If you haven’t read any of the prior expense reports from our trip, check them out below:
We spent 4 days and 4 nights in Munich, Germany, arriving on the evening of August 13th and leaving on the evening of August 17th. We took our first long-distance train on this trip from Berlin to Munich, which was a good experience and allowed us to see some of the country from the train windows. We were excited about Munich and the Bavarian region in general because of all of the good things we’d heard about rural Germany. Munich is not as big as Berlin, but it is still a busy city. We liked Munich a little more than Berlin overall, but we really enjoyed the more rural areas outside of Munich in Bavaria. The mountains in that area are amazing! I’ll be posting some pictures on Instagram soon for you guys to check out.
In order to see more of the area outside the city, we rented a car for the day and got to see some of the castles and palaces near the Austrian border. I got to drive on the Autobahn, which was awesome and something I was really looking forward to. I was nervous to go too fast but did get up to 120 MPH at one point and was still getting passed even at that speed! Southern Germany is definitely an area that we would like to return to in the future to do some more exploring.
Stay tuned for Whitney’s next post about all of our adventures on this part of the trip, but for now I’ll focus on the expenses incurred while in and around Munich. Keep in mind that all of the expenses that I’ll talk about below are my expenses only, since Whitney and I have quite different spending habits. We split all shared expenses evenly, so my half of the shared expenses and then my individual expenses are how I calculate the numbers below.
Accommodations: All four nights in Munich we stayed at a Holiday Inn using IHG points that Whitney got from a sign-up bonus. The hotel wasn’t anything special or fancy but the bed was comfortable and we were right near a train station which was nice. We didn’t get free breakfast here but then again, the whole stay was free so it’s hard to complain :).
- Total for my expenses: $0
Food and drink: Since our accommodation costs were nonexistent, Whitney talked me into splurging a few times on meals at nicer local German restaurants. The food there was awesome at pretty much every place we went to, and some of the portions were massive! We did get some groceries at Aldi and Lidl a couple times which saved us some money on a couple of meals.
- Total for my expenses: $64
Transportation: Our train ticket from Berlin to Munich was very reasonable, and the train was much more comfortable than a plane seat. Besides the train from Berlin, we paid for a day pass for public transit to use the local trains and buses each day we were there so that we didn’t have to worry about how many trips we took. The day pass was $7.77 for each of us for unlimited train, bus, and tram rides, which is a good value in my opinion. We never had anyone actually check our tickets because they use the honor system, and I’m sure many people don’t even buy tickets for the public transportation there for this reason, but we were fine with the cost. The public transportation even took us all the way outside of the city to the Dachau Concentration Camp which was an eye opening experience.
- Total for my expenses: $60
Activities: As I mentioned earlier, we rented a car for a day in order to drive outside of the city to see some of the surrounding area. This was more expensive than I would have liked, but Whitney really wanted to see the castles and I really wanted to drive on the Autobahn so we did it. I’m doing my best to lighten up a little on some expenses since this could be the only time we ever go to some of these places, and it would be shame to miss an awesome experience just for the sake of spending a little less money. The castles really were very impressive, and driving on the Autobahn was pretty cool as well even though it took me a little while to get used to driving a manual transmission again!
Besides the car rental and gas to drive around for the day, the only other activity we spent money on was for a free walking tour around Munich. This one was three hours and the guide was great. We saw a lot of the city and learned some history about the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich, as well as a plethora of other random facts about Munich and Bavaria. We have thoroughly enjoyed the walking tours and like the idea of tipping the guide based on the quality of the tour instead of paying a set amount before knowing what the tour will be like.
- Total for my expenses: $63
My total expenses for 4 days and 4 nights in Munich, including accommodations, transportation, entertainment, and food was approximately $187!
Running total for entire trip to this point (my expenses only): $1,982.
While in Munich, we passed the one month mark since beginning this trip. Less than $2,000 in total expenses for an entire month traveling around Europe in Morocco is even less than I was planning on spending, and I felt like we splurged on several occasions. It definitely goes to show that with credit card rewards, choosing less expensive accommodations, and choosing more frugal activities, international travel (even to expensive locations in Europe) doesn’t have to break the bank!
Since most of the rest of this trip will be to lower cost of living areas, I think it’s possible that I will spend less than $6,000 total while traveling around the world for over 5 months… which is pretty awesome!
We headed to Chiang Mai, Thailand next, so stay tuned for my next update and watch the Facebook page where we are posting much more frequently about the trip!
