Strolling home from Aperitivo (Happy Hour) alongside Florence’s Arno River, lights playfully frolicking on the glistening water, I slow as I approach the stunning antique district. Met by storefronts graced with with Etruscan, Roman, and Renaissance sculptures and paintings, I arrive at my charming old town neighborhood – home for 3 months as I live like a local in Europe.
Each year, I plan an extended trip to explore Europe like a local so that I can immerse and experience iconic cities like Florence, Nice, Lisbon, and Barcelona. I rent an apartment for weeks or months, shop and eat like a local, walk everywhere in town and day-trip the region like Tuscany from Florence, or the Riviera from Nice.
When I began musing about traveling overseas for months at a time, my first thought was to choose Europe for my adventures abroad. My instincts screamed “Europe” yet I feared that staying weeks or months at a time would exceed my budget, especially since I wanted to stay in wildly popular iconic Old World European cities.
Fortunately, I was wrong – it absolutely is possible to live affordably for weeks or months in Europe. Turns out that when you adopt the advantages of a living like a local lifestyle, expenses dramatically drop across the board to the extent that you can stay longer at lower cost. And, being able to stay abroad much longer, opens the door to more immersive and authentic experiences with you returning home with life-changing memories.
With a reasonable Europe budget, my travel dream becomes reality every year when I part-timefor one to three months in an incredible European city. I’m able to stay within budget, basically the budget I have in Ft. Lauderdale, my home base.
So far, a city-center one bedroom apartment averages $1,200/month for a three month stay. Dining out (food & drink) costs about $550/month and groceries are about $250/month.
If you follow a few tips about how to apply the perks of living like a local, you too can budget to stay longer, spend less and experience more. To find out how, we invite you to review some trip planning steps below for your dream adventures.
Step #1: What are your “Must-Haves” to live like a local in Europe?
Start by self-profiling your destination preferences to determine if you’d rather stay in the city, suburbs or countryside and what amenities you need.
For example, here’s my top 10:
- City-center rental apartment in a popular neighborhood within walking distance of a body of water (ocean, river or lake).
- Reliable access to Wi-Fi in my apartment and around town.
- City-wide pedestrianized streets for shopping and exploration by foot.
- Close-by neighborhood grocers and open-air produce markets for fresh farm to table healthy food.
- Social opportunities with local networking communities (expats and locals).
- Efficient bus and train transportation within city and throughout the country.
- Interesting day-trip destinations outside home base city.
- Immersive exploration and discovery activities and top tourist sightseeing like museums, castles, wine festivals and cooking classes.
- Lots of outdoor cafes for one of my favorite hobbies, people-watching.
- Climate: fall or spring weather (typically low seasons)
Step #2: How do I stay within budget so I can live like a local in Europe?
Based on the results of your self-profiling in Step #1, take a look at which of the choices below are best for your budget. You can apply any or all of the following live like a local in Europe advantages to each of your destination picks.
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Travel off-season
Benefit from discounted airfare, lodging and cost of living expenses. In off-season, locals gleefully reclaim their town and tourists are rare. Shop owners, museums, restaurants and establishments lower their prices from tourist rates to local rates resulting in a nice discount for locals – including you!
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Book hotel-alternative lodging
Try to stay for weeks or months to take advantage of deep discounts (sometimes up to 50% less). Stay city- center so you can walk to restaurants, grocery stores, transportation, entertainment, etc. Normally, rentals include Wi-Fi and utilities but it’s always a good idea to clarify up front.
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Copy your host country’s dining habits once in-country
For the best value and (usually) the best tasting cuisine ask your neighbors or store owners where to dine. Since lunch is normally the big meal of the day for Europeans, locals flock to their favorite café or restaurant offering a two to three course bargain ‘menu of the day’. For breakfast and a light dinner, the locals normally choose to prepare a meal at home or hit happy hour to socialize and indulge in discounted, tasty small plated delicacies or tapas.
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Shop where your neighbors go
Staying city-center, you have access, just minutes away, to plenty of neighborhood grocery stores, wine stores, patisseries and boulangeries – shops that are always easier on your wallet than those in tourist areas.
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There’s no need shoulder the expense of a rental car
When you rent a downtown apartment, you can usually walk everywhere or hop on public transportation to go around town and for exciting day-trips outside the city.
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You can always ask shopkeepers or neighbors for advice
Ask the locals for advice on shopping, getting around town, outdoor markets and festivals, etc. That’s how I learned that Florence had their own version of “dollar stores” for simple household items at low prices.
Step 3: Check off all your live like a local in Europe preferences
When I use trip planning Step#1 and Step #2 above for my live like a local adventures, each European stay ends up exceeding my expectations – but not my budget!
Take a peek below at 3 of my favorite live like a local in Europe experiences (Florence, Nice, Barcelona) which checked all the “boxes” and turned out to be the perfect fit for a dream adventure abroad.
Stay near water with easy access to pedestrian areas– Check!
Each city has extensive pedestrianized areas throughout town, dotted with shops and eateries along the riverbanks or Mediterranean coast.
In Nice, I daily walked the famous Promenade des Anglais hugging the Riviera’s sun-kissed Mediterranean with picture postcard seascapes everywhere I looked.
Every day, I skirted the bank of the Arno River in Florence, ambling bridge to bridge, while popping in and out of museums and other historic sites – usually arriving at an outdoor café for Aperitivo(Happy Hour).
In Barcelona every afternoon, after a 3 mile walk along several Mediterranean beaches, I wound through the city’s Gothic quarter navigating a maze of cobblestone streets before landing on the Ramblas pedestrian area for a sunset “Cava” cocktail with friends.
Healthy, farm to table food– Check!
Each city proudly serves up inexpensive farm fresh produce in every neighborhood grocery store and outdoor market.
In Florence, beyond the famous Mercato Centrale in the city-center San Lorenzo area, local open-air markets sprout up throughout the week.
Nice’s morning fresh-catch Fish Market at Place St. Francois opens pre-dawn while the popular Old Town Cours Saleya market opens much later in the day, catering to late-morning shoppers and the lunchtime crowd flocking to a bevy of restaurants rimming the market.
Barcelona’s Boqueria market on the lively Ramblas, the famous tree-lined pedestrian mall, offers a vast variety of meats, cheeses, wines – you name it and chances are they have it!
City-center 1 bedroom apartment– Check!
Living like a local for weeks or months in off-season, an affordable, city-center studio or 1 bedroom apartment can easily be booked in advance. With sometimes up to a 50 to 60 p/c discount, it’s almost like paying only for the cost of 1 month in high season while staying for 3 months in a shoulder season.
Perfectly situated in Nice, as soon as I stepped out my apartment building’s front door, surrounding me were cafes, restaurants, a patisserie, a boulangerie, grocery stores and a wine shop. For city exploring, walking the Mediterranean coast or Old Town was a never-boring 10 minutes cobblestoned walk away.
Renting a 1 bedroom apartment in one of Florence’s antique districts, my neighbors were upscale apartment buildings and antique shops. Just 300 feet from the Arno River, I took morning walks along its banks feasting my eyes on renaissance era churches, monasteries, piazza’s, statues and towers left over from the ancient city wall. No matter which direction – Florence – a ‘living museum’ always had something of value on display.
Stepping out onto my apartment’s balcony in Barceloneta (beachside Barcelona), I only had to look right to gaze at the sea 500 feet away. On daily walks, Barcelona’s 7 beaches, stretching almost 3 miles, provided plenty of eye-candy and beach cafes along the way. With downtown only a 15 to 20 minutes’ walk from my apartment, I enjoyed afternoons exploring Barcelona’s various barrios (neighborhoods).
Social opportunities – Check!
Many international social groups have formed such as Internations, an expat social (and business) network. Before leaving the US, I check out the city’s upcoming social events and sign up for brunch, happy hour or cultural meet-ups before I leave the US. Participating in communities such as these is a great way to meet both locals and expats, jump-starting a live like a local experience. I stay in contact with these new friends, always looking forward to going back soon!
Transportation – Check!
Fortunately, Europe’s train and bus transportation is inexpensive and reliable. There’s always a train or bus station close by for local jaunts or day-trips outside the city. Schedules are readily available at any tourist information branch throughout the city.
To start your trip planning, we invite you to use our trip planning tools and browse our articles to help you plan a dream adventure for some time soon.
Step #4: And then repeat and do it again …
No matter how often I enjoyed enchanted early evening strolls back to my Florence apartment or gazed at the Mediterranean from one of the Riviera’s beach cafes, or explored Barcelona’s Medieval street maze – I always felt a fleeting “pinch-me” memory, reminding me that I truly was living my dream – part-time living in amazing (and affordable!) Europe.
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