My October 2024 Trip Total Expenses

NoNegativeVibes, thank for sharing your cost list. I’ve always wondered what others pay.
Guesstimating my 28 day trip to Italy, it ran about $11,000. I haven’t done the math yet except gifts and souvenirs were €611. My refundable flights are more costly from Phoenix with one connection (I fly United). Plus a RS tour with single supplement. When I total it, I’ll post for a comparison.

What a great airfare! Where were you flying from? Presumably east coast? Overall a useful guide

Your airfare was $60 lower than what I paid in Sept. That was $850 solo but without seat selections, r/t SFO to Paris CDG Basic Economy on United.

The difference is probably due your dep. airport and the price, if any, you paid for seat selection. I took a chance on that since by letting United choose my seats literally the last minute, ie at check-in there was a good chance I would end up having a middle seat both flights.

I lucked out, didn't turn out that way at all.

Lesley, I traveled from Washington Dulles via Turkish Air. I felt the fare was fantastic and booked it in December 2023. Another deciding factor was that TA allows two checked bags - no fee, along with a personal item and a carryon. One may find a cheap flight, but when you add those fees, it's becomes much more expensive. For some this airline would not be ideal, as the connection airport is in Istanbul, meaning what could be an 8 hour flight would be 10 hours, due to the distance...you fly right over Italy. This was my first time flying with them and it was fantastic! The food was delicious, flight attendants professional, friendly and attentive. The plane was clean. My departing flight was delayed by an hour and I just knew I was going to miss my connection. Airline staff were waiting for passengers with short connections and led us through a shortcut directly to the connecting gate. I am looking at flights for return and will mostly likely book with them again.

Horsewoofie, Please share your expenses. I am always curious as to what others pay and it will be helpful to others.

Wow, I'm in awe, NoNegativeVibes! Great planning, record-keeping, and smart spending! It sounds like a fantastic, meaningful trip.

Did you travel in September or October? I can't imagine you would get those Airbnb rates during peak travel season. Lodging (nothing fancy) eats up my travel budget because I travel in the summer or around December holidays. I can't wait to retire so I can be more flexible!

Wow, I'm in awe you kept track of all your expenses. I do track the biggies: air, hotel, transport, cash withdrawals. However, I don't get to this micro level. Thanks for sharing.

We just got back from two weeks in Italy (14 nights on the ground). Venice, Verona, Bologna, Florence. For the first time, I used the Travelspend app to keep track of expenses. Our total trip cost for 2 people was $10,989 including flights from Anchorage, AK. We bought several bottles of good wine and several day trips and a private guide in Vicenza.

For our 30 day trip in October 2024 my husband and I spent $11,000 CAD (approxi 7800 USD). We visited Northern Italy, Sicily, Malta and Spain. Feel free to send me a PM if you want details. Our biggest savings: a bargain airfare for the long haul flight from Western Canada and some cheap Ryanair flights within Europe.

Hello, Did you travel with a group? Or did you plan the trip all on your own?

Expenses will depend on what types of cities are chosen and the month of travel, too. You rightfully were wanting to see the popular ones, so that affects your cost.

For a fair comparison to my trip costs, I removed a few of your costs: I subtracted your flight expense since that can be a large variable depending on the person’s starting location. I also subtracted your pet lodging since my husband watched our dog while I was traveling. And I removed your pre-trip personal items expenses.

Total average per day
It looks like the average expense per day for you (with those expenses removed) is $341. My last trip to Italy in May had an average cost per day of $255.

Lodging
Yours - $146. Mine - $169. I stayed in some very nice B&B’s and boutique hotels with a few balconies and amazing views and a trullo!

Transportation
Yours - $25
Mine - $16. My trains were cheap. This average even includes my round trip flight from Rome to Palermo. I rarely took a taxi, except a splurge from Palermo’s airport into the city which was a wonderful way to start with a very positive first impression!

Activities
Yours - $91
Mine - $17. Several of mine, although very good, were very inexpensive or free. Highlights were two cooking classes & an opera at Palermo, plus amazing mosaics in churches. Also, renting an ebike to explore outside of Alberobello.

Food
Yours - $41
Mine - $54

My May trip was 26 nights in the Puglia region, Palermo, one night in Sulmona and four nights in Rome. I traveled solo. Total cost minus my flight was $6,643

I also have some previous year’s averages per day:

Italy - May 2024: $255
Italy - June 2022: $168. Northern Italy & Umbria
Italy - June 2018: $181. Northern Italy, attended the Verona opera & Arezzo’s jousting festival w prime seats.

@lleslieace
We planned our trip on our own and were not part of a group tour. We stayed in rental apartments and hotels. We did some of our own cooking in the apartments, but also enjoyed some nice restaurant meals. We rented a car for 5 days in Sicily ($468 CAD in total including insurance and gas). But otherwise we traveled by train and bus, and only one taxi to get home from the airport. Our average cost for accommodations was $140 CAD. We did very little shopping for souvenirs, etc.

This sharing is very interesting and helpful.

I have not gone through and figured out my expenses yet other than airfare and accomodations.
I tend to be a pretty frugal traveler especially when I'm traveling solo. This past October (2024) I was in Northern Italy (Milan, Ortisei, Padua, Bologna, Varenna) for 18 nights.
My airfare on TAP, round trip from IAD to Milan was only $618 with seat selection. (I am relativelyy\ recently retired and able to choose dates around good airline prices).
My accomodation costs were 1693 Euros (about$1844) for 18 nights in a mix of hotels and B&Bs, some but not all might be classified "bare bones." All were excellent locations and comfortable for me.

Edited: Counting food, transportation, entrance fees/tours, and lodging: $170/day for one person (not including airfare or trip insurance).

I see that we are not as careful or frugal as many of you.

From a trip report I posted earlier this year about our 30 day trip to Sicily and southern Italy. (Costs for two people combined, travelling as a couple.)

LATE NOTE - Now that our credit card bills are all in ...
Rick Steves Tour (double occupancy), plus the two extra days in Sicily ran about $640 per day, including meals on our own plus the extra day at each end. The number of specialty guides and experiences is likely a factor.

Puglia, including the [week-long] self-guided bike tour, 4 more days in Puglia on our own, and including the airfare from Catania to Bari ran about $431 per day.

The final 6 nights on our own, including the rental car from Lecce to Naples, the ferry to/from Ischia and the private tour guide in Pompeii ran about $506 per day, including a couple of hundred dollars in clothing that we acquired in the Naples area.

(Costs excluded US to Italy and Italy to US airfare. We travelled comfortably not extravagantly. NO Michelin starred restaurants., Mostly 3 star hotels; perhaps three to five 4 star hotels were booked for 1/4 to 1/3 of our 30 days.)

After reading folks expenses I am feeling very frugal indeed. I will only list "major" expenses for my 3 month trip as I consider the cost of groceries same or less than I spend in the US. I did not track every train but went into Firenze a few times a month by train and RT was 10 euro...but also less than I would normally be spending on gas travel at home. In any case, my airfare from Philadelphia to Rome was just under $600 (thanks to British Air/American Airlines fees!...even using points, BA really was out of line with the fees...lesson learned). My apartment was total 2,350 euro for just under 3 months....and beautiful! Took a wine tour for $166.79 which was 8 hours with 3 wineries and lunch. Also a cooking class $53 for 3 hour pasta class. Short trip to Sicily that totaled 200 euro per person (2 people) including airfare, 2 nights in Trapani and 2 nights in Palermo. So total for expenses that really count is under $4,000....Again, not including groceries or souvenirs which is also a very individual/discretionary expense. I did also pay 49 euro to DHL deliver my ballot for 2024 election! So you can travel quite inexpensively in Italy. The longer stay is helpful as monthly rent decreases the longer you stay...FYI.

Well, OP, you pretty much hit my nail on the head in almost all aspects. Same, same. I keep an expense book and analyze my trips afterwards too. For the last twenty years. I keep it door to door. So includes transport to airport from my home and when I return and also things like a coffee while waiting at the airport.
I do also include airfare, but that is such a huge variable that it is only pertinent to the persons on their own trip. The actual trip expenses should probably be without airfare.
Your post is for traveling around. If, like some friends of mine and the preceding poster you are tethered to an apartment and your trip is mostly excursions then that has less bearing on a trip typically taken by travelers on here.
Last trip total for two people was to Ireland for three weeks and without airfare was $5221.

August 27 to September 24: I spent 28 days, including travel days, in Italy partly on my own in Venice, Florence and Rome and partly on RS Village Italy tour. I kept track of almost all my expenses, door to door. I may have skipped a few little costs, but not enough to throw a budget off. I thought I traveled on a fairly tight budget, but compared to everyone else, my trip was costly. All inclusive daily cost was $431. The RS tour is more expensive than when I traveled on my own so skews the trip cost higher.

Here's my breakdown by category:
RS Village Italy Tour with single supplement: $5320
Airfare $1691 refundable economy with priory boarding and preferred seats
Hotels $1385 in Venice 5 nights in B&B, Florence 4 nights in monastery and Rome 5 nights in monastery
Trip Insurance $876 per trip Allianz Basic for trip cancellation/interruption, annual Medjet Horizon, annual GeoBlue Trekker medical. I realize now I bought too much Allianz.
Verizon international monthly plan $100
Trains $206 3 one-way train trips, first class
Local transport $121, vaporetto pass, local trains, taxi
Sightseeing, Museums $559 Venice, Florence, Rome, RS tour free time
Food tours $250 Florence and Rome
Miscellaneous expenses $1594 Food, medicines (I was sick a few days), odds & ends
Total $12,072 all inclusive

The costs don't count $672 spent on souvenirs and gifts, mostly gifts for Christmas.

Wow, this is really interesting as I always wonder how people seem to spend so much less than I do. It appears that many of you save on the accomodations compared to me. Maybe it is the time of year we travel. I actually started keeping track of expenses my last three trips. Even when travelling to an "expensive" destination versus "inexpensive" my average still comes out to about $500/day not including airfare. All three trips were travelling with one of my daughters who now pay their own airfare, although I do split the cost of the RT air from Florida to Boston. Here is a breakdown of my last three trips:

Spain/Lisbon May 2023 13 nights
RT Airfare (1 person, economy, incl seat selection) - $1240
Half of RT air (TPA/PVD) - $116
Transportation - $394
Hotel - $3121
Food* - $1123
Sightseeing* - $1234
Misc and tipping - $674
Total all expenses - $7900
Cost per day excluding airfare - $503

Vienna/Copenhagen/Stockholm August 2023 12 nights
RT Airfare (1 person, economy, incl seat selection) - $1340
Half of RT air (TPA/PVD) - $116
Transportation - $541
Hotel - $3320
Food* - $802
Sightseeing* - $1400
Misc and tipping - $335
Total all expenses - $7854
Cost per day excluding airfare $533

Split/Kotor/Tirana June 2024 12 nights
RT Airfare (1 person, economy, incl seat selection) - $1965
Half of RT air (TPA/PVD) - $300
Transportation** $839
Hotel - $2278
Food - $798
Sightseeing - $1301
Misc and tipping - $618
Total all expenses - $8099
Cost per day excluding airfare $486

In addition to other activities, we do a lot of food tours and wine tastings and I include these under sightseeing as opposed to food expenses.
*Although hotels were considerably less expensive on this trip, the extra we spent getting there and intercountry transportation really drove up the cost.

Thank you for sharing. I track what each trip costs on an excel spreadsheet when I get back, but I may need to look into the app Tammy mentioned.

Thank you all for sharing your trip expenses! I enjoyed reading the details of each.
Thanks Tammy for the TravelSpend app mention. I'll have to give it a look.

Thanks for starting this topic NoNegativeVibes! It is interesting to see how others travel and where people choose to spend (and not spend)...and knowing there is no right or wrong answers here as everyone gets to spend their travel dollars as they choose.

My wife and I just got back from 16 nights touring the Emilia-Romagna region. We had 16 nights in Italy plus 2 days of travel to and from. Our costs:

Airfare: $1728, Delta

Lodging: $2143.58, ~134/night for the 16 nights

Activities/Tours: $1324.75. We had a private guide in Ravenna and the Italian Days food tour - more than we normally spend in this category but worth it to us.

Meals: $1163.84, $64.66/day, or $32.33/person/day. This is much lower than I expected on a per person/day basis. We had some high $ meals this trip as food was one of the reasons for the trip.

Transportation: $364.03. All costs were trains between cities and to and from MXP

Souvenirs: $444.76. Way more than we normally spend but balsamico DOP is just sooo good :-)

Total, with airfare, was $7252.16, $402.90/day, $201.45/person/day
Excluding airfare, total was $5523.96, $306.89/day, $153.45/person/day.

This is the first time I tracked spending to this level of detail, and I did it during the trip using a spreadsheet. I plan to continue tracking it for future trips.

This thread is very interesting. Here are our costs excluding airfare and trip insurance for two trips in 2024. Airfare is so variable, and sometimes booked on points. I also haven't included our annual travel and Medjet insurance policies. I have included all other door to door costs, including a few souvenirs and gifts. We stay in a range of accommodations, including hotels, apartments, aparthotels, and B&Bs.

France 14 nights for 2 people: Paris (4), Lyon (2), Dordogne (5), Lot River Valley (2), Toulouse (1)

Cost for 2 people per night excluding airfare and trip insurance: $438

France and Switzerland 14 nights for 2 people: Strasbourg (5), Wengen (3), Murren (3), Lucerne (3):

Cost per night for 2 people excluding airfare and trip insurance: $555

I admire everyone's bravery for tracking costs. I think I'd make myself miserable if I did that and I'd start nickle and diming. I'm better being blissfully unaware and count on my inbred cheapness to keep me on track.

I track spending as well, not to extreme detail, but download credit card statements, have cash withdrawal amounts, etc. then roughly categorize.

Some comments on the process:

I split off early expenses, especially airfare, as a separate category. The reason is, I have airfare paid for and forgotten about long before the trip and the cost varies wildly. Even trips to the same place can be distorted for comparison based on airfare cost and length of trip. It is important, but may distort "daily cost" comparisons. If you are comparing across travelers, then the issue of origin in the US (East vs West Coast, Regional Airport vs Major Hub) and preferred class of fare (Bargain basement economy vs premium) also adds distortion

It is not clear in some of the expenses above whether the travelers are solo, a couple, or a group. A couple may see a benefit over a solo, and a group an unrealistic expectation for either a solo or couple.

Yeah, we all travel different, so expectations may not be realistic, but if nothing else, it is a rough gauge.

For what it is worth, over the last 5 years or so, My wife and I can travel in most of Europe (sans airfare) for about $300 Dollars (or euro) a day. We plan about 100 for a room, 100 for meals/snacks/drinks, and 100 for transport, shopping, sights and whatever misc.

The two trips this year, the room rate is seeing some pressure, but we hold to that pretty well. Germany in September was closer to 320. Other places we have been in that five years are the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy (Rome, Naples, and Sicily), and the UK.