Nine Day Holiday for Two: €42.54

When I left Istanbul to visit my family in the UK, I decided not to fly. Instead, two of us hitchhiked to Sofia in Bulgaria where we visited some friends. We then hitched through Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia, sleeping outside as we did until we reached Italy where we spent the day in Venice. After Venice, we spent a couple of wonderful days in the Dolomites with a friend who I first met a year before as he picked me up while I was hitchhiking through Italy alone.

From there, we headed to the beaches of northern Italy, got horribly sunburnt, but generally had a wonderful time as we swam in the Meditteranean and slept under the stars. All of this journey was done with only one sleeping bag, one blanket, and an overloaded backpack full of my winter clothes. I made a video (below), but under the video, I detail exactly what we spent our money on during those few days on the road.

Item Cost
Shopping for dinner €5
Bottle of water €1.15
Ferry to Venice €5
Food in Venice €5
Cappuccino €0.70
Toilet €1
Granola bar €1.20
Fizzy water €1
Crackers €1
Crackers and ricotta €2.70
Gelato €1.50
Jar of pesto €0.89
Suncream €2
Pizza €4.50
Bottle of water €0.80
2 Peaches €0.70
Coffee €1.60
Crackers / camembert €4.50
Chocolate bars €1.10
Peanuts €1.20
Total €42.54

During our journey, we were very lucky to be gifted 48 rides from strangers, 6 kiwis, cups of vodka, Turkish lunch, 3 nights sleeping at the homes of friends, multiple bottles of water, 2 litres of apple juice, countless beers, multiple four cheese pizzas in Italy (wow), homemade pesto on pasta, multiple schnapps (cocktail), a day of being guided around the Dolomites, huge Italian breakfasts, 2 croissants, multiple coffees, bottles of wine, whiskey for breakfast, bread that we found, Algerian snacks, and great conversations. Thank-you everybody.

Many of our purchases were made at gas stations. With a little bit of forethought (or an empty rucksack to store belongings), we would have shopped in supermarkets to make everything cheaper still.

The cost of this journey was €2.36 per person, per day.

By | 2016-06-11T13:06:07+00:00 July 4th, 2013|Stories|14 Comments

14 Comments

  1. jasmine 10/05/2015 at 12:37 - Reply

    Wow! love this video, the being cold at the gas station waiting to the sharing pizza, exploring the beautiful mountains and meeting lots new people .. great experiences.. i did giggle when you had the suit and tie on with your backpack 🙂 🙂

    • Jamie 10/05/2015 at 23:51 - Reply

      Thanks Jasmine – they were good experiences. As I was carrying the heavy suit so far, I had to at least try hitchhiking in it!

  2. Dana 28/04/2015 at 08:17 - Reply

    How, I love it! It looks like so much fun. Do you think your friend would have hitchhiked alone? Just interested in the female fear factor regarding rides with strange men. Gracias!

  3. pawel 19/07/2013 at 09:52 - Reply

    woow it looks great! very very impressive! I’m glad to kow you and I’m proud of you both!!!
    I’d like to spent few days with you in this way 😉
    ggod lock!!!!

    • Jamie 25/07/2013 at 20:44 - Reply

      I would LOVE you to join us Pawel

  4. Sofie 05/07/2013 at 20:16 - Reply

    Very impressive! And also a bit of a challenge to try something similar:)

  5. Brendon 04/07/2013 at 16:36 - Reply

    Wow thats awesome :D. Love your video really well done. I am heading to Europe in a couple of month’s and would love to get more into hitch hiking sounds like it would be a real experience :D.

    What camera do you use to film all your video’s out of curiosity? is it a Go Pro?

    • Jamie 09/07/2013 at 03:59 - Reply

      Mostly a Nikon D5100, but also a GoPro HD Hero 2. Both have terrible sound. Get an external mic if you want decent audio (hence why the video has none).

  6. Simon 04/07/2013 at 16:25 - Reply

    That is so awesome and gives you a bit of faith in humanity.

    • Jamie 09/07/2013 at 04:00 - Reply

      People are wonderful if you give them a chance.

  7. Melanie Murrish 04/07/2013 at 12:39 - Reply

    Wow impressive-I hope the kiwis were fruit and not antipodeans!

    • Jamie 09/07/2013 at 03:58 - Reply

      My vegetarianism only permits me to eat one type of kiwi 😉

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