggesting a bit more than 50E should now be considered but as of now that view has not gained a consensus of regular posters.

If you take 70E as a decent figure to work with then 6k would last 85 days, so roughly 3 months. At 70E per day if you do not move too often, then it could include some transportation as well.

I suggest you cross post on the W. Europe branch if you have not already done so.

You mention an interest in Byron and obviously are wondering how to decide where you will go. Why not follow Byron? It isn't difficult to Google and find where he visited in Europe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron

Do you know he died in Missolonghi, Greece or that if you visit Chilon Castle on Lake Geneva (setting of Byron's poem 'The Prisoner of Chilon') you can still see where Byron carved his name into one of the pillars in the Castle's dungeon.

Given the breadth of his travels, you could easily put together a route to follow in his footsteps.

A lot depends on where in Europe. The Eastern bit is generally much cheaper than the Western bit.

True mickyfinn, but I always steer away from any suggestion that because a place is cheaper someone should go there. The first criteria should always be to go where you are interested in going. I'd rather go to Rome for a week than Slovenia for a month. Cheap isn't everything.

This site is pretty good for Eastern Europe and includes Greece, Turkey and Croatia. It may give you some ideas of where to go in between.

http://www.balkanology.com/index.html

Personally I would recommend at least having a look at Belgrade, Budapest, Kotor, Sarajevo and Mostar

check out Couchsurfing...it's free and a fantastic way to meet the locals. I've hosted and stayed with hosts. This will open a whole new world for you. Enjoy :)