Blog du Wren

Financial Recap of Costa Rica-Nicaragua Trip

Money is one of the reasons often cited by people who want to travel more but don't. While I understand this, I also like to offer up some of the details of my trips to let them know that travel can be done on the cheap and still be very rewarding. Della and I just had an awesome trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua—23 days of beaches, exotic animals, good food, new culture, and lots of time together—for just under $2000, flights and all!*

As part of our daily (to keep track of what we did, where we stayed, etc.), we also captured what we spent and on what. Just as a fun exercise*, I threw all that data into a to see what came out. And as always, data proves to be fun!

So, excluding flights, but including everything else, we spent $1,521. That breaks down to about $66/day. I split expenses into lodging, food, internal transportation, ice cream, and other (a category that included national park entrance fees, visa fees, souvenirs, zip lining, etc.).

	Total	Per Day	Percentage
Lodging*	$584	$25.39	38%
Food	$451	$19.61	30%
Internal Transportation	$178	$7.74	12%
Ice Cream*	$36	$1.57	2%
Other	$272	$11.83	18%

Numbers are for 2 people. Divide in half for per person numbers
While it wouldn't be fair to say that we traveled like kings, we also didn't only go for the cheapest options. We almost always got a private room (vs. dorms), had occasion to take a taxi a time or two, ate out almost exclusively, and didn't forgo much in the way of activities. Basically, we traveled much like we live here at home—on the cheap, but not stupid cheap.

As for flights, I benefited from a friend working in the industry and got my flight for just the cost of taxes and fees ($68 total) (THANKS MINDY!!). For Della, we found two cheap one way flights in and out of Liberia, a small city in the north of Costa Rica (cheaper than flying in and out of San Jose). Her flights came to $400.

So yeah, $2000 total for the both of us for a wonderful adventure to a foreign land seems pretty dang reasonable. In fact, comparing it back to some of the previous "Financial Breakdown" posts I've done (here, here, and here), it ranks as just about the cheapest trip I've ever taken! Whatever the details, I hope this helps to show that travel doesn't have to be super expensive. All you need is a spirit for adventure, a little patience and know-how, and the world can be your oyster!

Tuesday January 3 2017

File under: travel

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on Wed 04th Jan, 2017 02:29 am EST Andrew said:
Nice! Can you breakdown the cost for 4 to head to Great Wolf Lodge for a long weekend?
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on Wed 04th Jan, 2017 02:37 am EST Wren said:
Priceless
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