Wow. March was a great month, wasn't it?? We were in six different countries... Spain, Italy, San Marino, Monaco, France, and Morocco!
We had a fantastic time, and we pretty much did it exactly as we wanted to. But, it came at a price. Definitely one of our higher months for expenses. Italy is certainly not as cheap as Spain! We spent a total of $2,448 CAD ($1,836 USD) for the month.
(The following figures are all in Canadian dollars. For U.S. dollar equivalent, you can subtract about 25%.)
Most of the extra is because we made a decision to stop using couchsurfing as much and use AirBnb more. I'll go into the details behind that decision another day because it will take up a whole blog post on it's own. We're totally happy with using AirBnb, but it does cost more money, that's for sure.
So...here's how it all broke down...
Gasoline: We spent more than we would have liked to in this category. We had to do one final diesel fill up for the motorhome before we gave it back, so that was $87, and then there was the rental car we had for two weeks in Italy. Good thing we got a deal on the car itself, because there are no deals to be had buying gasoline in Italy! We put $170 worth of fuel in that tiny efficient little car. Gas in Italy costs about $2.20 per liter! ($6.25 USD per gallon).
Toll Roads: And besides the expensive gasoline in Italy, they also have expensive toll roads. We spent $49 on toll highways.
Groceries: We still did really well in this category, considering we hardly ate out at all. We spent $460 on groceries.
Alcohol: Even with the higher cost of alcohol in Italy compared to Spain (still cheap compared to Canada!) we did pretty good coming in at $119.
Miscellaneous: We actually did pretty good in this category too. $44 for our Italian internet, $32 for various buses, $17 for a case for our new Samsung phone. And a few smaller items. Total came to $115.
Entertainment: Only $86! And yet, we sure did seem to have an entertaining month, didn't we?
Overnight: This was the killer. And yet, we still think we did pretty good. A total of $852 for 24 paid nights...an average of $35.50 per night.
Travel: A total of $509. Not bad considering this was for two flights, two train rides, and a two week car rental.
So, a total of $2,448 CAD ($1,836 USD) for the month. That's $79 per day for the two of us. Not bad at all.
Traveling in general costs - if you fly somewhere and stay put for the month it would have been cheaper....but look what you've gotten to see! You did great. I am interested to see your thoughts on Air BNB, and wondering if you will start making a list and rating them (maybe a separate page?).
ReplyDeleteYes, flying to one spot and staying put would probably be cheaper but we like to explore and still feel pretty good about the amount we spent. We sure couldn't have lived our normal life in a house for that price.
DeleteWe really like AirBnB! It would be difficult to rate them because what we feel is poor, good or great would be different for someone else's tastes. You can get some amazing places for a little more money than what we spend but still a lot less than a hotel room and you would normally have cooking facilities included and it would be private, plus you get a very local experience generally. We don't mind paying less and sharing an apartment as long as we have our own room and preferably our own bathroom but it isn't a deal makaker but we do want use of the kitchen and good WiFi. The way AirBnB works though, is that everyone that stays at a place will leave a review after they have left and when you are looking for places, you find what you are looking for in a location and then check the reviews.
You guys have had the best winter. I thoroughly enjoyed travelling vicariously along... Not sure if Marakesh is our kind of destination though... Enjoy your remaining days, reality will be upon you soon enough.
ReplyDeleteWe have had a fantastic winter! So glad you have enjoyed traveling along virtually with us.
DeleteMarrakesh is definitely a different kind of place but a very interesting one and a very safe one an is to get around the most interesting parts on foot. We are looking forward to seeing what else is out there in Morocco though.
Looking a forward to getting back in some ways and others wish we could just continue traveling on.
You did well in expenses! We spent $2845 :) still good I think!
ReplyDeleteWe think we did pretty good, not really sure how we could have done it any cheaper unless we could have used Couchsurfing more.
DeleteI would like to see what our expenses would have been like in Italy in an RV. I think you spent less in the month as well than if you had just stayed at home and lived in a house and you got so see so much. Money well spent!