2 weeks in Mallorca ($300)

Flights: $80 We flew with EasyJet for the first time and have zero complaints. Their carryon restrictions are different from the other budget airlines since they do not allow you a personal item. As in; no purse, laptop bag etc. They allow ONE carryon bag (which is the most generous in size and weight of all the others) but nothing else, unless you pay for it of course.

This means we have to wear anything bulky that we own since we typically have 2 additional “personal items” in addition to our 5 carryon bag. Makes for a warm flight when you have to wear all your sweaters!

Accommodation: $0 We had a two bedroom apartment in the centre of Palma for the two weeks we were in Spain. I was excited to try staying in the city for once, since we typically only stay on the outskirts. But as expected, it is loud and if you have a car, parking is a nightmare. It was nice to have everything within walking distance though. We often let our car sit for days (not just because we had to fight for our parking spot) but simply because everything was at our fingertips.

Grocery store, parks, attractions. What more could you want? The only hit with Palma is that you have to drive at least an hour to get to any decent beaches. We spent a lot of time in the car.

If you are coming to Mallorca, I would highly recommend Polencia!

Read more about House Swapping

Car Rental + Gas: $25 Okay so we had a car booked for the two weeks for only $120! This seemed too good to be true, and on our second last day we received an email informing us that the car company was being shut down and that we had till the end of the day to return the car. The car company apparently is in the middle of a 40 million dollar scam and although this made for a stressful last few days, it did mean that our rental plus any gas that we used up till the point that it was dropped off was free.

Dining Out: $140 We stopped in at Calixto in downtown Palma for paella (the only thing on the menu) and Sangria. Personally, I felt that it was overpriced ($70 euros for 3 servings plus two glasses of Sangria) and although Google said it was the best paella in Palma, something tells me it’s not. On our last night we had dinner at a small seafood joint on the water and tried the local sardines, mussels, razor clams calamari (French fries for Charlie) for again 70 euros. But this time we had a pitcher of Sangria and the owner brought us out shots of his homemade sambucca on the house. The food was absolutely delicious, although I can’t comment on the French fries.

Groceries: $ 145 (not included in overall budget) Groceries as a whole are pretty cheap in Spain, especially the wine coming in at $2 euros for a bottle of vintage wine. After coming from Scotland, it was a welcome break not to have to second guess each food purchase. Bread became the new “cheese” though, and we ended up bringing home several fresh baguettes a day. You know…. For Charlie.

Misc: $27 A few parking charges, our paddle boat, ice creams, coffees, you know.. nothing but the necessities

Total: $272

We really didn’t spend much money at all this leg and having a free car certainly helped the budget. Most days were spent at the beach with a picnic or lounging at home catching up on school.

#budget #ireland #houseswap #rtw