I got lucky and happened to be in the city for Portugal Day and Lisbon’s Santo Antonio Festival. There were special events and parties all over town with a big parade on Sunday that went on late into the night, such a cool experience!

This was a 7-night stay…

• Accommodation –  $751.56* (includes 14€ city tax; additional information below)
• Getting around locally – $21.13 (3 x 24hr rail/metro passes, 6,45€ each and a one-time 0,50€ fee for the card)
• Living expenses – $244.61 (groceries and eating out)
• Activities – $10.65 (Entry fee to the castle 10€)
• Mobile phone/data  – $17.41 (I use Google Fi which provides service in most countries. If you’re interested and based in the U.S., you can use this paid link to sign up, which will give me a referral fee at no extra cost to you.)
• Medical insurance – $16.13 (I’m using SafetyWing; rates are determined by age, and mine is slightly above the base. If you’re interested, there is a paid link/banner on the right side of the page)

Total $1,061.49 / 7-nights = $151.64 per

*Hotel info

• I stayed at Saldanha Pool & Garden, reserved through Booking.com. It isn’t the type of place I typically stay at, a bit more of a boutique hotel, but it was the best-looking option I found. I guess because of the festivities in town that I hadn’t known about when booking. It was a nice place, and I liked the area, but the view from the pool gave it a fish bowl feel like there was no privacy in the room. You see almost the entire room, from nearly every angle, and into the bathroom from the pool. I felt the atrium seating area was an awkward place to sit when people were at the pool. I really only booked this room because after initially booking a standard room, it showed the standard rooms are something like 11 or 12 meters squared; that’s tiny! The size of this room was good, and it had a refrigerator with mini-bar items for sale (a waste for me, I always take them out and return them before checkout), but there was no coffee maker or water kettle, and the seating area in the atrium didn’t have a power outlet, so it was not good for getting any work done. I ended up buying a water kettle and leaving it behind, so hopefully, they’ll leave it in the room and maybe set up a coffee/tea station. It could be nice for a short stay, but they need to add a second set of curtains lower down so you can still get in light but block the pool view.

Transportation to and from varies a lot, so I left it out of the above breakdown along with most incidental/one-time personal costs. But for those interested, in this particular case, I booked a direct train with CP from Faro to Lisbon Entrecampos station. My seat was 1st class, and the cost was 28,95€ ($31.10). All other standard day-to-day expenses are included to give an idea of how much basic living costs in the area are. Groceries will sometimes include personal care items (i.e., toothpaste, deodorant, etc.).

** I try to use Rakuten whenever it’s an option; why not take the money. It works with a browser add-on, and there is also a mobile app. Note from the Ratuken site, “Stores pay us a commission for sending our members to their websites, and we share it with you. It’s that simple!” If you haven’t signed up yet, and are interested, please consider using this referral link to help support me, and get a signup bonus. I use it regularly and recommend it, but please look for yourself and decide if it’s right for you. When you sign up using the link, use it spending $, we each get $! The $ varies; I’ve recently seen at $40 and $30. They state, “Offer may be modified or canceled anytime.” 

*** Of course, the currency exchange varied during the stay, so for simplicity, I used a rate of 1 USD = 0,93€ for cash transactions. 

**** Since this is my living situation, I don’t go to top-rated restaurants or paid entry to tourist attractions too much. I eat out a lot, but usually nothing special; to some extent, it’s somewhat more cost-effective this way… at least that’s what I’m telling myself. I try to be cost-conscious, eating as a local would… maybe you could say like a backpacker/broke college student, that is LOL! I try to note any differences to this above.

I’m striving to provide worthwhile information for people planning trips or a nomadic lifestyle, so if you have any ideas to make these posts more helpful, please let me know. You can comment/DM on social media, in the comments below, or email at (MeanderingMax@gmail.com). I appreciate your support!