How I Saw Hamburg For Under £200

As a travel blogger, my main aim in life is to travel as much as I can. Around the time of this trip I was also in the process of buying a house and so my top priority had to be paying for that, which made life difficult when it came to my wanderlust. After doing the Cheapflights Challenge in 2016 when I went to Dublin, and that post getting such a good reception from my readers, it made sense to do some more budget trips and talk about how I got them so cheap on here. It’s always good to get tips from others on how to save money on a trip, right? Here’s how I spent 48 hours in Hamburg for under £200 and if you want to know more about what I got up to in the city, you can read my Spending 48 Hours In Hamburg post too.

Flights

I spotted a Ryanair seat sale and decided that, as I was carrying over some of 2018’s holiday into 2019, I could be flexible about where I went to. My only proviso was I wanted somewhere new. So when I saw the Hamburg flights, for just £5.00 each way, I booked them-flying Sunday morning, early, and flying back Tuesday morning, again very early. Two days in a city is short, for me-I prefer three or four-but for that price, I can cram a lot into two days and see most of the things I’d like to. I’d recommend signing up to the budget airlines’ newsletters and keeping an eye out for seat sales to grab yourself a bargain like I did. I booked these flights on Christmas day, when there always seems to be a sale. Merry Christmas to me.

Budget flights aren’t for everyone but if you can be flexible about where you go, don’t need to book extras such as assigned seats, extra luggage, food or queue jump at customs, you can really save money.

Subtotal: £10.78 (including taxes) 

Accommodation

As part of my ‘lets do this on a budget’ plan, instead of my usual booking a hotel (not a hostel for me, I need my own space) I instead booked an Air B n B room. I went for a very central room, in a ladies only house-and paid just £80 for the two nights I’ll be staying. I’d recommend booking a whole apartment to yourself if you can, and it’s always worth weighing up whether it’s better to pay more to be right in the centre of a city and spend nothing on transport, or pay less and be a bit further out but have to walk or get buses or taxis. Also consider whether you’ll need to wash clothes, whether you’ll want to cook yourself a meal or two, and if you’re happy spending your downtime sat on your bed or if you prefer having a living room you can access.

Subtotal: £90.78

Food

I didn’t eat much at all during my two days in the city, if I’m honest. This was less about the quality of food (though I wasn’t massively inspired) and more about my Fibromyalgia medication making me feel sick when I even looked at food. I had a McDonalds on my first day and CurryWurst on the second, spending a total of £10 on both meals.

Hamburg is pretty cheap for food so whilst you’re likely to spend more than I did, unless you want really really fancy, you’re probably not going to spend that much.

Subtotal: £100.78 

Activities

The majority of what I did was free, though I did spend around £50 on a couple of things aimed at keeping myself out of the rain. There’s a full list of the things I did, and more free things you could do if you fancied, on my 48 Hours In Hamburg post linked at the beginning of this one. I’d budget £100 for activities if you wanted to push the boat out, and with that you should be covered for anything you want to do in this city.

Subtotal: £150.78 

Souvenirs

I can’t leave a city without buying something for my house from there, and I went a bit overboard leaving Hamburg. I bought a teddy wearing a raincoat and a Hamburg jumper, an ornamental tour bus and some Christmas decorations, costing around £30 in total.

Subtotal: £180.78 

Have you visited Hamburg before? How much do you think you spent in the city?