2025 Prague and London, what I Spent

This year I probably did the most train journeys, certainly the longest one I've ever done.

On Meals in Prague I spent $255. Breakfast was included in my room rate, Friday I skipped lunch because of the 3pm food tour start which was supper - $150 for the tour. So that $255 was the cost of 9 meals. The least expensive was the $13 I spent in a restaurant in Kutná Hora while $117 was for 3 meals at one restaurant - Hell Smoke.

London was different. I only had one meal at a restaurant and the rest were prepared in my room from groceries bought at Co-Op. Groceries were $107 for 16 meals. The $27 were the three fast food meals at the Berlin and Brussels train stations.

Souvenirs - why do we buy what we buy? Wild and Woolly was wool yarn and a book. Yeah I spent $98 on cheese, probably about 1500 grams. I have a bad habit and Neil's Yard is my enabling dealer. It will be nursed far into spring or early summer.

Jan Becher Outlet was a Christmas gift alcohol purchase for my brother & sister. Fridge magnets, hat pins, and candy for co-workers. And the candy will be dumped on the table in the break room.

The $100 for TfL was $14 for a new Oyster Card to replace the one I lost last year, the $6 that remains on the card and $80 across 7 days of use throughout London on buses and tube.

So, this was my two weeks in Prague & London. Make of it what you will - you may even say that VAP is nuts.

VAP, I think a lot of us changed our travel spending habits after 2020. : ). It certainly was a reminder that the number of trips is finite. We previously were going to Europe once a year. My husband & I added a February off-season trip to Spain when we ramped up again.

Being an engineer, I have spreadsheets with tabs of data and a pie chart for %spent per category, etc. besides comparing prices for independent travel vs. tours for all of our trips pre-2020. This didn’t drive decisions to spend or not spend during the trip; I just wanted to calculate it afterwards. I quit keeping track now because I’m aware of the ballpark amount for each trip.

Something I did learn years ago while analyzing the minutia and looking at the expected expenses of each upcoming trip: Look at the percentage of the cost of the trip that is going towards activities. Give yourself leeway to spend more in that category because it is such a small percentage of an independent trip. I would run the calculations and then come up with some additional fun activities to see what my husband & I might enjoy to increase that small percentage. It made a special trip even more special!

In Italy, most of the small hotels or B&B’s include some type of breakfast. Usually that and dinner are enough food for the day. And I lean towards smaller cities and less touristy locations which both of those equate to less expensive lodging, museums, etc. i’m happy with Delta’s Comfort Economy class for flights and trains for all European travel.

Even with all of our forum “enablers”, what I have purchased and bring on a trip is pretty basic & repetitive for each trip- Cotopaxi backpack/bag, ORI purse, and technology gadgets are just my iPad mini and my iPhone.

I think a lot of us changed our travel spending habits after 2020. : ). It certainly was a reminder that the number of trips is finite. We previously were going to Europe once a year. My husband & I added a February off-season trip to Spain when we ramped up again.

The only thing that 2020-21 changed for me was the 2 years of saving more money and tax rebates to the travel account. June 10, 2022 was the finite life lesson. In the scheme of things travel spending in spring 2022 was an anomaly and everything changed after summer '22.

I don't have an engineer's mind and not the sort to keep detailed spreadsheets, I know I'll frustrate some folks with that. But I keep track of what I spend on accommodations and transportation and can look back at past itineraries where I kept those notes. I don't always keep detailed notes on things like food, souvenirs or the miscellaneous. Mainly because I've always treated that as though it were my normal at home daily expenses (yeah, NO I'm not spending $107 on groceries or $255 at restaurants weekly at home). It's the cost of accommodation and transportation that is so much greater than domestic expenses and therefore where I pay the most attention.

This didn’t drive decisions to spend or not spend during the trip; I just wanted to calculate it afterwards. I quit keeping track now because I’m aware of the ballpark amount for each trip.

Absolutely. Doing the quick math in the head, I'd like to say I was aware of the ballpark. Keeping closer track of things this time surprised me where cost had remained steady or changed and why.

In Italy, most of the small hotels or B&B’s include some type of breakfast. Usually that and dinner are enough food for the day. And I lean towards smaller cities and less touristy locations which both of those equate to less expensive lodging, museums, etc.

Exactly! I'll front end a trip with the smaller less tourist dominated locations, but then I always seem to finish off in London. This time it was two principal cities.

i’m happy with Delta’s Comfort Economy class for flights and trains for all European travel.

I was always happy with United's economy class. That's not possible now and has had the most significant impact on transportation costs. But I'm with ya once in Europe its trains and ferries all the way. What was also difference this time, is that except for Eurostar, all of my other train tickets were first class.

Even with all of our forum “enablers”, what I have purchased and bring on a trip is pretty basic & repetitive for each trip- Cotopaxi backpack/bag, ORI purse, and technology gadgets are just my iPad mini and my iPhone.

Me too, although an Osprey bag rather than a purse. This year's packing list was the same as the year before, and before that.

I stayed at the Locke Berlin right when it opened, it was fairly priced at 100€ and included a cold free breakfast and free happy hour. Even so I found the hotel brand concept a little too avant-garde for me and wouldn’t stay again.