How Much I Spent on My 3-Day Weekend in Houston, TX
You always end up over-spending on even the best budgeted and itinerary friendly trips. But this time, the damage wasn't as bad as expected! Here is a breakdown of what I spent during my 3-day trip in Houston.
EXPLORETRAVEL
Transportation & Hotel
The one error we made for this trip was going during the Spring Break season. The Spring Breakers were going wild with booking flights, and from my tiny airport in Northwest Arkansas, I could tell that someone was buying seats and then removing them, as if some big company over here was planning a work trip for colleagues with a lack of information for the correct number of seats to buy cough Walmart cough. I was watching a movie with friends when the ticket shenanigans took place, so I decided to zone out that worry, and around 11pm the situation finally calmed down, and I was able to get a round-trip ticket for $504.40, and that’s after using a friend’s discount code. Always get your plane tickets months in advance when you can, friends.
Although the weather was beautiful during our chosen travel week, the price gouging for hotel and transportation was almost not worth it. Thankfully, the Hilton Garden Inn still kept a reasonable price of $81 per night, making it a total of $238.07 for my weekend stay.
✈️$504.40
🏢$238.07
💰Hotel and Transportation Cost: $742.47
I spent a wonderful 3-day weekend in Houston, Texas with my friends recently! It was the perfect mix of a packed schedule with plenty of relaxation in between that left me feeling rejuvenated and excited for my third trip back to the foodie city. Plus, I surprisingly didn’t spend as much money as I thought I would! I’ll give a breakdown of the costs for this 3-Day trip to Houston below.
Activities
During our time in Houston, we planned on going to two different museums, two bookstores, and the reason for coming to Houston as a group, a comedy show!
I took care of the tickets for the comedian show for all of our friends. It was Gianmarco Soresi’s show at the Houston Improv Comedy Club which was a total of $124.10 for a reserved table of 4 in the General seating section, meaning the seats were not the ones closest to the comedian as we didn’t want to get called on for comedic purposes.
The first museum we went to was the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and I am very grateful for my Houstonian friend who is an HMNS member and took care of the tickets for the group at a discounted price, including the special exhibition we all wanted to visit! You can read more about this special exhibition in my Trip Activity Blog.
The second museum we ventured into was the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. We each bought our General Admission ticket which gave us access to all of the special and permanent exhibitions the museum had to offer for a total of $24.
The first bookstore visited was Murder by the Book, and while I do think the amount of money you spend on books is between you and your bookshelf, I will be transparent for the sake of the blog. I’m being really brave here, bearing my heart and my wallet to you. So please don’t judge. At this bookstore, I bought one book, Strange Pictures, for a total of $28.13 including taxes.
The second bookstore we visited was Brazos Bookstore, a cute general bookstore, the kind I can never control myself in. I bought three books. The Body Builders for $26.99, Don’t Let the Forest In for $12.99, and Fustuk for $17.99, plus a little extra for tax purposes. I go into more detail about the bookshops and purchases in my Books I Wanted vs Books I Got Blog.
🎭$124.10
🏛️$24.00
📚$62.75
💰Activities Costs: $210.85
Food & Drinks
After landing in Houston on the first day, my friends and I had dinner at Korea Garden, where we split a group order and a Soju for a total of $29.50 per person. The next day’s breakfast was at Tom n Tom’s for $25.44, and we stopped for lunch at Café Leonelli where I spent $21.77. After our museum excursions we had a quick boba break at Feng Cha for $9.12, and during the comedy show, the dinner I ordered came down to $65.24 including tip. We needed a quick breakfast on the last day where I paid $20.65 for pastries at 85c Bakery Café, and while waiting for my plane at the airport, I spent $38.47 at IAH Sugarland. I go into a lot more detail about the food I ate and the restaurant atmospheres in my Full Itinerary.
🍔🥤Food & Drink Costs: $210.19
Total Cost
I always account for the cost of hotel and transportation to be the highest while traveling, and my goal throughout the trip is to simply ensure I remain at that price or below for the rest of the food and activities. As long as I don’t double the cost of the hotel and transportation, I win. I ended up with a total of $421.04 for everything apart from hotel and transportation, so I win and can consider this a successful and well budgeted trip based on my very loose criteria! But truly, a three-day weekend trip to a foodie city filled with activities for less than two-thousand dollars in total is, to me, a good trip.
✈️🏢Hotel and Transportation Cost: $742.47
🎭🏛️📚Activities Costs: $210.85
🍔🥤Food & Drink Costs: $210.19
💰Total 3-Day Houston Trip Costs: $1,163.51
