How much does a custom trip cost in Europe?

The bands, and what sits inside them

All figures below are per person per day, land only, based on two people sharing, in Southern Europe — Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Croatia and Turkey. International flights are excluded, because they vary more than everything else combined.

Solo travellers should add 30–50%. Single supplements are real and they are the single most underestimated line in a first quote.

• Budget, €120–€200 — three-star or good guesthouses, breakfast only, shared or public transfers, one or two guided half-days across the trip.
• Mid-range, €200–€350 — four-star in decent locations, private airport transfers, two or three private guided days, some dinners.
• Upper-mid, €350–€600 — four-star superior and five-star outside the top tier, private car and driver on touring days, licensed guides most days, a boat day or a tasting with access.
• Luxury, €600–€1,500+ — landmark hotels and top suites, dedicated driver throughout, private access and after-hours visits, a fixer who solves things before you notice them.
• Above €1,500 the number stops describing a category and starts describing specific rooms in specific hotels.

What moves the number most

Season is the biggest single lever. The same Amalfi itinerary in late June and in early October can differ by 40% on identical hotels. Shifting a trip by two weeks is usually the cheapest saving available.

After season comes private versus shared. A private guide and driver for a day in Tuscany is roughly €450–€700; the shared equivalent is €80–€150 per person. That one choice, repeated across seven days, is often the entire gap between two quotes.

Then room category, which people consistently underweight. Between an entry double and a sea-view junior suite in the same five-star hotel there can be €400 a night, and nothing else about the trip changes.

Pace is the quiet one. A trip with six overnight stops costs more than the same days across three, because every move brings a transfer, a check-in and often a lost half-day. Slower itineraries are usually both cheaper and better.

The planning fee, and why it is usually a good sign

A planning or design fee of €150–€500 is now normal for tailor-made work, generally credited against the trip if you book. Some operators charge it only after a first outline; others take it before any work begins.

It is easy to read this as a charge for nothing. In practice, an operator that charges it is not writing speculative proposals for twenty enquiries a week, which means the proposal you receive has had real hours in it — checked availability, named hotels, tested driving times.

The fee is worth paying when a trip is genuinely complex or when you intend to book. It is not worth paying to three companies at once simply to compare, and no reasonable operator will pretend otherwise.

Where the margin actually sits

Two mechanisms, and they behave differently. Hotels typically pay the agent a commission of 10–15% of the room rate. That comes out of the hotel’s money, not added to yours, which is why an agency price for a hotel often matches the public rate exactly.

Ground services work the other way. The operator buys transfers, guides, vehicles, boats and entrance packages at net rates that are not published, then applies a markup, commonly 10–20%. You are not paying public price plus margin; you are paying net plus margin, and the two frequently land within a few per cent of each other.

This is why “what is your commission” is a less useful question than it sounds. The more informative question is whether the quote is net-plus-markup or a gross package price, and what the cancellation terms are on each component.

What a quote should show you

A serious quote separates accommodation, transport, guiding, entrances and meals, and states clearly what is excluded. If everything is one number, you cannot see which lever to pull when you want the price lower.

Ask for two versions rather than a discount. A good operator will happily show you the same trip with shared transfers on two days, or a four-star instead of a four-star superior in one city, and the difference is usually 15–25%.

Then read the exclusions, because that is where a cheap-looking quote recovers its margin. These are the lines that most often sit outside the headline figure:

• City and tourist taxes — typically €2–€7 per person per night, usually payable locally.
• Entrance fees, which on a museum-heavy Italian itinerary can add €150–€250 per person.
• Tips and driver gratuities, rarely included and rarely mentioned.
• Single supplements on every night of the trip.
• Fuel and toll surcharges on long transfers.
• Peak-date supplements around Easter, Ferragosto and New Year.

How to bring the number down without ruining the trip

Move the dates before you move the hotels. Shoulder season in Southern Europe delivers most of the same weather at meaningfully lower rates, and the ground services are better staffed.

Cut nights rather than standard. Seven nights at mid-range beats ten nights at budget for almost everyone, and shorter trips have fewer transfers, which are pure cost.

Concentrate the guiding. Three excellent guided days spread across a trip is a better use of €1,500 than seven mediocre ones. And be honest about which meals you want organised — half board across a food-driven destination is money spent on removing choice.

What rarely works is asking for a straight discount. Operators price from net costs they do not control, so a request to take 15% off usually comes back as the same trip with a quietly downgraded hotel. Ask for a cheaper version instead, and you will be told exactly what changed.