How much It cost to Travel Europe for Two Months?
The Numbers are crunched
Well the numbers are in and they’re looking pretty good. I spent two months, 60 days, traveling through Greece, Croatia, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. I was traveling solo the entire time.
Overall, I spent $7,786 which equates to 132 $CAD/day. Since the first fifteen days in Greece were apart of a school travel grant, I was able to obtain two travel grants totalling $2,190 so my net cost was just under $6,000 at 93 $CAD/day all in, including flights. This is a pretty good rate for solo travel.
There are a several ways to look at this. In comparison, living in Toronto and going to school I typically spent 2,000 $/month on living expsenes. This means that travel cost me 40% more per month than staying in Toronto. Admitedly, I’ve always striven to live in lower cost housing and am careful with my spending. My rent was very low at 1,100 $/month because it was a university student residence. Had I lived in my friend’s studio apartment instead I would have spent about 1,800 $/month on rent and hydro. That $700 more means that perhaps a more accurate average cost of living in living in toronto is closer to 2,700 $/month in which case it was only a $300 markup to be traveling.
Another comparison is that in my first year backpacking the world it cost 72 $/day. I was traveling with my partner so there were cost savings in the accomodations which I didn’t get this time but to be at 93 $/day is not a whole lot more in the grand scheme of things.
The accomodations did hurt the most though. I generally graviated towards private rooms and only got hostels when the prices started going up. As I moved further north in my trip, nightly accomodations got more and more expensive to the point that in Amsterdam it was 123 $/night. This was 42% of my daily cost which makes up a big chunk of the daily cost.
It’s worth pointing out that since I was traveling alone I didn’t eat at restaurants very often and instead got a lot of takeout. I probably ate too much donair and kebab but it was cheap and filling. Another money saving tactic was to walk most places, even if it took a long time. This was good exercise and also allowed me to see the city but I doubt many people would be as keen as me to walk 40 minutes from the train station to the accomodations.
By country, I was in Greece for 18 days, Croatia for 17 days, Austria for 5, Switzerland for 4, France for 3, Germany for 2, Belgium for 4 and the Netherlands for 7. The netherlands were byfar the most expensive because of the pricy airBnB.
Another cost saving tactic was not getting the EuroPass, would have been more expensive and a hastle. That pass is designed for people to bounce all over the continent and hit the major cities in a very short timeframe. My travels were strategically planned to be longer and so that each intercity trip was a short distance on regional trains. Once I found out that Germany also had a 9 euro/month rail pass I knew that I’d easily saved atleast 100 euro, if not more.
I wasn’t too concerned with my spending while I was traveling and I’m happy with the results which confirm my expectations. It’s always fun for me to analyze my spending to see how reality compares to expectation. It also gives me confidence that I’m doing okay and spending wisely.
