How to budget for your first solo trip?

So, this is a post about the finances I had for my first solo trip, which I took to Naples Italy in July 2024. I did keep a spreadsheet of my finances and checked it regularly. I will make a template available in case your interested. It’s not to limit yourself by money, it’s just to keep tabs. At the end of this post, I have attached a screenshot of the money I had spent/estimated for my 4 day trip to Italy.

This is a requested post, and I didn’t know people could request through the comment section below. So, by all means, go on request! It’s better I write things that help you, as well as me.

The Spreadsheet for the first solo trip

I love a good spreadsheet; I am an excel person for everything where I can. It’s ok if you’re not, if you have other ways of managing your finances, by all means do it that way. But I think the easiest way is a simple spreadsheet.

Here I listed everything I wanted to do. So, for Italy, I needed accommodation, flights, and some ideas on tourist things. my major thing was to hike Mount Vesuvius and see Pompeii. In addition to that, I had the usual TikTok influenced areas like the Amalfi Coast, Rome, The Vatican City and Milan. It’s key to remember to just list things, before looking at money.

After you have listed your hopes and dreams, you need column for the prices, the hyperlinks and extra notes. Having the hyperlinks already noted down saves you time when you are refining your plans and actually booking them. And also, noting the cost, means you can start planning what is worth spending on the trip now, and what can be a later trip (if you’re on a limited budget). The extra notes is just for additional things to consider, when you start planning your itinerary.

The Research for the first solo trip

Always go to reputable websites. Yes, it may seem like they are pricier, but this is your first solo trip. You need minimum hassle, and trust. Once you start sussing out the companies, the more you travel, the more you see which cheaper deals are legit and which are just downright scams.

TripAdvisor and its partner companies are obviously reputable for activities. Expedia, Booking.com, Trivago (there are more, but I think  you get the jist on who I am talking about), are good for hotels and flights. They can offer packages too, so you can get your airport taxi to your hotel sorted (which makes life easier, and you’re less likely to get ripped off – like I did).

With each of those areas, just look for what works for you. Note down the price too, but don’t overthink it right now. It’s just to get rough prices of what each thing will cost, and later on you start filtering what will actually happen on your trip.

Things to note for your first solo trip

For the activities, take a note on how long they take. The tour of Sorrento, Positano and Pompeii was an 8-hour day. My original tour was also an 8-hour day, so that pretty much writes off a whole day, remember that.

Flights! Look at the time they arrive and leave your country. Do you want to arrive at night, the afternoon or the morning? I decided the afternoon, because most hotels (or probably all) do check in from the afternoon, and I didn’t want to be walking around from the morning with my luggage. Also, a night arrival – I knew I was going to a private B&B, so they wouldn’t have someone at the door 24/7, so how would I get in if I arrived at 10 pm? These are things to consider at this point, because there is no point noting a cheap flight, but you arrive at 1 am and can’t check in.

Accommodation: For the first trip, I would recommend a city based, secure location. Reviews are left everywhere, and though some places might have the occasional bad review, there are some that have consistent bad reviews. I trust 4.5+ stars as a first-time solo traveller. Just do your due diligence. It’s a different country that will work differently from your own, so consider a higher rating before you look at low rated ones.

Prepare: The Refining

Great! Now you have your list of things you want to do in your destination country. It’s time to refine. You have to remember what your motivation is. Mine was Mount Vesuvius so that had to be there. I also thought why not get bang for my buck, do an 8-hour day, with the volcano and site seeing, hence why I picked the tour. It was a pricey tour at £103, but it covered a lot of ground, which meant the other days I could stay more local. It also meant I didn’t need to pay extra for travelling to those places, as the price covered all travel and tickets to enter Pompeii.

With the things I decided I wasn’t going to do, I greyed them out in the spreadsheet so I wouldn’t focus on them. The reason I didn’t go to other cities, is because I didn’t feel brave enough to hop on a train or pay for extra accommodation in those cities. Some of them were quite a trek and would need me to stay the night to actually get some enjoyment out of it. The thought of having to pack up and take my stuff was just too much. That was not the vibe I was going for, so I accepted staying around the Naples/west Italy area.

The other activities, I chose things that were cheap, but still gave me information of Italy. This meant I wouldn’t have to go out and figure out what to do on the day, because I know I am the kind of person who would stay indoors the whole time if there was no plan. At this point also check the distance of the starting points of the activities from your accommodation options. This distance could affect what you choose to do, or there might be public transport which confirms something. It’s worth noting.

Note I haven’t said book anything yet. Why? Because have we booked the flights and accommodation yet? Nope.

It’s time to Book!

First, we book the flights and accommodation. There is no holiday, if you have no actual destination to go to. You need a credit card for this, please. Things can go wrong, and where insurance and flight company’s might skimp out, your credit card company won’t. This adds extra protection to your purchase, and you need as many safety cushions on this trip as possible. So, when you find a flight that works for you in time and luggage and arrival, and an accommodation, book it. After this point, you will get offered things like seat booking, or taxi service, do what works for you. It might be cheaper to book your taxi if your accommodation is far from the airport, rather than seeing what you can get, when you arrive.

Once they are booked, you can book whatever else you feel like. I waited until a month before I travelled, to book the activities. This was just because it felt too early to give them money, because I booked the flights and hotel 7 months in advanced. But I did book other things, like travel insurance, airport parking for my car, and checked if I needed a visa or what I can do with my phone to stay connected whilst I was out of the country.

When I booked things, my spreadsheet started to turn green, where things were confirmed.

My Total

My total expenditure for 4 days in Naples (described in this post) was £1058. The thing is it didn’t feel like that, because I booked my flight and hotel months in advanced. I saved up for 6 months, all the money that I wanted to convert as currency. Everything else was paid on my credit card for security, which was being paid monthly (though I was not paying off the whole balance). This does not include the extension due to software issues, which was an additional £800. I never got my money back for that, which sucks, but it is what it is, and it hasn’t ruined solo travel for me.

Also, I have attached a screenshot of my spreadsheet for my trip to Naples, in its original form. I was ready to delete it, until I got a request for this post. So, thank you for the request, and I hope this helps you in gaining the courage to consider a solo trip.

TL;DR

• I had a great trip and it cost me money, but I knew I was going to spend money. This was not an impulsive decision
• Taking the time to prepare made it not feel like a massive financial burden.
• Saving for 6-8 months is not bad for a mainly risk-free solo trip, and that’s what you need on your first one
• Using a spreadsheet is handy for planning, but don’t limit yourself too much, that’s not the point of the spreadsheet
• Remember you can always visit the same place twice, no one will stop you.