How much did my round the world trip cost? Here I share my total expenses traveling on a budget and how I did it. In addition, at the end I give a few tips to make it even cheaper!
How much did my round the world trip cost?
This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions I receive.
Now it is my turn to ask you, how much do you think it costs? It might be cheaper than you’d expect!
When I was preparing the trip I estimated a budget of 12000 €. Did I manage to stay within budget…?
Well, here is the answer: my detailed travel cost for a round the world trip in 10 months and a half.
Final travel cost
Yes, I managed to stay within the budget!
FINAL COST: 10224 € (11166 US$)
I was on the road for 322 days, that means that the average daily spend was, with everything included:
COST PER DAY: 31,75 € (34,68 US$)
Not even 35 US$! I’m quite sure that I spent more when I was living in France!
For information, this is what I include in each category:
- Basic expenses: food, accommodation, transport, phone/ internet, bank commissions and other necessary things such as toiletries or clothes.
- Flights: 8 flights (Barcelona > India, India > Thailand, Cambodia > Malaysia, Malaysia > Australia, Australia > New Zealand, New Zealand > central Chile, central Chile > south of Chile, Argentina > Barcelona).
- Visas: 3 visas (India, Cambodia, Laos). With a Spanish passport I didn’t need other visas or they were free.
- Travel insurance for 1 year.
- Extra expenses: everything else such as museums, visits, activities, presents, postcards and stamps.
Note: As you can see, I completely underestimated the extra expenses. I realized it two months after the beginning of the trip, when I was still in Asia. By then I was quite sure I had been accurate about the flights, visas and insurance, so the only option to stay within budget was to cut on the basic expenses.
How did I do it? By reducing the time I wanted to spend in expensive countries. In this case, Australia. It was a difficult decision because it was one of my dream countries, but I couldn’t spend one month in Australia and another in New Zealand as initially planned, so I cut my stay in Australia from 30 to 11 days.
Basic expenses per country
These are the basic expenses for each country. I have marked with a star (*) the countries where for some reason I got free accommodation for some days. For these countries, whenever possible, I’ve made an estimation of how much I would have spent if I had had to pay for all my stay.
As expected, Asia was cheap. I think that India is cheaper than South East Asia, I personally spent more because I was staying in homestays and guesthouses instead of hostels as recommended by my Indian friends.
Note: you can see my detailed travel cost for India, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
No surprise, Australia and New Zealand were the most expensive countries I visited. In Australia I didn’t pay accommodation most of the time but I had to buy a jacket so that increased the final cost.
South America came as a surprise. Except for Bolivia which is indeed cheap, all the other countries were more expensive than I expected (and the fall down of euro didn’t help!).
Of course, I wouldn’t have been able to keep the costs so low if it weren’t for all the people who hosted me in different places: my old friends from Sweden and France, my couchsurfing hosts, some friends of friends, and the friends I did on the road who invited me to visit them. To all of you, THANKS A LOT!
What I did to travel on a budget
Basic expenses
- Spend most of the time in cheap countries
- Visit countries where I had friends
- Use couchsurfing (even though not that much, and keeping in mind that couchsurfing is not a network of free accommodation but a network of hospitality)
- Travel slow, spending several days (or weeks) in the same place
- Use local public transport and walk a lot
- Eat in local restaurants or street food, or cook myself when I had a kitchen
- Renounce to certain commodities such as hot water, A/C, heating, private bathroom and private room.
Visas
- Give preference to countries where I didn’t need to pay for a visa
Flights
- Travel overland when possible (night bus for example)
- Travel with hand luggage only
- Be more or less flexible on the dates (even though not on the destinations)
Extra expenses
- Didn’t do many expensive activities
- Didn’t visit a lot of museums
- Didn’t drink alcohol nor smoked
8 ideas to travel even cheaper
Is it possible to travel long term even cheaper than I did? Yes, of course! Here there are a few ideas:
- Visit only cheap countries
- Visit only one continent or region (you save on flights)
- More flexibility on destinations (let the price of flights chose your next destination)
- Travel by bicycle
- Carry and sleep in a tent
- Use couchsurfing, housesitting or woofing
- Volunteer in a hostel in exchange of accommodation and food
- Go to visa free countries
Do you have any other tips to travel on a budget? Please share in the comments below!
Pin it for later!
Wow! First I have think how much money!
But then I have seen that is not much because you are talking about a trip round the world!
And the experience you live can’t be payed because is very rich.
Bravo!
Hi Tere! Well, yes, it’s quite a lot of money, haha! But as you say it’s completely worth the experience 🙂
Great overview! I Always keep track of my expenses but always go over budget. Happy to see you made it work!
Thanks Naomi!
It wasn’t easy to stay within budget, but I’m happy that I managed. I had to skip Australia but I hope I find the opportunity to go there in the future!
Never imagined that traveling the world was so cheap :O
And especially congratulations Laia you manage very well your money !!! I would really learn that 😉
I am charmed with this post!
Regards my dear and brave woman !!!
Thank you so much Carolina! I did want to keep track of my expenses to stay within budget 🙂
Guapa, la verdad es que puede salir más rentable viajar que estar en un lugar fijo, porque hay muchos gastos cuando estás quieta, sin embargo, lo cierto es que arrancar es lo que más cuesta (en todos los niveles) y por lo cual muchas personas tienen la creencia que viajar es tan costoso. Súper explicada tu experiencia, me parece genial, un punto de vista así que puede darnos una mirada real y fidedigna del tema 🙂
La verdad es que si, según dónde vivas o dónde viajes puede salir más rentable viajar que quedarse en casa! Y bueno, lo que sale caro son las comodidades, es decir, un buen hotel con calefacción/ aire acondicionado/ agua caliente, ir al restaurante… si puedes vivir sin tantas comodidades los gastos se reducen.
En este viaje lo más costoso fueron los aviones y el mes en Nueva Zelanda. Si me hubiera quedado en Asia habría salido todavía más barato! 🙂
Hi Laia, this is very interesting information indeed. I have so many questions. Some practical ones mainly. For example, how much time did you plan before in order to find cheap tickets to India, Australia or Chile? Is it easy to find suitable dates?
And for the land travel, did you try to travel also by train? While travelling, did you use cheques or could you withdraw and change the money in each country? And at which insurance company did you take the travel insurance? And then some advice on how to travel low budget. Very often, costs for food can be very high, especially if you have to look for lunch or dinner every day. A trick is to stay away from the touristic areas, and see where the locals go to eat, usually in quieter neighbourhoods, or close to railway or bus stations, there are local food sellers that offer good quality at good prices.
Hi Diana! Thanks for your comment and interesting questions! 🙂
– Plane tickets: I bought the ticket to India 3 or 4 months in advance. The one from India to Thailand 2 months in advance. Malaysia to Australia only one month in advance (I kept my plans flexible) but I was lucky to find a low cost company (Air Asia). Australia to New Zealand one month and a half in advance. New Zealand to Chile about two months in advance (but this one wasn’t cheap!). The key was that I was flexible with the dates so I always took the cheapest day. I used skyscanner to find the cheapest companies and then checked the company’s website to avoid commissions.
– Train travel: I did travel also by train, though in some countries there aren’t trains so I mostly traveled by bus. The night train in Thailand was specially good.
– Insurance: I took a travel and health insurance with my Spanish bank, but for the future I’ve found a company that has great prices for European residents, it’s called True Traveller and they’re based in UK.
– Budget travel tips: in the post I’ve given some general tips. As for the food, yes, going out of the touristic areas is a good idea, as well as avoiding touristic restaurants. Local restaurants and street food are great choices, and if you have access to a kitchen, you can buy in the supermarket and cook (in New Zealand I bought a lunch box so I could carry food with me)
Hope that helps 🙂
Una guia muy completa para los que viajan, se pueden dar una idea para no llegar tan novatos.
Muchas gracias Amparo! Espero que esto ayude a futuros viajeros 🙂