Europe Travel Expenses – The Balkans

We have continued keeping track of our expense, even though we have not shared them since Georgia, which was nearly three months prior. We decided that breaking down expenses by country did not make sense for our travels through Europe. Countries were too small, and we did not always spend a great deal of time in each of them. We found that our travel costs by country could be more influenced by our transportation expenses than anything else, especially for shorter stays. Instead, we broke our Europe travels into three segments: costs from travel within the Schengen Area, costs for travel outside of the Schengen Area, and expenses incurred from our cruise home. This entry is for our travels outside the Schengen Area, which included Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia, which for simplicity we just call the Balkans.

On the train from Budapest to Novi Sad.

The Adriatic coast. It's beautiful. We came across these old foundations around Dubrovnik. 

The Balkans were an unexpected highlight of our trip. To be honest, we chose to go there because it was easy. We were only allowed 90 days within the Schengen Area and we were approaching our limit. We had to leave if we wanted to give ourselves enough time to make it back to Italy to catch our boat home. Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia were not that far away from our departure point in Budapest and also close to Italy. These countries were also easily reached by train.

We departed the Schengen Area from Budapest and started our Balkan Itinerary in (1) Novi Sad before continuing on to (2) Belgrade. A twelve-hour train ride from Belgrade got us to Bar in Montenegro, where we spent the night and then immediately continued onto the beaches of (3) Budva. A short bus ride up the coast got us up to (4) Kotor and then further to (5) Dubrovnik. A ferry from Dubrovnik took us to (6) Split and then a day-long train ride through Croatia took us to (7) Zagreb. We weren't intentionally skipping over Bosnia and Herzegovina, it just didn't have very convenient connections. Our skipping of Bosnia and Herzegovina just gives us another reason to return one day. 

The highlight of the Balkans, beyond any doubt, was the Adriatic coast. The stunning beauty of the sea and the mountains stretched for hundreds of miles through Montenegro and Croatia. Whether we were at the beach or hiking in the mountains, it was a place you just didn’t want to leave. The coast could be touristy, but for understandable reasons. We missed most of the crowds by being there in October, but they were still unavoidable in places like Dubrovnik.

The Bay of Kotor.

Our hotel room in Kotor. There was even a little kitchenette. Totally acceptable at $36 per night.

The biggest headache from our travels through the Balkans, other than having to go through passport checks at all the borders, was from complicated tourist taxes and registration requirements. Each of the three countries we traveled through had some kind of daily tourist tax or required registration with the local police. I’m sure had we stayed at higher end hotels we would have never had to deal with this, but we were staying at Airbnb accommodations and inexpensive hotels, which often left you on your own to figure out the paperwork. Even though we were aware of the requirements, we left both Serbia and Montenegro missing parts of our so-called required paperwork. Our Airbnb host in Novi Sad failed to give us a copy of our tourist registration despite our incessant reminders and our hotel in Bar failed to get us any proof of payment for the tourist tax we paid them. Fortunately, we were never asked for any of this paperwork at the border crossings, but it was a source of constant frustration.

Italy is just across the Adriatic and its influence spills across the sea to Croatia and Montenegro. Pizza, pasta, and seafood were never hard to find. 

Otherwise, we had a very enjoyable time in the Balkans. We had the most fun on the coast, in places like Budva, Kotor, Dubrovnik, and Split. Generally speaking, the Balkans were more affordable than anywhere else we had been in Europe. It was not difficult to stay within our budget. We only spent an average of $85 per day during our 27 days.

Accommodations: After our initial difficulties in getting our Airnbnb hosts to provide us with the proper paperwork we needed, we decided to temporarily stop using it for a while and stuck with simple, lower cost accommodations in hotels.

Restaurants: Belgrade has a great food scene and the Adriatic coast is packed with all kinds of ocean-side restaurants. Although most traditional food consisted of a giant platter of grilled meat, we found plenty of other things to enjoy.

Transportation: Other than the ferry between Dubrovnik and Split, we took trains and buses the whole way. The trains were generally older and slower than most of Europe, but they worked just fine. The buses were very inexpensive, but you always needed a few Euros’ worth of coins to give to the driver to store bags in the undercarriage. This expense was, of course, not included in the price of the ticket.

Drinks: Belgrade’s food scene spills over into the drinking and nightlife scene. There were plenty of places to grab an after-dinner beer. And who doesn’t want a sunset drink when they’re on the beach? I think we will remember most siting at the water-side restaurants in Kotor, watching the cruise ships leave every night.

Grocery: The restaurants in Croatia could get pricey, so we often picked up groceries to make our own dinners in Dubrovnik, Split, and Zagreb.

Other: We did some clothes shopping, I got a haircut, and we signed up for a WWOOF membership, which was supposed to be for us to find a farm to work on for a week or two. Long story short, it didn’t work out. Perhaps on another trip.

Tourism: This is when you know you’ve been on the road too long. We had zero tourism expenses. We were content skipping all the museums, all the tours, and anything that had an entrance fee. We did go on a tour in Belgrade, but that was more of a birthday present for Travis and I didn’t include that here.

Saving some money one night by making dinner at home when we were in Dubrovnik. I can't begin to explain how hard it is to make anything decent when you're shopping in a foreign grocery store and working out of a tiny kitchen that's poorly stocked. This was a rendition of smothered burritos. At least we had some good beer. 

Serbia and Montenegro were more affordable than Croatia. We look at this by calculating what we call our “living expenses,” which is all our expenses minus transportation, tourism, and miscellaneous. In other words, these are our expenses from simply living somewhere, which only includes our accommodations, food, and beverage. Since we were taking trains and buses through the Balkans there was not a big difference between our total expense and our living expenses, but elsewhere in Europe it made a huge difference. For example, if we took an expensive flight somewhere it would inflate our costs and make it seem like our destination was much more expensive than it really was. The actual cost of being there is our living expense.

Overall, the Balkans were a surprise. We would absolutely return one day. I’d like to spend more time at the beach, and I would also want to explore more of the Montenegrin mountains. It was also relatively affordable, which always makes for a more enjoyable experience. We can worry less about how much things costs and just go do whatever we want to do.