Barcelona Expenses
Transportation:
Flight to Bilbao- $72.96
Flight to Barcelona- $22.45
Trains/buses- $19.35
Taxis- $24.87
Bilbao expenses are missing because I never ended up in Bilbao. I took the flight from Amsterdam to Bilbao only for the plane to be diverted to Barcelona due to weather conditions. The airline put me up in a hotel with dinner and breakfast but by the time I checked in, it was 11pm and I would need to be back at the airport at 6am. Instead of rushing and stressing and visiting my friend from study abroad, I decided to book a room in a hostel for the next three nights and stay in Barcelona. The cost of both flights to Bilbao and Barcelona was only slightly more than a flight straight to Barcelona would have been so I counted the hotel, dinner, and breakfast as the airline paying me back and wrote it off. The bus/metro system in Barcelona is decent, but we decided to pay for the convenience of taxis a few times late at night and when moving from hostel to hostel with all our things.
Accommodation:
Three nights at Factory Gardens (shared room)- $61.63
Three nights at the Four Points Sheraton- $0
Two nights at Hostal Quartier Gothic- $47.53
Two nights at Microhotel Bauhaus- $24.20
One night at Casa Kessler (shared room)- $16.63
Accommodation in Barcelona was surprisingly cheap. In addition to the gift of three nights from my brother, we were able to get great deals on private rooms in hostels so we barely had to share our space with strangers. We loved Barcelona so much, we kept adding a few more nights at a time. As stressful as moving around so much can be, it was interesting to stay in and explore different neighborhoods.
Entertainment:
Sagrada Familia entrance- $20.11
Dance/club covers- $16.50
Bike rental + tour- $16.50
We went salsa, bachata, west coast swing, and zouk dancing in Barcelona as well as rented bikes, toured the city, visited Parc Guell, and admired La Sagrada Familia.
Food:
ALL THE FOOD- $335.22
Remember all the money we saved on accommodation? We ate it. Seriously. The food in Barcelona was so delicious and accessible and creative we couldn't help but eat out once, maybe twice, every day. We had interesting brunches, typical tapas and paella, fresh pasta, crazy desserts, tacos on homemade tortillas, drinking chocolate, delicious Indian food, churros galore, everything our hearts and stomachs desired.
Total: $667.95
Nearly two full weeks (13 days) in Spain for $667.95 comes to just over $50 a day. Just four days into the trip, I knew that our adventure wouldn't last the full 2-3 months I originally planned for. Then a few days later, I booked a last minute flight home for $268.32 (!!). Knowing all this, I definitely relaxed the budget and started doing/seeing/eating every day like it was the last.
