Here’s How Much It Cost To Plan A One Month Trip To Spain And Italy

Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, Rome, and Naples

A few months ago, I started detailing how much each element of a one month trip to Spain and Italy costs, comparing it to what you can expect to pay if you were just doing two weeks in San Francisco or Portland.

Spoiler: It costs less — way less — to do a month in Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, Rome, and Naples.

You can see the comparisons as well as the previous cost breakdowns in the previous stories —

Today, we round out the remaining expenses, total them, and make updates.

My partner and I will be posting from the trip throughout February in my Never Retire newsletter. It will be much more than a travelogue. See details on that here.

One thing we’ll do is track our daily food, drink, and other incidental expenses while in Spain and Italy, comparing them to what they would typically cost in the United States. This is where you really save money.

Anyhow, updating the Airbnb situation.

Here’s where we left off —

We have booked all of the Airbnbs, except for the last few nights in Barcelona. We have decided to book that segment during our initial stay in Barcelona, as we get accustomed to the city.

Our ground rules:

• We want to stay in the coolest, most urban, most vibrant, most bustling neighborhoods where people live and where everything — bars, restaurants, shops, services — are within walking distance.
• We want nice and clean accommodations.
• Size doesn’t matter.
• We want the per night cost to come in (well) under $100. As you’ll see, more than feasible in the above-mentioned cities. Not so possible in the domestic equivalents.

When we come back from the trip, I’ll post the actual places we stayed in. For now, a summary of how much each Airbnb cost (including fees) and an estimate of what the last few nights in Barcelona will cost.

• 4 nights in Barcelona’s Gracia neighborhood: $468.67 / $117 per night
• 4 nights in Valencia’s Russafa neighborhood: $337.83 / $84 per night
• 6 nights in Madrid’s Malasana neighborhood: $454.79 / $76 per night
• 4 nights in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood: $291.68 / $73 per night
• 5 nights in Naples’ Spanish Quarter neighborhood: $282.28 / $56 per night

So far we have 23 nights for a total of $1,835 or $80 per night.

We’ll estimate the final 4 nights in Barcelona at $100 per night, as it is the most expensive city we’re visiting, bringing the total to $2,235 or $83 per night.

$2,235 or $83 per night to spend 27 nights in five of Spain and Italy’s top cities in the most vibrant neighborhoods.

So, an update.

I pride myself on being a near-perfect travel planner. However, I screwed up not booking the last few nights in Barcelona months ago. I thought we’d be good to just find an Airbnb in February.

I was wrong.

Things have gotten tight and, by far, Barcelona is the most expensive city of the five. Once I realized this, we booked the final four nights in Barcelona. But, it was difficult.

Unlike the other cities we’re visiting, suddenly, prices have skyrocketed in Barcelona. Whereas you can still pay what we paid — or less — in the other four cities, you can’t in Barcelona. Unless, of course, you want to stay in a hostel, which we do not.

That said, we scooped up what might be the last remaining relative bargain in the center of the city for $578.87 for four nights, or $145 a night. Still way cheaper than the equivalent in U.S. cities, but more expensive than the $117 we’re paying in Barcelona at the beginning of the trip and the sub-$100 rates in Valencia, Madrid, Rome, and Naples.

This brings our total to $2,414 for 27 nights, which averages out to $89.40 a night. Not bad at all. And considerably less than you’d spend for two weeks in SF, PDX, or similar American cities.

As noted in one of the previous articles, the two flights we’re taking within Europe have been booked for a while —

Total cost for Madrid to Rome (on a Wednesday) for two people — $62 on Ryanair.

Total cost for Naples to Barcelona (on a Friday) for two people — $68 on Ryanair.

Dirt cheap.

As for trains, we have three booked —

• Barcelona to Valencia: $57 for two people
• Valencia to Madrid: $30 for two people
• Rome to Naples: $26 for two people

So, $113 for these three train trips for two people.

The nonstop roundtrip flight between LAX and Barcelona (BCN) came to $972 for two people (booked on July 1, 2022).

So, in total, the trip — flights, trains, Airbnbs — comes to $3,629. For an entire month in some incredible cities.

Equivalent Airbnbs in equivalent U.S. neighborhoods in equivalent U.S. cities routinely cost around that much — or more — for two weeks. Up it to a month and you’ll almost always pay considerably more, often around twice the price.

Also, look at it this way — using a pots of money approach to personal finance makes this type of splurge more than doable for most people making decent or better money.

We’re talking $300 a month to save for this trip over the course of a year.

Other keys —

• Book in advance in spurts to spread the spending out.
• Use Airbnb’s pay half now, pay the other half later feature.
• Try to pay for as much of the trip as you can from your checking account cash cushion, rather than your pots of money (travel fund) savings.

Then, when you’re in Spain and Italy, enjoy the culture more than anything, but also the $1.50 cappuccinos and wine, beer, aperitivos, and meals for a fraction of what they would cost you in America.

For my partner and I, this is also life research, as we plan to make the move to Spain within a few years.

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I started (this!) new publication called City Life. Read the submission guidelines. And follow it here. The plan is to take my love for cities and city living — something that comes up often in my personal finance articles — and give it an exclusive home.