Last Updated on October 31, 2024 by Ellen
After more than two years of living on beaches and in jungles of Mexico and Central America, we wanted to travel 3 months in Western Europe. Part of our plan had us in Portugal, Spain, and northern Italy for three months – from mid-February to mid-May.
Here’s an update on how our budget held up.
What it cost to travel 3 months in Western Europe
First, we raised our budget.
We spent $2,000 a month in our first couple of years, with everything included: our rental property back in the U.S., housing abroad, pay-as-you-go health care, food, entertainment, excursions, sightseeing – everything. For our time in Western European we had expected to increase our spending from 25 and 50 percent, because we knew we would experience higher prices.
Budget challenge #1: housing
One of the challenges was the housing costs. We were spending $500 to $600 a month last year. In Western Europe, to maintain our preferred standard, we paid $1,000 to $1,200 a month. For those readers who don’t know, we like to rent an entire apartment – whether it’s a one bedroom or studio.
The way you could cut housing costs would be to share living space by renting rooms instead of entire apartments, staying in hostels, using workaway or voluntouring situations, or making couch surfing or co-living arrangements – which are wildly popular with millennials right now.
Budget challenge #2: sightseeing costs
The next challenge is when you are in these great places of Western Europe, you want to see the great museums, art, and architectural sites. Entry fees cost what they cost in a culture-rich environment. We couldn’t go to Rome and not visit the Vatican Museums, for example.
We cut costs as much as possible by going to free museum days when we were able to, we sought out free concerts and inexpensive live music options; we rode public transportation to see the sights; we took free walking tours, and then did more walking after online research of the cities where we lived.
Budget challenge #3: higher cost of living
A third challenge is the general cost of living. The cost of a nice dinner out in Rome or Seville or Lisbon is comparable to Chicago or Philadelphia or San Diego.
We cut costs by eating out as a treat, not a daily event; we shopped at grocery stores and local markets (which is why we need a kitchen), we packed picnics and snacks for long sightseeing outings.
The cost to travel 3 months in Western Europe: $11,408.
But wait! There’s less!
We want to subtract a few extra costs that were not really part of our living expenses. Also, other people likely would not have these costs.
I (Ellen) spent: $350 on a spiritual conference; $600 on prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses; $230 on a single gift for a special friend we met on our journeys. You likely aren’t going to spend money like this – and we usually do not. These were hefty expenses, too!
Subtract those costs and the actual living expenses for travel 3 months in Western Europe drop to —
$10,278 for three months of travel in Western Europe.
For two people. Not bad!
We know couples who spend around that amount on vacations for a week or two — and then they have to go back to work.
Overall, we feel ok with what we spent, even though we averaged about $400 per month over our hoped-for budget.
We are happy with our Western European experiences you can’t get anywhere else on Earth. There’s only one Domus Aurea, only one Sintra, only one La Sagrada Familia, only one Dali Theater-Museum, only one Venice.
We realize our budget of about $3,000 a month was a lofty goal for our lifestyle preferences. To balance it out, we lowered our monthly budget for less expensive destinations following Europe, such as the Balkans and Southeast Asia.
And one day we’ll go back to Europe when we hit regular retirement age and we can loosen up our purse strings a little. (Germany, Scotland, England, Ireland, Switzerland… so many places left to see!)
🙂
Great to get some figures to help planning. Thanks.
Glad it helps – thanks for reading!
A smart & educated way to travel…& Live! Love you guys! ♥️