Below are tables that detail our projected costs, actual costs, and the differences between the two. We saved on lodging by staying two full weeks in Las Cruces, a small beach town near Valparaiso. In addition to being easy on the budget, we all appreciated the time to make ourselves at home and relax.
Though it doesn’t show up as an overage in our budget, we did waste some money by checking out of our Santiago apartment early to visit the Colchagua Valley. In essence, we paid for two nights lodging twice: the two nights we lost in Santiago and the two nights added in a Colchagua BnB. We also hadn’t originally planned on renting a car in Chile, which we did, so that affected our transportation costs considerably. Finally, we spent more on food we’d planned. In part this is because we didn’t cook as much as we’d hoped to in Santiago. Additionally, in wine-country most of the restaurants were fairly upscale, we had several pricey meals while touring.
Almost all our expenses in the Other category were bottles of wine. Delicious! Entertainment/Excursions/Education included walking tours ($33) and museums in Santiago ($35), plus winery visits (~$160) in the surrounding regions.
Despite the overages, Chile was a relatively cheap country. We probably could have done it even more cheaply if we’d used more public transportation, but that might have impacted our ability to visit all the wineries, which was not an option for us.
Total Cost: $5423
Days: 23
Cost per day: $235.78
Cost per person per day: $47.16