If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.

Greece is not cheap, at least bit for lodging.

Think more Eastern Europe, not Western.

Estonia, Slovenia, etc. not Portugal or even Greece or Croatia.

Get the cheapest flight over, then search Ryan air or easy jet to these cities.

Why Europe if you don’t have a country or city in mind, there are cheaper places to go.

Check google flights, play with dates, locations and then search for lodging costs.

Portugal does tend to be cheaper, but prices have increased over the past few years.

I have found that even in "expensive" destinations, if there are cheap flights and I can find affordable lodging...it becomes a great option.

Ex: DC-Copenhagen...it's a very expensive city BUT some of the best deals are to/from Copenhagen. Play airlines is a budget airline and they fly out of IAD and BWI. The cheapest tickets for a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids 2-11) is for $1536 for 4 tickets with personal items only. The trick I've done is to buy maximize the size of our personal items (you can use kids backpacks or buy $20-40 personal item backpacks- I have this one that worked perfectly https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B8V26319/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1) and I got a few cheap compression bags to go in it that we use again and again. Each carry-on costs roughly $57 each way. One thing I have done is pay ONLY for a carry-on on the way back for when I bring back goodies and I need the extra space.

Then in Copenhagen, you could stay at a family hostel with a private room. I have personally stayed at this hostel. My kids had fun bunk beds, there was an excellent buffet breakfast, and it was super close to everything https://www.meininger-hotels.com/en/hotels/copenhagen/hotel-copenhagen-urban-house/ There was a play room for the kids. there are several other similar places in Copenhagen. For my family of 4, this comes out to $138 per night INCLUDING a buffet breakfast (so you could avoid that if you wanted to save a bit of money, but it was a good value to me.

So say you go to Copenhagen for 1 week: $2,500 + food/activities. You could definitely cut down on food costs if you choose to not eat out a ton and buy a lot of local food at the grocery stores/bakeries and cook lunch/dinner mostly yourself with 1-2 nicer meals.

Alternatively, you could stay a few nights in Copenhagen and take the bus or train south into Germany. They have Meininger hostels and A&O hostels all around europe and those are even cheaper (just check reviews and see how far they are).

There are definitely ways to do it, you just have to be very thoughtful, and plan far ahead! I am finding that it is cheaper for my family to travel to europe over christmas than over the summer (but I also book my tickets far out in advance).

There is no cheap summer in Europe anymore but Portugal is probably your least expensive option. But it won’t be cheap.

We're travelers on a budget and we're headed to Portugal for the second straight year.

The year before that it was Northern Italy. Not as cheap, but not terrible.

The Baltics if your kids are active and love nature. Summer is the time for Northern Europe The sun hardly goes down at night.

Istanbul

We just returned from Romania. We stayed at a golf resort and spa for about $150/night which included all spa amenities. I was surprised at how much less expensive eating out was. Dinner for five at a nice place for around $60! Beautiful country, nice and welcoming people.

*Portugal does have cheap air options with TAP. And it is relatively cheaper than much of western Europe.
*Iceland is cheap to get to but more expensive once there.
*We found Amsterdam to be relatively affordable.

Greece

Portugal is cheap. Hotels in Lisbon aren't super cheap but food is, and other towns are cheap.

France isn't bad if you avoid the large cities.

Ireland in the small towns is very cheap. 3 bedroom houses to rent for like $160/night.

Croatia

Travel planners come on in!

I’m overwhelmed by all the options. And I know some places have cheap airfares but pricey hotels, or vice versa.

What are some of the most affordable places you’ve visited in Europe, including costs for airfare, lodging, food and local transportation?

Portugal seems to be a fair option. I’ve also heard Prague is cheap, is this a good place to visit with older kids?

Budapest?