Family of 5 in Munich for 53 Euros Per Person Per Day
Declared as “the most expensive city in Germany” on wikitravel.org, Munich is not cheap to visit. Affordable Europe leader Rick Steves says you can comfortably eat and sleep there for $100 per person per day, and lonelyplanet.com travelers report spending 50 to 70 Euros per person per day.
Based on these figures noted by budget travel experts, I am proud that our time in Munich cost $72 (just 53 Euros) per person per day (using 2009’s currency rates, which were not favorable to the US). After 3 days, the average daily total for our family, with 2 boys age 10 (twins), and one boy age 13, plus DH and me, was 264 Euros, including our hotel in the Allstadt (old city center), food, and entertainment (NOT including the airfare to get there).
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Calculating the Expenses of our Budget Family Vacation in Munich
After we returned home, I calculated the totals. Planning the trip to Europe, we didn’t have any monetary goal other than to be frugal-ish. And we definitely wanted to spend in order to see and do what we most desired. I know we saved money by following others’ travel advice and generating some cost saving measures of our own. (See my previous blog entry: 10 Tips for Budget Family Travel to Europe.) And I know that ticket prices for getting around town and for museum admission are less expensive for kids. But in general, I wanted to know whether our monetary outlay was comparable to other budget travelers’.
A tracker and list-maker by nature, I keep all the receipts from our vacation, and I keep VISA bills for scrutinizing. I also kept a travel log detailing what we did all together each day. Entered into a spreadsheet, here is the cumulative result, presented in Euros:
What it Cost for our 3-Day Family Trip in Munich, 2008
423.75 Euros — Hotel am Viktualienmarkt. This was the total cost for 3 nights, in a family room for 5, including an expansive breakfast buffet. It is a centrally located hotel.
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June 25 Cost in Euros of Family Activities and Meals
60 — live guide Gray Line bus tour
25 — lunch at BMW Henry bistro
24 — BMW museum
21 — three-day partner U-bahn ticket
25 — dinner at Leopolds Pizza and Pasta
free – watched Euro Cup semi-finals on tv
free – listened to lots of happy, singing Germans into the wee hours following their team’s win over Turkey
June 26 Cost in Euros of Family Activities and Meals
17 — Deutches Museum all day
48 — lunch at Mueller’schen Volksbad
50 — dinner at Hofbrauhaus
free – watched Euro Cup semi-finals on tv
June 27 Cost in Euros of Family Activities and Meals
10 — Transportation Museum
38 — lunch at Kilian’s pub
12 — Residenz Museum
40 — dinner at outdoor beer garden in English Garden
free – listened to accordion music and watched river surfers
Lower expenses could have been achieved in many ways: by staying in a hostel, or a hotel with a shared bathroom arrangement, or a hotel further away, and by eating at even fewer or less expensive restaurants, and by conducting our own tour of the city either on a regular bus or on foot.
Three days in summer-time central Munich for just about $1000 for 5 people. Not bad.
Sandy Nielsen
Sleeps5.com