Traveling can be a difficult passion for those who have a demanding and/or low-paying job (speaking from my own experience working in the nonprofit/education field). It was important for my wife and me to travel for our honeymoon, something we had not done yet together due to post-graduate schooling, long-distance, and a wealth of other factors circling around finances and, well, being gay.

Our first “vacation” together was after four years, a gift to ourselves when my wife completed her PhD, purchased on significant discount from Groupon. Well, the resort was mediocre at best, but we enjoyed the beach and the sunshine, that is, until we suffered drastically from food poisoning on the third day.

But I digress. This complex budget is where I started…

It might be surprising, but this was step one. I included everything we were interested in doing, so it could be a part of our wedding budget, and scaled back from there. I researched day trips that were reasonable, I calculated from the local currency to the dollar, I even looked up average cost of meals so I could determine how many days we could “eat fancy.” To decide where to go, we researched countries of interest and looked at the cost to fly there and average cost of accommodations. Central Europe was our focus, and flying in to Prague and out of Vienna was the most reasonable, and, according to our research, among the most gay-friendly.

Note: In Prague, we didn’t see many lesbian couples, but we always felt safe and not out-of-place, especially in the Vinohrady area. Only once did someone do a double-take at us, but it was at the Charles Bridge and it was a man in a University of Alabama hoodie.
In Vienna, gay and lesbian folks were everywhere! I’ll go more in depth in other posts, but definitely a space we felt not only safe, but… a part of the norm. More so than in Boston!

My tips:

1. Stay in an Airbnb – take note that some have cancellation policies and some don’t.
2. Use public transit/ City bikes
3. Stay away from touristy areas for meals
4. Travel off-season
5. Many tourist destinations have free or discounted days or times (for example Prague Castle)

Following a painfully long layover (saves money!), we landed in Prague on Monday afternoon. One thing we agreed to splurge on – taxi service from the airport. Our Uber was not much, and saved us time and headache trying to get from the airport. Typically I’d swear by public transit, and I’d recommend this video to see how.

We arrived in time to check in to our airbnb. In searching for our airbnb, we were pretty flexible on the location because we knew we planned to visit a different part of the city each day. We researched primarily safety and cost, and actually, lucked out with a large studio apartment in the Old City, where we were close to a few major tram lines and could walk to the city center.

Besides the airbnb, our biggest money-saver was THE WEATHER. This may seem unfair, because obviously there is nothing one can do to plan around weather until it’s happening. As you can see on my ridiculous budget spreadsheet, we planned for many museums and attractions. In Prague, there is so much to do outdoors that is free. Our favorite was the Vyšehrad (Prague’s “other castle”). We toured some caverns for a couple bucks each but the grounds and rest of the castle was free. There are a couple restaurants where we enjoyed a cheap beer outdoors. We spent the entire afternoon wandering around, and spent maybe $5 (yes, that includes the beers).

The second biggest money-saver was… WE LOVED PRAGUE AND VIENNA. Seriously. There are dozens of awesome day trips in a 90 minute radius, and we planned to do 1 or 2, but there was so much to do in Prague and we loved every day so much, we had no desire to leave the city. If we go back, I have this list to refer to, but 5.5 days in Prague was not even enough. Once we leave the city-center, there are multiple other neighborhoods each with a distinguished and unique character. And I would recommend the same. Don’t spend all your money trying to cram the entire country into a few days, and spending that much more time on trains and buses. Guided day trips are expensive. Pick a spot and stick to it, well enough to get to know it. The most money we spent in Vienna was the day it rained (we went to museums) but avoiding the day trips was actually our best financial decision.

There are always free guided tours. One company I have used often is Sandeman’s New Europe tours, but other companies do guided tours for free as well. Yes it’s “free,” but please please please, always tip your tour guide.

In Vienna, we stayed in Wieden, which according to our research was not the most gay-friendly area, but we found it to be very inclusive. It was a quiet but hip neighborhood with lots of young folks, and major bike lines into the center of the city. The cost of our meals and airbnb was definitely much more than Prague, but still significantly less than Boston and other major US cities. The most money we spent on dining was US$75, including tip, tax, two entrées and three alcoholic beverages each. This was our one big “fancy” meal, I mean, we were not trying to be frugal, and we left tipsy, full, and happy on one of the best meals of our life. (In Boston, $75 would get you two beers and two burgers.)

The same meal in a touristy area of Vienna, however, could have been double that. So, my recommendation in that respect is to avoid dining in the city center. Grab a beer and snack if you’d like, but save the dinners for other neighborhoods – you’ll get a more authentic experience that way, anyway!

As most vendors prefer cash payment, we typically used cash during our stay. The ATMs of banks do not charge ATM withdrawal fees – so keep that in mind, as that is a cost that can add up quickly! Be sure to take note of your own bank, too, if it has international fees.

I wrote above that we spent much less than we budgeted. Again, this is primarily due to our outdoor activities in place of admission to museums and other major attractions. Flights were $680 each (round trip); airbnb was $85/night in Vienna and $75/night in Prague (that includes ALL costs: base cost, cleaning fee, Airbnb service fee, and tax); meals, attractions, Ubers, beers, wine, public transit, EVERYTHING ELSE totaled $900. That’s $33 per person per day in Prague. It’s $52 per person per day in Vienna.