As you well know from my many blog posts over the years, I am mainly a Cruise Vacation person versus Land Vacations. But as things turned out, I ended up back on the road this June 2024. A simple road trip around central Spain starting and ending in Madrid. My biggest concern was how would it work out with expenses, as I was used to the all inclusive cruise ship experience.
My last road trip goes all the way back to 2017, when I drove around southern Germany, Austria, and Italy. Things didn’t change much being on the road except for prices of course. Gasoline is now about €1.55 per liter and back then it was €1,36 per liter, so a 14% increase. Luckily I was not driving too many kilometers on this trip, probably around 1350 total.
All of the arrangements for hotels were made in advance via my usual booking service, Expedia.com as I needed to plan which cities to visit as well as how long I had to spend in each. My main resource was the Spain book by Rick Steves. I downloaded it on my android tablet via the Kindle app from Amazon so that I would have it handy along the way for reference. So the planned itinerary was flying from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to Mexico City to Madrid using Aeromexico and my usual Iberia flight to Madrid. Once again I have chosen to fly business class and the cost per round trip ticket was around $2000 USD each. Part of the payment was made via travel credit with Iberia that I had to use from my cancelation last year when I was ill.
Rental car was throught Expedia.com again and it was with Budget Rentacar. Arrival in Madrid is always a journey as you end up in Terminal 4S from Mexico and there you have to clear immigration, while your luggage is waiting at the main terminal. The car rental agency was close by and crossing over to the parking area has you at their offices and the cars. I was not sure about GPS availibility in the car, so Vodafone was in the baggage claim area selling simm cards. I purchased one for 30 euros and it provided 100 GB, more than enough for our 12 days (according to the salesman) and he was right! It also provided 800 minutes of calling in the European Union, Great Britian, United States, and Turkey.
Later I discovered that the car had free GPS, although it was nice to have a working phone for walking directions that we used quite often in our times around the cities. As a comparison, on any cruise it is about $150 USD, so that was a savings. All the hotels had free WIFI and several restaurants as well, although not all! Another point to consider in Cruise versus Land Vacation.
The car rental was about $400 USD for a small Ford SUV with unlimited miles for 12 days. The first hotel was in downtown Madrid for 2 nights about $400 USD for a studio suite with kitchenette. I thought we could probably find some groceries and cook our breakfasts, which we did by spending about euros. A Starbucks on the corner was convenient for our usual breakfast beverages, but costs 14 euros each day. Our total food and beverage costs in Madrid were $236 USD
We need to consider entrance fees to various cathedrals, so I will add those to each day.
Our next city was Segovia where we booked the Hotel Infanta Isabel also right in the city center for $115 USD for just one night. Without any kitchenette from here on out, we would rely on hotel breakfasts and Starbucks and then at least one nice meal outside each day with evening snacks and beverages enjoyed in sidewalk cafes. In Segovia we spent another $108 USD for food and beverages, and parking was never free so that added another 20 euros.
As you can see things are starting to add up! But I will continue and provide some final numbers at the end of this blog.
Onward to the Sercotel Puerta de la Catedral in Salamanca where the hotel was for 2 nights for a total of $195 USD and of course extra for parking of 23 euros per night. Then we spent our daily breakfast at the hotel for 10.50 euros each day. Once again other food and beverages during the days for another $131 USD
Toledo is the next city with also another 2 night stay at the Hotel Sercotel Alfonso VI for a total of about $190 USD. Breakfast buffet was another 11 euros per day and we spent $70 on food and beverages for the rest of the day.
Then we head south to Granada for our longest drive thus far forcing us to fill up the gas tank before we get to town and that was 66 euros. Our 3 night stay is at the Monjas Del Carmen Hotel for $261 USD with a breakfast buffet at 15 euros each. We begged off that one after the first morning because it was not that special and we were happy with spending 22 euros total at Starbucks for a breakfast. Our 3 day extra food and beverages added up to another $454 USD.
We end up in our final city of Aranjuez after another long drive causing a refill of gasoline for 55 euros along the way. We stay at the NH Collection Palacio de Aranjuez Hotel for about $120 USD and parking is here 18 euros. But with an upgrade of the room we received free parking, but the upgrade to a suite was 35 euros. Breakfast here is 15 euros per person. We also spent $141 USD on the extra food and beverages.
Our final night in Spain is at an airport Hotel Madrid Alameda Aeropuerto for about $160 USD for the one night. They offer a free shuttle service to the airport, so the car will be returned as we leave the following day. Extra food and beverage is about $44 Euros because we decided to just go to the McDonalds next door! Maybe another benefit of Land versus Cruise Vacation?
So what’s the total? Hotel costs were about $1161 USD, Car rental with gasoline was $521 USD and seems that we spent about $1991 USD in the food, beverage, and laundry expenses that you would have been included on our cruise ship. A stupid traffic light infraction in Granada added $100 USD, so this brings our grand total without airfare to about $3900 USD.
A similar cruise with NCL would have been about $2000 USD per person plus tours and WIFI. The cruise ship would charge you between $75 to $300 for the tours at each port of call that is not included and could be at least 7 ports of call if you choose to use them for all the excursions. This easily brings the total to over $5000 USD! Then again you can eat and drink as much as you like and stay in the same room the whole time without having to pack and unpack every few days.
The convenience, budget and choice is yours; but I thought it would be a nice way to compare the two types of Land versus Cruise vacation alternatives.
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