October 2024 Budget Report (Montenegro & Albania)

November 3, 2024 Mark

Hello from Galicia, Spain!

Our Balkan fast travels finally came to an end and it is time to assess the effects on our October 2024 budget.

So will a full month of fast travel in Montenegro and Albania be as budget-busting as we thought?

Let’s survey the damage.

As a reminder to everyone about our recent travel patterns, we started “fast traveling” through the Balkans in mid-September, starting with the city of Mostar. So October represents our only full month of continuous fast travel – through the countries of Montenegro and Albania.

Now “fast travel” is a relative term, but we defined it as travel where we stayed in one location for two weeks or less.

And fast travel has consequences.

We couldn’t take advantage of sweet monthly Airbnb discounts, nor did it make sense to stock our kitchen (and make meals at home) like we normally would.

So let’s see how everything played out.

Accommodation: $992.80 USD

As expected, we took a big hit here, with our stay in Kotor being the biggest budgetary offender (6 nights x $48.72 USD/night) for October. And on a per-day basis, our overnight stay in Madrid, Spain was also not cheap ($58.72 USD), although it was a bargain for Madrid.

But in terms of overall affordability, our October fast travel accommodation expenses are close to what we paid for 1 month in Mexico City. So we could have done much, much worse really.

Activities: $301.75 USD

When you travel fast, you need spend money at attractions in a more concentrated time frame to really explore a place. Meaning, we saw in 1 or 2 weeks what we might have spread out over 1 month in some cases.

Honestly, it got a little exhausting after a while.

Our biggest budget busters were our Blue Cave boat tour in Kotor ($78.07 USD), Konami Lake fjord boat ride in Shkoder ($79.99 USD), Cable Car ride in Tirana ($30.99 USD), Bunk’Art combo tickets ($28.78 USD), and 2 Free Walking Tour gratuities (~$20 USD each).

The remainder is made up by various low-cost admission fees ($5 USD or less).

Alcohol: $55.65 USD

We had a relatively dry month for specific alcohol purchases, as we weren’t huge fans of the wines we tried and only occasionally indulged in the local ~~moonshine~~ Raki.

We did have the occasional cheap beer and glass of house wine with meals, but those were lumped in with our eating-out expenses.

Eating Out: $637.33 USD

Yikes! This was our most expensive month eating out on record.

It wasn’t that the meals were expensive. They were actually quite affordable, especially at local haunts.

But we ate out way more often than usual and were frequent visitors to local cafes.

Normally we might eat out 3 or 4 meals per week. But we easily doubled that, along with additional weekly splurges (meals for 2 at around $35 USD) at fancier restaurants or more touristy areas.

But honestly, we expected this uptick in restaurant spending.

Groceries: $231.32 USD

The silver lining for eating out more is that our grocery expenses plummeted! It was possibly our cheapest month on record.

Medical: $80.62 USD

We both got excellent teeth cleanings in Tirana, Albania ($66.14 USD total) and restocked our traveler’s diarrhea antibiotic supplies in Tirana ($14.48 USD).

We sure wish we had those antibiotics in September when we got sick after drinking homemade juice in Počitelj, Bosnia & Herzegovina!

Miscellaneous: $47.93 USD

Nothing really crazy here.

I purchased a hand-made Albanian winter hat, a gift for friends, a new hairbrush, and paid our Montenegro daily tourist tax (€14 for 7 days [2 people]).

Supplies: $9.85 USD

Since we were not staying anywhere for long, we didn’t buy much for our Airbnbs. So our supply expense total reflects this.

Transportation: $307.71 USD

An expensive month by our standards! We actually traveled all over the place, as you can guess since we are currently in Spain!

Our biggest budgetary offenders were our one-way WIZZ Air direct flights from Tirana, Albania to Madrid, Spain ($135.68 USD total), bus tickets from Kotor to Shkoder ($57.51 USD total), and high-speed train tickets from Madrid to Ourense, Spain ($48.80 USD total).

The reminder came from numerous city and regional bus rides in Albania, as well as cheap commuter train tickets from the Airport to central Madrid.

Utilities/Upkeep: $38.69 USD

This expense category total is from our MyRVmail monthly fee ($20.75 USD), 30-day Spain eSIM data purchases ($0.96 USD per person for 1 GB), and personal upkeep supplies.

Total Expenses for October 2024 = $2,703.65 USD

Here is a summary of our October 2024 expenses:

Considering we were in full fast travel mode, being only ~$200 USD above our preferred monthly budget of $2,500 USD is pretty good we think!

And the effect on our August/August fiscal year monthly spending average has been minor, which is now $2,149.94 USD after 3 months.

Sweet.

So was fast travel in the Balkans more expensive for us?

Absolutely.

Did it really impact us big picture?

Nope.

Here’s hoping this trend continues.

And we are super happy to be slow traveling again. We’ll explain why in a future post, and it is about more than just the financials.

Until next time…

Thanks for reading!

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