Mini Trip Budget: Stowe Vermont

Wanderlust Wednesday-Week 18
Lately, we've been doing lots of day trips and mini trips around New England. These mini trips are are only 2-4 days, compared to our big trips that last a week or more. But they aren't any less amazing. 

Because we're short on time, it means staying closer to home and spending less. Since we already share our big trip budgets here, I thought we may as well share these mini trip budgets too. Just goes to show that you can do many types of travel on all different budgets. Here's what we spent on our recent trip to Vermont. 

Transportation:: $37
It was a bit of a haul from Boston to Stowe Vermont, but driving made the most sense. Thankfully gas is so cheap right now and it didn't cost too much to make the 4 hour drive there and back. We did pay road tolls as well, but those get deducted out of our EZPASS account. I'm not even going to bother separating that out because I have better things to do with my time because tolls come out of a general travel fund.

Accommodations:: $50
This was a hiking trip so of course we camped. We spent two nights at Smuggler's Notch State Park, right outside of downtown Stowe. It's a tiny campground, but well organized. Even with the lure of waterfalls to play in, it took a lot for Husband to coax me into leaving our spot. I would have been content to sit there all day. Our campground was only $24//night + another $2 total for the pet fee to bring our pup along.

Adventures:: $0
There were plenty of options for activities, but we mainly stuck to hiking since we had our dog along. According to the website, Smuggler's Notch State Park charges $4//day per person, but no one ever asked us to pay this fee, so I guess swimming in all those waterfalls was free?

Food:: $48
We grabbed groceries in Stowe and alternated cooking between our camp stove and right over the campfire. This was our first time cooking over the flame like this and we loved it, especially how everything tasted. We ended up spending $30 on groceries and another $18 on local craft beers to enjoy around the fire at night.

Other:: $32
Just a couple of miscellaneous purchases. With using the fire for cooking and evening entertainment, we went through a ton of firewood, $24 worth. Then we spent another $8 on the coin operated showers within the campground.

Our camping trip in Stowe Vermont comes out to $167. We definitely could have spent less, but just focused on having a good time. All in all, I think this is great for the amazing weekend we had. And I haven't forgot about sharing our Southwest Road Trip Budget. Hopefully, I will be finish with that soon, but it's a bit more complicated to explain. 

How do you work within your travel budget?