How to See Europe on a Budget
Europe doesn't have to mean expensive. With the right cities, the right timing, and a few insider moves, you can travel through some of the world's most beautiful places for less than $80 a day.
- Kraków, Poland
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Budapest, Hungary
- Belgrade, Serbia
- Porto, Portugal
Kraków, Poland — Europe's Best-Value City
Kraków is arguably the most rewarding city in Europe for the budget-conscious traveller. The medieval old town — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — is stunningly intact, more complete than Prague and less overrun. The Rynek Główny (Main Market Square) is one of the largest medieval town squares in Europe, ringed by 14th-century merchant houses, the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice), and St. Mary's Basilica, where a trumpeter plays from the tower every hour on the hour, breaking off mid-phrase to commemorate a 13th-century trumpeter shot through the throat by a Tatar arrow. This is a city that wears its history visibly and unselfconsciously.
The accommodation costs alone make Kraków remarkable: a bed in a high-quality hostel dorm in the old town costs €8–€14/night. A private room in a well-reviewed guesthouse runs €30–€45. A full dinner with beer at a traditional Polish milk bar (bar mleczny) — the subsidised communist-era canteens that survive as beloved local institutions — costs €4–€7 per person. Żurek (sour rye soup with hard-boiled egg and sausage), bigos (hunter's stew), and pierogi (dumplings, sweet or savoury) are the essential dishes. The Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz, a 15-minute walk from the main square, has some of the city's best restaurants and most atmospheric bars.
"I planned a two-week Europe trip with €1,200 and Kraków was the only place where I came in under budget every single day," wrote one user on the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree forum in 2024. "I paid €11 for my hostel dorm, €5 for lunch, €8 for dinner with two beers, and had change left over. For a city with world-class architecture, extraordinary history, and genuinely excellent nightlife, it is absurdly underpriced." The nearby Wieliczka Salt Mine (a UNESCO site, vast underground cathedral carved entirely from salt) and the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial (essential and sobering — book well ahead) are both day-trip distance from the city.
5-Day Kraków Itinerary
- Day 1: Arrive, Rynek Główny evening walk, milk bar dinner, Kazimierz bar crawl
- Day 2: Wawel Castle and Cathedral (morning, book tickets online), afternoon free walking tour (tip-based), evening Jewish Quarter restaurants
- Day 3: Auschwitz-Birkenau (full day, must book well in advance — free entry but guide required in groups over 10). Emotionally heavy — plan a quiet evening
- Day 4: Wieliczka Salt Mine (2h tour, €18 adult, 30 min from Kraków by bus). Afternoon back in the city for market browsing
- Day 5: Nowa Huta — the perfectly preserved Soviet-era planned district, an extraordinary piece of history. Free to walk. Return for final pierogi lunch, depart
Daily Budget (Kraków)
- Hostel dorm: €8–€14/night. Private guesthouse room: €30–€50
- Milk bar lunch: €4–€7. Restaurant dinner: €10–€18 with beer
- Beer (0.5L): €2–€3 in a local bar. Cocktail bar: €5–€8
- Public transport: €0.75/journey or €4/day pass. Most old town sights are walkable
- Total budget traveller: €35–€50/day. Mid-range: €70–€100/day
Getting There & Around
- Fly into Kraków John Paul II International Airport (KRK) — 15 min from city centre by bus (€0.75) or taxi (€10)
- Budget airlines (Ryanair, Wizz Air, LOT) connect Kraków to most European hubs for €15–€60 each way
- Train from Warsaw: 2h 30min by Express Intercity (~€20–€35 booked ahead)
- Night train from Vienna: overnight arrival, saves a hotel night — book on Railjet/ÖBB
Lisbon & Porto, Portugal — Atlantic Value
Portugal offers something increasingly rare in Western Europe: world-class quality of life, stunning food, extraordinary architecture, and Atlantic coastline, at prices that feel like a decade behind the rest of the continent. Lisbon and Porto are both beautifully walkable historic cities built on hills above river estuaries, connected by a 3-hour train journey for €12–€25, and between them they offer enough to fill two weeks without once feeling like you've repeated yourself.
Lisbon's Alfama district — the medieval Moorish quarter that survived the 1755 earthquake that destroyed the rest of the city — climbs steeply from the Tagus riverfront through lanes so narrow that the ancient trams scrape the walls. The Castelo de São Jorge sits at the top with panoramic views. Belém, a 20-minute tram ride west, has the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (a UNESCO masterpiece of Manueline architecture) and, directly across the square, the original Pastéis de Belém bakery, which has been making the same custard tart recipe since 1837 and serves approximately 20,000 per day. They cost €1.20 each and are the best thing you will eat in Portugal.
"My first trip to Europe was a €60-a-day trip to Lisbon and I came back thinking that travel was easier and more rewarding than I'd been led to believe," wrote one travel blogger on Nomadic Matt's forums in 2024. "The coffee costs €0.80. A glass of local wine at a proper wine bar costs €2.50. A pastel de nata costs €1.20. A tram to the old quarter costs €3. I spent two weeks in Lisbon and Porto on a total budget of €1,200 including a flight from London and never once felt I was cutting corners." Porto, 3 hours north, adds port wine (the actual Port wine country — the quintas of the Douro Valley are an hour's drive east), remarkable azulejo (blue tile) facades, and a food market in the Mercado do Bolhão that reopened after renovation in 2022 to universal acclaim.
7-Day Lisbon + Porto Itinerary
- Days 1–2: Lisbon — Alfama morning walk, tram 28, Belém custard tarts and monastery, fado evening in Mouraria
- Day 3: Sintra day trip (40 min by train, €3) — Pena Palace, Moorish Castle, Quinta da Regaleira
- Day 4: Lisbon — Museu Nacional do Azulejo (world's best tile museum), LX Factory Sunday market (Sundays only), Tagus waterfront
- Day 5: Train to Porto (€12–€25, 2h 45min). Check in, evening along the Douro riverfront, port wine tasting in Vila Nova de Gaia
- Day 6: Porto — Livraria Lello (the famous bookshop, €5 entry credited against purchase), Bolhão Market, São Bento station tiles, sunset at Foz beach
- Day 7: Douro Valley day trip by train (€12 round trip, one of Europe's great train journeys) — wine tasting at a quinta, return to Porto for departure
Daily Budget (Lisbon/Porto)
- Hostel dorm in Alfama or Bairro Alto: €18–€28
- Coffee: €0.80–€1.20 (standing at the bar, as locals do)
- Pastel de nata: €1.20 at the original Pastéis de Belém; €1.50–€2 elsewhere
- Menu do dia (3-course lunch with wine): €9–€13 at local tascas
- Glass of house wine: €2–€4 at a local restaurant. Craft beer: €2.50–€4
- Budget traveller total: €55–€75/day. Mid-range: €110–€150/day
Practical Tips
- Buy a 24h or 48h Lisboa Card for unlimited transport and free museum entry — excellent value
- Tram 28 and the Elevador da Bica are tourist honeypots for pickpockets — keep valuables secure
- July–August in Lisbon is hot (35°C+) and very crowded. April, May, September, and October are far more comfortable
- Porto is rainier than Lisbon — pack a light waterproof year-round
- Tap water is safe to drink in both cities
Budapest, Hungary — Grand Architecture, Tiny Prices
Budapest is a city that looks like Vienna — grand 19th-century boulevards, monumental parliament buildings, an extraordinary riverfront split between the hilly Buda side and the flat Pest side by the Danube — but costs a quarter of the price. It was the other capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which explains the architectural ambition, and it has retained more of its authentic urban fabric than most Central European cities because it missed the worst of the Cold War redevelopment. The Chain Bridge, lit at night over the river with the Buda Castle above it and the Parliament downstream, is one of the great city panoramas in Europe.
The Széchenyi thermal baths — a vast neo-baroque palace of hot pools, steam rooms, and outdoor bathing — are the most famous but not the only reason to visit. Budapest has more thermal springs beneath it than any other capital city in the world, feeding a network of baths at various price points and atmospheres: the Rudas (a Turkish-domed Ottoman hammam from 1550, with a rooftop pool offering views of the Danube) and the Lukács (a local favourite, less tourist-facing than Széchenyi) both offer extraordinary experiences for €15–€25. The ruin bars of the Jewish Quarter — Szimpla Kert is the original and most famous, a labyrinthine series of courtyard rooms in a decaying building, filled with mismatched furniture and eccentric art — are unlike anything else in Europe.
"Budapest was the surprise of my 2024 Europe trip," wrote one traveller on TripAdvisor. "I expected it to be good. I did not expect it to be extraordinary. The Danube riverfront at night is as beautiful as Paris. The food is better than I expected. The wine — I did not know Hungary made serious wine and now I'm converted. And I spent less money in five days in Budapest than I spent in two days in Prague." (TripAdvisor, Budapest forum, 2024.) Hungarian wine — particularly Tokaj, one of the world's oldest wine appellations, and the reds of Eger and Villány — is dramatically underappreciated internationally. A wine tasting at a restaurant or wine bar costs €15–€25 and introduces you to a tradition worth exploring further.
5-Day Budapest Itinerary
- Day 1: Arrive, Széchenyi baths (book online, go at 10am before crowds), ruin bar evening at Szimpla Kert
- Day 2: Buda side — Buda Castle and National Gallery, Fisherman's Bastion (free), Matthias Church, sunset views over Pest
- Day 3: Great Market Hall (Nagycsarnok) morning — langos (fried dough with sour cream), paprika selection, Hungarian craft goods. Afternoon: Jewish Quarter and Dohány Street Synagogue (largest in Europe)
- Day 4: Hungarian Parliament building tour (€20, book ahead — the interior is astonishing). Afternoon: Andrássy Avenue and the House of Terror museum
- Day 5: Rudas baths (the Ottoman experience, with rooftop pool), farewell dinner with Hungarian wine, depart
Daily Budget (Budapest)
- Hostel dorm: €12–€20/night in the Jewish Quarter or inner Pest
- Langos (street food staple): €2–€4
- Sit-down dinner at a traditional Hungarian étterem (restaurant): €12–€20 with wine
- Thermal bath entry: €18–€26 depending on bath and time of day
- Craft beer at a ruin bar: €3–€5. Local wine by the glass: €3–€5
- Budget traveller total: €45–€70/day. Mid-range: €90–€130/day
Getting There & Around
- Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD) is served by most major European carriers and budget airlines
- Airport to city centre: 100E bus to Kőbánya-Kispest metro, then M3 to centre — €1.50 total. Or shuttle: €8–€10. Taxi: €25–€30 (use Bolt or Fotaxi apps)
- City transport: a 10-ride tram/metro/bus pass costs €10 and covers everything
- Walk or rent a bike for the river and inner districts — the city is very flat on the Pest side