Ben and Alonna » planning

What it cost to travel the world

Alonna — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 21:53:29 +0000

Curious how much we spent this past year on traveling, but too shy to ask? Well don’t be, because we’re not shy to talk about it. In fact, I’ll just lay it all out for you. Analyzing the cost of something like this is really interesting to me – it seems like so much money,

The trip of a lifetime

but it all comes down to your priorities in life, and what you want to spend your time and money doing. We chose to spend a good chunk of both on traveling around the world. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

The Costs

Total Travel Costs

Item	Time	Cost
Europe Travel	3 months	$15,600
Europe Plane Tickets (Airline Miles)	-	$130
RTW Travel	5 months	$18,580
RTW Plane Tickets	-	$9,530
Total	(8 months)	$43,710

Travel Costs by Country
Sorted by average cost per day in that country.

Country	Nights	Total Cost	Cost/Day	Sleep $/Day	Eat $/Day	Transport $/Day	Sightsee $/Day	Other* $/Day	Explanation
Ecuador	7	$572.18	$81.74	$21.14	$27.91	$20.84	$7.36	$4.49	Very cheap country!
Germany	8	$814.78	$101.85	$37.69	$25.79	$30.23	$7.96	$0.18	Stayed with a friend 5 nights
Turkey	5	$523.53	$104.71	$39.20	$29.74	$10.67	$20.00	$5.10	Low transportation cost by staying in one place (Istanbul)
Hungary	5	$557.53	$111.51	$50.42	$25.41	$17.64	$11.27	$6.76	Low transportation cost by staying in one place (Budapest)
Czech Republic	5	$581.00	$116.20	$44.47	$29.22	$38.78	$-	$3.73
Hawaii	9	$1,129.28	$125.48	$48.86	$39.28	$26.87	$7.23	$3.24	Stayed with a friend 4 nights
New Zealand	26	$3,442.43	$132.40	$40.78	$25.04	$34.04	$25.73	$6.80	Saved money by renting a campervan and cooknig
Austria	12	$1,645.14	$137.09	$34.19	$35.44	$32.79	$27.74	$6.93	Couchsurfing 7 nights
Belgium	2	$288.12	$144.06	$31.24	$25.84	$66.24	$20.73	$-
Chile	9	$1,333.71	$148.19	$37.18	$34.78	$52.11	$20.89	$3.24	Bought a domestic flight
Argentina	12	$1,837.70	$153.14	$29.67	$25.37	$54.07	$35.42	$8.62	Bought a domestic flight
Netherlands	3	$460.39	$153.46	$70.10	$31.68	$10.98	$40.71	$-
Australia	19	$3,266.89	$171.94	$53.59	$34.72	$59.71	$20.88	$3.05	Couchsurfing 5 nights
Italy	28	$5,121.84	$182.92	$68.58	$46.46	$27.14	$20.33	$20.42
South Africa	9	$1,784.11	$198.23	$58.89	$38.98	$69.51	$25.54	$5.32	Expensive safari fees and tours, couchsurfed 2 nights
Spain	3	$609.14	$203.05	$74.79	$64.33	$53.52	$10.41	$-	Expensive because of the short visit and a domestic flight
France	15	$3,079.38	$205.29	$72.76	$34.17	$52.90	$29.57	$15.88
Egypt	9	$2,086.13	$231.79	$59.09	$25.25	$100.18	$47.11	$0.16	Expensive domestic flights
Greece	6	$1,477.02	$246.17	$63.62	$48.23	$112.29	$16.89	$5.14	Includes a RT flight from Rome
Galapagos	9	$2,384.80	$264.98	$45.00	$38.84	$101.89	$77.33	$1.91	Extremely expensive place to visit! Includes a 5 day cruise.
Switzerland	3	$858.42	$286.14	$45.05	$61.58	$131.71	$44.80	$3.00	Expensive due to short visit and expensive trains
Total	204	$33,853.52	$166.68	$48.87	$35.62	$52.58	$24.66	$4.95	Note: Total does not include the RTW flights

* NOTE: The “Other” category includes things like souvenirs, clothing, toiletries, laundry, internet, and guidebooks.

How it could be done MUCH cheaper

If this number scares you, but you’d love to take some time to travel, there are a few very easy ways to spend much less than us. I wouldn’t change a thing about our trip, but if I was going to do it again, I’d definitely be more aware of these tips:

An expensive bathroom break! (actually $0.20 USD)

Stick to cheaper countries – Central & South America, Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa/Middle East. Besides being nice on the wallet, it’s simply less stressful to travel in cheaper places. When we were in South America, we felt free to try something that looked interesting at the supermarket, go out to eat occasionally, and choose a slightly nicer hostel. But in New Zealand and Australia, we couldn’t afford to eat out, and every purchase (lodging, transportation, sightseeing, and food) was stressful since the cost was so high. If you’ve got the money and really want to see Europe and Australia – by all means do it. If not, you’ll have just as amazing an experience in South America and Asia for a fraction of the cost.

Cook your own meals – We did this a lot, and if you think that means we missed out on local cuisine, think again! Going to the local supermarkets is a sightseeing adventure in itself, and you’ll save loads of money over eating out.
Stay in hostels – Besides being the cheapest bed in town (usually), hostels are a great way to make new friends and get good travel advice. And they almost always have a shared kitchen (see previous tip).
Couchsurfing – Whether you stay with a friend who lives in Germany, or someone found on Couchsurfing.org, sleeping for free is the most enjoyable way to save money. Plan your trip around where friends live or where you can line up couchsurfing hosts.

Even cheap flights take a toll on the budget

Take your time – Transportation costs are huge. We didn’t realize this until we added up all our trains, flights, buses, car rentals, etc – it’s a third of the total cost! By far the easiest way to save money on transportation is to stay places longer and travel slower. For example, in South America we took multiple flights within the continent. $200 for a flight across Argentina seems cheap to cover such a huge distance, but with only 2 weeks in that country, it adds a lot to the total cost. Instead, stay in Argentina for 3 months and take buses – you’ll save money and get to see a lot more along the way.
Sell your house – Keeping our house was a costly decision, especially since the market has only gone down in the last year. But having a renter helped, and it was sure nice to have a place to come home to.

Shopping in Paris

How we kept track of expenses

In case you’re curious, we kept track of every single purchase we made while traveling. I kept a small black notebook in my purse, and wrote down every purchase. Occasionally I would enter it into a master spreadsheet to add it all up and see if we were on track. This allowed us to see what we were spending our money on, and make adjustments if we were out of line with our budget.

Introducing Our 2010 Round-the-World Trip

Alonna — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:55:27 +0000

I’m so excited to share our upcoming travel plans for 2010! While the first half of our year of traveling was a whirlwind of many places within a relatively small amount of space and time (3 months in Europe), the second half of our trip will be fewer places but spread around the world for 5 months. And I mean that literally, Ben and I will be traveling completely around the circumference of the world using a RTW (Round-The-World) flight ticket. In RTW-terminology, we’re purchasing a 5-continent OneWorld Explorer ticket (”LONE5″) starting in February from Ecuador. The ticket is pricey, around $5k per person after all of the taxes and a couple additional flights. And it’s not easy to plan it either, I’ve probably spent a good 40-hour week figuring this out (good thing I’m not working!)

But back to the fun part, here’s our itinerary:

View RTW 2010 in a larger map

Quito, Ecuador (3 weeks) – Alonna will be studying Spanish while Ben remains in Boise
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador (10 days) – Ben arrives in Ecuador we head out for an 8 day cruise
Patagonia, Argentina & Chile (3 weeks) – Hiking, biking, and enjoying the outdoors
Buenos Aires, Argentina (4 days) – A little time in the city before leaving South America
Istanbul, Turkey (6 days) – We missed Istanbul on our Europe tour, so we’re going back!
Egypt (9 days) – Traveling further back in history from where we left off in Ancient Greece and Rome
South Africa (9 days) – We’ll base in Johannesburg and go on an African Safari
New Zealand (1 month) – Focusing on the South Island and all the adventures we can manage in a month
Australia (3 weeks) – Three weeks somewhere in Australia
Hawaii (1 week) – Bonus! Our RTW ticket lets us stop in Hawaii on our way home

All of this starts January 8th when Alonna leaves for Ecuador – only 1 week away! Our dates are flexible, but we plan to be back to Boise by the end of May.

Please share this trip with us! We are extremely interested and open to having YOU travel with us at any point of this trip. If you were thinking of going to New Zealand, Egypt, Hawaii or somewhere else listed above this spring, let us know because we’d love to meet up. Also please share if you know anyone in any of these areas that would be interested in meeting or hosting us. The more the merrier!

One week to go

Alonna — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:02:50 +0000

It’s getting close, only one week until we leave for Europe!

Getting Ready

I have borrowed TONS of books from the library. I love reading guidebooks. If only there was more time in the day…

I also did a trial run of my new shoes and my loaner backpack. I hiked up to Table Rock with about 15 lbs in my pack. Success! No problems with either items. But my legs were a little tired.

Goals for the Year

On a different note, here’s a few of the things I hope to gain from this year of traveling:

fun and adventure
appreciation for different cultures and ways of living
learn more about history and the world
be brave and try new things
improve my photography
make friends all over the world
remain flexible and open-minded
learn a little of the local languages, and improve my Spanish
share my experiences with friends and family

Europe Itinerary

Alonna — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:39:37 +0000

Our plan for Europe is to take one backpack each and travel around for 3 months. We’re keeping our itinerary flexible in case we want to change our pace, hear of new places, or want to stay somewhere longer. So although it’s guaranteed to change… here’s our initial plan of where we’ll go when:

Date	Days	Location

18-Aug	1	Fly to Amsterdam
19-Aug	3	Amsterdam, Netherlands
22-Aug	2	Brugge, Belgium
24-Aug	5	Paris, France
29-Aug	3	Barcelona, Spain
1-Sep	1	Arles, France
2-Sep	18	Alps (French, Swiss, Austrian)
20-Sep	5	Munich, Germany
25-Sep	2	Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
27-Sep	1	Prague, Czech Republic
28-Sep	3	Berlin, Germany
1-Oct	3	Krakow, Poland
4-Oct	3	Budapest, Hungary
7-Oct	3	Vienna, Austria
10-Oct	3	Venice, Italy
13-Oct	3	Cinque Terre, Italy
16-Oct	9	Tuscany, Italy
25-Oct	3	Sorrento, Italy
28-Oct	5	Rome, Italy
2-Nov	2	Dubrovnik, Croatia
4-Nov	6	Athens, Greece
10-Nov	4	Istanbul, Turkey
14-Nov	2	Rome, Italy
16-Nov	-	Fly Home

Our One-Year Travel Adventure

Alonna — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:34:52 +0000

Ben and I have some exciting news to share with you. This summer, we will leave our jobs to travel the world for one year!

Lately we’ve realized that now is a great time to pursue some of the things we want to do in our lives. We both enjoy exploring new places and seeing different parts of the world, and I’ve always dreamed of traveling for an extended period of time. Working as engineers for the past several years, we’ve been able to save up enough money to make this happen. Ben will be leaving his job at HP at the end of June, and I will be taking a one-year unpaid Leave of Absence from HP starting in July.

Some of the places we’d like to go include: Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Asia and Africa. So far we have the following plans for July through December 2009:

July: Road Trip to Canada (1-2 weeks)
Aug-Nov: Backpacking in Europe (3 months)
Nov-Dec: Home and Family time in the US (1.5 months)

Over the next couple of months we’ll share more of our thoughts and travel plans on this site. And while we’re traveling we plan to post photos and stories along the way. We hope that you’ll enjoy sharing this adventure with us!