Where to start. Well I know I’m flying into Rome and flying out of Paris. What to do in between that time? Of course I want to see every country and every city possible. I write out a list of places I want to see and the dates that I will be there. The list is pretty big! It includes Italy, Poland, Germany, Amsterdam, England, Ireland, Scotland and Paris. Crazy right! It looks pretty good on paper and I get a few days in most of the places in Europe and about 3 weeks in England. I look up loads of sites such as Trivago, Air BnB, Booking.com and so on. Booking.com seem to have the best deals and they offer free cancellation. I go through and book up a storm! I am the most organised person you will ever meet when it comes to planning a trip such as this. I write out a budget of my planned savings, how much the accomodation will cost me, the optional extras on the tour, food, souvenirs, travel costs and so on. I work out that I will need about NZD$10,000.00 for this trip. That’s a lot of saving! Living at home cuts costs but not a lot. Mum and I discussed (or so I thought) how much I would be paying to live there. I suggested I pay for my share of the power, internet, my own food and any personal items and will help out with household groceries such as toilet paper, cleaners etc. After moving in though she asks me to pay $150 week! This wouldn’t work out to be any cheaper than if I was still living with my flatmate and there I would have my own space and my stuff (as its now all in storage which I am having to pay for now also) so I was not overly impressed. We debated quite a bit and came down to $100 week to include every along with food. I still had my own bills to pay such as car payments, insurances, a hire purchase and my dog.

So based on my living costs and bills I work out a budget for the next 8 months. Of course this does not go to plan. There are always extra things that pop up that you have to pay for (though I was convinced I had thought of everything!). Pepper needed to go to the vet 3 times in a month for an infection in her foot so that wasn’t cheap. My brother was getting married and I needed to buy a dress and everything that goes along with that (I actually didn’t have anything suitable as I haven’t had to dress up like that for a while). Just lots of bits and pieces that you don’t expect or plan seem to come along.

So a few months later the budget is being revised significantly. A lot of the trip is being revised also. I change the accomodation from hotels to hostels. I start cutting out a lof of extra cities and countries to reduce travel costs.

I end up with a final plan of Rome, Florence, Venice (Cost Saver tour), Berlin, Hamburg, Rudesheim, Cologne, Amsterdam, London and Paris. My savings is now at a pitiful $6000.00 (this is just for the trip. My flights, tour and travel insurance aren’t included. That is all on a credit plan for 18months interest free no payments). I budget more for food and attractions as it’s a good idea to have a bit of a buffer.

Whilst planning the budget and savings I am also researching every thing to do when I am in these cities. I find a really good website called visitacity.com. You can put in your accomodation and the dates then add sites and attractions and it will print it all out for you as well as putting all the sites on a map with travel times to each site. It gives a pretty good idea of how much you can see. It’s not the most perfect website out there but it is really helpful with suggesting things to see and do and also how much they are.