The Saving Journey

We have just got back from a week in the Black Forest, Germany and it was amazing! It is definitely one of my favourite places and I would love to go back. We had brilliant weather, every day was sunny although we did get caught in a thunderstorm at one point! We spent every day walking, biking or on a boat with gorgeous nature all around. We drove all over the region and even that was fun through forests, up hills, down into valleys and through tiny villages with traditional houses. The food was delicious, very meat heavy especially pork but it’s cooked so well we loved it. The people were so friendly too, even with our very poor German I think they appreciated the effort!

We flew there with Ryanair with no checked baggage but I did pay extra to keep two bags in the cabin instead of having one put in the hold which is a new policy for this year. This appears to be both another money making scheme from Ryanair as well as a way to prevent the overhead lockers becoming too full. We didn’t pay to choose our seats but after some moving around of other passengers ended up sitting together on both flights. Total cost was £212 for the two of us return.

We booked car hire for one week with Global for £112 (found through a comparison site but I forget which one) and got a Skoda Fabia, which was more than sufficient and pretty fuel efficient. We spent £97 and drove more than 1,000km!

I originally booked seven nights accommodation through booking.com but then our return flight time changed and we had to be at the airport super early so we changed the last night to a different hotel closer to the airport.

We stayed for six nights at the Gasthof Jaegerhaus in the village of St Peter for £511. This included a great breakfast and parking and there was also an outdoor pool and indoor spa with four different saunas and steam rooms. It is quite small and family run and we absolutely loved it! We also dined in the restaurant one night and the food was delicious as were the breakfasts.

The final night we stayed at the Mercure City Centre in Stuttgart as that was where we were flying from for £75 room only. This was a pretty standard city hotel, nothing special but it was clean, comfortable and well located.

We then spent £520 on food and activities. Most activities were pretty cheap but did add up over the week – bike hire, boat hire, church tour, entry to the Triberg waterfalls, entry to the Porsche museum in Stuttgart and entry to the thermal spa in Baden Baden which was the most expensive at €30 – and some were free – walking around Lake Titisee, using the hotel pool and sauna.

Our cheapest evening meal was also one of the best! We spent £25 at a supermarket and found a grillplatz – a public barbecue that is free for anyone to use. Here is the view as the sun started to set and we ate sausages and toasted marshmallows!

We ate in restaurants the rest of the time ranging in price from £20 for fast food to nearer £60 for a two course meal with wine and beer.

In total, we spent £1,527 and in comparison to our last week away in Fuerteventura we’ve improved by 10%! I know that many of you will still think this is expensive for a family of two but we had such a good time, I think it was worth every penny! Having said that I am still interested to know – how much do you budget for a week’s holiday? How do you save money without sacrificing the experience?