I suppose it’s not impossible, but it’s very, very unlikely you’ll find anything under $1000 for summer from the West Coast these days. Since you haven’t booked any hostels, train tickets, etc. I might focus on finding the cheapest airfare you can and then constructing your itinerary using the cities you want to see. Also, consider a ticket where you fly into one city and home from another.

I would probably book within the next month or so; see what Don says when he weighs in. Anything $1000-1200 is really not bad at all these days.

I agree — sub $1000 from LAX in the heart of peak season airfares is very unlikely. $1400-$1600 is more likely. Have you tried the consolidators and strategies in our new user thread—pinned @top of this forum?

I think you should purchase sooner rather than later. Summer flights sell out. I’d want to book a July 1 departure, for example, no later than the first week of May.

Thank you guys :]

If anyone knows this, that’d be great too for me to estimate how much is needed for the trip:

How much can one eat in Europe as cheaply and well as possible per day? What is the minimum?

Depends where in Europe, how much you eat (and drink), and whether you have expensive tastes. For your itinerary, London and Paris will be most expensive. Berlin will probably be least expensive. Most backpacker-style (budget travelers traveling lightly on purpose) usually fill up on hostel breakfast, get some street food mid-day, catch cafe specials by 4pm before higher dinner prices start, and use supermarkets for picnic foods, drinks, and snacks. I was in France in November and enjoyed buying fresh croissants at the corner baker and making soup at the hostel; cheap, filling, and fairly local; added some evenings with 4 Euro bottles of Cotes du Rhone—based on tips from locals—and I was set. Eat like a local. You can get KFC and McDonalds at home, where it costs much less. Look for lunch specials—especially at ethnic restaurants. And don’t be afraid to try new things.

If you budget 20 Euros a day and are careful about splurges, overall with your itin., you could probably make it work. Just realize you’ll be paying more in Lon, Par, Rom and less in Ber, Muc (Ams is sort of in the middle, price-wise; look for Chinese-Indonesian restaurants near the RLD— tasty and filling — and keep in mind that there’s a reason Dutch restaurants can only be found in the Netherlands).

Thank you for your advice Don!

I just purchased my tickets for around 1300, landing first in London and leaving in Brussels staying from late June to end of August.

I’ve changed my itinerary up quite a bit, is there any must-sees in the cities I’ll be visiting?

Thanks again for the tips!

Evangeline