AUSTRIA BUDGET GUIDE

When we travel, I try to walk the fine line between “how little can we spend” vs “how can we make this an enjoyable experience”. This means splurging in some areas and cutting in others. I also pride myself on being a budget savvy traveler, which means I scrutinize every expense a little extra.

We recently took a 10 day Christmas trip to Austria with Jarod’s parents and after all the charges hit, here’s how we made out. I’ll walk you through all our expenses and where we could’ve cut or splurged a little more.

Total: $5,115.09 (or $2,557.54 per person)

Transportation: $2,543.44 US
Accommodations: $1166.74
Activities: $369.57
Food: $545.70
Souvenirs & Shopping: $196.73
Misc: $652.91

Note: All of these expenses are for my husband and I. If you’re traveling alone, your costs will be about 60%, accounting for similar accommodation prices.

Transportation: $2,543.44 USD

Flights: $2,082.73 ($1728.13 DFW - ZRH, $354.60 ZRH - VIE)

I almost always book our flights through Google Flights with a little help from Going. And when an email landed in my inbox for $500 flights to Zurich, I was in.

Now, I’m a lover of cheap flights but I’m also a lover of comfort. After an unfortunate situation during the pandemic, I never book basic economy. And I’m so glad I didn’t for this trip! After a job change, I had to change the dates and location TWICE after booking flights. Had I gone with basic economy, we would have been out $1,000.

I purchased the main cabin seats for $1,380 and then, because I wanted to maximize our enjoyment of the trip and avoid jet lag, we spent $347 and 1000 AAdvantage miles upgrading to Main Cabin extra on the way there and back. For a ten hour flight, the extra leg room and dedicated overhead space is 1000% worth it for me.

But here’s where I made my first mistake. I chose Zurich as a gateway into Europe, knowing we wouldn’t spend our time there. With the goal of visiting a new country, I wanted to look outside Switzerland and planned for Austria next door.

And while inter-EU flights are often very cheap, Switzerland is very expensive to fly in and out of. Our one way flight to Vienna came in at $354.60, or $175 pp. In comparison, a flight from Milan to Vienna on the same date would’ve run us $60 pp. That hurt. Also, due to our flight times, we had to spend 2 nights in Zurich, eating into our valuable vacation time.

Train: $220.35

We took three train journeys on this trip, from Vienna to Salzburg, Salzburg to Innsbruck, and Innsbruck to Zurich.

I am a huge advocate of European train travel, as it’s easy, cost effective, and efficient. Our train tickets within the country only cost $23 pp each time. That can’t be beat.

But our tickets from Innsbruck to Zurich rang in at $64 pp, and ate up four hours of our precious travel time. Though the journey through the Alps featured some of the most stunning scenery I’ve ever experienced, I wouldn’t recommend following this method. Next time, I would fly into Vienna and out of Innsbruck (our actual itinerary) and pay the extra $500. Between the extra flight and the train from Innsbruck to Zurich, it would’ve evened out.

Public transport & Uber: $240.36

We almost always get around by public transport when visiting cities. Especially in European cities, where the timetables are easy to understand and use. We used local trams and buses a lot, but made a couple mistakes here.

On our first morning in Zurich, we purchased day use tickets. I had read that they’d be around $15 USD pp. The train was arriving in five minutes and we were in a hurry, so I told Jarod which ones to get and sent him across the tracks to purchase them. He mouthed something to me and unknowingly, I agreed to purchase $59 tickets. Still not sure which tickets he purchased, but it was a huge blow. And later that same day, as we landed in Vienna, I bought the wrong train tickets for the City Airport Train and there went another $30 down the drain.

In both of these instances, we were navigating ticket machines while in a hurry, anxious to catch the soonest train. Had we slowed down a little and been okay with taking the next one (there’s almost always a next one), we could have saved $89 in just one day.

Accommodations: $1166.74

My general rule when booking accommodation is to stay as centrally located as possible in the cheapest space that looks comfy. I try to stick to $100 per night or under, if possible.

Zurich (2 separate nights): $192.18

We landed in Zurich and spent our first night there, at the ibis budget Zurich Airport. As far as budget hotels go, it was clean, four minutes by train from the airport, and a safe place to sleep. I wouldn’t choose it if we’d been exploring the city more, but it was great for a quick stopover.

On the back end though, I booked a private room through Airbnb in a different part of the city and really regretted it. I don’t know what I was thinking at all, but it was inconveniently located to the airport and caused us to take a $37 Uber to catch our flight on the way home. I should have just booked another night at the ibis.

Vienna (3 nights): $332.19

Our Airbnb in Vienna was affordable, somewhat well located, and safe, in a cute little neighborhood off the First District. I almost always book AirBnBs over hotels, as we frequently cook our own meals to save on food costs. It wasn’t the most comfortable -- I swear every Airbnb in Europe gives you one lumpy pillow -- but we were fine.

Salzburg (2 nights): $330.66

I splurged a little bit on our Airbnb in Salzburg and it did not disappoint. We were right in Altstadt (Old Town) and only two blocks away from the Salzburger Christmas market. With a view of the Hohenburg Fortress and heated floors, it was perfect. The neighborhood was great and my only regret is that we didn’t stay for more nights!

Innsbruck (2 nights): $311.71

We stayed in the cutest little B&B in Innsbruck, which promised mountain views and an authentic Tyrolean breakfast. Unfortunately, it was cloudy for most of our stay (obviously no fault of theirs) and the hotel was off a busy road a little ways outside of downtown. But when the sun finally did come out on our final morning, the mountain views were stunning.

Activities: $369.57

I’ve learned over the years that we are not really museum and castle people. I love beautiful views and not so much looking at art and old rooms. And tourist attractions can get really pricey! So we only visit what really interests us, not a city's “must-sees”.

We skipped a lot of the tourist attractions in Vienna, but we did go to the Schmetterlinghaus. Billed as a butterfly topiary, I’d envisioned a tropical oasis with thousands of butterflies circling overhead. It was not as impressive as I’d hoped -- I would skip this.

In Salzburg, we visited the fortress and sprung for an apple strudel making class. I’ve never done a cooking class on a trip before, as they’re somewhat expensive, but this one was well worth it. For $55 a person, we made apple strudel, traditional vanilla kipferl cookies, and enjoyed lunch as a class.

In Innsbruck we decided to purchase the City Card, for $58 pp. We wanted to take the Nordkettenbahn funicular/lift combo to the top of Innsbruck and at $52 pp, it made sense to just get the city card. It included all public transport and all the city’s attractions, so we were able to visit the Alpenzoo and the Hofburg at no additional cost.

As I get older and have more room to budget for trips, this category has increased the most. And these are often the moments we remembered the most, so I don’t regret it all. While $116 on one day does hurt me a little, I know I’ll thank myself in ten years. Jarod’s parents even remarked that when visiting Salzburg forty years ago, they were on such a shoestring budget that they couldn’t take the funicular to the fortress and looking back, wish they had. The views are almost always worth the cost!

Food: $545.70

This was the hardest category for me this go-around. We usually cook most of our meals in our AirBnB and try to eat out no more than once per day. But with the combination of traveling with Jarod’s parents and spending such a short amount of time in each city, we hardly stuck to this. We ate lots of meals out and had mulled wine at every single Christmas market (can you blame us?)

Still, clocking in at about $27 pp per day, we were relatively frugal. With the non memorable nature of most of our meals, I would have liked to see us closer to $350 or $400. On this amount, we could’ve done breakfast and lunch at home, and had a nice dinner out each night.

Souvenirs & Shopping: $196.73

I LOVE buying things in the places I visit. Of course the kitschy things like postcards and magnets, but also items I’ll use in daily life, like clothes. Pulling on a hat or purse and getting to remember where I got it helps to keep trips fresh in my mind.

Considering we visited during peak Christmas market season, I’m surprised this number wasn’t higher. Memorable items include a matching beanie and scarf combo, and the cutest throw pillow shaped like a mountain. I also bought a few gifts for friends and family.

Misc: $652.91

This section encompasses items we could have done without, and you might not have to factor in.

Travel Insurance: $204

We always, always purchase travel insurance. After COVID, I couldn’t imagine skipping it. Though I budgeted for $5,000, I only purchase insurance for our upfront non-refundable costs. In this case, I purchased a $4,000 policy from John Hancock Travel.

Airport parking: $77

If no one is available to drive us to the airport, we usually park in the remote parking for $8 per day. But as we were carpooling with Jarod’s parents, we decided to splurge on the terminal parking. Our half was $77. When we stumbled back to the car after an 18 hour travel day, it was 100% worth it to just drive away without all the waiting for a shuttle and extra time.

Dog Boarding: $360

We added a puppy to our family this year, and as we travel frequently, we rely on our friends and family often for pet care. For this trip, we boarded our dog at a rate of $30/night (yes, I know this is extremely cheap, we live in kind of a rural area). Obviously, this cost may or may not apply. As such, I didn’t include this amount in the grand total.

Random: $11.91

If you’re unlucky enough to need a restroom in Europe outside of a cafe or attraction, you’ll end up paying for it. Along with restrooms, we needed cash for a couple things here and there.

Total: $5,115.09

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