'Europe Through The Back Door'

N

Napoleon

2,500+ Posts
Rick Steves has a travel company. It's called "Europe Through The Back Door". If you've seen him on his PBS specials, you wonder where he got the name. That being said, he's got one of the greatest lives in the history of The Civilization of People with Wanderlust.
Here's his latest thing on Europe for CNN-

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most of his suggestions are too plain obvious (fitting more people in rooms, splitting meals, public transport etc). Anyone who has been to europe knows those already, and that isnt really stretching the dollar, its just as painful....

The one suggestion that really pisses me off is the asking for tap water. No place will serve you tap water, you can ask, but they will tell you no, and you will be stuck getting bottled water. I have been to europe enough that it is just plain frustrating trying to drink anything with a meal. His stretching the dollar might as well say order a beer, its cheaper.
 
i have been traveling to europe quite regularly, the large percentage of the time you will not get it....

but that is just my experience, I always ask also
 
In many cities you can refill your own bottles of water in at a public fountain. They just have this running water for anyone to stop by and fill your bottle. You could always drink that at the restaurant.
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I think he misses out on the simplest advice - avoid the cities.

everything is more expensive in european cities and the countryside is almost certainly more interesting. so many americans view a european trip as visiting a few big cities, and they're really missing out.
 
I did just that Napoleon in Rome, filled up my water bottles in St. Peter's Square every morning. Ice cold water from four fountains running 24/7.

A good way to save money is avoid sit-down restaurants. You pay a lot of money for not a lot of food in Western Europe. Granted I was alone and young when I went to Italy but I was happy eating at bakeries and other ad hoc places that were significantly cheaper than any restaurant.
 
If you get tap water, it is usually in about the size of a large shot glass. They just don't have the same concept of liquid with a meal that we do in the U.S.
 
yes, always carry a bottle of water with you and refill it in sinks at the hotel or wherever else. Euro water tastes better anyways. I ordered a small bottle at restaurants and tehn just refilled my glass with my other bottle when I ran out....

and stands are great sources of food in europe, espically in winter months when they have christmas markets, cheap good food is great....
 
One of my favorite days in Europe was the day after I ran into a kid from my freshman dorm.

That day we met at the etoile d'etat (or something like that) in front of Notre Dame and then headed for the Sacre Coeur. After checking out the church, we walked around that artists' square just about a block away. Then, instead of eating at a cafe, we walked down a street and stopped in a little grocery. We bought a baguette, a round of camembert, had some ham sliced, we each got a bier (
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) and I also got an Orangina.

All that came out to about US$5/person. (This was '97.) That was the same price for a small ham & butter sandwich you could get at a stand in the park in front of the Louvre and probably what a bier would have cost at one of those cafes at the artists' square.

Then we walked down the hill and ate on a bench in the park below the Sacre Coeur. Now THAT was the way to stretch your dollar. (I do love Orangina.)

Also, if you are good at pickpocketing, that's another way to travel around Europe without much money.
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the entire time i was in Nice i either just ate what the hostel was serving or would hit a up grocery store and get some salami and bread. it is really easy to go on the cheap if you are not picky
 
I like Rick Steves' tv shows. I have been to some of the locales and the show gives me ideas about other places to go. He still spends more money than I would.

I still travel like a 20-year old with a backpack, sleeping on the train at night so I don't have to pay for a room, staying in hostels for 6 to 10 euros per night, and eating my meals from the street vendors or at the markets.

The few times that I have travelled overseas with a woman or on a tour, yes, we spent more money, ate at nicer restaurants, yadda yadda, because I wanted to keep the woman comfortable and show her a good time.

But sure, when I'm by myself, I go cheap. My largest cost is the airplane ticket. I think I have a better time and meet more interesting people when I go solo.

I think I could still travel for $15-$20 per day including room, food, and museums (disregarding the cost of the plane ticket of course).

Regarding tap water, yes, carry your own water bottle and fill it up whenever you can. The water in Europe is fine. I used to fill my water bottle at those fountains in Rome on the street that run constantly. (Oops, I guess other people have already mentioned this.)

In China, don't drink the tap water. It has a lot of chlorine in it and if you drink it for more than a few days, your gums will begin to fray and bleed (even at the $200/night hotels). Buy bottled water from the street vendors. Don't pay more than 2 or 3 yuan for a 32 oz. bottle (that's about 25-33 cents).

In Santorini/Thera, I stayed at a hostel that charged 9 euros/dollars per night (the exhange rate was about 1 to 1 at the time). The hostel was about 150 yards from the beach. The hostel didn't even have doors. There were curtains shielding the entryway to the ~20~ bunkbeds in the large rooms. And yes, I took a padlock with me to store my stuff in the lockers. When I checked out, the guy only charged me 6 euros for each day of my 4-day visit. That was cool.

I have a lot of travel stories. Eh, it's just what I like to do.
 
In Rome, water from the fountains, by and large, is spring water anyway. Still, bottled water is dirt cheap in Roman supermarkets. There is a discount market down the street from my aunt's place in Rome where you could get 6 big bottles of mineral water for the price of 1 bottle in the U.S.

As for the one-star hotel recommendation... that all depends. I stayed in a one star hotel in Mainz for about 100 DM (about $50 at the time). It was clean, had a sink and included breakfast. Would I stay in a one star hotel in Rome? No way... there's a huge variety in quality in three star hotels (from wonderful to dirty and tired). I wouldn't take that risk in Rome. Sometimes you have to shell out.
 
agree you can easily do europe cheap. we used to stay at hostels that had family rooms - read a private room. Even camped extensivley. Stayed at a campground in Amsterdam, and rode the tram into the city.

I never had an issue with the water there. Of course I like water mit gas. But I did get a shock in The Hague when I ordered a dry vodka martini and got a glass of ice, a glass of vodka and a glass of martini & rossi.
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Den Haag! (The Hague)

My cousin and I drove past the exit to Den Haag between Rotterdam and Amsterdam numerous times, and always pronounced it in our best Dutch accents, with loogies a-flyin'.
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I had the good fortune of meeting Rick at a restaurant in London. He was there checking up on the restaurant because it was on his recommendation list. I was there because it was previously listed and I have to say it was a good recommendation as were all the other places we tried across Europe that he suggested. At least one other group of diners was also there because of him and we all had a nice chat including him asking for feedback on places we'd been based on his books. I've found Rick's advice to be very useful on the whole, but I'm not sure I'd like his job. While we were enjoying a leisurely meal he and his companion were clearly racing from one place to the next gathering information.
 
Den Haag has a pretty cool boardwalk, waterfront area. We spent a lot of time there, not ordering martini's. The hostel we stayed at had a great bar. Nothing like meeting folks from around the world over a few beers.
 
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