While worthy of facepunches no doubt, I will venture forth with my travel ideas. Punch if you like,
I dont care. And this is not a " backpacking across Europe for $35 per day" sort of post. Dont expect it, you wont get it! Haha.
DH and I went to Switzerland (him, for a family reunion) Prague (me, and later him, we met up there) and both of us to Romania. We are old, retired, and rich for a bit given the Trump Bump in the stock market. As DH said, this month our stock market gains paid for this trip. I dont know if that is entirely true, but it is close enough. Anyway, onto the travel tips:
Central Europe is inexpensive compared to traditional countries people visit like the UK, France, Spain.
Please consider Romania for your next vacation, it is STUNNING in beauty! I recommend the car trip we took around Transylvania. Seven days in Transylvania took us to castles, villages, medieval towns and churches.
In this trip we got the beautiful architecture of Europe without the high cost. There really is a variety of architecture, but it tends to be Saxon influenced in Transylvania. There is so MUCH to see that is i teresting! Romania is off the beaten path to Europe, but it should not be!
Also, Romania is still very much rural and their food reflects that where farm-to-table is the common thing, not the trendy construct it is here. They are masters of food and their local wines are lovely.
Now for the prices in Romania: dinner for two, including two entrees, an appetizer, one glass of wine: about $25 in the bigger cities, less in smaller towns. Hotels, nice ones, $100 in Bucharest (for a large suite in the center of the city) and $75 for smaller towns.
We had our own tour guide who made all arrangements for a 9 day trip that was a "Dracula tour" but really it incorporated much history and culture of Romania. I highly recommend this mode of travel! Our guide was able to pack in several sights per day, and we never would have been able to see so much if we were trying to find our own way around. He was also bery flexible in showing us things of particular interest to us persnally. For example, he deviated from the travel schedule to take us to a botanical garden.
Prague was higher in price than Romania by 30-50% and the crowds were pretty awful, but Prague is so beautiful the rest of it can be ignored. I stayed in a wonderful olde Europe style hotel called The Hotel Pariz for around $200/ night. Not cheap, but first class and a good price for that experience.
I came away from this trip with the idea that smaller cities, regional hubs, will give cultural flavor of a country without the higher prices and crowds of big cities. I will plan my next trip around this idea: small cities, not big ones.
Switzerland where dH went: expensive, but he stayed with relatives, they fed him, and transortation was usually paid for. That is the only way to visit
Switzerland frugally. Unless you have relatives tnere, stay away.