I love budgets. Knowing exactly where I am spending my money is the only thing that will allow me to keep spending money tomorrow. Every day on the Camino, I (meticulously) kept track of what money my mother and I spent during the May-June season of the Camino Francés. My hope is that this information will help you anticipate costs of your own Camino.
Here is a link to the google spreadsheet budget if you would like to explore the data yourself. We learned quickly that the cost of traveling in Spain and the cost of the Camino are dramatically different. The yellow highlighted boxes on the excel sheet indicate our costs before beginning the Camino, and they are significantly higher. Once on the camino, our average cost per day was 31.68€. This includes food, accommodation, drinks, and “other.” Excluding “other,” our cost per day on the Camino was 25.65€, but I encourage you to have money budgeted for inevitable pharmaceutical needs along the way. Your feet will have some damage with all this walking.
Our total living costs for 28 days while on the Camino amounted to 1,038.18€ per person. This included buying groceries and cooking our own meals whenever possible, using a mix of private and municipal Albergues, drinking cheap wine every other night, and drinking an exorbitant amount of coffee. I believe this was very moderate spending for the Camino. For pilgrims who have more flexibility in their wallets, enjoying the comfort of private Albergues (11.64€ average) local restaurants, and washing machines would be easy to do. For those hoping to cut costs, municipal Albergues (5.57€) every night and less sweet treats would be an easy option.
I had originally budgeted 1920€ per person for the Camino de Santiago. This would include 30€ per day on the Camino (which was accurate), 1000€ flight costs round trip from the United States, cost of Camino materials, and hotels and taxis between the airport and the Camino. In the end we were under budget for the Camino de Santiago, but a last minute weekend trip to Porto, Portugal meant we hit our budget pretty straight on.
I hope this was helpful, and has helped you consider if the Camino de Santiago is something you could swing!
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