France is synonymous with great wine, delicious food, and beautiful nature. But how much does a trip to France cost? Can you travel to France with a small travel budget? When planning a vacation in the most romantic country in the world, thinking of budgeting seems to quickly spoil the fun. But don’t worry, with this quick breakdown you can get a good estimate of what you’ll spend ahead of time. And once you land, you can relax!
This breakdown doesn’t include flight costs, as they can vary depending on where you live. But it includes everything you need once you’re on the ground!
Cost of Living
Let’s begin with the basic costs of staying in France – food and accommodation. For a relatively cheap private hotel room, you’ll be spending around $100 a night, or $700 a week. Of course, you can go cheaper with a bunk in a hostel for around $45 a night. If you’re in for something more classy, expect to spend around $150 – $200 a night, or $1,050 – $1,400 a week.
Assuming you’re having breakfast at your hotel, let’s look at lunch and dinner prices. For lunch, you might get a nice coffee and a small meal, worth around $15. For dinner, you don’t want to skimp – not in the country of the best food and drink! So let’s say you get a nice local dinner with dessert for $25. And, because it’s France, a good bottle of wine twice a week for $12 each. That adds up to $305. If you’re trying to save a little and decide to go for a cheaper, $15 dinner, you’ll end up spending $230.
So budget accommodation and cheaper food will end up around $930, while classier hotels and a mid-range three-course dinner end up around $1,705 a week.
Cost of Entertainment
When calculating how much your trip to France will cost, consider how you want to spend your time. You can have a perfectly lovely holiday spending almost nothing on entertainment. Just wandering around exploring, suntanning on the beach and visiting the markets can be enough to keep you busy for a week. But of course, wine and sightseeing tours are great ways to see the country. Wine tours vary from $50 to $200, with full day tours and classes around $150. Most hop-on-hop-off tours are around $40. If you stay in Paris and want to see the Moulin Rouge, it’s $110. That adds up to a total of $300 on entertainment in a week.
Cost of Transport
If you stay in only one place, your cost of transport will be fairly low. The 5-day Paris Visite travel-pass for public transport costs around $45 – and you wouldn’t want to rent a car anyway, because Paris is mad to drive in. A similar pass for Bordeaux is $16 a week. If you want to travel farther distances, you can hire a car starting at $185 a week.
Hopefully, now you have an idea how much a trip to France can cost! Of course, there are many ways to lower your travel budget or to splurge some more. But either way, the country of love has something for everyone – and every budget!
Want to compare France to other destinations? Check out this article. Have you been to France? If yes, let me know in the comments what your travel budget was!
