12 cities in Eastern Europe for less than $2000SGD

HOLA HOLA!
For the past few months, I've been reading several articles where travelers shared their itinerary and I just thought that I should do it too. Why not?
My friends often asked me how I was able to afford to travel to visit so many destinations and the moment I told them how much was my expenditure, they get a complete shock.

Honestly, planning in advance really helps ALOT. My first leg of the trip to Norway & Germany was not really planned on a budget because I wanted to reward myself and enjoy whatever I could afford.
However, the 2nd leg of my European trip with my group of friends was decided at the last minute.

The decision was made just less than a month before flight date so my air tickets were quite pricey. Cheaptickets.sg offered a considerable deal which was $1300 to fly Multi-city (usually more expensive).
I flew in to Athens, Greece and came home flying from Paris CDG.

Every cost amount I have written after dividing it among the group. Therefore, its the cost for 1 PAX.

Tip: Always book your tickets in advance, I usually book my tickets 3-6 months before travel date. Return European tickets by airlines like Qatar, China Eastern can be as cheap as $700-900 

City 1: Athens, Greece

Acropolis 

As Greece is in the middle of of an economic crisis, everything was relatively cheaper than other European cities. People have the perception that everything is more affordable in Eastern Europe. I was the first person in my group to reach Athens so thankfully, they had convenient train transport from the airport to town.

2N in Athens airbnb apartment : 59 Euros

The apartment had 8 beds which accommodated my whole group comfortably. It was walking distance to one of the main train stations, Omnia Square.

2) Santorini, Greece
When visiting the Greek islands, one cannot miss Santorini! Famous for its white-washed houses perched on the edge of the cliff that overlooks the Aegean Sea. I felt extremely fortunate to be able to come face to face to a view that I thought I could only see in travel books.

We took a domestic 45 Minutes flight by Aegean Airlines = 82 euros 
Greece is quite a hassle to travel between cities because they do not have regional trains.
People often fly or take a long ferry ride.

 

Sunset in Oia

Kamari Black beach

Similarly to Athens, everything at Santorini was affordable. I actually did not expect it because it is one of the top tourist destinations?

Through Hostel bookers, the group settled on 2 rooms (3 bed & 4 bed) at Markaki's Studio in the heart of Fira Town. The room size was huge, we had a a spacious living room and a full kitchen. Felt like the chalet at Pasir Ris? There was a mini pool in the hotel itself but nobody swims at that period of the year, too cold.

2 nights costed: 22 EUROS (HAHAHAHAHAHA, Not kidding at all)

3) Mykonos, Greece

Ferries operate daily from Santorini to Mykonos and you can book them from Fantastic Greece. 

Ferry ticket: 45 euros

Mykono's iconic windmills

                       

Mykonos Old Town

Through Hostelbookers, I found Sofia Village Hotel to be reasonably priced.
Best part was Sofia (the owner) was such a sweetheart, her son and her picked us up at the port when we arrived and also drove us to the port when we were leaving the island. Complimentary!

                     

The exterior of our room

1 Night in Mykonos - 18 Euros

In order to travel into Croatia, there were only flights flying out from Athens. We booked the 5 hours ferry to Rafina (45 euros), and took a 1 hours bus ride to Athens. Settled in a smaller apartment at 18 euros and took a morning flight out to Zagreb, transiting at Milan.
This was when something horrible happened, 2 of us missed the flight because we had to re-check in our bags on our own as it was 2 different airlines. I don't even want to recall that disaster.

4) Zagreb, Croatia

If you're more into visiting museums, Zagreb will probably fill you in. I really wanted to visit the museum of broken relationships but the car accident took the whole day. Sigh. Shit happens.All of us were frantically searching for a new car to rent.
Instead, I did have some time walking around the city centre and the cafe culture here is amazing!

1 night Airbnb 4 bed apartment - 13 euros

To our relief, we finally found "Fleet A car"(Croatian car rental company) and we were able to carry on with our original plans. Tourists generally will rent a car once they arrive in Croatia and drive to several cities to explore. This made it much easier. 

The BMW comfortably fit 4 of us and our luggage. For 4 day rental, it was 330 euros (all-inclusive). Note that my group had to pay a little bit extra everyday because we were young drivers (<21) which means it will be cheaper if you're a legal adult!

Car rental per pax -82.50 euros 

5) Plitvice,Croatia
Famous for its notable national plitvice park, it was a 2 hour drive from Zagreb. We had several food stops on the way before arriving at the park. Unfortunately, it was raining the entire day so we could not do proper hiking due to path closure and flooding.

Feeling determined, we still manage to cover the open routes of the park. 

You can see how bad the flood was from these pictures.

The apartment's location was just perfect because it was close to the national park. Although the owner could not speak english very well, she tried her best to help us when we were there for the night.
However, there was no WIFI and very weak reception (if you have a data sim).

1 night at House Poljanak : 15 euros

6) Split, Croatia
After a good night sleep, woke up the next morning and started our 3 hour drive to Split, 2nd largest city in Croatia.

 Sunset

Guess what? Food in Croatia was relatively cheaper than Greece!

Our 4 bed room apartment for 2 nights : 36 euros

We made plans to visit Hvar island but because of the car accident we were down by 1 full day.

7) Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik was my favorite city amongst all because its at the coast of the Adriatic sea.


After taking turns at the wheel, we were at Dubro 3 hours later.

Everyone visits the Old Town at Dubrovnik! It's identical to a maze and there are several restaurants hidden in the small alleys. The main street gets very crowded in the late afternoon. 

Old City Walls

1 Night stay at Nikolina Rooms: 12 euros

8)Budapest, Hungary

The option we had was to fly back to Zagreb, book an intercity train, 6 hours long.

I WANTED TO KILL MYSELF ON THAT TRAIN! MOST MISERABLE THANG EVA!!!!!

It was all peace till this noisy couple boarding & started to talk loudly throughout the whole ride!! 

LITERALLY and the fact that they were speaking in a foreign language made it worse!!

The lady's laugh was piercing through each and every one of our ears.

My group and I were indirectly bitching about them, yea not feeling bad at all because they spoke as if they were the only people in the train cabin.

Train cost: 25 euros

Hero Square

The weather was unbearably hot, it was as if the sun sucked all of my energy and I just wasn't in the mood for much pictures. We started the day with a Free Walking tour but we left halfway. 

Worse guide ever!

Castle Hill

Then again, we were lucky enough to book a room that was more than enough beds to accommodate the 5 of us. 

2 nights at Hotel Budapest Center :18 euros, 9 euro per night FTW!!!!

9) Bratislava, Slovakia

There are regional buses that travel to a few cities out of Czech Republic. Studentagency was one of them and we booked our journey from Budapest to Slovakia for 12 euros. 

Cumil, one of the town's iconic statue.

There wasn't much to do or see at Bratislava besides touring the old town. Free walking tour took us around the main sites and taught us alot about the dissolution of Czechoslovakia (Velvet divorce).

 He recommended the local famous beer house, Bratislavsky Mestiansky Pivovar (search it up) and we ate real Slovakian food for dinner!

Oh the tour guide said don't forget the local beer! 

1 night at Patio hostel: 12 euros

10) Prague, Czech Republic

Studentagency bus, 4 hours, 12 euros

Just so if many of you are wondering, the bus ride was way better than taking the train.

Seats were comfortable, there was entertainment!!! Movies, songs and provided headphones .

Yeap just like the Malaysia Tour buses. Every bus has a bus attendant almost similar to a cabin crew.

 Charles bridge

Prague Astronomical clock

Rated as one of the most overrated tourist attraction.

The heart of Prague's old town square

Initially, the group of 8 were suppose to stay at Hostel A for 2 nights, subsequently move to another hostel B for the remaining 2 nights. Due to bad reviews, I decided to move out on my own and find another hostel .

I get very conscious when I see bad reviews about hygiene conditions of the hostel. 

Thankfully, there were rooms for me in Hostel B. Ended up staying at Hostel B for 4 days without any problems!

The prices of Equity Hostel were unbelievable! My last night was only 3 EUROS OMG?

The 8 of us took the whole 8 bed mix dorm, explains why it was so cheap! You don't even get this in Singapore?

3 nights in Equity point: 51 euros

11) Cesky Krumlov, Czech Prague

Made arrangements to take 2 day trips out of Prague to Cesky Krumlov and Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) and we traveled by the same bus agency. 

Return bus trip (2 hours): 14.6 euros

 Cesky Krumlov Castle

12) Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

Studentagency return bus trip, 3 hours: 14.60 euros

                       

Karlovy Vary is known as a 'spa town' and there are about 12 hot springs in the town itself. Locals normally take a trip to KV for a short relaxing weekend retreat.

                         

Spectacular view from the top of Diana's Lookout tower

  

The big group parted ways once we were back at Prague. Manisa and I decided to fit in Italy since we had a week before heading to South France. 

I figured out that it was more appropriate to separate my trip into 2 different post because I visited 27 cities in total. Writing down ALL of them will potentially take up so much time.

In conclusion!

My total expenditure for domestic travel + accomodation was a total of:

594.70 euros!!!

Rounding off to 600 euros with an exchange rate of 1.75, 

$1050SGD!!!

But of course, this doesn't include your international flight and expenditures. 

It varies for different people, what attractions they intend to visit so on and so forth.

The length of this Eastern european tour was about 17-18 days? 

The whole point of this entry is to give you an idea, an overall picture that travelling to Europe is not THAT expensive. 

Think it's about time to start researching and planning your trip if you're intending to visit in Spring/Summer 2015.

You're welcome to ask me questions on my ask.fm and I will try my utmost best to help you!

Alternatively, you can view my instagram , a_meliaw to view the places I've been.

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