We hope that this page, which we have been including at the end of recent blogs, will be useful to readers thinking to follow our lead in cycle touring in Europe. How much do hotels and food tend to cost? Of course, this is a question with many possible answers, depending on preferences. If the hotel has to be four star and if one eats out for three meals a day, then our costs will seem unrealistically low. On the other hand, we often give in to the lure of treats, and  included buffet breakfasts, and we may buy more postcards and souvenirs and admissions to cathedrals than others.  Even so, our numbers can serve as a base from which others can guess what their own costs would be.

Our experience with two important cost factors, however, will not mean much to others. Those are the costs of airfare, and of health insurance. It depends where you are coming from, and of course on the state of your age and health.

Airfares are a real wildcard, as airlines play such games with the prices. This is so extreme that when we begin to look for flights, we specify only one passenger. That's to be sure that the prices quoted are per person. You can't tell from looking at a price alone whether its for one or two people, because the airlines will unashamedly charge not just double but up to quintuple the normal or base price, just because their algorithm happens to feel like it on a given day.

Health insurance has also become an issue for us, as the insurance companies become increasingly skeptical that we can make it. We seen to recall paying $15 per day for us both for health insurance , ten years ago when we were ten years younger, but this time around it's almost double. That positions health insurance, for us anyway, as the number 3 greatest cost, just edging out air fares, while still thankfully trailing lodging and food.

Putting aside air and insurance, the bottom line is that this trip cost 138 euros per day. 60 % of that was taken up with hotel costs, which averaged 83 euros per night. The range on that was quite broad. Were were able to find some perfectly decent places in Spain for 50 and 60 euros. However that is not to say that Spain is specially cheap. For example, we racked up 260 euros nightly in Barcelona.

The question of included breakfasts is always a confounding factor when looking at hotel costs. One third of hotels included breakfast in their daily rate, with the proportion being higher in Spain. (Breakfast in Spain is also commonly much more elaborate than in France.) When breakfast was included, we valued it at 20 euros for our statistics. We reduced the "hotel" cost by 20 euros and tallied 20 euros of food in these cases.

With hotels coming in at 83 euros on average, we are left with about 30 euros for food, while keeping with the 138 euro grand total and 21 euros for things other than lodging and food. When you consider that  a typical meal in France will come in at 20-30 euros per person, seeing the Grampies spend about 30 euros per day for two is quite impressive. This is done by seriously pigging out at buffet breakfasts, and then by eating largely out of grocery stores.

The fourteen days in August with Josh and the kids produced some rather fabulous costs for hotels and food. We mostly did not include these in our trip statistics, including only a two person share, rather than what was spent for all six. On the other hand, having the kids lead us to use more trains and to pay more admission fees than we perhaps would have done otherwise.

In general, though, the total cost of having the kids was worth it, as they contributed so much to the experience while they were around.

Whether it was the influence of the kids, or other unknown factors, the touring cost was higher on this trip than for the one on a similar route  in the Spring of the year. But it didn't turn out to be out of line or out of control - it just felt that way - as we seemed to be always transferring money into the credit card, to support our free spending ways!

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The total cost of the trip over its 87 days and including the bit with the kids came to a fair bundle. But looking in the piggy bank, we do see further trips to come. Check the next page when it is posted (coming soon) to see the plan, which includes Costa Rica at the end of this month, and then a return to Valencia to get our bikes and go  to ... well, read that next page!