In my professional life, I am data-obsessed. I love setting up great tracking systems, setting goals and targets, and analyzing results. So, I thought it would be fun to report out a little data on our travels. Here is a look at Leg 1 by the numbers (with a few favorite lists thrown in):
Where We Were
Countries visited: 9, 6 new in bold – Iceland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, France, Turkey
Cities visited (overnight): 13
Number of hotels: 10
Number of hotel nights: 25
Number of apartments: 5
Number of apartment nights: 89
Total beds slept in: 15
Total busses slept in: 1
Total lodging budget: $4,428
Total lodging actual: $4,551
How We Got There and What We Did
Number of bus trips (intercity): 6
Number of train trips (intercity): 3
Number of flights: 6 purchases with 10 separate flights
Total transit budget: $2,340
Total transit actual: $2,317
Average weekly food/entertainment budget: $340
Average weekly food/entertainment actual: $325
Totals
Total budget: $15,000
Total actual: $14,739
Number of weeks over budget: 7
Number of weeks under budget: 10
Average weekly total budget/actual (including transit week/transatlantic flight): $882/$867
Average weekly total budget/actual (not including transit week/transatlantic flight): $749/$739 (overall, $10 per week savings)
Least expensive week: Week 8, July 9-15, $411, the week we spent two days at Hello Wood architecture camp
Most expensive week: Week 1, $2,909 (this includes airfare, our day in Iceland and a couple days in Frankfurt)
Most expensive week not including transit week: Week 11, July 30-August 5, $1,718, anniversary trip to Paris
Cost of Paris anniversary trip: $1,426 (worth it)
The Best Parts
Best experiences (chronologically):
- beer gardens in Prague with my friend Sara
- Germany match at Brandenburg Gate with Chad’s cousin Scott
- our last Tatry hike (also, our other two Tatry hikes)
- self-guided Le Corbu tour of Paris (also, everything in Paris)
- Gershwin/Bernstein concert at Margaret Island
- Cappadocia balloon ride
- Ephesus opera
Best meals:
Honorable mention meals:
Chez Plumeau (Paris), Ferdinand Monarchia (Budapest), Kosem Balik Lokantasi (Andalu Kavagi fishing village near Istanbul), Sahrap (Istanbul), Top Deck (Goreme, Turkey)
In my next post, I’ll analyze the numbers just a bit as I share what we learned in Leg 1.