I was embarking on the second half of my trip to Europe in July 2022 knowing full well I had a lot less control over what was about to happen.
For one, I would be traveling with Carolina in her part of the world so I let her do most of the planning. We were going to be using her car and using her high quality camping gear for the majority of the trip. Plus, we were going to be traveling with her child.
All of these factors had benefits to me as a solo traveler because it’s always less expensive and fun when you can share the costs of things with locals. What I didn’t anticipate was us all getting sick with COVID-19, diminishing the fun and causing the costs to skyrocket quickly!
In the end, insurance saved me and I got a huge reimbursement bringing my expenses to just under $1500. Not bad for one of the more expensive places in Europe to travel!
Flights From Greece to Stockholm
We finished up our time in Santorini late on a Friday night. The flights we chose had us leaving Santorini at 1:30am the next morning heading direct to Stockholm. The good part is we pretty much had the flight to ourselves!
We chose this red eye flight strategically because the price was the best we could get at $120 for the arrival time we needed. There was no reason to use points for this leg since the flight was inexpensive enough!
Carolina had plans to meet her 5-year-old daughter in Stockholm. Her dad would be meeting us there after arriving back from Italy together. Originally, they were expected to land in the afternoon and we needed to get in nearly enough so we wouldn’t miss our meet time.
We were relieved to arrive on time and not experience any delays. That was part of the concern because delays were so common during this revenge travel summer!
Alas, there we were at 4:00am like zombies dragging through the Arlanda airport.
Expected and Unexpected Accommodation
Upon landing in Stockholm, it was time for Carolina’s plan to begin. We were exhausted but we had no place to go except straight into Carolina’s car. We found a parking garage to squat in and fell asleep for a few hours there. That saved us a buck on a hotel stay for an awkward timeframe!
My intro to Stockholm: The street where the parking garage was for our first bit of rest!
The next hurdle we ran into was the timing of her daughter’s flight arrival. After trying so hard to get in early enough, her flight ended up getting in too late for her to join us that day and begin our road trip as planned. So we had to figure out what a day and night in Stockholm would look like.
I immediately got to thinking—who do I know in Stockholm?
The next thing I knew, we were meeting up with an ex boyfriend of mine from New York. I thought his brother would be in town but it turned out he moved here during the pandemic.
It’d been well over 10 years since we dated! But he was more than happy to meet up, show us around his city, and offer us a place to stay for the night. The only cost to us was treating him to dinner that night as a thank you. I counted that toward my food budget!
Once we finally got Carolina’s daughter and were on the road, we spent the first two nights at her friend’s place in Sweden. This was great to have some home comforts, including meals.
The next 2 nights in Norway were spent camping. We free camped one night and then paid a camping fee for the second night.
So for 5.5 nights we did really well. Only $25 for a camping fee. But then sickness set in for Carolina’s daughter and then for Carolina a day or so later. This began 4 nights of Airbnb stays.
I managed to get a discount on one of them because of a shoddy Wi-Fi connection. But the total of those stays came to $400. Split between us, I paid only $50 per night. Again, not bad, but not on the expected budget plan!
I was very glad for the Airbnb by the 3rd night because at that point, I wasn’t feeling so hot either. The next morning is when I tested positive for COVID-19. This was my first time testing positive ever during the entire pandemic! Alas, I had it pretty mild and count myself one of the lucky ones.
We camped one more night on our way back to Oslo and then we had planned 2 nights stay at a Citibox hotel. It was Carolina’s birthday, so she wanted to make it a little more special and I agreed it would be nice for the last days before the end of the trip. The cost was only $214 total so we split at $107 each.
My corner room at Citibox was on the 5th floor with big windows I could sit in and watch the city life below.
What I didn’t know is that Citibox became the hotel I stayed in for 3 additional nights for $268 total. I stayed because I still had a positive COVID-19 test on the morning of my flight home. Gasp!
Although I was feeling better, I still had symptoms and I technically wasn’t at my CDC-recommended 5 full days from having a fever. From a moral standpoint, I couldn’t board my flight and put others at risk even if the risk was low.
Gas and Other Transportation
Taking a road trip in another country usually costs a lot because of car rental and insurance expenses. Traveling with Carolina in her car named “Tiggy” was the biggest money-saver of the trip.
The world tends to balance these things out in the grand scheme of things since I always enjoy treating visitors to rides all over when they visit me. The wear and tear on Carolina’s car is paid forward in using my car at home with visitors. It’s a huge benefit of knowing locals where you travel and I am extremely grateful to Carolina for offering it for this trip.
Still, the cost of gas, tolls, and parking expenses added up. The cost of gas in particular is wild in Scandinavia, especially Norway. There were multiple factors contributing to this.
For one, prices are always a bit jacked in these countries compared to the U.S. I remember that from driving around Iceland and that was over 8 years ago!
For another, this was revenge travel summer and prices were up because everyone was on the road.
I remembered to snap a photo at the pump on one occasion. This one happened to show petrol (95) for 24.79 NOK. I learned to simply move the decimal over for an almost perfect conversion to USD—$2.48. That doesn’t sound too bad, right? Wrong! That’s per liter, not per gallon.
One liter is about 1/4 of a gallon, so that price is actually almost $10 per gallon! YIKES!!!!!!!!!!! That is twice as much as it was in the States last summer, at least here in Miami. That’s right, we actually have it pretty good in the States!
Luckily, Tiggy is a fairly new Toyota Rogue which got pretty good gas mileage. We traveled maybe 1,200 miles and the total cost came to about $342. We split that at $171 each.
Parking and tolls set us back approximately $50 each.
Balancing Food Costs
Food costs a lot in Sweden and especially Norway. But it costs event more when you have Brain Fog from COVID-19 and you overlook the prices on expensive menus.
For example, there was one meal Carolina and I had for her birthday in Oslo. We got the shared seafood platter for what we thought was $99. That felt like a fun splurge! What we didn’t realize was it was $99—per person. The print was small but it was surely there. Alas, I paid for the majority of the meal (because it was her birthday and all) but that was way more than I expected. Oops!
At least the seafood was the best you could buy and Norway was definitely the place to buy it!
My total restaurant expenses were $285.
On the other hand, groceries were the most cost effective approach to food on the trip. I was amazed how far our grocery runs would go for breakfasts, lunch, dinners, and snacks while camping and staying at the Airbnbs.
Carolina’s baller camping stove set was the real winning item here that saved us. This professional gear made it reminiscent of our New Zealand car camping experience but elevated!
Despite the inflated pricing in Norway, we managed to keep costs down.
Split between us, I only spent about $60 on groceries. I suppose this balanced out some of our brain foggy restaurant mistakes!
Unexpected Medical Expenses
I sprang into action as soon as I discovered my positive test on the morning of my flight. Luckily, I brought free tests from home with me. I had been using these all week so this cost me nothing at first. But I read up on my World Nomad insurance and discovered that I needed to get a more official test to prove my positive result.
It would be a race against time. I needed to schedule a test, get the test done, and get the results, all within enough time that I could maybe still make my flight if the official test came back negative. Alas, it was nearly impossible and so I took a big risk nearly missing my flight in this process, hoping that my home tests were accurate.
I found a clinic called “Dr. Dropin” and made an appointment right away, then hustled down the street there for my test. About $69 and one hour later, I had my results. Still positive. Phew!
At this point, I had already spent a good $62 on homeopathic remedies and pain medications to try to kick my positive test result before my flight. They didn’t do much except possibly help me feel better faster.
It was Thursday and I also needed to buy more at-home tests. I needed to ensure I would be negative before my rebooked flight back to New York scheduled for Sunday. The tests and some more pain meds set me back about $50 more.
All in all, I had not accounted for any of these expenses that brought me up to over $180 extra.
Hiking Costs and Other Activities
Before and after the peak of my illness, I managed to get some hiking and other adventurous activities in! Yes, I had COVID-19 in my system when I went on one of Norway’s most intense hikes called Trolltunga. This hike was about $30 in access and transport fees.
I also went stand-up paddle-boarding to fill my time waiting around Oslo for my flight home also at about $30.
All other activities didn’t cost me anything. Except for a $10 to ride on the bus and back, I visited an amazing sculpture park in Oslo for free. On another day, I went on a short, free hike to get some Oslo city views.
I also spent plenty of time exploring the city and other areas for free on this trip. On one occasion, I even took a shared scooter to my destination and back for about $10—definitely worth it for the thrill!
Are you surprised I managed that much despite being ill? It may seem like a lot but honestly, this was mostly lowkey and a fraction of what I wanted to do during my time in Norway!
Insurance Reimbursement
In advance of this trip, I paid a fairly hefty World Nomad insurance fee ($186). I was traveling to 3 countries, 2 islands, with various adventure activities including SCUBA diving. I would be traveling for a month with COVID-19 still floating around the world and with many travel delays still occurring all over. To me, the insurance was a no-brainer investment.
I didn’t even take a chance for my last leg of the trip. I spent another $42 to cover the extra 3 days I stayed in Norway before I could travel home. Could to have peace of mind!
WIthout the insurance, I would have lost big time.
The largest expense that I faced—and when I tell you I panicked like hell over this—was the cost of my flight home. There were two variables working against me:
Revenge Travel Summer costs in general;
A SAS Airlines pilot strike in Europe causing thousands of travelers rebooking flights all at the same time the same week.
The only flight I could find home that gave me enough of a buffer to get COVID-19 free was flying home through Finland in economy one-way for almost $1700.
Like, whaaaaaaat?!
As someone who hardly ever pays for flights unless they are a few hundred dollars or less, this seems absurd! Everything else I saw was even worse at well over $2000. It was an insane time in the travel industry. I was caught in the midst of it and I was begging the universe to allow this to be covered by my insurance.
I can’t say enough how appreciative I am that World Nomad (Trip Mate) didn’t pull some loop holey fast one on me. Insurance companies are basically known for their exclusionary clauses and fine print. Well, I read that shit and even called the company multiple times to confirm, reconfirm, get a triple dog swear from the person on the other end that my situation would be covered.
I was relieved to find that it was covered—and then some! In addition to the flights being covered, I had my 3 extra nights at Citibox reimbursed ($267), my medical costs reimbursed ($100), and most of my meals reimbursed ($104). There were some expenses that I didn’t claim because they seemed trivial to me. But almost my entire COVID-related costs were covered and I was so grateful when I received that check in the mail!
Altogether Now
Most of what I described above is outlined below in this table breaking down all my Sweden and Norway costs. Included is how much was reimbursed from insurance.
The reimbursement took almost 2 months to come through—they noted they were backed up because of so many claims from that time period! But when it did arrive, I was the most relieved.
Otherwise, this trip would’ve been over $3775. Ouch!
There are definitely several things I would have done differently on this portion of the trip to make my time better. The main one would be don’t travel with a child who is sick during a pandemic. LMAO.
Really though, I took that risk because I was so eager to travel and I was traveling with a friend who was doing a lot to make this trip happen for us. I couldn’t say no—even to her sniffly, coughy kid when she arrived off that plane.
In the end, I have no regrets because I did have a great time despite all the struggles, stress, and setbacks! Now I can’t wait to share the good (and challenging) details here on the blog in the coming weeks!
GRAND TOTAL: My 2022 Revenge Euro Trip
With all of this now laid out, we can calculate the total cost of my trip to Europe last summer. Crete and Santorini in Greece came to a total of $1,715.52 while Sweden and Norway came to a total of $1,453.71.
My 2023 Revenge Euro Trip set me back by a grand total of $3,169.23.
