Cost of Travel: A Case Study of Spending During 90 Days of Travel in Schengen Area Europe

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In this post we look at a real life case study of our spending during 90 continuous days of travel in Schengen Area Europe.

This is an average of our spending across 13 countries within the Schengen Area. We plan to create detailed analysis of our per-country spending within the Schengen Area countries in future posts.

If you haven’t already, check out our What It Costs to Travel — Short & Long Term post that overviews the overall cost to travel. We explore how creating daily spending bands can provide a budgetary framework for your next trip, whether short or long term.

Also read our guide to tracking your travel spending. We outline how tracking your own spending can help you understand your habits. With that insight, you can then create a realistic budget guidelines for future travels.

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Europe Travel — A Schengen Europe Itinerary — 13 Countries in 90 Days

Here are our aggregated costs per-category over 90 continuous days of travel in Chile. Costs are reflected in US Dollars $.

Category	Spend $/Day/Person	# of Days in Country	Total Spend $ / Person	Total Spend $ / Two People
Accommodation	$34.15	90	$3,073.95	$6,147.89
Transport	$4.09	90	$367.81	$735.62
Shopping + Miscellaneous	$5.54	90	$498.27	$996.54
Sightseeing + Entertainment	$10.69	90	$962.19	$1,924.38
Wifi	$0.00	90	$0.00	$0.00
Laundry	$0.43	90	$38.62	$77.23
Coffee	$4.25	90	$382.87	$765.74
Breakfast	$2.03	90	$182.54	$365.07
Lunch	$9.91	90	$891.79	$1,783.58
Dinner	$9.53	90	$857.63	$1,715.26
Snack	$1.34	90	$120.53	$241.05
Drinks	$1.35	90	$121.51	$243.02
Groceries	$7.41	90	$667.25	$1,334.49
Summary	$90.72/person/day	90 days of travel	$7,932.32 / person $2,644.11 /month	$15,864.64 / two people $5,288.21 /month

Assumptions per-category

Category	Notes
Accommodation	–We stayed in hostels and B&Bs. –In hostels we stayed in private dorms or 4-bed shared accommodation.
Transport	–Costs do not include a flight to enter Europe (we used miles). –We relied on the EuRail as our main form of transport. The price of that ticket is not included in the transport category averages. The cost of our two month EuRail pass was $1,651 for two people. –Does not include flights departing Schengen-Area Europe (we used miles).
Shopping + Miscellaneous	–Since we were on the road for 90 days of continuous travel, we did get haircuts and picked up some warmer clothes as the weather began to cool.
Sightseeing + Entertainment	–We typically participated in walking tours in each city. –On occasion we took a private car for day trips out of the city or special activities that may have driven up the average cost of sightseeing and entertainment.
Wifi	–Was included in our accommodation fees and available at the restaurants we frequented.
Laundry	–We relied on the hostel laundry services. –When none was available, we would go to the local laundromat. –If you have sensitive skin, ask about what kind of detergent the company uses. Likely it will have fragrance. Proceed accordingly.
Coffee	–We went out for coffee a couple times a day as it’s a great way to sightsee and people watch.
Breakfast	–Breakfast were light and usually prepared in the hostel.
Lunch	–We ate out every day. –It’s our favorite meal to try out local flavors. –Costs are usually less expensive for the same meal offered at dinner.
Dinner	–Unlike most of our other countries of travel, we ate dinner out as this is most European cities hit peak hustle and bustle.
Snack	–We kept snacks on hand to keep in our day packs.
Drinks	–Libations are expensive in the major cities. –We typically purchased a bottle of wine and shared it with the new friends we made.
Grocery	–We purchased groceries and cooked quite a bit.
Travel Insurance	–We did not include our travel insurance costs in the overall price listed here. — Our insurance ran $3.17/person/day, totaling $165 per person for 90 days, $285.30 total.

Notes

1. In categories like laundry, shopping & wifi, we may not have spent any money on these services every day. Instead, we added up the total sum of that costs and divided by the number of days within that particular country. This helped us determine how much to budget for future trips.
2. While we were mindful of our spending, especially because we were abroad for so long, we did splurge on meals and special activities. This may have raised the average costs in a particular category.

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How do you keep track of travel expenses?