Blog du Wren

Financial Recap of the Camino and Africa

On of the things that I do upon returning from a trip (besides looking through photos and sharing stories IRL) is to wrap my head around the costs of the trip. This helps me see the big picture, after so much attention paid to whether that albergue is worth €2 more than this one or if I'm the kind of guy that pays for taxis rather than taking public transport. And I really like knowing. So without further ado, here's what my recent trip to do the Camino de Santiago and then some R&R time in Africa cost.

Camino de Santiago	[1] all money spent between arriving to Saint-Jean-Pied-a-Port until leaving Santiago [2] averages calculated over 34 days [3] money was spent and recorded in euros so ATM fees and conversion calculations create slight margin of error
Sleeping	$525	$15.50/night average	Albergues averaged $12.25/night but my 6 nights (2 along the trail, 4 in Santiago) in solo rooms (averaging $30/night) upped it a bit
Food	$540	$16/day average	Granted, I lost 20 pounds partially from skipping many many meals so most people probably had a higher food cost than this.
Other	$59	$1.75/day average	Most days, I had no Other costs at all. Examples of this were postcards/stamps, entertainment (cinema/museums), souvenirs. This, I think, is definitely anomalous, as I was there just to walk, not do stuff.
Total	$1100	$33.25/day average

Africa Senegal/Gambia	[1] all money spent between arriving in Dakar, Senegal until leaving Banjul, Gambia[2] averages calculated over 17 days [3] ATM fees and money conversion costs might add ~3% to these numbers.
Sleeping	$367	$21.50/night average	A few of the hotels came with a free breakfast, which is worth noting (as that would skew the balance of food to sleeping ratio). Also of note, I did splurge on a $55 hotel which skews the average a bit
Food	$237	$14/day average	This includes not only meals, but snacks and beverages which includes bottled water, a daily expense. ?Also worth noting, it includes a lot of shrimp :)
Transportation	$106	$6.25/day average	This doesn't include flights to and from. It is mostly a lot of taxis, both intra and interurban with a boat ride or two thrown in. Also of note, Senegal's transportation costs were quite a bit higher than Gambia's, though mostly because the distances travelled were much higher
Other	$120	$7/day average	$50 of this was a COVID test required to fly back to Europe and $20 for a visa, which essentially means only $3/day for things like cinema, national parks, museums, etc. I mostly just walked around, ate, and looked at stuff.
Total	$830	$49/day average	As always, average cost per day during travel is so much a factor of how much you move around and how long you say (allowing the 1 time costs like visas, covid tests, etc. to be more distributed)

Flights	[1]all one-way flights [2] almost always found via skyscannet.net
Seattle to Pamplona	$450	This was bought somewhat last minute (3 weeks out?) so a better price could easily have been achieved.
Santiago to Dakar	$455	I had my Madrid to Banjul ($260) cancelled not long before departure (due to Morocco totally shutting down, where I was to layover) so had to scramble this together piecemeal
Banjul to Seville	$237	Middle of the night flight that ended up getting delay which caused me to miss a connection, but still a pretty good price
Seville to Chicago	$318	I was surprised (and proud) to find such a great deal from Europe to the States smack in the middle of the Christmas rush
Chicago to Bellingham	$0 (on standby)	It's good to have friends who work for airlines. But flying standby 1) during the holidays 2) when flights are cancelled left and right due to covid staff shortages and 3) when weather puts whole airports out of commission isn't advisable. I made it only by the skin of my teeth.
Total	$1460	From super far corner of the US to small town in Spain to Africa to Spain then back to the US, all one-way flights, all bought last minute-ish, I think that's not bad. Yeehaw for skyscanner.net and lots and lots of searching time.

Other	All the in between costs that did not make it into one of the above tables
Spanish COVID test	$45	Require 1 day before re-entering the US, so even though I had one from 2 days previous, another one was necessary. And the cost was more than it might have been because it was a Sunday (Spain's national day of everything being closed) and the day after Christmas.
Hostel in Chicago	$32	My fancy flying had me layover in Chicago for the night so I grabbed a cheap hostel via hostelworld.com. They falsely advertised the price so the cost was higher than I had bargained for. Please don't use their service as unethical businesses don't deserve support. The hostel, Found Hotel, was complicit so should be avoided as well.
Taxi from Pamplona to Saint-Jean-Pied-a-Port	$109	This is an expense that could be avoided/minimized if I wasn't doing the camino in the off season (as there is a cheap bus that makes the trip)
Other other	$45	Food at airports, minor costs at my 2-day Christmas in Jerez, Spain, etc.
Total	$231

In grand total, I spent $3,621 which comes out to about $65/day all inclusive. I'd say that's a small price to pay to have an experience of a life time that gave me new perspectives on myself (the Camino) and a glimpse into how others live in a totally different part of the world (Senegal/The Gambia), not to mention a long overdue visit with a college friend (Jerez, Spain).

(P.S. I know that travel is about more than doing it as cheaply as possible. And I know that caring less about money while traveling is something I need to work out. This analysis is a tool to help me do that. And I would have said more about all that, but this post is long enough as it is.)

Sunday January 9 2022

File under: travel, data

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on Wed 12th Jan, 2022 12:25 pm CST Tia Kay said:
I'm impressed not only for the small cost of the trip, but for your accounting of it all. Wow....carino
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