How I Built a Budget for Our Summer in Europe

If you’re just finding this series, we’re taking our 3 kids to France for a month next summer, and I’m documenting the whole process—from why we’re doing it to choosing where we’ll stay, figuring out the budget, and eventually getting on that plane. Start with Why We’re Taking Our Three Kids to France for the Summer to get the full story behind the trip.

One of the first questions I know people think when I tell them we’re going to France for a month next summer:

How much is that going to cost?

And the honest answer is: it depends how you look at it.

This is not a cheap trip. But it’s also more nuanced than just the bottom line.

When I look at what we actually spend on our bigger family trips, I realized it didn't necessarily have to be more expensive than the way we normally spend our annual trips.

Here's where I started.

We originally planned to spend spring break 2027 at Universal Studios to check out the new Marvel park and stay on property. By the time we added up the hotel, tickets, food, transportation and everything else, we were looking at around $10,000.

And don't get me wrong—we love Orlando theme parks. We had an amazing time at Universal five years ago when we stayed at the Hard Rock, and I'm sure we'll go back. The convenience of that back entrance and having express passes included makes you (almost) forget the high cost of the hotel. 

But we could also go to Universal for a long weekend. It doesn't need to be the big, week-long family trip we have to squeeze in before our daughter graduates.

So I started asking a different question:

If we skip that trip and do an extended stay in Europe this summer, how close can I get to that same $10,000?

That's when I started looking at the trip a little differently.

Here’s what we already know we spend during the summer: 

• More groceries, snacks, and treats at the pool.

• Swim team fees, overnight camps, and daily fun.

• All the summer passes I buy, like Top Golf and Urban Air.

  
  

Bottom line - we're going to spend money keeping everyone entertained and occupied. So what if some of those dollars happened in France instead?

Obviously, there are expenses that are unique to this trip—international flights, a month of lodging and getting around Europe. But there are also plenty of expenses we would have at home anyway.

So I started building the budget around our actual life, rather than treating every dollar we spend in France as an additional vacation expense.

I'm not trying to convince anyone that a month in France is cheap. I'm trying to figure out whether it's a reasonable use of the money we'd already be spending on family experiences—and whether we can make it work without blowing through our "high end" vacation budget.

That's still the goal:

Get as close to that $10,000 number as I reasonably can.

And if we can trade one week at a theme park for four weeks of living somewhere completely different? That's a trade I'm willing to explore.

There are a few big expenses I’ve paid already (in green), which is great for spacing out the cost, but the timing wasn’t ideal since we just got back from our big 2026 vacation 6 weeks ago. It would have been nice to have a little more time, but my long term rental required payment up front (annoying, but when you don’t stay in a major city like Paris, the options are more limited and I was afraid to miss out on a great find with strong reviews) and the recent merger between Eurail and Interrail in Europe meant a limited time, massive 50% sale on trains that really offers up huge savings in the long run and gives us more flexibility to take day trips or expand our options for overnights.

And impulsively, when I saw Harry Styles would be in Paris when we were, I had to do the Amex presale. We aren’t even huge fans, but he’s such an incredible performer that around $115 each, I knew we had to do it. Pretty sure our seats are on a bleacher in the back row, but that’s okay! I saw Taylor Swift there from the upper deck and the venue was small enough that it didn’t matter. The show was pure magic. 

As you can see, I’m already committed with almost $6,000 paid for. It stings a little right now, but it should make next year’s expenses more reasonable. The other benefit to paying for big ticket items early - it helps my points game. You’ll notice there’s no flight expense line item right now. That’s because I’ve already got enough points saved to cover our way there, and we’re halfway to covering the flight home. That saves thousands. There are great Facebook groups you can join to help you learn how to maximize credit card points, but it’s something we just started focusing on in the last 3 years, and it’s how my husband and I flew home business class last month from Venice for the greatest flight of our lives. It’ll be hard to go back to economy after that experience! 

So is $10,000 a lot for our trip? Yes, and... we're maximizing every cent to make it the most memorable summer of our lives.