I recently came across a post by Jason Hull of Hull Financial Planning estimating the cost to go to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Assuming a 14 night stay, flights from Dallas, tickets to 3 World Cup games in three different cities, and three domestic flights to host cities, his estimate came up to be $7,205 USD per person.

Our stay was of a similar duration, but we had flights from Toronto, tickets to 1 world cup game, an 8 hour bus ride, a two boat rides, and three domestic flights. Including all of the sightseeing, food and accommodations, it came out to $7,300 CAD – for the both of us.

Make Up the Breakdown

Transportation

The biggest expense was transportation, totaling to 58% of the entire trip. Our round trip flights from Toronto to Sao Paulo cost $1350 per person. This, believe it or not, is a reasonable fare. We’d been stalking airfare prices for months; the cost hovered at around $1500 per person for months until that one fated day when it dipped to $1350. We made the purchase almost immediately and prices spiked back up the day after.

We visited five cities while in Brazil which consisted of one very long bus ride (8 hours, to be exact), two ferry rides, a shorter bus trip, and three domestic flights. Also included was a number of cab rides from airport taxis to our various accommodations. Bus fares are not included; that was paid in cash and not tracked, though it would have been less than $50 in total.

Accommodations
Accommodations accounted for 15% of our expenses. We spent a total of $1050 for fourteen days, which averages to $40 per night per person. This, in my opinion, was quite the feat considering hostels had a starting rate of $50 per night per person in Rio and Sao Paulo. We shared rooms with our travel companions and opted for the two-person hotel rooms on game nights which helped to cut costs dramatically.

We lucked out in Rio where we rented an apartment through AirBNB. Most apartment rentals, whether it was through AirBNB , VRBO, Homeaway or more local avenues, started at $300/night ($75 per night per person). We even had a friend of a friend offer her apartment at $250/night ($62.50 per night per person). We found an apartment without any World Cup conditions (that is, minimum stay of 7 or more days) or markups (that is, >$300/night). It accommodated four people, was located a couple blocks from Copacabana beach, and only cost $163/night ($41 per night per person).

Food + Attractions + Souvenirs

We’re lumping food, attractions and souvenirs into one category. Most food, tourist attractions/activities and souvenirs were paid for in cash which we didn’t keep track of. The amount we spent on souvenirs is minimal; I bought a few pairs of Havaianas flip flops (at $10/pair) and whole bunch of postcards. In terms of food, we had complimentary breakfast at most of the places we stayed at or boiled eggs where we didn’t. We made ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch every single day and carried water bottles for hydration. We splurged on dinner and ate whatever suited our fancy; on average, dinner would cost $20-25 per person. In total, we spent $1050 in this category, averaging $37.5 per person per day.

Other

We splurged on two things our trip: World Cup tickets and hang gliding, accounting for almost 15% of our budget. These are huge splurges, but we had accounted for the costs prior to setting our budget and saved for it accordingly. They were well worth the price, in our opinion. More on that later 🙂

Total

[table]Item, Cost
Transportation, $4250
Accommodations, $1050
Food + Attractions + Souvenirs, $1050
Other, 
World Cup Tickets, $400
Hang Gliding, $625
Total, $7575[/table]

We knew a vacation to Brazil during the World Cup would be costly. We set a loose budget of $7000 for the trip; in the end we spent $7375. It’s one the most expensive vacations we’ve taken, especially considering it was only two weeks, but we had spent the last year saving for it and we exercised cost savings measures as much as we could. In the end, we found the trip and experience well worth the money we paid.

What is the most you’ve spent on travel? What was the duration of your trip?