Budget Travel Cost per Day in Europe: 28 Real Trips Compared
28 trip reports, 185 days, and what each cost per person per day:
- Average Trip: €24.33/day per person, total spend divided by people and days
- Cheapest: Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal) at €13.33/day
- Cheapest With a Rental Car: Gdańsk and Polish Coast at €15.80/day
- Most Expensive: Bergen and Trolltunga (Norway)
9 of these trips were in a rental car I slept in, with the car costing from €3.12/day. How rentals get this cheap: €3/Day Rental Car Guide. How I sleep in them: Sleeping in Rental Cars. The tricks for flights, hostels, sights and food: Budget Travel Tips.
The rate includes accommodation, rental car or transport, fuel, food, sights, and extras. Flights to get to the starting point are not included. The date of the trip is noted. Car costs, fuel, and private rooms are split between the group, so solo travelers pay more.
Trip Reports, Cheapest First
| €/DAY | TRIP (COUNTRY) | DAYS & DATE | SLEPT IN (MOSTLY) |
|---|---|---|---|
| €13.33 | Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal) | 4 days, Oct ’25 | Car |
| €14.75 | Málaga, Ronda and Caminito del Rey (Spain) | 4 days, Oct ’25 | Car |
| €15.80 | Gdańsk and Polish Coast | 5 days, Apr ’26 | Rental car €3.74/day |
| €16.25 | Córdoba and Sierra Nevada (Spain) | 4 days, Oct ’25 | Car, hostel |
| €16.38 | Seville and Cádiz (Spain and Gibraltar) | 5 days, Oct ’25 | Car |
| €16.42 | São Miguel (Azores, Portugal) | 7 days, Apr ’25 | Rental car €6.84/day |
| €17.33 | Cartagena to Valencia (Spain) | 3 days, Nov ’25 | Car |
| €17.81 | Cyprus | 7 days, Jan ’25 | Rental car €7.76/day |
| €17.88 | Madrid (Spain) | 8 days, Dec ’25 | Car, hostel |
| €18.40 | Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia | 20 days, Mar ’26 | Hostels |
| €21.20 | Sicily (Italy) | 7 days, Feb ’25 | Rental car €3.12/day |
| €21.33 | North and Central Portugal | 6 days, Dec ’25 | Car |
| €21.87 | Barcelona and Catalonia (Spain) | 7 days, Nov ’25 | Car, hostel |
| €22.26 | Moldova (with Transnistria) | 5 days, Aug ’25 | Hostel |
| €22.44 | Granada and Almería (Spain) | 7 days, Oct ’25 | Car, hostel |
| €23.82 | Terceira (Azores, Portugal) | 4 days, Apr ’25 | Rental car €21.14/day |
| €23.89 | Malta and Gozo | 5 days, Feb ’25 | Rental car €14.87/day |
| €24.23 | Southern France and Andorra | 4 days, Nov ’25 | Car, hotel |
| €24.49 | Northeastern Poland | 10 days, Sep ’25 | Rental car €7.76/day |
| €26.46 | Tenerife (Spain) (4 people) | 8 days, Feb ’26 | Apartment |
| €29.49 | Helsinki and Rovaniemi (Finland) | 5 days, Mar ’26 | Apartment |
| €30.46 | Pico, São Jorge and Faial (Azores, Portugal) | 10 days, Mar ’25 | Rental car €16.82/day |
| €32.25 | Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm (Scandinavia) | 7 days, May ’26 | Hostels |
| €35.15 | Naples, Pompeii and Amalfi (Italy) | 6 days, Feb ’25 | Hostels |
| €35.39 | Milan, Venice to Trieste (Northern Italy) | 9 days, Feb ’26 | Hostels |
| €36.80 | Madeira (Portugal) (3 people) | 9 days, Mar ’25 | Airbnb |
| €36.94 | Rome (Italy) | 5 days, Feb ’25 | Hostel |
| €[X] | Bergen and Trolltunga (Norway) | 4 days, Sep ’26 | Rental car €46.09/day |
- Rental car cost is the full cost we paid per day, not per person.
- Own car means we drove our own car and didn’t rent.
- Current rates by city: European Car Rental Price Comparison.
Cost by Sleeping Method
| SLEEPING METHOD | TRIPS | DAYS | €/DAY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rental car most nights | 8 | 55 | €22.39 |
| Own car most nights | 9 | 45 | €18.49 |
| Paid accommodation most nights | 10 | 81 | €28.28 |
Averages are total spend divided by people and days.
Adding a rental car to the 9 own-car trips (on average €8.88/day on DiscoverCars at the time of writing, split between two) would bring them to €22.93/day, similar to the €22.39 average of the rental-car trips.
Country by country: Is It Legal to Sleep in a Rental Car in Europe?
Longer Trips
Each of these overviews covers several reports from the table above.
| €/DAY | TRIP | DAYS & DATE | SLEPT IN |
|---|---|---|---|
| €19.03 | Spain, Portugal and France | 52 days, Oct–Dec ’25 | Own car, hostels |
| €23.10 | Finland and the Baltics | 25 days, Mar ’26 | Hostels, apartments |
| €30.64 | Rome, Naples, Sicily and Malta | 23 days, Feb ’25 | Hostels, rental car |
| €31.19* | 5 Azorean Islands (Portugal) | 21 days, Mar–Apr ’25 | Rental cars |
- Whole-trip numbers from each overview post. Some are higher than the sum of individual trip reports because they include the extra costs of traveling between destinations.
- *Includes €280.58 of inter-island flights (for two). Without them it’s €24.51/day.
How I Track Costs
I add every cost to a Google Keep note as I spend it. After the trip the numbers go into a spreadsheet, where I compare trips. I convert costs in other currencies to euros at an approximate average rate for each trip. The rate is listed in each report’s Trip Stats.