I haven’t finished posting my daily stories. I apologize. Especially to Ben, who has no idea what happened after I left him. They’ll come shortly. I promise.

Many of you are planning trips to Europe right now and have asked me how much my trip cost. Luckily, being the nerd I am, I kept detailed breakdowns of all the money I spent. Here’s a summary:

Our trip lasted 36 days and I spent $4,496.26 in total.
Our average daily expenses were $67.00 (not including pre-trip expenses like flights, EuroRail, and travel insurance). When factoring all costs in, it cost $124.90 per day.

<lj-cut text="Details…"
If you have a Gmail account and want more details, I can invite you to view a spreadsheet with breakdowns per city. The graphs summarize everything in it, but the raw data is also there.

Observations:

• Prague was definitely the cheapest city, although touristy attractions are still pricey. Areas outside of cities were cheaper, like the Rhine Valley and Cinque Terre (although our 2nd night was expensive because we splurged on dinner).
• Paris, Florence, and Amsterdam were the most expensive places to visit. Although the costs of Paris and Florence were higher because of accommodation decisions and mistakes.

Notes:

• Personal expenses include clothes, toiletries, and books I bought during the trip
• Misc expenses include pay toilets, pay phone, internet cafes, and everything else
• Big ticket items, like canyoning, musicals, and concerts were removed from the daily averages so as not to skew the numbers. They are included in trip totlas.
• In London, we slept in Ronnie’s apartment, so our accommodation was free. In Florence, we were stuck with a 3-bed room, so it was more expensive.
• Some hostels included free breakfast which drastically reduced food costs for those days.
• Pre-Trip expenses include travel insurance and buying an ISIC card. I could have thrown things like soap, shampoo, and gear in here. But I didn’t include anything like that.