Budget Travel: Where $50 a Day Still Works in Europe
"Europe on $50 a day" used to be a whole-continent promise. It isn't any more. In Amsterdam or Paris a dorm bed alone can cost most or all of that in summer. But a long arc of Europe — Poland, the Balkans, Bulgaria, and Georgia on the continent's eastern edge — still runs comfortably on about $50 (roughly €45) a day, with a private room on some days and good food on all of them.
This guide is about those places, and the habits that make the number work anywhere.
Where $50 a day is realistic
The figures below are per person per day, excluding flights, for a traveller sleeping in hostels or simple guesthouses, eating out once or twice a day and using public transport. They are editorial estimates.
| City | Bed | Food | Transport and sights | Day total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sofia, Bulgaria | €15–20 | €15 | €5–10 | €35–45 |
| Plovdiv, Bulgaria | €15–20 | €12–15 | €5 | €32–40 |
| Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina | €15–20 | €12–15 | €5–10 | €32–45 |
| Kraków, Poland | €18–25 | €15–20 | €5–10 | €38–55 |
| Tbilisi, Georgia | €12–18 | €12–15 | €5 | €29–38 |
For a day-by-day plan with a budget breakdown, see our three slow days in Kraków.
Where it doesn't — and what to do instead
In the expensive capitals of Western and Northern Europe, $50 a day means a dorm, a supermarket dinner and nothing else. If you want those places, spend fewer days there and balance them with cheaper stretches: two days in Vienna, then four in Ljubljana and the Julian Alps.
Sleeping cheaply
Hostels with private rooms. In Central and Eastern Europe many hostels have double rooms for not much more than two dorm beds. Two people sharing one often pay less each than in a dorm in Western Europe.
Guesthouses and rooms in flats. Across the Balkans, family-run guesthouses (sobe in the former Yugoslavia) are often the cheapest private option. Booking directly is sometimes cheaper than through a platform.
Shoulder season. April–May and September–October are cheaper than July and August almost everywhere, and the weather is better for walking cities.
Getting around
Budget airlines — Ryanair and Wizz Air above all — connect secondary cities across Europe, often more cheaply than the capitals. Fly into one city and out of another (an "open-jaw" trip) to avoid backtracking: our Wrocław to Kraków by train route is built that way.
Trains and buses. Regional trains in Poland are cheap when booked ahead. In the Balkans and Bulgaria, buses are usually faster and more frequent than trains.
City transport. Day or multi-day tickets almost always beat paying per ride. In compact old towns — Plovdiv, Mostar, Ljubljana — you will barely need them.
Eating well for less
Eat your main meal at lunch, when many restaurants serve a fixed menu:
- Poland: bar mleczny ("milk bar") canteens serve soup and a main for a few euros.
- Spain: the menú del día — two courses, bread and a drink at lunch.
- Portugal: the prato do dia, the dish of the day.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: a portion of ćevapi with bread and onion is a full meal.
- Bulgaria: banitsa, a cheese pastry, for breakfast from a bakery window.
Free and almost free
Walking tours that run on tips exist in most of these cities. Many sights cost nothing: Kraków's Kazimierz and Krakus Mound, Sofia's Roman ruins around Serdika station, Ljubljana's riverside, Sarajevo's Baščaršija. Fill a bottle at Sofia's free mineral-water taps.
A realistic week
A week split between Sofia and Plovdiv, or Sarajevo and Mostar, comes to roughly €250–350 per person before flights. That is about $40–60 a day — the old promise, still kept, just further east.