What Our Family of 5 Spent on 9 Days in Greece and Croatia
People assume a nine-day trip through three countries with three kids is either a points miracle or a second mortgage.
Ours was somewhere in the middle. And the middle is the best story, because it’s the one you can copy.
If you want the day-by-day version, our 9-day Greece and Croatia itinerary is where that lives. This post is just the money.
What did 9 days in Greece and Croatia cost our family of five?
About $7,811 in cash, plus 297,500 Flying Blue miles, 16,000 Amex points, and 35,500 Mr & Mrs Smith points.
That’s roughly $1,562 per person, or about $868 a day for all five of us. Two adults, three kids under 12, over spring break, through three countries.
| Cost | |
|---|---|
| Flights (award taxes + cash fares) | $3,535 |
| Lodging, 8 nights | $2,402 |
| Rental car and parking | $400 |
| Food | ~$1,150 |
| Tolls, gas, activities, everything else | ~$324 |
| Total | ~$7,811 |
What did the flights cost?
$3,535 in cash across four bookings, and most of the big transatlantic number is taxes on award tickets.
- Toronto to Athens, Air France economy, all five of us: 85,000 Flying Blue miles + $508
- Zagreb to Toronto, KLM business class, all five: 212,500 Flying Blue miles + $1,450
- Athens to Santorini, round trip, Aegean family fare: €1,090
- Athens to Dubrovnik, Aegean: $400 ($80 per person)
Two notes on those amounts:
Flying Blue discounts award tickets 25% for kids ages 2 to 11. On the way home that meant 50,000 miles per adult and 37,500 per kid. With three kids, that discount saved us 37,500 miles on one booking.
And Aegean’s family fare took 40% off the girls’ tickets, with free seat selection and priority boarding included. I could have booked the Santorini legs on United points for 8,000 each. By the time I remembered, the award space was gone. Book the short intra-Europe hops when you book the long haul, not three weeks later.
One more thing, and I’d rather say it than have someone plan around a price that doesn’t exist anymore. Both Flying Blue redemptions were before the devaluation. The same tickets today would run 106,250 miles out, and 60,000 per adult plus 47,500 per child home.
Where did we sleep, and what did it cost?
$2,402 in cash across eight nights, with two of those stays covered by points.
- Athens, Sweet Home Hotel family room, 1 night: $470, breakfast included, one king and three singles
- Santorini, Airbnb cave house, 2 nights: $834
- Dubrovnik, Airbnb near Pile Gate, 2 nights: $550.61
- Split, Briig Boutique Hotel (Mr & Mrs Smith), 2 nights: 35,500 points for room one, $547 for room two, plus €20 a night for parking
- Zagreb, Canopy by Hilton, 1 night: 8,000 Amex points per room for two rooms, thanks to a 25% transfer bonus to Hilton. They comped the parking
The Airbnbs are the reason this number isn’t much higher. Both slept six and had kitchens and a washer, which matters a lot when you’re traveling carry-on only. Dubrovnik came with private parking, two bathrooms, and a gated garden five minutes from the Pile Gate for about $225 a night. Two hotel rooms in that location would have cost more.
Split is the stay I’d point at if you’re wondering whether chasing points is worth it. Same hotel, same two nights, one room on points and one on cash. The cash room was $547. The points room was 35,500. That’s 1.54 cents per point, and it came with breakfast, a bottle of wine, and a handwritten note welcoming our family.
What did we spend on food?
Somewhere around $1,150, and I want to be upfront that this one is an estimate rather than a stack of receipts.
Dinners ran €50 to €100 for the five of us depending on the city. Lunch was often bread, cheese, and fruit from a grocery store, which is cheaper and also easier than finding a restaurant that can seat five in the middle of a sightseeing day.
Breakfast was included in Athens and at Briig in Split, and we had full kitchens in Santorini and Dubrovnik. That combination is most of the reason this number isn’t over $2,000.
So no, we didn’t eat cheaply. We also didn’t eat at a restaurant three times a day. The grocery store lunch is the easiest way to cut a family food budget in Europe, and nobody in my house has ever complained about it.
What about the car, the tolls, and everything else?
Roughly $724 for the rental car, parking, gas, tolls, and every entrance ticket we bought.
The National rental was $357 for a Toyota Corolla hatchback, picked up at Dubrovnik Airport and dropped at Zagreb Airport. One-way across an entire country, under $400. (All five of our backpacks fit in that trunk. Five suitcases would not have.)
Then about €300 covered the rest for tolls, gas, the Santorini porter and driver at €45, Acropolis tickets at €30 per adult with kids free, the Acropolis Museum, Plitvice entry, and the small stuff you forget about until you add it up.
Every toll road in Croatia took a tap of a credit card.
What would I change?
Four things, and two of them cost us money.
I waited too long to book the Aegean flights. I could have had the Santorini legs for 8,000 United points per ticket. By the time I remembered to look, the award space was gone and we paid €1,090 cash instead. Book the short intra-Europe hops the same week you book the long haul. I know this. I did it anyway.
I took a taxi in Athens instead of the metro. I hadn’t researched how to get from the airport to the hotel, so I figured we’d just grab a cab. Then we got there and realized almost every taxi in Athens is a sedan that seats four. We stood around until we found a driver willing to take five of us. On the way back we took the metro, the train literally said “Airport” in English on the display, and it was simple. It was super easy and should have done that both ways.
One day in Athens wasn’t enough. I wanted a day and a half, maybe two. The flight schedule made that call for us, since there was exactly one direct flight a week from Athens to Dubrovnik and it went on Mondays. Still, we did the Acropolis and the museum and that was the whole visit. Next time I’d build the trip around a second Athens day even if it meant a connection.
We rushed Plitvice. Route F wants three or four hours. We did it in about two, with two boat rides, a few miles of boardwalk, and an uphill climb to the shuttle at the end. It was beautiful and we were moving the entire time. If I did it again I’d give up the Zadar stop that morning and just slow down at the park.
Is a trip like this doable without a pile of points?
Yes, totally!
Five business class seats home is the number one thing we could not have bought. That’s the biggest gap between what we paid and what this trip would cost at retail. The economy flights over and the two hotel nights on points helped, but business class is the one that changes the math.
The rest of it, though… $7,811 for nine days, three countries, five people, in a school break week. That number doesn’t require points expertise. It requires apartments instead of two hotel rooms, grocery store lunches, shoulder season instead of summer, and carry-on only so you’re never paying to check five bags.
The Aegean mistake is the one I’d want to save you from. Not because 8,000 points is a lot, but because award space disappears while you’re busy deciding, and by then the cash fare is your only option.
If you have points and a rough idea of where you want to go, custom trip planning starts at $250. I’ll do the award search, build the routing, and tell you what order to book it in.
Related: Mostar, Bosnia as a day trip from Dubrovnik covers the border crossing at Neum, and how to pack carry-on only with kids is the system that got five backpacks into a Corolla hatchback.
