In recent years, I am fortunate to have traveled to many interesting locations. Most recently, I returned from a long road trip from Chicago to the Olympic Peninsula just west of Seattle, Washington and back. This trip covered 7,500 miles, 14 states and 27 days. During the trip, I visited several National Parks and Monuments and photographed 9 state capitol buildings.

I know that my travels are very economical. But, I was curious about exactly how much it would cost for such an extensive journey, so I purchased a travel expenditure tracking app called "Travel Budget" for my iPhone. Each time I made an expenditure, I took a few seconds to enter the amount on my phone. After tracking every dollar of spending, I was pleasantly surprised at how reasonable the cost is for such a trip. All said and done, the nearly month-long trip cost less than $1,000:

Gas and Oil Changes

The Prius does quite well with gas mileage. Even with gas prices hovering around $4 per gallon for much of the trip, the total cost for gas and oil was $596 to cover 7,500 miles. 

Lodging

Lodging for 27 nights totaled $257. My "Prius camping" approach makes staying at locations very convenient and economical. I've posted blog entries in the past about Prius camping and plan to share more of the things that I've learned about Prius camping in future blog entries.

Entertainment

Entertainment costs totaled $84. That doesn't sound like much, but it included admission fees to the following attractions:

• Boise Hawks baseball game (Chicago Cubs Minor League affiliate)
• Historic Idaho State Penitentiary
• South Dakota's 1880 Town
• Makah Cultural Museum, Washington
• Ecola State Park, Oregon
• Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, West Yellowstone
• Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
• Volunteer Park Conservatory, Seattle
• St. Mary in the Mountains Catholic Church, Virginia City (donation)
• Parking fees in Seattle, Salt Lake City, Sacramento and Portland

Entertainment costs were partially offset by $25 in winnings at the Black Jack table in Wendover, Nevada!

Ice

The cost of ice came to $16 for the trip.

TOTAL COST: $953, or $35 per day

I am often asked why food costs are not included in the total. My reasoning for not including the cost of food in my travel budget is that I would incur the same food costs if I had remained at home. There is no incremental cost of food as a result of a trip like this. But, for those who are curious, the total cost of food for this trip was $460.

The bottom line is that a long journey like this doesn't need to cost an arm and a leg. Over the course of the 27 days, I experienced many things and captured thousands of photographs. $1,000 seems like a small price to pay for such an experience!