Have you ever dreamt of jetting off to Europe for a month to visit places like Amsterdam, Cologne, Nuremberg, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Istanbul, etc.?
If so, you’ve probably looked at the logistics and have gotten overwhelmed with all the different languages,
transportation challenges, highly priced hotels, etc.
If that’s happened to you, why not visit all those places (and over a dozen others) by unpacking only 1 time…
and NEVER:
- take a train
- bus
- stay in a highly priced hotel
- or look at a map to find your way around
How’s that possible you ask?
By taking a River Cruise of course! 🙂 (If you don’t know much about River Cruising check out our River Cruise blog posts)
What we just described is exactly what people will experience who take this 26 Day sailing with Uniworld River Cruise line next year: http://uniworld.com/boutique-river-cruises/europe/ultimate-european-journey/2016/day-to-day/
Now at 1st glance some of you may look at the starting price of that Cruise and think, “$11,798 per person… Nancy & Shawn, are you crazy!?”
Well, we can be a little crazy sometimes 🙂 but not quite when it comes to what we’re talking about here.
Have you ever totaled up your true/final cost of any of the trips you’ve taken over the years?
Most people just look at the up front cost (Cruise cost or hotel & theme park tickets costs, etc.) and forget to add the food, tipping, tours, alcoholic drinks, coffees, pops, transportation, etc. that they spend once there. It’s easy to double & triple your initial costs- if not more.
Here’s a glimpse of what a “real” price of a month long land-based trip in Europe may look like:
$9,000 for hotels... and at only $300/night that’s nothing fancy in Europe unless you stay nowhere near main cities
$4,500 for food… and that’s based on only $150 per couple per day. Unless you’re eating at McDonald’s 24/7 you’ll be lucky to stay under $150/day in Europe… we remember once getting 2 burger combos at a basic burger place in Copenhagen and it was $50 between us. Next day 2 sandwiches & 2 beer for lunch was $70. It’s not cheap to eat even decent (let alone really well) in Europe!
$1,500 for transportation… we’re just guessing here as we’ve never trained or bused it from place to place in Europe (as we have no desire to live like backpackers) but it must be $100 on average between 2 people to get from place to place?
$3,000 for tours & entertainment… Museums in Europe aren’t cheap… nor are visits to monuments, operas, other cultural events, etc. We’re sure anyone would spend $50/per person/day on average in Europe on these kinds of costs… unless you just go to Europe to people watch for a month but most people go for a little more then that. 🙂
So that’s $18,000 for just some basic expenses (not counting tips, bottles of water, coffees, soft drinks, internet costs, etc.) while enjoying your “Dream Trip” to Europe… and as that’s nowhere near doing it in Luxury style we’re guessing the $11,798 per person for 5 star food & service & tour guides the whole time and never having to pack a bag or think about transportation is starting to sound not bad? 🙂
By the way, did we mention the $11,798 per person includes literally everything once you land in Europe besides souvenirs… check out what’s included here:
http://www.uniworld.com/true-all-inclusive-river-cruises
Now even after seeing the immense value in doing a River Cruise in Europe, some of you may still be saying, “That’s a pretty awesome way to do it but that’s still nowhere near the budget I have for my dream European trip.”
No problem… the above is a 26 Day sailing… you can also do 21 Nights, 14 Nights, 7 Nights, and other lengths in between… there’s something for everyone’s budget!
And there’s different Cruiselines that offer different promotions, etc. so as long as you work with highly experienced cruise Consultants like us when planning your trip you’ll always find something that works for you.
**Hot Tip** Book your River Cruise early as you’ll get to take advantage of early booking promos that aren’t available later and you’ll get the exact date you want. With 120-160 people on average on these ships they truly sell out fast!! It’s only May, 2015 right now and many 2016 sailings are already sold out or at least over 50% full!
So there you have it…
…”The Ultimate Way To Vacation In Europe!”…
…unless that is, you love the idea of unpacking & packing every 2 days and riding train after train or bus after bus and wasting hours at a time (which adds up to days over your trip) getting to your next dream city in Europe.
But as we’re sure you work extremely hard for your money- we’re guessing, like us, that’s not how you want to spend your well deserved time off! 🙂
We appreciate you!
Nancy & Shawn
Your Trusted Cruise Experts!