How much should you budget for a 3 week trip to France?

Just become a hooker and ditch the deodorant there.

Verificatia?

Are you including shopping in your budget?

No major shopping. A souvenir here and there.

Flights are the big variable. Coach for $1200 - business $5000+

After that $300/ night should be good for a decent hotel room. Perhaps a better deal with an Airbnb for a weekly rate. Will depend on how egregiously greedy hotel owners get when tourism resumes - I have a feeling they will jack up prices a lot to make up for their losses. The euro exchange rate will also affect.

Maybe $500 for trains.

Breakfast and lunch should be $10-$15 each - cafe au lait and bread for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch. Dinner can be $30 or $300 each - depends how important food is to you. Personally, I don’t get a hardon for good food and don’t have the patience/desire to deal with the drama of French restaurants - so I would limit full dinners to maybe twice a week.

OP, it demo ends entirely on where you go. France is a big country. Some places such as Paris and other larger touristy cities can be hugely expensive as are areas like the Côte d’Azur. You really need to do your research.

*depends

The question is meaningless unless you tell us whether you want to fly coach or business, whether you want to stay in airbnbs or 5-star hotels, whether you want to eat in fancy restaurants or grab food in supermarkets. I could live very comfortably for a 3 week trip to France and have it be under $5K; I know people for whom $20K would not be enough.

Op, $10k is enough to spend three weeks almost anywhere in the world. I mean really consider what you're asking. Flights in couch can be found for under $800 to France unless you're going in July or early August. Don't waste money on a fancy hotel, the point of being in France is to see France, not your undersized European hotel room. Visit the lobby of the fancy hotel you may want to see. Take pictures, grab a drink, and move the hell on. Look at Airbnb's or hotel style hostels with private rooms.

Walk and take public transit when possible. Have an idea of where you'd like to go and what you'd like to see. Planning ahead will save you money. Simply enjoy. There are adults that have wonderful visits to expensive Paris for less than $3k a week, including airfare and accommodations. I'm one of those people.

Once you've secured your transportation, the rest of a vacation becomes as cheap or expensive as you'd like. I'd keep your $10k budget and used the rest on your next trip. We've had a year stolen from us (thanks China) so might as well get out and see everything before the next pandemic hits.

The whole post is meaningless, R8, given the paucity of just the sort of details you mention needed to answer with some accuracy and specificity.

Not that it matters to OP.

Coach

Wow, inflation. When I was a sexy Twink I could go to Paris for a month on a 1k. Of course, it was practically the Jazz Age, but.

OP, that is the stupidest question I've ever seen on DL.

[quote]After that $300/ night should be good for a decent hotel room

I know it is Covid and the off season, but if you look now, a lot of nice places are in the $100 a night range. Prices would have to triple by summer (and maybe they will).

[quote] The whole post is meaningless, [R8], given the paucity of just the sort of details you mention needed to answer with some accuracy and specificity.

I don't understand your meaning at all. It sounds bitchy, but it's so poorly worded I'm not clear what you're saying.

I was in Paris pre Covid and do not spend anything near the amount of money you are asking about. Out of the high season Paris is actually a deal compared to New York. My hotel near a subway stop was 60 bucks a night. It was an Ibis. The extra expense was always admission fees to museums. I would schedule in one a day and spent most of my time just roaming the lovely streets. My budget was under 125 USD a day.

Airfare 700 per person.

Hotels (Variable rates) maybe ($200 per night)

Breakfast $8 Lunch $20 Dinner $40 (can be higher or lower)

Trains and Subway, or rental car, fare variable (plan destinations ahead, with Eurail pass can be much cheaper) $300 - $500

Shopping (depends on the person.) $600

All of the above is around $6000-6500. Call a travel agent, and they can put something together much lower, better.

I’m not planning a trip to France, OP. Why do you ask?

Set a budget of $5,000. Don't stay in expensive hotels unless you splurge for a few nights and book something moderately nice. Otherwise, you're going to be in the room all that much. Eat a lot of fruit, bread, pizza, etc. No need to have full meals each day. Cool it on the souvenirs, and don't be buying anything for family and friends back home, well, maybe one or two little remembrances, but nothing else.

Yeah, there is just too much to see in Paris to overload one's schedule with a ton of different sites. best to take r16's advice and maybe book on e anchor activity per day, in various parts of Paris, then spend the rest of the day getting "lost" and soaking in the atmosphere. If you're seeing the rest of France then you will have to just plan ahead. I've only been to Paris once, even a second trip would prove challenge because there is so much more I'd want to see in that city alone. I feel like I'll be 50 (currently 30) before I even get around to the rest of France. So much world to see and it feels like there is so little time.

OP here. Thanks guys.

One of my advantages (or disadvantage) is that when traveling, either by pleasure or work, I barely eat. Just before the pandemic I had gone to WDW and some days I first ate well past midday. That being said, because I have a huge sweet tooth, I would like to taste or have a sit down dessert in most of the major Patisserie like Laduree, L'Eclair de Genie, etc.

Also, and because I'm huge (Ancien Regime) history buff, I would like to visit most of the major palaces or castles. I don't care to visit the Mediterranean Coast because I did live in Barcelona for two years and I've had my lifetime share of the Western Mediterranean. I would like to go to the South of France just because of Carcassone and the Palais des Papes, maybe a couple of cities more.

A couple of days in the Loire Valley, and around 10 or so days based in Paris for the sights and day trips.