(Money, Money, Money-ABBA)
Here’s a rough guide to travelling costs for anyone thinking of taking the plunge and going to the gulf coast of Alabama in the future.
So now that we’ve been back home for a couple of weeks and gradually reacclimatizing to everything here I decided it was time 😱 to look at the $$$$ for our Gulf Shores, Alabama winter.
The Journey
During the first two days of our journey from PEI to Gulf Shores we had really poor driving conditions and therefore didn’t cover as much distance as we had planned. It took us four days of driving with three hotel stays. Being very tired we ended up eating at the hotels which, as you know, can be quite expensive. Lesson learned.
On the return trip from Gulf Shores to PEI we decided to extend the driving hours each day and make the trip in three days and two nights. We knew that due to Daylight Saving Time we’d have more daylight driving hours. Right. Good plan. Too bad it didn’t work out that way. Our third day was a miserable drive. Driving through Maine was difficult enough but once we hit New Brunswick it got increasingly worse. Single track driving down the Trans Canada Highway. Terrible. We had to overnight in Fredericton which completely destroyed our plan to save money and days driving. What can you do. Mother Nature is not always kind. So now both trips were four days and three nights. We did learn though. On the trip back we stopped at grocery stores in each location and bought items for supper. Smart idea. A lot less costly than restaurants and much nicer to relax and enjoy the food in our rooms. Score one for us.
So here’s the breakdown of the travel to and from. I have to admit it’s not exactly accurate because even though I recorded every item and it’s cost in my journal I forgot to convert the USD expenses into CAD at the time. Therefore my exchange rates were based on today’s rate of exchange. But I’m sure this is very close.
PEI to Alabama
(All $ converted to Canadian$)
Tolls: 63.83
Gas: 229.50
Food: 396.60
Hotels: 402.00
Total: 1091.93
Alabama to PEI
(All $ converted to Canadian$)
Tolls: 11.39
Gas: 300.04
Food: 210.54
Hotels: 452.93
Total: 974.90
Difference: 117.03
The return trip cost us $117.03 less, but remember we pay the Confederation Bridge toll ($47.75) when leaving PEI but not when returning to PEI.
The travel costs there and back were a lot more than I had anticipated so they have to be improved upon but I’m sure we can cut those costs next year. (Yes, we’ve already booked for next year and in the same house.👍🏼) The only cost saving possibilities I can see are getting cheaper accommodations and buying most meals from grocery stores or cheaper restaurants as we have no control over gas or toll prices. We also will try again to cut the trip time, weather permitting, to three days and two nights.
Here’s to lessening next year’s travel costs. 🤞🏼
Debi's Junket Journal 