Brief on cost of a brief stay

Our staying in Austria and Slovenia has been brief, 6 days overall, but nonetheless intense. How much have we spent and what do we think of it?

We passed these countries by twice, when we went to Croatia and back. We spent 2.5 days in Austria and 3.5 in Slovenia. As our staying was so short, we are reporting the costs in one single spread sheet.

€71 under budget (17%) was the final result; a positive one, once again.

Accommodation

As usual, accommodation was free. Austria, is a motorhome friendly country, you are allowed to park even in towns if there is no sign banning you from it.

Slovenia is also a frequented country by motorhomes, but they are a bit more choosy in towns, so we have to park in wild places. It is not that we mind, we prefer parking in the wild, it is quieter and you don’t get weird looks from people.

Both countries have aires available but we never stayed in any, the free ones were far from where we were. We don’t really need anything from aires except for water. Austria, in particular, has many fountains, most of them at laybys, very convenient.

Food

Generally inexpensive, Slovenia a bit more affordable than Austria. We didn’t eat out, as we were just were passing by. The €9 under eating out category relate to drinks in a couple of bars in Slovenia.

Activities

It wasn’t worth buying a local SIM card in any of the countries.

Souvenirs relate to a trekking map that we bought to climb Triglav and the architectural book at the Kunsthaus art galley in Graz.

The majority of the costs under this category are associated with sightseeing; in Graz (art gallery), Salzburg (castle), Ljubljana (castle).

Travel 

We drove a long way through these countries, hence our biggest expense. However, diesel was quite cheap in Austria (average of €1.07 per litre), so to keep costs low, we overloaded Dora’s fuel tank with it every time we had an opportunity,

Impressions

Austria was always left out of our itinerary. We know it well, we have been here many times skiing and langlauffing. I also came to Vienna 20 years ago, in the same trip as Praha. But there was no way to go to Croatia without driving through it (unless we spent time and money going around it). We did want to go to Slovenia though, a new country for both.

What do we think of Austria? Something we already knew; the landscape is absolutely stunning, immaculate; the air, clean and fresh.

The towns and villages sit on the steep mountains slopes, overlooking the valleys. Those alpine roof styles in bright reds, whites and intense browns. They are so cute.

Vienna and Innsbruck are the most popular cities in Austria. However, Graz and Salzburg are also worth visiting. Architecturally, they are vivid examples of that Baroque style for which Austria is so widely known.

Slovenia is a small country but with many things to offer. It was part of the old Yugoslavia but has nothing to do with it. It has strong ties with the Austro-Hungary empire. In places, it felt like we never left Austria.

The east of the country was not as interesting as the west. The capital, Ljubljana, is one of the greenest in Europe and one of the quietest, due mainly to its size and its traffic-free policy in the centre of the city. It is cute but probably quite boring to live in.

Now, the exciting part of the country for us was the North West. Slovenia shares a bit of the Alps, called the Julian Alps. Its highest peak, Triglav, seems to have become an icon in this country. Undoubtedly, it is an interesting and fairly demanding mountain with a challenging Via Ferrata at the top. It seems that nobody wants to miss it. Perhaps, you cannot call yourself Slovenian until you have climbed it .

SM