Amsterdam and Bruges: The Budget

So how much did my indulgent week in Europe cost? Even more interesting (to me!) - how much should it have cost? My goal was luxury on a budget and I think I was generally successful.

Total: $2284.60

Flights: $414.27
Other Transportation: $237.39
Hotels: $66.23
Food: $505.60
Tours and activities: $797.61
Souvenirs (aka cheese and chocolate): $192.15
Miscellaneous: $71.35

Note: Most prices were originally in Euros; the conversions to USD were accurate at the time of my trip.

Flights

The key to traveling more often is to save money on flights. This is a fixed expense and it’s more challenging to find “deals” on flights vs other areas of expense like accommodations. There are many ways to do this, but on this particular trip, I elected to use airline miles. One of the benefits of solo travel is having enough miles to splurge on things like business class tickets.

For my flight to Amsterdam, I flew on American Airlines from Eugene to DFW and on to London. From there, it was a quick flight on British Airways to Amsterdam. Despite flying coach, I had lounge access in both DFW and LHR thanks to my Capital One Venture X card. Cash prices for this leg are typically $800 one way or $1500 round trip. If I were paying cash, I probably would have flown out of PDX, which can save several hundred dollars. Instead, I paid 30,000 American Airlines miles plus $26.60.

The return trip was the real splurge, flying Brussels to London to San Francisco to Seattle to Eugene in business class, with the exception of the SFO to SEA leg, which was in economy. I got all of this for the grand total of 60K Alaska Airlines miles and $389.67. The cash price could easily be over $2500. And this is where I give a mini lecture on putting in a little extra legwork and having some flexibility. I knew I wanted to go to Amsterdam and initially planned to spend my entire trip there. However, I was struggling to find availability to book flights with miles for the return trip, so I expanded my search to surrounding countries, knowing I could easily and affordably travel between them. Thus, the addition of Belgium was born. I saved even more miles by choosing a slightly less desirable route with an extra stop and finding an option where one leg was in economy (likely due to availability). This almost halved the amount of miles required, but did not substantially alter my flying experience; my international leg was in business, so I still had lounge access once I was back in the US. Most importantly, the long flight from LHR to SFO in British Airways business class was a dream. Even better, my rough calculations indicate I saved over $2800 on flights by using miles.

Hotels

This was the other area where I saved a lot of money on this trip. As you can see, the expense for this was practically nothing, especially when you consider that I stayed seven nights in hotels, six of which I would consider luxurious. I booked four nights at the marvelous Kimpton DeWitt in Amsterdam for 133K IHG points. One of the great perks of the IHG Chase card is getting the 4th night free on award stays. If I had paid for the room, the price for an entry level room would have been at least $1200. Even better, the loyalty status I get from having the credit card also meant that I was automatically upgraded to a higher category room. As I mentioned above, Belgium was an unexpected addition to my itinerary. Although I briefly considered staying in Brussels, I quickly settled upon the enchanting town of Bruges and began researching hotels. I was able to book two nights at the boutique Hotel de Orangerie for $366.23. Because I booked through the Capital One travel portal, I was able to use my annual $300 travel credit to reduce the cost to a mere $66.23. For my final night, I used my annual Marriott 35,000 point free night certificate to book a room at the convenient Brussels Airport Sheraton, where the cash price would have been $262. By using a stash of points and free night credits, I saved $1762 on accommodations.

Food

Averaged across my eight night trip, I spent just under $65 a day on food and beverages. Honestly, this isn’t too bad considering how many amazing meals I experienced and how expensive things like alcohol could be. My strategy was usually to splurge on one meal per day and eating lightly and affordably the rest of the day. Sometimes meals were included in the cost of tours. With lounge access, I rarely spent money on food during travel days.

Other transportation

For the most part, I used my own two feet to get from place to place, which was just perfect. The expenses in this category were the $6.19 local train from the Amsterdam airport to Centraal Station, $84.88 for a train ticket from Amsterdam to Bruges, $32.32 for a train ticket from Bruges to Brussels, and $25 for a couple of taxi rides. I also paid $90 for economy airport parking in Eugene. As I’ve mentioned, train travel is an incredibly affordable way to get around much of Europe. Except for the local train I booked at the station, I used Trainline to book tickets, which was an easy way to compare prices and book tickets across multiple railway companies, all on a user friendly site.

Tours and activities

This is really where I splurged, which I was able to do because I saved so much money on flights and accommodations. I regret nothing, but there are certainly ways to spend less money. I would probably have approached things differently if this weren’t a solo trip. My first day in Amsterdam, I enjoyed a morning at the Waldorf Astoria Guerlain spa. Although at $255.12 for a 90 minute massage after adding a tip, this was certainly a splurge, I made the most of it by enjoying all of the gorgeous spa amenities. That day I also purchased tickets to the Van Gogh museum ($24.48) and ended the evening with a canal tour ($55.75). The other tours I did in Amsterdam were a full day tulip tour, which cost $158.14 including lunch, and a food tour, which cost $105.13. In Bruges, the food tour was $144.51, the audio tour was $4.99, tickets to see the Madonna and Child were $7.52, access to the Belfry was $14.92, and the Historium museum was $17.05.

Souvenirs

This was mostly a suitcase full of chocolate and cheese, along with a handful of gifts. If you’re wanting to bring back all of the delicious Gouda and Edam cheese, it can safely be left unrefrigerated for a few weeks, so any vacuum packed cheese is easy to transport home. Just make sure you only purchase pasteurized cheese that is marked as airplane approved. It would be heartbreaking for it to be confiscated when re-entering the US. Although fresh flowers can’t be transported back to the US, there are certain bulbs that are packaged as USDA compliant and can be brought back as long as they are in their original packaging. Make sure you leave some extra space in your suitcase (or bring an extra bag) so you have plenty of room for all of the delicious and/or beautiful souvenirs.

Miscellaneous

I had a couple of extra expenses, such as the required pre return flight covid test and some medicine for sinus congestion (that was fun to figure out).

Total

Although the total cost of the trip was $2284.60, this was offset by $400 of birthday money. This was also my Christmas present and birthday present from Brandon. Even more precious than the gift of money was the gift of time for me to take this solo trip while Brandon took care of things at home. Although I spent about $1900 (after gifts) on this amazing trip, I think it’s fun to consider what this trip would have cost me if I didn’t use points and miles. It’s not an exact science, but the same trip entirely in cash would have cost $4000 - $5000 more than my actual out of pocket costs, essentially tripling the cost and, quite frankly, pushing the trip well outside of my budget. That makes the luxury hotels and business class seats even more sweet. I loved this solo trip and am so thankful that I was able to spend a week away exploring two beautiful European cities.