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In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this financially independent lifestyle, they invite you to take advantage of their wisdom and experience.

Six Countries, Eight Flights, Five Trains and 74 Days

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

The Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

The Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

We just wrapped up a six-country trip through southern Italy, Sicily, Malta, Paris, France, Sint Maarten and Nevis, West Indies in the Caribbean.

As is our style, we tracked our spending and wanted to share with you some insight and financial figures from our experiences.

Booking most rooms through Booking.com, we paid cash obtaining a discount on a couple of apartments which we had rented on our earlier trip in the spring. We had contact info with the owners so this made it easy to arrange.

These apartments were offered with nice decreases in price, but we had to pay in cash. This is not a hardship for us as we are used to bargaining with cash and receiving discounts. Both the apartment owners and we ourselves were pleased with the transaction.

We will be producing numerous detailed articles and reviews from our trip as we create them. They are always published on RetireEarlyLifestyle.com.

We flew from Guadalajara, Mexico to Rome, Italy, via Madrid. (see pricing of flights on a chart below)

From the Rome airport we had a private driver whom we used before to bring us to Hotel Riviera in the coastal town of Anzio. We paid him $110Euros for the ride.

Spending ten nights in Anzio at $138USD per night we had an ocean view room on Roman Emperor Nero's Beach and a remarkable buffet breakfast included. This was a gentle way of getting over jet lag.

We found an award-winning restaurant - Restaurante Turcotto - and it was so amazing that we ate there three times!

Then we took a train to Salerno on the Amalfi coast. Spending three nights there in an apartment with breakfast included, the price was $100USD per night.

Again, we took a train ($75Euros for 2) to the ancient town of Matera for ten nights, at $100USD per night. Living in a cave-turned-apartment with breakfast included was an unexpected experience and we explored the famous village of Matera.

Back on the rails we made our way to Brindisi on the Eastern Coast of Italy. Because we had been here in the Spring, we were able to get a nice adjusted price on the apartment paying cash, $65USD per night with a light breakfast included.

In this renowned seaport city of Brindisi we explored more sights that we missed on our short first visit including a working military castle and a sailors monument.

In order to fly to Palermo, Sicily, it was a short train ride north from Brindisi to Bari. This time we only spent one night in Palermo at $92USD. Earlier in the spring we stayed a week, seeing the sights in this multi-cultural city.

Then, we took the train to Cefalu ($23Euros for 2).

In Cefalu, on the northern coast of Sicily, we ran around checking out the classic old town and excellent beaches. Our 2-bedroom apartment was centrally located which was very convenient. We paid $98USD per night and after 5 nights we took the train to Catania ($33Euros for 2).

Catania is the second largest city in Sicily located on the eastern coast. It has a very distinctive vibe and there are countless restaurants and eateries located here. The fresh fish market was the most extraordinary we have ever seen.

 

 

 

 

Eating our way through Sicily we stayed in Catania for seven nights at $97USD per night. The fact that we rented our two-bedroom apartment here in the spring, again we were able to get a great price for our second stay.

Flying from Catania to Malta allowed us to visit another country and culture. Eight nights in the town of Rabit at $88USD per night, gave us more than enough time to explore the small island. After the dynamic and spirited Sicily, Malta seemed a little more vanilla-flavored than we would have liked. But how do you know unless you go?

Onward to Paris, we flew Air France for an eight-night stay in the Latin Quarter, paying $175USD per night. Paris is seductive, vibrant, cultured alluring and a gourmet’s delight. The architecture, history and natural beauty are unforgettable. Our hotel was located so that walking everywhere was easy.

Cold and sometimes rainy, the weather in Paris pushed our bodies and our wardrobe to the limit.

The next flight on Air France took us to Sint Maarten in the Caribbean Islands. We basically went from 50-degree damp, windy weather to 85-degree balmy tropics. AAAAhhhhh..... put away the sweaters, jackets and long pants!

We stayed five nights on the friendly and welcoming Dutch side of the island for $99USD per night, getting over jet lag and normalizing to island time.

On an island hopper airline, WinAir flew us to St. Kitts where we taxied ($40Euro) to Reggae Beach and took a private water Taxi ($20Euro each) to the island of Nevis.

Mango Smoothie on Sint Maarten

The Lovely Nashanti serving us a Mango smoothie at our villa on Nevis WI

We lived on Nevis in 1991 when we began our retirement. This was our first time back in 33 years. Seven wonderful nights of relaxing in our ocean front villa at $244USD per night, swimming daily and rediscovering places we had seen decades prior. We understood once again why we had fallen in love with this gentle island all those years ago.

We returned to Sint Maarten again at $99USD per night via WinAir for two more nights in order to catch our flight on Copa Airlines via Panama City back to Guadalajara, Mexico.

With all the stops we made, the different modes of transportation, the assorted Sims cards for our cell phones that we needed for each country, the time changes and currency variations, there were a lot of moving parts to keep straight.

The airfare and lodging were about equal as the airfare was $8,000USD, and the apartments/hotels were $8,900USD. We preferred breakfast being included or a refrigerator in our room at each stop. This made life so much easier on a day-to-day basis.

Aero Mex

$3,015.00

 

paid

 

Booked

 

 

Brindisi/Bari - Palermo

$118.00

paid

 

Booked

Ryanair

 

Catania - Malta

 

$94.00

paid

 

Booked

Ryanair

 

Malta Paris

 

$410.00

paid

 

Booked

AirFrance

 

Paris- SXM

$1,682.00

 

paid

 

Booked

AirFrance

 

St Maarten- StKitts

 

$786.00

paid

 

Booked RT  WinAir

 

St Kitts- St Marten

 

included above

 

Booked

WinAir

 

St Maarten -PTY-GDL

$1,908.00

paid

 

Booked

Copa Airlines

               

 

FCO-MAD-GDL

   

paid

 

Booked

 

 

This ticket was not used as it was cheaper to buy RT than OW.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                 

Our every day living expenses including taxis, tickets to the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph, museums and meals averaged $83USD per day.

Utilizing Salumerias in Italy and local shops and markets in other countries plus having a full kitchen in many places allowed us to create great meals at home. This was a noticeable money saver.

This 73-night adventure cost us $314USD per day including airfare for eight flights, five train tickets in Italy and our accommodations came in at less than $23,000USD for the whole stay.

Long-time readers of our website know that we have kept our annual spending around $30,000USD for years. We have been hinting at increasing it as our net worth has grown - outpacing inflation - after spending.

At 71 years of age, if not now, when?

Sunset on Nevis Island, West Indies

Rush Hour on the island of Nevis, West Indies

 

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About the Authors

 
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli are recognized retirement experts and internationally published authors on topics of finance, medical tourism and world travel. With the wealth of information they share on their award winning website RetireEarlyLifestyle.com, they have been helping people achieve their own retirement dreams since 1991. They wrote the popular books, The Adventurer’s Guide to Early Retirement and Your Retirement Dream IS Possible available on their website bookstore or on Amazon.com.

 

contact Billy and Akaisha at theguide@retireearlylifestyle.com

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