Draft — Jay Austin
To shed some light on the costs of long-term bike travel, we're publishing monthly reports of all our expenses. Here's a full list of all spending posts to date [link].
Overview
Food: 2082 HRK (354 USD)
Lodging: 693 HRK (118 USD)
Total ordinary expenses: 2775 HRK (472 USD)
Daily expenses: 90 HRK (15 USD)
Daily expenses, per person: 45 HRK (8 USD)
Additional expenses: 181 HRK (31 USD)
Total cost, March 2018: 2956 HRK (503 USD)
Ordinary expenses
Eating in Spain was much more expensive than in Morocco, but still affordable. Mostly we bought groceries, but occasionally (especially in Andalucia, where beer costs under two euros and comes with a tapa) we enjoyed a drink at a bar or cafe. We did plenty of cooking with our (many) hosts. In some cases, we were able to purchase the ingredients; other times, they insisted on using what they had in the pantry.
Sleeping in Spain was lovely. We traveled through the country in the dead of winter, so camping could be a bit cold. We never paid for campsites and had little trouble finding a suitable place to wild camp when needed (though it could be trickier on the coast). Mostly, though, we were tremendously fortunate to be welcomed into the homes of a number of really wonderful people: folks we met through Warmshowers and Couchsurfing and earlier travels.
During the month of March, we were hosted for 9 nights, wild camped 9 nights, and stayed in a hostel/Airbnb (using credit for most of our Airbnb nights) 13 nights.
Overall, our monthly budget of 700 USD total (recently increased from 600 to give us a little breathing room) felt more than adequate for our daily needs and a few unforeseen expenses. In the middle of January, a few good friends visited us from back home in Barcelona. We splurged a little (relatively speaking, for us) on food and lodging during their visit (and thankfully, they were very graciously understanding of our financial constraints).
Our day-by-day costs (and where we slept) are below. All values are expressed in Euro (as of April 2018, 1 HRK (HRK) = 0.17 US Dollar (USD).
Hosted in Muggia.
Hosted in Muggia.
Hosted in Muggia.
Hosted in Muggia.
642 food / Hosted in Muggia.
Hosted in Muggia.
Hosted in Muggia.
Hosted en route to Rijeka.
148 lodging / Hostel in Rijeka.
24 food / 184 lodging / Hostel in Rijeka.
23 food / Couchsurfing host in Rijeka.
73 food / Wild camping en route to Zadar.
60 food / Wild camping en route to Zadar.
70 food / Wild camping en route to Zadar.
76 food / 167 lodging / Hostel in Zadar.
Wild camping en route to Split.
59 food / Wild camping en route to Split.
147 food / Airbnb in Split (paid for by credit).
Airbnb in Split (paid for by credit).
363 food / Airbnb in Split (paid for by credit).
Airbnb in Split (paid for by credit).
179 food / Airbnb in Split (paid for by credit).
Airbnb in Split (paid for by credit).
152 food / Airbnb in Split (paid for by credit).
Airbnb in Split (paid for by credit).
158 food / 97 lodging / Airbnb in Split.
97 lodging / Airbnb in Split.
57 food / Wild camping en route to Makarska.
Wild camping en route to Makarska.
Wild camping en route to Makarska.
Wild camping en route to Makarska.
Other expenses
We got caught in a snowstorm deep in Spain's interior. We had to meet friends in Barcelona by the middle of the month, and so we took a bus to Valencia to get out of the storm and ensure we'd make it to Barcelona in time. We also purchased some new gear for the colder weather, mainly thermoses for hot drinks and new gloves to replace the terrible "waterproof" ones we were using. My Google cell service, which doesn't roll over neatly at the end of each month, also cost a little bit.
All values are expressed in Euro (as of April 2018, 1 Euro (EUR) = 1.23 US Dollar (USD).
Bus tickets: 64
New/replacement gear: 40
Cell service: 20
As always, tons of thanks to the many, many friends (new and old) who showed us such generosity and kindness this January and made our time in Spain so wonderful. We certainly couldn't have done it without you.