This is the first in a series of posts that I have wanted to share for some time detailing our actual cost of living as digital nomad couple as we roam around the globe.
You can read more about what goes into this series, including some important notes about what the numbers below do and do not include on this post: Actual Costs of Living as a Full-time Digital Nomad Couple.
Cost of Living in Paris, France June 2017 | |
Lodging | US$81/night/couple |
Food | US$64/day/couple |
Transportation | US$23/day/couple |
Entertainment | US$10/day/couple |
Other/Cash | US$6/day/couple |
Total | US$184/day/couple US$92/day/person |
Paris Cost of Lodging (Airbnb): $81/night
We knew Paris would be expensive, and it’s one of the reasons we only planned for two weeks, although in hindsight we probably could have afforded a full month and in doing so would have enjoyed another 10% off the entire stay (Airbnb duration discounts vary by property/host but this one had 10% for a week, 20% off for a month)
In total, we paid $1146 for 14 nights from June 14th-28th for this incredible Airbnb in Paris. It was above our target lodging budget of $50/day, but it was worth it and we’ll make up for this splurge with somewhere cheaper down the road like when we’re back in Thailand
Gratuitous plugs:
If you’ve never used Airbnb before you can signup here and save $40.
If you’d like to read more about using Airbnb you can read our posts on living in Airbnb here.
Cost of Food (Resturants and grocery): $64/day
Again, we knew food in Paris was going to be on the expensive side but we were mindful. A mix of 1-2 restaurants per day, filled in with grocery and boulangerie 4€ tomato/cheese sandwiches, or make it at home) balances things out. We often “think” we’ll make use of the kitchen and actually cook, but it’s extremely rare we do. It usually is just making a sandwich or reheating leftovers. Neither of us drinks much, but that isn’t to say we don’t have a glass of wine with dinner or the occasional bottle. The good news was in Paris restaurant wine was cheap by US standards.
Cost of Transportation (Metro and Uber): $23/day
We did a lot of Uber’ing around Paris. While the metro is fabulous and we used that a lot too, it was the hottest days of summer at 35C/95F (note: that is unusually hot for Paris, but really not that hot if, for example, you’d been in New Delhi, India back in June 2007 with it hit 49C/120F).
Metro is just over US$2 per person per trip. Some places we wanted to go were long multiple transfer metro ride, but only US$10 by Uber, so we’d Uber. Other times a straight shot on the metro or one transfer would go all the way across the city where an Uber would be slower (traffic) and cost US$25, so we’d happily metro it.
While transport felt cheaper than we expected overall, being a big city did mean that used paid transportation a lot, plus this includes transport to and from WordCamp Europe on the outskirts of town the first weekend.
More gratuitous plugs:
We love Uber and Lyft in spite of some of the many controversies if you haven’t yet:
Sign up with this link to save $15 on your first Uber ride
Sign up with this link to save $5 on your first Lyft ride
Cost of Entertainment (Museums, Movies, Tours, etc): $10/day
I know a lot of people assume we’re on vacation the whole time and spending money like most people do while on vacation on tours, museums, adventures etc… but we don’t. First, doing everything there is for tourists to do would be exhausting, not to mention expensive. So in these two weeks:
We went on a bike tour (€35/each)
Elena went to the Picasso Museum (€13)
We didn’t get to The Louvre nor go on the after dark Seine River Boat Tour we’d planned on… next time :D
Cost of Other Cash: $6/day
Yeah, as usual, we don’t spend much cash anywhere, but we do occasionally when something is only a few euros/dollars or somewhere doesn’t take credit cards.
Grand Total: $92/day/person
If you want to check that math it’s: 6+10+23+64+81=$184/day, divided by 2.
Being the first in a series PLEASE provide feedback in the comments below not just on the content, we’re totally interesting in what you think, but also please share what you think about the format and what you might like to see done differently going forward ;)
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