The below blog post shares how much we spent backpacking Eastern Europe (+ a tiny bit of Italy) across 2 and a bit months. The majority of this adventure we did on our own staying between a mix of hostels, airbnbs and bed & breakfasts. We adventured into one group tour with G-Adventures for 15 days around Turkey which threw the budget out a tad (always double the amount of money you spend on the tour to include extra activities and food). But overall I believe that we did it as cheaply as possible. Yes at times we did sacrifice and eat lots of 2min noodles but it’s all part of the experience and it allowed us to see more amazing places .
All that being said here is the breakdown of how much we spent in each country and what we spent it on. We travelled from the 1st June to 7th August 2023 a total of 68 Days.
*all totals are in NZD and have been converted in 2023 to euros
All totals include transport, food (eating out and grocery shops),accomodation, activities, souvenirs
Italy
Italy was country number one for us and one we knew it was going to be a bit more on the expensive side….. but we stuck to a budget and it didn’t turn out too badly.
We were in Italy for a total of 15 Days
Total / person
= $1549.23 (€871.100)
Total / person / day
= $103.28 NZD (€ 58.07)
Turkey
Our time in Turkey was spent on a G Adventure group tour, therefore our total cost is slightly more expensive than if we were travelling by ourselves.
Overall we spent 16 Days in Turkey.
Total / person
= $2327 NZD(€1308.43)
Total / person / day
= $145.4 NZD (€ 81.76)
Bulgaria
Next on our list of countries to visit was Bulgaria. We choose Bulgaria because it was a cheaper country to visit and slightly more undiscovered in terms of tourism.
We spent a total of 9 Days travelling in Bulgaria.
Total / person
= $648.8 NZD (€364.81)
Total / person / day
= $72.08 NZD (€ 40.53)
Greece
Greece had to be one of my favourite countries that we went to. To save money we went to some of the lesser known islands which was perfect for us. We wanted to avoid the major tourist places like Santorini and Mykonos as we were heading there in peak summer. We visited Paros and Andros as well as spending a night in Athens.
In total we spend 8 Days in Greece
Total / person
= $1258.46 NZD (€707.61)
Total / person / day
= $162.26 NZD (€ 91.24)
Albania
Albania is a very up and coming country with tourism due to a lot of advertisement on social media. We loved our time spent in Albania, it was a country that we never set out on visiting but after speaking to a few people on our Turkey tour we decided to give it a go.
In total we spent 10 Days travelling around Albania.
Total / person
= $792.76 NZD (€445.75)
Total / person / day
= $79.27 NZD (€ 44.57)
Montenegro
Montenegro was just a 24hr stop spent in Kotor on our way to Dubrovnik. It is currently on our list of places to go back to for 2024.
For 24hrs in Kotor, Montenegro we spent:
Total / person
= $127.3 NZD (€71.58)
Total / person / day
= $127.3 NZD (€ 71.58)
Croatia
Let’s be honest here about Croatia, it is a beautiful place with so many amazing beach’s and old towns but damn it is expensive. I didn’t realise how popular it had gotten and how expensive it has become. Because of this we cut our trip short in Croatia.
We spent a total of 7 Days in Croatia
Total / person
= $1326.7 NZD (€745.98)
Total / person / day
= $190 NZD (€106.83)
Let’s Recap…..
Therefore an overall for a whole 2 months of travelling around Western Europe and a small part of Italy we spent:
Accomodation: $4960.95 NZD (€2800)
Transport: $1073.1 NZD (€605.7)
Groceries: $482.7NZD (€272.5)
Activities: $966 NZD (€545.3)
Eating Out: $897.6 NZD (€506.7)
Other: $121.11 NZD (€68.37)
Total / person
= $8153.9 NZD (€4587.75)
Total / person / day
= $119.9 NZD (€67.42)
I don’t think we did to badly.
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