costs

We spent 387 days travelling the world.  We visited 6 continents and 32 countries; ranging all the way from cheap destinations like Cambodia and Myanmar to expensive ones like New Zealand and the US.  Our travel style was high-end budget and in general we lived fairly comfortably, ate well and did the trips and activities we wanted to do.  Below you’ll see what we spent and get an idea of what lifestyle we had while we were away.  If that matches up with how you’d like to travel the world then fantastic!  If not then at least you have an idea of whether you would be likely to spend more or less than us and plan your budget accordingly.  We’ve compiled a list of other bloggers who have also recorded their travel costs – one of them is sure to match your travel style.

Cost Summary

Accommodation

Typical Room

Typical Room

 

We stayed in hotels, guesthouses and hostels and we didn’t use Airbnb, couchsurfing or housesitting.

We got free accommodation for 13 nights staying with family.

Accommodation Nights % of Trip
Camper Van 26 7%
Dorm 31 8%
Double Ensuite 164 42%
Double Room 110 29%
With family 13 3%
Included in trip/activity 13 3%
Overnight travel 20 5%
Tent 10 3%
Total 387 100%

 

Overall we spent $7,959 on accommodation ($20.57 a night)

Full details are here.

Food and Drink

We usually ate out and tipped an average of 10-15%.

Food and drink is where we indulged the most – sure you can have rice and beans every day but where’s the fun in that?  Alysa loved coffee, chocolate and magnum ice creams and I would enjoy a few beers in the evening.

Overall we spent $9,234.07 on food and drink ($23.86 a day).

For a more detailed breakdown of what we ate click here.

Typical meal

Typical meal

Trips and Activities

Obviously trips and activities are going to have a major effect on your budget.  This is the biggest unknown in a round the world trip and we guarantee there will loads of cool stuff you really, really want to do but hadn’t considered before you left home.  Whatever you’ve budgeted for this, double it – you’ll be glad you did.  

While we were away we spent $6,422.79 on trips and activities.  

For a detailed breakdown of what we did click here.

Cost Summary

Final figures

Cost Summary

The cost per person for 387 days of travel was:

$20,833.28

This includes things like a new camera, flight cancellations, gifts etc – here is a comprehensive list of everything we spent.  You can filter it by category, month, country etc.  If you would like to know more about how this was put together click here.

This works out at $53.83 per day

Here is the per person breakdown by category:

Accommodation:  $3,979.67
Alcohol:  $1,126.15
Eating Out:  $2,438.96
Flights:  $3,101.83
Food:  $1,051.92
Other:  $1,625.05
Transport:  $3,638.41
Trips and activities:  $3,211.39
Visas:  $659.88

Contact Us

If you know of any additional online resources that might be useful (or have kept detailed records yourself) we would love to know.  Ideally we’re looking for enough info to fill in the following list and as much detail as possible behind those figures.

 
Countries
Continents
Number of flights
Days on the road
Travel style
Accommodation style
Flights ($)
Transport ($)
Accommodation ($)
Number of nights free
Food and drinks ($)
Activities ($)
Other ($)
Total ($)
Pre-trip equipment ($)