Overview
We tried to keep receipts for everything which wasn’t difficult as you receive a receipt everywhere. Some were easy, as we charged on credit cards, but some small purchases probably got lost. Certainly, things like a bottle of water, stamps, post cards, etc were probably overlooked, so the number below is probably a $100 or so low.
Costs by Category
| Category | Amount |
| food | $1,284.32 |
| Hotel | $1,306.94 |
| International Airfare | $1,259.34 |
| sightseeing | $363.46 |
| transportation | $799.18 |
| Souvenir | $349.35 |
| Grand Total | $5,362.59 |
Note on costs
The category “International Airfare” represents the costs of the flights to Spain from JFK and return flight. We used British Airways miles but still had to pay money and there were no coach seats available for the return, so we had to book business class for the return. But, overall, I think that this cost is LOW if you were just booking with airlines without using air miles.
The category “Food” is probably accurate. The only expensive meals we had were two in Barcelona. Otherwise, a typical dinner meal was in the $35 to $60 range for two.
The category “Hotel” represents rates we got directly with the hotels, which is how Rick Steves recommends making the reservations. All hotels were in the upper range of Rick Steves guidebook, but remember that he tends more toward the budget traveler. We did not try to “shop” the hotel costs by searching Trivago, etc.
The category “Transportation” represents costs of our two flights inside Spain (Madrid to Sevilla and Granada to Barcelona) and our one bus trip (Sevilla to Granada). I spoke to one person who used a bus for the Madrid to Sevilla trip and said it was fine. So, these costs could probably be lower if you did more bus or train travel.