Tere!

You may wonder about expenses before moving to another country or studying abroad, but this should not mean that we can ignore how much it costs for one trip in a country that you want to visit. There may also be some people who want to go to a fascinating country that is expensive, but still care about their finances.

I always search budgets before deciding a destination or before going to travel there. Then decide how much I save for that trip per month from the point that I searched until the point I travel, depending on how many months are left. I always use a website called ”Budget Your Trip”. They show budgets not only in the destination country’s currency but also in the currency that I use (i.e. in my case euro). (If you use an ad-block add-on on your browser you always see some pop up like I see, so I use this website on the browser that I don’t have the ad-block- add-on.)

In the case of Ireland, the budget trip costs 44 EUR per day and 309 EUR per week, per person, and the mid-range trip costs 109 EUR per day and 766 EUR per week, per person. However, in my case, I decided to save 1300 EUR which was my budget.

Therefore, this article shows the result.

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Table of Contents

     1. Flight tickets
     2. Transport in Dublin
     3. Car rental
     4. Accommodations
     5. Food expenses
     6. Travel insurance
     7. Others
     8. Total expenses
     ★Summary

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1. Flight tickets

First of all, let’s talk about our flight tickets. We bought flight tickets on Ryanair. This expense is marked in the tab called ”Travel fees” in the spreadsheet that I share every month on Twitter. The flight tickets for two people cost 281.79 EUR. My boyfriend paid 140 EUR and I paid 141.79 as he was going to drive a car almost a whole week, and splitting 1.79 EUR seemed to be very stingy.

Perhaps because of the season, the flight tickets weren’t cheap.

2. Transport in Dublin

Next, here is about transport in Dublin. I bought a 24-hour Leap card which cost 8 EUR. My boyfriend didn’t bring sufficient coins, so I gave him one ride on a Dublin bus from the airport to the city centre, which cost 2.60 EUR. Also on the first day, a taxi drive to my friend A’s place cost 10.20 EUR. Moreover, we took another taxi from the accommodation on the last day to the airport and paid 24.60 EUR.

3. Car rental

In terms of car rental, renting a car cost 936.42 EUR, and charging the fuel (diesel) twice cost 144.65 EUR, in total of which it was 1,081.07 EUR. However, since my boyfriend paid for all of these, we decided that I would pay for accommodations. But still there were some differences of 350 EUR. He didn’t care, and yet I paid him back 174 EUR because I even couldn’t help him drive, I wanted to pay him back.

4. Accommodations

This is about the expenses on accommodations. I’m pretty sure that it wouldn’t have cost that much if I travel by myself or my Japanese friend S who has travelled with me before. Even if I had chosen private rooms, I’m sure we wouldn’t have had to pay that much. 😂 Since we booked the accommodations right before heading to the destinations, it cost a lot…

Two nights in Galway required 238.56 EUR, another two nights in Mayo was 180 EUR, and two nights in Dublin cost 314.64 EUR, so in total the expenses were 238.56 EUR. I paid for all of these.

In addition, it cost 248.35 EUR for the hostel in Dublin, where we were supposed to stay. This was also supposed to be two nights. If you read the article about the accommodations in Dublin, you will see the details…

Adding all of these, the expense is almost the same as the car rental fees and fuel fees, but I didn’t want to include the hostel cost for the first day in Dublin personally, I deal with it as my own expense.

I will triple check whatever it is from next time when travelling with whoever they will be. 😂

5. Food expenses

When it comes to food, we always paid for two of one by taking turns. This rule? culture? was created because I stopped him paying for both of us at restaurants twice in a row. 😂 By taking turns to pay for food, I paid 179.90 EUR in total. However, this includes a few cups of coffee for him while he was driving.

6. Travel insurance

When you travel abroad, you should have travel insurance. If we have a Japanese credit card, it often has travel insurance too whilst Estonian debit cards don’t. For this reason, I always purchase travel insurances on Swisscare. If a Japanese person who travels to Ireland from Estonia for eight days, it cost 14.70 EUR.

7. Others

Other than the above, I paid for Harry Styles’s concert which was 104.65 EUR as well as the goods which was 35 EUR, for parking and highways which were 10.30 EUR in total, and for souvenirs which totally cost 7.88 EUR.

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Hence, the total expense for other stuff was 157.83 EUR.

8. Total expenses

Now, let’s add everything I explained above.

Item	Expenses
Flight tickets	141.79
Transport	45.4
Car rental	174
Accommodations	981.55
Food	179.9
Travel insurance	14.70
Others	157.83
Sum	1,695.14

Yeah, it’s way over my budget. 😂

It’s for sure because of the accommodations. Plus, I wish we could have booked a car for rental. This is because we could customise later on.

★Summary

Although almost 400 EUR was over my budget, the trip was also over now. We can’t take anything back. What I learnt from this trip were;

• Let me plan if you are not good at it.
• I should triple check everything including facilities and locations for accommodations.
• I need to be able to drive a car in Europe too.

There may be more, and yet it was a bit difficult as it was our first time travelling together abroad.

I swear, I will plan a trip with whoever I travel after understanding all the points that the travel companion and I cannot compromise. 😂

I cannot plan a detailed day schedule way beforehand though. 😂

In conclusion, it was a story that a trip to Ireland isn’t cheap.

Aitäh! 🙂