Cost

[Dare]

Hey everyone,

I'm sure this has been answered somewhere before but I'm trying to figure out a rough budget for my Camino. At the moment, I'm looking at about 20E a day. Is this too much, too little, nowhere near enough and I'm daydreaming? I'll be contributing to church funds etc as well so have budgeted in an extra 10 for Sundays. Thanks heaps, Kelly

[Leslie]

I first walked in 2004 and lived on €20 per day without any problems. I was a student then and it was fairly easy. I don't think it would be so easy now to do it on this amount.

Budget between 5 and 10 for your bed for the night. The rest is going to be food. In many hostels, most, you will be able to cook for yourself. So perhaps you may get by on 20 per day, I think though it will be very tight and leave little room for error. 30 would be fine and 40 would be very good.

[thomr]

Hey,
Just got ack from my Camino - bed was up to 10 euros but only once I think and the cheapest were the municipal ones in Galicia but if you're going private then the normal seems to be 8. I don't really know the prices of hotels/pensions etc because I just stuck to the albergues. One piece of advice: don't go to the Tricastle municipal albergue, pay the extra 5 or so euros and go private that night, I did after other people told me that it was one to avoid.
For dinner I tended to bread and cheese it so about 3-4 euros every three to four days.
I tended to eat out at night and the menu so that was usually 8-10 euros (once it was 12 but that was in Santiago itself). Cooking for yourself can be cheaper but only really if you're in a group to share the costs out otherwise you tend to be spending about 10 euros anyway on ingredients and then be left with food that's too heavy to carry anyway!
So overall 20 euros did me fine, I don't think that there was a day (apart from when I actually did arrive in Santiago) when I went over that amount.

[Pavel]

I went the Camino last year and I spent about 16 euros per day, with sleeping in hostels (Thomr's numbers are for Galicia; before Galicia, even private albergues cost up to 8 euros and some are for a voluntary fee) and eating mostly bread and cheese with a menu in restaurant (around 10 euros) every other day.
So 20 euros might be O.K. for you.