In late May I have a conference in Portugal. It will be my first trip to Europe since I was last in the UK in 2006.

I'm toying with making a vacation of it -- spend the conference plus a few extra days doing the professional stuff in Braga, then take trains reasonably leisurely up thru the continent before Chunneling over and visiting some Brit friends. If I just stay on the "business", it'll be a week trip max; but if I add the vacation it would end up being 2-3 weeks total.

But thanks to the unintended consequences of a two year leave from the day job (one year at zero salary, one year at half salary), plus dropping about $30K of savings on my as yet unsuccessful foray into the world of copywriting/marketing/consulting at the height of a recession, I have to be much more careful of the financials than I have gotten used to when travelling.

Also complicating matters: not only will it have been four years since I've been in the UK, the last time I was on the continent was, get this, 1978 (Italy)! So my knowledge of "life on the continent" is, alas, grossly out of date.

So here's my question -- I'm trying to get a sense of what it will cost me for halfway decent food, drink, and lodging. (I'm presuming I'll end up getting a Eurail/Britrail pass on this side for the transport part.)

What I consider half-way decent in England:
1. Pub food.
2. Pints of bitter.
3. Italian and other non-French "ethnic" food in Bloomsbury/Kings Cross.
4. Doner kebabs from the place outside the Tottenham Court Road tube station.
5. Bacon-and-brie baguettes at the Upper Crust at any train station.
6. Hotel/B&B with shower in-room (minimum); business-travel hotel (maximum).
7. Admission to museums, castles, art galleries.

Assume as a stranger that I'm not going to be able to wholly avoid "tourist" areas.

Thanks.

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Oh, I just realized that the OP comes off as a request for lots of info.

I didn't mean a lot of info...just off-the-cuff thoughts about prices for loaf of bread, pint of beer in bar, chunk of cheese in supermarket, taxi from airport, and such. That sort of thing.

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[Strongly tempted to put the Seinfeld episode involving "The Maestro" and Tuscany here, in order for Wade to have a full appreciation for the fact that you need look no further than "Seinfeld" for all answers in life, but refrains]

:tongue: :horse:

The last time i visited UK was 2006, too, so I think I can't help you much there. But from my experience UK is the most expensive country in Europe in terms of livelihood.

As I unterstand, you want to travel through different european countries instead of travelling directly from Braga to the UK? Then the rail ticket is great. Instead I would recommend to fly.

If you travel through Germany, then:

1. give me a call, once you are in Munich.
2. I can give you some information:

The prices differ very much, depending on the place you are. Munich might be the most expensive city. Cities in the eastern part of Germany are cheaper as well it gets cheaper the smaller the cities are.

DON'T CARE ABOUT TAXIS, YOU WON'T NEED THEM. We have a tremendous public transportation system, you can get wherever you want.

Prices in Munich (1 is $1,45 to $1,5):
Beer (0.5L) in a bar: 3,00 to 3,50
Meal at McDonalds: 5,50
Normal food at a restaurant: 6 (cheaper restaurants) to 20. You can eat cheap and very good, if you want.
Beer in the super market: Per liter from 0,7 (bad beer) to 1,5 (good beer)
Bread and cheese in a super market for at least 2 days: 2 to 3
Day ticket for the Munich transportation system: 5.20 (city) to 9 (including suburbs and airport). Normally the cheap one is more than enough to travel.

Actually I don't have a good overview over hotel prices, though.

Feel free to ask more.

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