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In this post we look at a real life case study of our spending during 14 days in Israel.
If you haven’t already, check out our What It Costs to Travel — Short & Long Term post that overviews the cost of travel. We explore how creating daily spending bands can provide a budgetary framework for your next trip, whether short or long term.
Here are our aggregated costs per-category over 14 continuous days of travel across Israel. Costs are reflected in US Dollars $.
| Category | Spend $/Day/Person | # of Days in Country | Total Spend $/Day/Person | Total for Two People |
| Accommodation | $28.18 | 14 | $394.50 | $789.00 |
| Transport | $5.36 | 14 | $75.06 | $150.12 |
| Shopping + Miscellaneous | $7.57 | 14 | $105.92 | $211.84 |
| Sightseeing + Entertainment | $29.73 | 14 | $416.25 | $832.50 |
| Wifi | $0.00 | 14 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Laundry | $0.44 | 14 | $6.09 | $12.18 |
| Coffee | $0.83 | 14 | $11.64 | $23.27 |
| Breakfast | $0.00 | 14 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Lunch | $12.61 | 14 | $176.56 | $353.12 |
| Dinner | $7.71 | 14 | $107.97 | $215.93 |
| Snack | $0.57 | 14 | $7.98 | $15.96 |
| Drinks | $2.08 | 14 | $29.09 | $58.18 |
| Groceries | $7.07 | 14 | $99.05 | $198.09 |
| Summary | $102.15/person/day | 14 days of travel | $1,430.10 / person | $2,860.19 / two people |
Notes per-category
| Category | Notes |
| Accommodation | –We stayed in hostels. –We recommend Abraham Hostels, with properties in Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Jerusalem and Eliat. –Our typical configured up was a 4-person-mixed shared dorm. |
| Transport | –We used bus as a main form of transport between major cities. –Abraham Hostel offered hostel-to-hostel transport between its sister branches for a nominal fee. –Does not include a flight to enter Israel (we used miles). –Does not include flights to depart Israel (we used miles). |
| Shopping + Miscellaneous | |
| Sightseeing + Entertainment | –We participated in guided tours in nearly every location we traveled. —Abraham Hostels offers a variety of tours through their company. |
| Wifi | –Wifi was included in our accommodation costs. |
| Laundry | –All of the hostels we stayed in offered laundry facilities. |
| Coffee | –We averaged one coffee/tea out per day. |
| Breakfast | –We usually ate at our accommodation. |
| Lunch | –We ate out almost 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 | –We usually ate a light dinner at our accommodation. |
| Snack | –We kept snacks on hand. |
| Drinks | |
| Grocery | –We purchased groceries to make breakfast and a light dinner at our accommodation. |
| Travel Insurance | –We did not include our travel insurance costs in the overall price listed here. — Our insurance ran $3.17/person/day, totaling $44.38 per person for 14 days, $88.76 total. |
Notes
- In categories like laundry, shopping & wifi, we may not have spent any money on these services every day. Instead, we added up the costs and divided by the number of days within that particular country to determine how much to budget for future trips.
- We purchased groceries and ate in much of the time, which is why the breakfast, lunch and dinner spends are so low.
- While we were mindful of our spending, especially because we were abroad for so long, we did splurge on special activities in Israel. This may have raised the average costs in this category.
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