Hey guys, we’re back stateside (coronavirus free?) and I’m here to provide the final installment on our trip to Sicily. We’ve discussed the climbing, the lifestyle, and the food, but perhaps there’s a feeling of dismissiveness because it all seems too outlandishly expensive to go galavanting around in Europe. But is it?
We’re frugal, but we’re not cheap. We lean on our five key tips for saving money while traveling abroad to get us off our coach and jetting across the globe. We’re not willing to trade in what’s wonderful about life just to increase our savings rate or achieve some arbitrarily defined “financial independence” goal. However, why pay $20 for something you could have for $5?
If you haven’t already perused the trip reviews thus far, below are the links for the first two posts in this series.
A Winter in Sicily, Part 1: San Vito Lo Capo
A Winter in Sicily, Part 2: The Big City Life
Credit Card Travel Rewards Strategy for Sicily Trip
A lot of the discussion below involves the use of credit card travel rewards. It sounds so dodgy, doesn’t it?
Credit cards make people nervous. Just like the stock market makes people nervous. But both, when reasonably understood and mindfully implemented, can be used to one’s advantage.
Our first goal was to save enough points to earn a free flight (with minor, unavoidable fees). We used two different cards to build up the required 120,000 points for a United flight through Chase Bank: Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase United Explorer cards. The sign-on bonuses, paired with our normal spending (which was always paid in full each month), provided more than enough points for a free flight. Boom, done.
While hotels can be booked proactively with rewards points, we prefer Airbnb or VRBO. Chase and other similar credit card rewards points are largely meaningless for Airbnb and other vacation rentals. However, Flexible Spending Credit Cards can be used to retroactively redeem yourself for any travel-related expense. Expenses such as Airbnb accommodations, rental cars, and even flights can be reimbursed. Truly any expense that codes as “travel” is redeemable after the expense is incurred. It’s important to mention that booking flights with Flex Spending cards are usually not the best redemption, but we’re getting in the weeds for now.
We used our all-time favorite Capital One Venture Card and the now-defunct Barclaycard Arrival Plus to build miles for the reimbursement of most of our Airbnb accommodations and rental car. The only paid-in-full expenses were for food, beverage, fuel, etc. Not much you can do about that, except eat, drink, and drive less.
Spending Totals
All costs are in US dollar amounts (converted from euros) and are totals for the two of us. The trip lasted 16 days to and from our home in Colorado, USA, and we’re not holding back on any secret spending. Full frontal transparency for you!
Roundtrip Flights to Sicily From Colorado: $279.66 Total
Denver to Palermo, Sicily (with connections): $279.66. We purchased these tickets with Chase Ultimate Rewards credit card points. The tickets were essentially free; the costs described here include fees and $54 for flight insurance (probably wasn’t necessary). If you’d like to know how we routinely fly for free (or nearly free), check out this introductory post: How to Fly to Europe for Free.
Sicily Transportation: $324.59 Total
Rental Car: $139.81. The price of the car is $267.34, which is still a great rate for two weeks, even if we paid it in full.
We used points from my Capital One Venture Card (not an affiliate link) to “reimburse” ourselves for this travel-related expense. This being one of the last expenses of the trip, we had largely depleted our stockpile of flex-spending rewards points. I was only able to reimburse $124 worth on this bad boy, but it’s something.
Mr. Punto, our tiny, diesel-powered manual transmission economy car took us around the island. We did not purchase insurance, relying on the included coverage from our Capital One Venture Card. We booked through Autoslash, which automatically found the cheapest option based on our memberships (Costco, flight and rental car club memberships, etc).
After we returned the car, I “erased” about half of this purchase through Capital One’s rewards portal. Pretty neat!
Fuel and Other Transportation: $184.78 Fuel costs are much higher in Europe than in the U.S. Prices on the island were in the range of $5.92 per gallon (converted from Euros/liter), compared to the U.S. national average of $2.88 per gallon at the time of writing (for diesel). However, a small econo car has much better fuel efficiency than our comparatively enormous car back home, so we didn’t break the bank. Having a car on the island was 100% worth it for us, allowing us to drive 1,309 km (or 813 miles).
We paid $106 in fuel and the remainder was spent on various forms of airport transportation (Uber, light rail, minimal parking fees, etc).
Sicily Lodging: $36.91 Total
Lodging (San Vito Lo Capo): $0 for six nights.
We booked this using our Barclaycard, which is another (now-defunct) fantastic flex spending credit card. In essence, as described above, purchases are made with this card as normal, and then all travel-related expenses can be retroactively “erased” with accrued points.
I already mentioned this apartment in the review of San Vito Lo Capo. This was by far our favorite accommodation in our two-week stay, featuring a sunny and roomy two-bedroom villa with an expansive roof-top deck. We had incredible views of the town, sea, and towering limestone cliffs in every direction.
The total cost before point redemption, to give you an idea of low-season value, is $373 ($55 per night). Out of smug curiosity, I looked up the rate for this apartment in peak season, August in this case. $382 per night! This is why off-season travel is fantastic.
Lodging (Syracuse): $0 for six nights.
When we pulled up on the street outside this apartment, I thought we had screwed up. The streets were dirty, and if I’m being honest, it felt a touch slummy. Walking up the shared stairway inside, I could smell years of accumulated cigarette smoke, reminiscent of an old Vegas casino. A few of the stone stairs were cracked, and moved under our feet.
Hey honey, maybe don’t step on those three stairs.
But the interior was well-kept, roomy, and very functional for our needs. As far as the neighborhood, well, that’s just how Sicilian cities can be at first sight. As mentioned in the Sicily Part 2 post, the cities are a bit gritty and grimy. Clean freaks need not apply. However, the location allowed for a relatively quiet existence, walkable in 15 minutes to the ancient island of Ortigia, the street market, and other sites of Syracuse. Despite the outside looks, the neighborhood was safe and everyone we encountered was friendly.
Parking was surprisingly easy compared to the video game-like driving conditions getting into the city. Imagine for a moment hazards jumping out in every direction: cars, people, dogs, banana peels, turtle shells, etc. You get the idea.
For six nights, without points, we would have paid a total of $239.86 for this listing in February.
Lodging (Palermo): $0 for two nights.
This was my least favorite accommodation in Sicily. That being said, we knew we were only in Palermo for two nights, and wanted something very simple.
One perk of this apartment was its location. Of the three places we stayed in Sicily, this might have been the most walkable and centrally located. We were right in the core of the ancient city center, but the trade-off was parking and noise.
Once we parked and my hands stopped shaking, I knew we weren’t moving the car again until we left. Just be aware that driving in Palermo, even during the low season, is not something you’re going to want do on a regular basis.
We were just a few blocks off the main pedestrian walkway. On a Friday night, things were hopping. People were out drinking just outside our window, and we could clearly hear the large crowd fist-pumping sing-along up in the plaza. I’m not griping, it was a cool experience. But it required the full-force of my special sleep kit: eye shade, white noise app on my phone, headphones, lots of volume. I slept surprisingly well.
Without points, we would have paid $93.11 to stay here for two nights.
Lodging (Frankfurt): $36.91 for one night.
We stayed in a basic hotel room one night on our return from Sicily. Picture a German Holiday Inn Express.
We stayed here before, and it’s pretty nice. They raised the rates substantially since last year when we were here, so we probably won’t return.
By this point in our booking adventure, we were nearly out of credit card rewards points. We reimbursed what we could, and paid the rest.
Sicily Food and Drink: $626.94 Total.
We’ve been accused of being overly frugal at times, and in some ways perhaps we are. But when discussing food, I’m willing to throw down. In the end, half of our total spending on this trip was for food and drink. Because, as the kids say…Italy.
I once tried to naively chase my passions by being a chef. Nothing against my friends in the restaurant industry, but I’m glad (for me) that it didn’t pan out. However, I still really love food. And much of my restaurant experience was in Italian (or broadly Mediterranean) cuisine, so hot damn I’m in Italy!
(Related Post: Chasing Your Dreams is Probably a Bad Idea)
We only ate a full meal out three times. Otherwise we cooked a full spread every night, enjoying high-quality seafood and even surprisingly decent mid-winter produce. The city markets were eye-popping, as discussed in Winter in Sicily, Part 2: The Big City Life. Otherwise, we shopped in small supermarkets, not unlike those found in the states (but better).
We also brought two bottles of top-shelf olive oil back home. We had a nail biter at customs in Denver because we hadn’t claimed it. Then an overly-nosy U.S. Customs beagle found an apple I had forgotten about in my carry-on bag while we waited in baggage claim, and we got flagged for extra scrutiny. The oil was safe in the end, but the apple was not. Phew.
(Related Post: How to Make Food at Home That Doesn’t Suck)
Beverages
I’m not separating out beverage cost here. Between the two of us, we drank a bottle of wine basically every night. Sicilian Syrah, I’m told, is making a big name for itself amongst those who follow the wine world. I don’t, but I do enjoy red wine. We typically paid 2-5 Euros (about $2.20 – $5.50) per bottle. Those same bottles would probably retail for $15-20 in the US.
Now, it should be mentioned that we would have bought groceries back home, of course. Over a two week period, we would generally spend about $200-$250 on groceries (I told you I’m not cheap here). Perhaps only about $350-$400 dollars here is excess spending beyond our normal life. YMMV.
Sicily Entertainment: $79.11 Total
We did a few touristy things, as tourists are prone to do. Spending here includes archeological park entry fees (Valley of the Temples, Siracusa Greek Theatre, Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio mosaics), and a couple of gym climbing days for me.
The biggest perk of off-season travel is that we were able to enjoy these parks in 60-degree sun and almost no other visitors. I dig it.
Other Spending: $6.18
Big money here folks. We bought an inexpensive “thinking of you” gift for our house-sitter back in Colorado. Don’t call us cheap either, she got a free house for 16 days and daily black lab kisses. You can’t put a price on that.
Also, for the second year running, I bought some diesel hydrogen peroxide. Hang with me for a second.
I noticed last year in our trip to Mallorca, that Spanish hydrogen peroxide is far more concentrated than that schwag we get here in the states. As I’ve lightly discussed here, I produce “an above average volume of ear wax,” per my doctor. So weekly hydrogen peroxide ear baths are now part of my existence, and I get that good shit in Europe. Wow, a lot of words for something that cost $1.84. You’re welcome.
Let’s Tally the Bill!
| Expense | Cost |
| Roundtrip Flights | $279.66 |
| Rental Car (partial reimbursement) | $139.81 |
| Fuel/Transportation | $184.78 |
| Lodging | $36.91 |
| Food and Beverage | $626.94 |
| Entertainment | $79.11 |
| Other | $6.18 |
| Grand Total Out-of-Pocket | $1,353.38 |
| Approx. Cost Without Travel Rewards* | $3,200 |
| Approx. Travel Rewards Savings | ~$1,800 |
Summary
So that’s it. We had a great time in Sicily, and we were able to enjoy all the wonders, annoyances, and perhaps viral infections of international travel.
The key message here is that this sort of travel need not bog you down in thousands upon thousands of dollars in expenses. In the end, what do we all really want out of travel?
I’d say this trip was packed with luxury. When we wanted to see something, we saw it. When we wanted to eat something, we ate it. We climbed, hiked, spoke really bad Italian. It was all the complicated emotions and experiences you would expect out of a trip abroad. Great success.
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