PBH / Round the world / Forums (active)

How Much money???

How much money do you need for a trip around the world for a year? I've heard you can get an around the world ticket for like $3,000.... but after that. Say you would be living the cheapest option provided in lonely planet books. The only people I know that have done this are people I met while backpacking Mexico... I never even thought about it before...

And another question - what do you do.. It must be so weird to be "on vacation" for a year. What kind of mindset do you need.. I'd love to hear people's experiences. I really want to do Africa and South America, at least.

By gamm2 on Jun 28, 2008, 19:25 in Round the world forum.

adrimm (Moderator) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Jul 8, 2008, 00:11:

I think that most of the travellers I have met who do the RTW thing end up finding work for a few weeks at a time in places that they like.. easy stuff like a few hours a day at the hostel, etc - maybe helping update or create webpage, teach a few classes, serve a few drinks. It makes the money stretch further. I know one guy who was away for over 2 years, and started writing travel articles. Most were rejected but by the end of his trip he was getting published more frequently. He didn;t make a lot of money, but it lead him to realise that he really liked the industry and so that was what he moved into when he went home.

Costs really depend on where you go, not just the regions but where you spend time.. smaller rural places tend to be cheaper than the major centres.. In really affordable places, you could probably do it on $15-$30 a day, South Europe maybe $55-$70, Northern & big city Europe 65-$100. Do you self-cater, rent a room for a month at a time... party.. it all factors in. I'd guess time that flights aside costs can range anywhere from $4-$500 a month to $3-$4 K per month.

For many it is about spending weeks, rather than days, staying put.. really soaking in a new place, often studying a language for a few months in the same place, maybe taking a course. Going to buy groceries, going to see regular every-day things that you don't always make the list when time is shorter. Writing seems very common - a way to record & remember all of the new conclusions drawn on life through the experience. Lots of wandering, sometimes to attractions but mostly just to places. Meeting new people, periodic partying for some.

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gamm2 (☼Travelguide writer) says on Jul 8, 2008, 16:25:

thanks adri! - hopefully these forums will tak off in the near future.... hahah

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adrimm (Moderator) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Jul 10, 2008, 00:12:

You're welcome. I hope they do.. Aside from Colombia, I have relied heavily on forums as a research tool for my own travels, and what I have gleaned has been invaluable to me.

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Peter (Moderator) (Trustee board) (Dev team) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Jul 24, 2008, 22:39:

It depends, but if you stick to the cheap places, you might get there with, say, 30 US$/day. That's about 10,000 US$/year RTW ticket say 4000$ extra 6000$ = 20,000$. But it's hard to predict. Lonely Planet has books that cover entire continents, those can give you a good idea of the cost of traveling. And of course, if you stay in 1 place for a few weeks, it is much cheaper.

Poor but snappy

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nznarra says on Aug 23, 2008, 02:07:

Really depends on how rich the places are you head to and how quickly you move, the physical travel adds up quickly so if you do stay put you save a lot - and if you're somewhere for a while you won't cram in 5 museums and a big night each day as you might if you only had a couple days to "do" a place, and you'd probably also get a lot more out of it - if you don't drink living beside a beach in India can be easily under $10usd/day, if you're in Sweden this wouldn't cover the a beer in a bar. LonelyPlant has guidelines by country for day to day spend online, they're the best bet to get a estimate. I went overland Serbia->India, Turkey was maybe $20-$30usd/day and Iran, Pakistan, India were pretty easily under $10usd each per day, but that's staying in cheap hotels and eating local food (but every meal prepared by others). And Serbia and Bulgaria cost a relative lot, as the nightlife was fantastic and the hostels were priced for people flying in for a weekend.

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ronaldo says on Sep 13, 2008, 10:04:

Try Airtrecks.com
You can get a quote of air fare for around the world, any route you want. Start anywhere and end anywhere. Or you can get a series of one way tickets. Good luck.

Ronaldo

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brano says on Sep 21, 2008, 07:12:

you can do south east asia on 1.000-1.500USD a month. europe is expensive, africa and south america relatively cheap. 5 years ago i did thailand, vietnam, cambodia, laos, slovakia,egypt, italy, france, spain, argentina, chile and brazil. stayed in spain for 3 months, in argentina for 3, chile, egypt and brazil for a month and 3 in south east asia. bought one plane ticket from asia to europe(one way), one return to egypt and one return to suth america. total costs = 15.000USD. and yes, i stayed in the cheapest guesthouses and traveled and ate cheap,too. today, you might add 3-5.000USD as everything is more expensive...

"I can remember when the air was clean and sex was dirty."

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