How I went to Paris and London for 10 days for around $2,300 (EVERYTHING included)

So after months of planning for my trip I could NOT STOP RESEARCHING other peoples budgets for their trips and seeing what they spent so I could plan for my trip. I knew how little blogs I found this information on so I decided to write my own post for others to read to add to this information. So, if you want to know how I spent $2,300 for a 10 day trip to Paris and London then keep on reading! This includes everything from the time I left my apartment in Florida to the moment I walked back in the door at the end of my trip. Airplane tickets, food at the airport before I left and on my layovers, taxis to and from the airport in Florida as well as all my expenses on my trip are included.

Highlights of the trip/Things we saw and did
-Hop on, Hop off bus tour in Paris
-Sacre Coeur
-Disneyland Paris
-Eiffel Tower
-Seine river cruise
-Notre Dame
-Saint Chapelle
-Versailles
-Big Ben/Westminster Area
-Buckingham Palace
-Harry Potter Studio Tour/Bus trip


So it all started a few months back in August 2016 when my friend messaged me that she found cheap flights on a budget airline to Paris! We each live in different places, so her deals were better then the ones I got from my airport in Orlando. Turns out the really cheap flights were only from JFK in New York. But NO WAY was I going to pass up a trip to Paris when I finally had someone willing to go with me! So we asked our other friend if she was interested in coming as well and she said YES so we started planning! We also decided to visit London while we were in Europe and we decided March 2017 would be a good time to go for us. Immediately after deciding this I began researching flights. I knew there was no way I was going to find flights as cheap as my friends tickets, but I kept researching and researching. Eventually, after not seeing much change in price difference I decided to purchase a ticket from Orlando to Miami to Paris CDG as well as a ticket from London Heathrow-Charlotte-Orlando. I got these tickets for $922.46. This was on a major US Airline that included free a carry on, one free checked bag, free onboard on demand movies,tv shows games, inflight meals,snacks and drinks. I decided this was worth it since I would be on a little less then a 9 hr flight each way. In comparison, my friend from New York paid about $430 for her flights from JFK in New York-Paris CDG and from London back to JFK. She had 2 direct flights while I had one layover on each trip. She had to pay for everything on her flight including headphones,water,food,movies etc.. In a third comparison, our other friend who came on the trip flew from Charleston, South Carolina to JFK in New York to Dublin,Ireland to Paris CDG. Then from Paris CDG-Dublin-JFK-Charleston. She still paid less then me, but had multiple layovers as well as missed flight due to a short layover and an overnight layover in JFK where she slept in the airport. So remember when booking flights to weigh all of your options and make sure you are prepared for what you are paying for. Disappointment comes when you are not educated and prepared for a trip.

Now that the big charge was out of the way, we started looking at Airbnb's to stay in. We decided on Airbnb for a few reasons. Most hotels in Europe we were looking at only had room for two people in each room. If there was room for three it would be in a third portable bed set up. These three person rooms equaled out to be the same if not more then an Airbnb would cost us. We immediately found a very nice Airbnb in Paris but we were hesitant to book it since we were still waiting to hear back from a fourth friend to see if she would be joining us or not. Unfortunately by the time we had decided it would just be three of us, this Airbnb was booked for the time we wanted it. We found another nice one in our price range that we agreed would work for us and booked that one instead. The London Airbnb was more straightforward to book since it would just be two of us. We found one in a central location near Hyde Park and booked that. All of our Airbnb hosts were great with communicating with us and keeping us informed as to how check in and everything worked. This was all of our first times staying in an Airbnb and it worked out great for us!

The Paris Airbnb for 4 nights worked out to be around $432 total (so around $144 each).

The London Airbnb for 4 nights worked out to be around $463 total. I paid $289 for 4 nights and my friend paid $174. This was because I would be staying 1 night longer so I could do the Harry Potter Studio Tour on my own.

These were my big trip costs. So for my plane tickets and Airbnb stays my total trip cost was already up to $1,355.46


Transportation was the next big category I spend the most in.

Uber from my apartment to the Orlando International Airport-$20.71
Taxi from Paris CDG Airport to Airbnb- 50 euros + 5 euro tip (~$59.20)
Paris Visite 5 day metro pass (included unlimited use of trains and metro)- 63.9 euros ($68.78)
Eurostar train from Paris to London- $78
Oyster card/London Underground pay as you go for 5 days- 28.55 pounds ($35.52)
Heathrow Express train to Heathrow Airport (during off peak time) - 15 pounds ($18.66)
Taxi from Orlando International Airport to my apartment-$86.19

Total Transportation cost: $367.06

How I could have saved money on transportation:
- taken Roissy Bus or metro from Paris airport to Airbnb
-paid as I went for Paris metro and train tickets instead of buying 5 day pass
-had a friend drive me to and from the airport in Florida


Next category is attractions and things we did on this trip

Hop on, Hop off bus tour in Paris - 33 euros
Versailles- 20 euros
Seine River Cruise- 15 euros
Go to top of Eiffel Tower- 17 euros
Go to top of Notre Dame- 10 euros
Go inside Saint Chapelle- 10 euros
Lit a candle in Notre Dame- 2 euros

~$115.18 for Paris attractions/tours

Harry Potter Studio Tour/bus transportation tour (bought ticket online ahead of time in USD) - $85.25

$200.43 total spent for attractions in Paris and London

All of the attractions individually were reasonably priced, but they do add up if you plan on doing all of these and more. The best thing was that a lot of the attractions and things we did in London were FREE. We also all got into Disneyland Paris free due to connections we have, which helped A LOT.


The next big category was our food consumption. We honestly did not eat or drink much AT ALL, since we were so busy running around and walking 15+ miles every day so we did not have much time to eat or drink. In London we had more down time and our plans revolved around the awesome food places we wanted to visit. We splurged on a fancy dinner one night and ate a lot of snacks.

Paris total food cost: $61.39
London total food cost: $158.82
Food bought in airports on layovers/before flights: $15.54

Total food cost: $235.75


Miscellaneous expenses (includes travel insurance, souvenirs,transaction fees) $144.86


Total cost: ~$2,300


This trip could definitely be done for cheaper if you found a good deal on plane tickets and were more conscience and had more patience for public transportation and/or help from friends for airport transfers.

Not including my flight or airport transfers to and from the Orlando International Airport, I spent ~$1,280, this comes out to about $128 a day for food,housing,activities and transportation in the country.