This past summer I had the pleasure of spending 25 days traveling solo around Europe; the trip was everything I wanted it to be and was perfectly unpredictable. Given my experience in organizing trips, I took it upon myself to set a strict budget and adhere to it as strictly as possible. I recorded every expense down to the penny, and after a few busy months, I’m now here to share a breakdown of what one can expect to spend traveling individually in Europe for 25 days. 

I wanted to share this expense report to give an intimate understanding of the costs associated with traveling around the continent for just shy of one whole month. If you’ve ever wanted to do something like this yourself, I encourage you to save up and make it happen.

Before I get into it, a few disclaimers:

• One can do a trip to Europe for significantly cheaper than this (if I wanted to, I probably could’ve spent 2/3rds of what I actually spent)

  • While I didn’t splurge on hotels and nightlife, I certainly wasn’t penny-pinching when it came to one of the core reasons I travel: food. I dined at Michelin-star restaurants, gravitated towards tasting menus, slurped oysters, ordered the extra portion of jamón ibérico that my hedonist-self desired, and rarely passed on the foie gras. 

• I covered 5 countries in a non-linear order

  • Rather than solely taking buses and trains in a straight-line route, I spent quite a bit of time in the air. I traveled from Spain to Portugal to Poland to Germany to Denmark and finally back to Spain.

  • If I wanted to travel to 5 European countries in the most cost effective way possible, I would’ve visited 5 countries that I can travel to without ever stepping foot into an airport.

• Traveling solo is an added expense itself

  • One can save when traveling with a companion or a group of friends. From sharing a hotel or apartment to splitting checks at restaurants, traveling with numbers (to a certain extent) is an opportunity to cut costs.

• I went to some expensive places

  • (If the goal is to save money on a trip to Europe, one would be wise to avoid Scandinavia and the Basque Country of Spain)

Now into the numbers.

If you’re just here for one, hard number, here it is:

my total spend was $4249.92

However, it’s much more useful to understand the different areas of my spend, which I always break up into three different categories: Transportation, Accommodation, and Daily/ Miscellaneous. 

Transportation

This includes what you would expect: every form of transport that one would book in advance. Flights, Trains, Buses, Ferries, etc. Excluded is daily transport (metro, ubers, taxis, bikes, scooters, etc.)

Accommodation

Daily Average: $41.99

Daily

everything other expense under the sun: all food and drink, tours, museums, activities, Covid Tests, you name it.

Daily Average: $93.89

So there it is: every penny I spent, broken down and analyzed. I’m grateful for the experience and happy with how the trip unfolded. If I were to do it differently, I probably would’ve limited myself to less spending on food and daily activities. Other than that, I’m more than satisfied with the deals I was able to find on transportation and accommodation. I look forward to composing more expense reports on my future journeys and examining how they differ with regards to where I am in the world, how I spend my time, whom I spend it with, and what goals I set for myself. I’ll be interested to see how cost effectively I can execute trips in the future, albeit such trips will assuredly come with sacrifices. Nonetheless, I hope you’ve found this interesting/insightful, and are able to use this as a benchmark when planning your next voyage abroad. — Cheers