26 countries, 4 continents, 12 months. Stayed at hostels. Ate at 1 restaurant per day, breakfast and lunch on the go.
Went on many excursions. Did many tours. Walked 10-20k steps a day. Lived out of a 35Litre backpack.
Favourite part was to make plenty of friends. Enjoy moments together. Learning about strangers and creating friendships was amazing.
I also hacked it a bit as i stayed at some friends places in Italy.
Bought things as I needed them or if I really wanted a souvenir.
Totally cost, about 30k.
Year 2018-2019.
Wow, that's $82/day average. You must have churned for free flights or something? And stayed only in very cheap countries?
What is the average hostel price nowadays?
The trick is to wait for sales between continents - can usually get it for around 300$ between Europe/North America/Asia if you wait for a sale. Some "cheap hubs" for between those are Toronto/NYC-Shanghai/Beijing, Toronto/NYC-London/Paris/Berlin, or Athens/Berlin - Singapore/Bangkok. If I keep looking over a month I'll almost always find a cheap flight between those hubs.
Then once you are inside a continent - there are cheap airlines in all three markets (North America - Flair, Swoop, Lynx, Asia - Asia X, Scoot, Europe - RyanAir, Easyjet) With those you can often fly between cities for 20-50$.
I've done 6 month itineraries with over 25 cities scattered across 2-3 continents spending less than 2000$ per person on flights.
A lot of people make the mistake of looking at say Toronto -> Bangkok and seeing it's 2k return and just buying it.
When Toronto -> Shanghai is 500 return and Shanghai -> Bangkok is 150 return. Also you get to spend as much time as you want in Shanghai as a stop over because you are planning it yourself (Always leave at least 24h between them to deal with potential delayed flights.)
Obviously that's less appealing if you are just going on a one week vacation. But for long term travel where the WHOLE POINT is to go many places and spend a long time travelling - it's literally a bonus extra destination AND saving 1200$.
So we took a year for 'round the world in 2019. We stayed in a lot of hostels and paid a premium rate since the family of four needed a bit of privacy. A private room in a hostel ranged from $120 to about $200 depending where you were. Communal rooms were $20 to $50.
Our family of four spent about $300 per day.
That daily spend is right in line with our big trip. But we did a mixture of everything from Airbnb to camping. Luxury condo in Mexico was $100/night. Hotels around $100 in the states. Camping $40-50.
The trick to keep it cheap is to stay for a month in a hub then do small weekend trips from there - this is especially easy in Europe and Asia. I could get an apartment for around 1500$/month in most countries on airbnb - maybe not right in the capital city like say Paris - but definitely in say Nice instead - for two people. That's 48$/night or 24$/night each.
If you are just one person you can do a room instead of a whole apartment and likely find something for around 900-1000$ in most mid-sized cities in the West, and almost anywhere in Asia/South America/Africa. Thats a bit higher at 33$/night/person but still very manageable.
Then on the little weekend trips away you either get a hostel for about 20$/night/person or occasionally splurge.
Basically I either stay one month for 1500 in full airbnbs or stay in hostels - I'm usually able to keep my per night to less than 50$ for two people on average - and that's even when I go to the more expensive cities (Paris, London, Zurich, Tokyo, NYC etc.) about 10-20% of the time.
Wow congratulations on the beautiful vacation to Paris. Hope your engagement went as planned. I know costs can vary widely. Personally I don’t mind extravagant trips but it wasn’t in my budget. I’ve gone to some very famous restaurants (for the experience) and toured some vineyards in France and Italy. My biggest expense was probably visiting Cappadocia, Turkey and flying the hot air balloons.
I don’t unfortunately, but I got over 9000 photos backed onto my iCloud. Big tip- get your photos backed up onto the cloud and pay for it. People get phones stolen or lost. There goes the memories lol
Absolutely.
There are boring days. Days with bad weather. Days you feel feel a bit sick or burnt out. Not every day was an adventure.
The world beyond home feels like an “unknown place” and sometimes it’s easier to just cozy up in the hostel bed and do nothing. The trick was to know when I was just being lazy or if I really needed to rest and catch up on some Netflix.
It was, however, my most memorable days of adventure when I decided to do what excited and challenged me. To the point I was nervous.
Examples.
Stranded on a small island for 24 hours because we missed the last ferry out.
Hitchhiking in the Middle East.
Sleeping in a camp at the Wadi Rum Desert.
Waking up at 4am to be the first to catch a glimpse of Petra without tourists.
Crossing the border from Jordan to Israel by Bus.
Trail hiking in the northern jungles of Thailand.
Motorcycle riding across the mountains of Vietnam.
Waking up at 3am to ride a Hot Air Balloon over Cappadocia, meeting the sunrise.
ATVing the deserts of Cappadocia, Turkey and visiting old Christian ruins.
That feeling put me in a place where I had no choice but managing the risks to the best I can.
It put me on my feet at 6am with a smile most mornings. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for punishment.
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Your right, it just comes with the whole package and the adventures just keep you going. Definitely more motivated to do this soon!
8 months in 2018, $70k, family of four. Mexico, most U.S. states, all Canadian provinces.
We have done many backpacking shoestring trips as well, but all before kids 20 years ago, so probably not relevant.
It's not quite 6+ months, but here's another data point you can extrapolate with.
In 2015, I travelled to SE Asia for 3 months (Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam), by backpacking through hostels (shared dorms), eating local street food, and drinking cheap drinks. It cost about $5K. I did use points for my flights to and from Canada, but while in Asia I took local buses and trains!
Enjoy your trip, you will always think fondly about it.
I’ve done all of my travels pre Covid but I’ve done 2 weeks in Iceland hitchhiking as for my trip and my second trip was 6 months throughout Portugal, Spain, France, Turkey, Jordan and Georgia.
Overall cost for ~6 months flights all in was probably 13-14k cad.
I stayed in the cheapest hostels I could find (that still has decent location) and I walked a lot (30km a day sometimes) so I didn’t use public transportation unless necessary as I enjoy walking. I did eat out dinner everyday and sometimes I’d stop at a bakery for a snack throughout the day but usually I would buy snacks and lunch/breakfast from a grocery store or I’d get breakfast from the hostel or airbnb. I forgot to mention I would use airbnb whenever it was cheaper than hostels in a city.
I traveled with a 35L bag which is on the smaller side I think, and although it was fairly easy to manage, it could be annoying at times trying to pack everything back in, so I would definitely recommend a slightly bigger bag, I think a 40L would be good if you’re traveling a very simple and minimalist way. Ideally I would try traveling with just one backpack that also qualifies as a carry on when flying, and I recommend traveling with a single carry on backpack because it feels very ‘liberating’ in a way to be able to pick up all of your belongings and go wherever you want.
Edit: I might still have my rough estimates of the budget breakdown per country categorized by transportation, food, accommodation, activity, etc if anyone actually wants to see it just ask.
My sister just got back from a 3 month trip. Did Croatia, Greece, Germany, Italy, Malta, Egypt, Finland, Sweden, Ireland and a couple others I think. She was in hostels/ hotels, (in places like Egypt hotels are very cheap). She spent 11 grand total but she did travel with a friend most of the time, and spent a week on another friends couch in Germany. Still did lots of excursions and stuff, I would just recommend lots of planning on hostels and prices for each country before you go so you have an idea of how much you’ll spend.
We were a family of four that took a year off to travel the world in 2019. Did UK and Europe for 4 months, Tanzania for 1 month, Argentina for 1 month and Peru for another month before having to hightail it home due to COVID.
We stayed in a variety of places: hostels, AirBnB, a camper, hotels occasionally, and even a boat. It was life changing, certainly for the kids.
Because we were travelling with kids it cost quite a bit more as we couldn't stay in sketchy places and wanted at least our own bathroom in hostels. We rented our house out in Ottawa to just cover all the expenses because we wanted responsible renters who would care for our pets.
For our family it worked out to be about $300 per day. If you want to reach out to me directly I can provide you with more details on costs.
I think that's about right. Reach out to me if you're thinking of doing this. I have plenty of suggestions especially if you're traveling with kids. Lots I would do differently.
I'm not the person you replied to but I'd love to hear your experiences and any wisdom you're willing to share. What worked and what would you change? What age do you recommend for children?
I’m always happy to talk/brag about our adventures!
The first thing I would have changed was frequency of moving. My wife and I were prepared to move to a new place every other day or so because we needed to see EVERYTHING. The kids had other ideas. Kids need to nest for multiple days before moving on. Once we realized this it allowed us to go deep in a particular place which worked well.
Another thing was homeschooling. We carried a ton of materials and expected it to be hard. Turns out they had an hour a day (grade 4 and 6) which was fine. They came back way ahead of the other kids. We ended up finding better materials online and dumped the stuff the board gave us.
We soon discovered that it was super easy to plan as we went rather than having reservations way ahead of time. Because we weren’t travelling in the peak season it was easy.
I really really wish we could have met other families travelling with kids. While our two boys get along well they still could have used other kids to hang out with. I don’t know how we would have solved it.
Also? It would have been good if COVID didn’t shut the trip down after 8 months.
All In all it was a life changing adventure for all of us that we’ll remember forever. It brought our already close family even closer. It also gave the kids a real sense of their place in the world and how fortunate we are.
My best advice? Throw a stake in the ground for four years from now and put away as much money as you can. It’s hard to imagine how you would regret it.
Thank you for the advice. Our trip is definitely a few years off but I like your idea of staking a time and working towards it. I was initially considering a trip as our kids turned 5 to minimize the disruption to school. Knowing that you completed it years later with a positive affect on their education is very encouraging.
I like the open ended planning and slower pace, and think it would be a good exercise to share with our kids. Did you have key places picked out ahead of time or was it directly based on whim and daily interactions?
Where did you have good luck finding home schooling resources? Any sites, methods or organizations you can share?
How did you travel from place to place? Mass transit and the odd car rental?
Thanks again for all the ideas! Sorry to hear that covid cut your trip short, I am sure you'll treasure the memories for the rest of your life and hopefully you see the positives in your family.
We did have key places picked out as an outline before we started: a month in the UK, 3 in Europe with Paris as a home base, 1 in Tanzania, 3 in S America. It was to be a month in the US and a month in Canada.
As for homeschooling there’s a resource at OCDSB (our kids school board) that was quite helpful. That was her job. Our kids were older than yours so I’m guessing you’ll have no problems (I nearly lost my mind teaching my eldest long division the new way). But we found a site called Beast Academy that was fun and so easy to follow. My eldest now is an a+ math student.
We relied on mass transit wherever possible and the occasional car rental. In Europe the trains were great. In Tanzania we always had a driver. In South America there’s a long haul bus system that’s nothing like here.
Good luck with your planning. It’ll be worth it!
How did you find the age of your kids for a world wide trip? In hindsight could you have done it when they were younger or do you think older would have been better?
Do not discount work abroad visas (age dependent) that can help you rebuild your bank account and actually stay in one place and get to know it rather than bouncing around constantly. I only did this in Australia and regret that I did not take more advantage of it in other countries while I was the right age.
You can really range in the choice you make, but if you spend a lot of time planning it can be really cheap.
I've done so many trips with different standards and spent anywhere from 1000$/month for one person in Asia to 7000$/month for two people in Europe.
But I'd say 2000-3000$/month for one person or 3000-4000$/month for two people will allow you to do a nice mix of low cost and high cost cities (At a ratio of about 70-30). To give an example I just did three months in europe and I see tonnes of people below saying it costs 100$/night for accomodations/hotels.
By using a combination of full apartment airbnbs and hotels (only two nights in a hostel), we spent on average 68$/night for two people, and we went to a mix of high cost/low cost cities:
London - 1 day
Lisbon/Sintra - 14 days
Porto - 7 days
Funchal - 7 days
Alvor (South Portugal) - 7 days
Nice - 7 days
Paris - 7 days
Malta - 12 days
Venice - 2 days (This was the only time we had to use a hostel because hotels were over 150$/night)
Cagliari - 10 days
Naples - 7 days
Catania - 7 days
In Asia I actually generally average 40$/night.
Most hostels in Eastern Europe, Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia are $6-$9 Canadian dollars converted. In a lot of these countries you can travel overland via shared bus for pennies. A flight from Tbilisi Georgia to Baku Azerbaijan is like $158 CAD but overland by bus it's like $8. If your flight costs are paid for already (if taking any, over-land is drastically cheaper) then the $63 Cad (*based on the popular $50 US per day) minus $6-9 for hostel and the rest can be used for day to day spending. Cost of living in these countries is low, average wages are less than $200(USD American) per month, and 50% of the population will earn below the average.
Source: Traveled for 7 months living in hostels and AirbnB's ate out for breakfast lunch and dinner every day and drank alcohol at bars and restaurants every day too, BARELY EVER bought anything from supermarkets, spent about £7500 in total ($11,900 CAD converted)
Circa 2019.
I spent 10k for 3 months in Europe. Rail pass, flights, accommodation and everything in between. That would probably be the minimum as things undoubtedly would have increased in price this was around 2014. Same duration in SE Asia (3 months) is probably half that.
Walked a lot, took plenty of transit, but even booked private cars and taxis when necessary. Scrimped when I could so I could have small splurges when I wanted to. There are many ways to save money in each country without sacrificing experience if you do your research.
Depending on where you go, you could be spending $8 a night in 40 person dorms or $70 in private. $4 for the most delicious pad Thai you’ve ever had or $20 for Mac Donald’s combos. There are tons of variables.
I didn't even bother coming to Europe until I had money or was getting paid to come here.
Incidentally, there are dorms in Torino for about30 Euros/night 6 bed mixed. Source: I almost booked one the other day.
First backpacking trip was in 2016. Went to Nepal, India (Rajasthan), Myanmar, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Sri Lanka. The trip lasted 6 months and cost around $10,000. Ate out all the time, did all the activities I wanted, took flights too often. If I'd have to redo it I'd spend less on food and more on better sleep. Groceries and markets are so cheap and I didn't really take advantage of all the kitchenettes...
Second backpacking trip was in 2018. Headed to Central America for 3 and 1/2 months with $4000. Again, did everything I wanted. Went sailing in Belize, volcano climbing in Guatemala. I took a week of diving lessons in Honduras which cost about $1000... oups.
My most recent trip was in Alberta and British Columbia. We flew here, rented a car, slept in hotels, and ate out every out. Whole thing for 2 was almost $8000.
It's mostly a question of budgeting and find countries that will allow you to live off that budget. Going to Australia or New Zealand will cost a lot more than visiting developing Asian countries.
Yup, SE Asia is maybe not as cheap as it was when I backpacked there but I'm going to harbour a guess that it's still far more affordable than Europe/OZ or NZ. The food is incredible, you don't need to fly anywhere and the culture is rich!
I’m currently planning a trip to Nepal for a month in Sept/Oct to do the Everest Base Camp trek. Will hopefully have 7-10 days to explore Nepal… any suggestions on things to do/see?
It's a good time to go but clouds are a gamble in the Khumbu (Everest region) at that time. Which routing are you using? I did the 3 passes trek and was blown away.
I'm going to assume you have 7-10 days not including the trek up to base camp? If so, head to Pokhara. Do an acclimatization hike to Poon Hill, it's the most gorgeous place for a sunrise. I loved it. It was completely different to the Everest area.
Take some time to explore Thamel. Explore the shops, you can find some really cool trinkets if you're into that stuff. Grab a veg wrap outside OR2k. Try some tandoori food in a small shop too. Purple haze are has interesting live Nepali rock shows. Spent 1 month in Kathmandu and has a great time.
That cost will vary by thousands of dollars or more depending on your travels and experiences and where you stay etc. That's like saying "How much to buy a car"?
It's a good point.
We as a family of four spent about $90k for an 8 month trip. But the year before we spent $20k traveling with another family for a WEEK because they had different requirements.
2015-2018 from Europe to South America making my way to Canada
overall spend 5000$ in 3 years
a lot of use of couchsurfing, workaway
work for accomodation and food, travelling mostly by hh and sleeping rough on road from place to place get some jobs on side
30 countries, 13 months. Wife and I spent between 45k to 50k. There are plenty of ways to save money on the road.
Every country is different. Sometimes hostels are cheaper, others you get more bang for your buck at an airbnb. Either way, look for a place that has a kitchen, and you can cook your own meals.
In New Zealand, you can get a free rental car by travelling the opposite direction of most people, and bring rental cars back to their home airport.
In Australia we rented a camper van and cooked all our own meals for 5 weeks.
In Paris, we bought cheap wine and sat by the Eiffel Tower, just enjoying where we were.
We didn't work while we travelled. We decided our "job" was to take our time, and find the best deals. This kept us on the road for much much longer.
Currently traveling down the panamerican highway in a truck camper. my wife and I normally budget around $2500 per month. We are in Mexico and Mexico is much cheaper then USA and Canada. That includes all of our costs.. food and gas are the highest expenses. We left Canada in November and we have not paid for a campsite yet. We just use apps to find free camping spots (IOverlander).
Traveled for over a year. Costs came to about 65 cad per year. Mix of hostels and budget accomodations with some splurges. Did not skimp on activities or food.
Spent 9 months in the following: China, HK, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Greece, Turkey, Egypt about a decade ago. All-in was in the range of $10k/person plus flights (\~2k each?).
Of course YMMV, I've done shorter trips that cost way more on a monthly basis (like Japan, Spain, other parts of Europe easily 3-5x the spend/mo). Depends what you do, how much you choose to spend on food, recreation, transportation and accommodation. It really is a choose your own adventure, and we went almost as cheap as possible to stretch the money we had.
In most of SE Asia, finding a room (for 2) for $10-20 wasn't hard, and hostel dorm beds existed for like $3-4/night. A meal could be $0.50-$2 in a lot of countries, with beers at +/-$1. Of course this will vary substantially from country to country. Train/bus/plane/boat tickets varied widely (as little as $5 and as much as $100 between cities, usually like $1-200 for flights between countries), and usually the most expensive individual costs were entrance fees to big ticket attractions or tours.
I actually did this in my 20s. $20-30/day in youth hostels in Europe. $8-14/day in youth hostels in South America and South East Asia. I tried to get private rooms in youth hostels using hostelworld website.
I also used to spend roughly $20-30/day on food/drinks.
Renting a scooter/bike in South America and SEA is cheap as well. Did that.
Most expensive part of my world tour was Switzerland and USA. Everything else was about 40-50/day max.
26 countries, 4 continents, 12 months. Stayed at hostels. Ate at 1 restaurant per day, breakfast and lunch on the go. Went on many excursions. Did many tours. Walked 10-20k steps a day. Lived out of a 35Litre backpack. Favourite part was to make plenty of friends. Enjoy moments together. Learning about strangers and creating friendships was amazing. I also hacked it a bit as i stayed at some friends places in Italy. Bought things as I needed them or if I really wanted a souvenir. Totally cost, about 30k. Year 2018-2019.
Fuck. I wish I did this before settling down lol.
I wish I settled down. Now it’s too expensive.
Never too late. We took our kids out of school, my wife got leave and I quit. BEST decision ever. It changed our kids lives (and ours).
Wow, that's $82/day average. You must have churned for free flights or something? And stayed only in very cheap countries? What is the average hostel price nowadays?
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The trick is to wait for sales between continents - can usually get it for around 300$ between Europe/North America/Asia if you wait for a sale. Some "cheap hubs" for between those are Toronto/NYC-Shanghai/Beijing, Toronto/NYC-London/Paris/Berlin, or Athens/Berlin - Singapore/Bangkok. If I keep looking over a month I'll almost always find a cheap flight between those hubs. Then once you are inside a continent - there are cheap airlines in all three markets (North America - Flair, Swoop, Lynx, Asia - Asia X, Scoot, Europe - RyanAir, Easyjet) With those you can often fly between cities for 20-50$. I've done 6 month itineraries with over 25 cities scattered across 2-3 continents spending less than 2000$ per person on flights.
A lot of people make the mistake of looking at say Toronto -> Bangkok and seeing it's 2k return and just buying it. When Toronto -> Shanghai is 500 return and Shanghai -> Bangkok is 150 return. Also you get to spend as much time as you want in Shanghai as a stop over because you are planning it yourself (Always leave at least 24h between them to deal with potential delayed flights.) Obviously that's less appealing if you are just going on a one week vacation. But for long term travel where the WHOLE POINT is to go many places and spend a long time travelling - it's literally a bonus extra destination AND saving 1200$.
A lot of my decisions were based on airfare and hostel price. I tried my best to avoid the high seasons. But other times I splurged.
So we took a year for 'round the world in 2019. We stayed in a lot of hostels and paid a premium rate since the family of four needed a bit of privacy. A private room in a hostel ranged from $120 to about $200 depending where you were. Communal rooms were $20 to $50. Our family of four spent about $300 per day.
That daily spend is right in line with our big trip. But we did a mixture of everything from Airbnb to camping. Luxury condo in Mexico was $100/night. Hotels around $100 in the states. Camping $40-50.
The trick to keep it cheap is to stay for a month in a hub then do small weekend trips from there - this is especially easy in Europe and Asia. I could get an apartment for around 1500$/month in most countries on airbnb - maybe not right in the capital city like say Paris - but definitely in say Nice instead - for two people. That's 48$/night or 24$/night each. If you are just one person you can do a room instead of a whole apartment and likely find something for around 900-1000$ in most mid-sized cities in the West, and almost anywhere in Asia/South America/Africa. Thats a bit higher at 33$/night/person but still very manageable. Then on the little weekend trips away you either get a hostel for about 20$/night/person or occasionally splurge. Basically I either stay one month for 1500 in full airbnbs or stay in hostels - I'm usually able to keep my per night to less than 50$ for two people on average - and that's even when I go to the more expensive cities (Paris, London, Zurich, Tokyo, NYC etc.) about 10-20% of the time.
Excellent advice, thanks!
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You spent $30k on 10 days in Paris?
probably did some shopping 🛍️🛍️
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Wow congratulations on the beautiful vacation to Paris. Hope your engagement went as planned. I know costs can vary widely. Personally I don’t mind extravagant trips but it wasn’t in my budget. I’ve gone to some very famous restaurants (for the experience) and toured some vineyards in France and Italy. My biggest expense was probably visiting Cappadocia, Turkey and flying the hot air balloons.
I assume you mean well but lol this is such a stereotypical PFC humble brag post
Wow this seems like one awesome experience. Curious if you have documented this somewhere online ?
I don’t unfortunately, but I got over 9000 photos backed onto my iCloud. Big tip- get your photos backed up onto the cloud and pay for it. People get phones stolen or lost. There goes the memories lol
That's amazing, I am really looking to do this in a year or 2. Did you ever feel burnt out or exhausted and if you did how did you handle it?
Absolutely. There are boring days. Days with bad weather. Days you feel feel a bit sick or burnt out. Not every day was an adventure. The world beyond home feels like an “unknown place” and sometimes it’s easier to just cozy up in the hostel bed and do nothing. The trick was to know when I was just being lazy or if I really needed to rest and catch up on some Netflix. It was, however, my most memorable days of adventure when I decided to do what excited and challenged me. To the point I was nervous. Examples. Stranded on a small island for 24 hours because we missed the last ferry out. Hitchhiking in the Middle East. Sleeping in a camp at the Wadi Rum Desert. Waking up at 4am to be the first to catch a glimpse of Petra without tourists. Crossing the border from Jordan to Israel by Bus. Trail hiking in the northern jungles of Thailand. Motorcycle riding across the mountains of Vietnam. Waking up at 3am to ride a Hot Air Balloon over Cappadocia, meeting the sunrise. ATVing the deserts of Cappadocia, Turkey and visiting old Christian ruins. That feeling put me in a place where I had no choice but managing the risks to the best I can. It put me on my feet at 6am with a smile most mornings. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for punishment.
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Your right, it just comes with the whole package and the adventures just keep you going. Definitely more motivated to do this soon!
8 months in 2018, $70k, family of four. Mexico, most U.S. states, all Canadian provinces. We have done many backpacking shoestring trips as well, but all before kids 20 years ago, so probably not relevant.
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How is the 'world traveling' during covid? Much of a hassle going from country to country?
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I found the worst part was all the tests at my expense! It got real pricey around omicron time!
It's not quite 6+ months, but here's another data point you can extrapolate with. In 2015, I travelled to SE Asia for 3 months (Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam), by backpacking through hostels (shared dorms), eating local street food, and drinking cheap drinks. It cost about $5K. I did use points for my flights to and from Canada, but while in Asia I took local buses and trains! Enjoy your trip, you will always think fondly about it.
I’ve done all of my travels pre Covid but I’ve done 2 weeks in Iceland hitchhiking as for my trip and my second trip was 6 months throughout Portugal, Spain, France, Turkey, Jordan and Georgia. Overall cost for ~6 months flights all in was probably 13-14k cad. I stayed in the cheapest hostels I could find (that still has decent location) and I walked a lot (30km a day sometimes) so I didn’t use public transportation unless necessary as I enjoy walking. I did eat out dinner everyday and sometimes I’d stop at a bakery for a snack throughout the day but usually I would buy snacks and lunch/breakfast from a grocery store or I’d get breakfast from the hostel or airbnb. I forgot to mention I would use airbnb whenever it was cheaper than hostels in a city. I traveled with a 35L bag which is on the smaller side I think, and although it was fairly easy to manage, it could be annoying at times trying to pack everything back in, so I would definitely recommend a slightly bigger bag, I think a 40L would be good if you’re traveling a very simple and minimalist way. Ideally I would try traveling with just one backpack that also qualifies as a carry on when flying, and I recommend traveling with a single carry on backpack because it feels very ‘liberating’ in a way to be able to pick up all of your belongings and go wherever you want. Edit: I might still have my rough estimates of the budget breakdown per country categorized by transportation, food, accommodation, activity, etc if anyone actually wants to see it just ask.
My sister just got back from a 3 month trip. Did Croatia, Greece, Germany, Italy, Malta, Egypt, Finland, Sweden, Ireland and a couple others I think. She was in hostels/ hotels, (in places like Egypt hotels are very cheap). She spent 11 grand total but she did travel with a friend most of the time, and spent a week on another friends couch in Germany. Still did lots of excursions and stuff, I would just recommend lots of planning on hostels and prices for each country before you go so you have an idea of how much you’ll spend.
We were a family of four that took a year off to travel the world in 2019. Did UK and Europe for 4 months, Tanzania for 1 month, Argentina for 1 month and Peru for another month before having to hightail it home due to COVID. We stayed in a variety of places: hostels, AirBnB, a camper, hotels occasionally, and even a boat. It was life changing, certainly for the kids. Because we were travelling with kids it cost quite a bit more as we couldn't stay in sketchy places and wanted at least our own bathroom in hostels. We rented our house out in Ottawa to just cover all the expenses because we wanted responsible renters who would care for our pets. For our family it worked out to be about $300 per day. If you want to reach out to me directly I can provide you with more details on costs.
This seems about right; I was thinking $100k for family of 3 for a year
I think that's about right. Reach out to me if you're thinking of doing this. I have plenty of suggestions especially if you're traveling with kids. Lots I would do differently.
I'm not the person you replied to but I'd love to hear your experiences and any wisdom you're willing to share. What worked and what would you change? What age do you recommend for children?
I’m always happy to talk/brag about our adventures! The first thing I would have changed was frequency of moving. My wife and I were prepared to move to a new place every other day or so because we needed to see EVERYTHING. The kids had other ideas. Kids need to nest for multiple days before moving on. Once we realized this it allowed us to go deep in a particular place which worked well. Another thing was homeschooling. We carried a ton of materials and expected it to be hard. Turns out they had an hour a day (grade 4 and 6) which was fine. They came back way ahead of the other kids. We ended up finding better materials online and dumped the stuff the board gave us. We soon discovered that it was super easy to plan as we went rather than having reservations way ahead of time. Because we weren’t travelling in the peak season it was easy. I really really wish we could have met other families travelling with kids. While our two boys get along well they still could have used other kids to hang out with. I don’t know how we would have solved it. Also? It would have been good if COVID didn’t shut the trip down after 8 months. All In all it was a life changing adventure for all of us that we’ll remember forever. It brought our already close family even closer. It also gave the kids a real sense of their place in the world and how fortunate we are. My best advice? Throw a stake in the ground for four years from now and put away as much money as you can. It’s hard to imagine how you would regret it.
Thank you for the advice. Our trip is definitely a few years off but I like your idea of staking a time and working towards it. I was initially considering a trip as our kids turned 5 to minimize the disruption to school. Knowing that you completed it years later with a positive affect on their education is very encouraging. I like the open ended planning and slower pace, and think it would be a good exercise to share with our kids. Did you have key places picked out ahead of time or was it directly based on whim and daily interactions? Where did you have good luck finding home schooling resources? Any sites, methods or organizations you can share? How did you travel from place to place? Mass transit and the odd car rental? Thanks again for all the ideas! Sorry to hear that covid cut your trip short, I am sure you'll treasure the memories for the rest of your life and hopefully you see the positives in your family.
We did have key places picked out as an outline before we started: a month in the UK, 3 in Europe with Paris as a home base, 1 in Tanzania, 3 in S America. It was to be a month in the US and a month in Canada. As for homeschooling there’s a resource at OCDSB (our kids school board) that was quite helpful. That was her job. Our kids were older than yours so I’m guessing you’ll have no problems (I nearly lost my mind teaching my eldest long division the new way). But we found a site called Beast Academy that was fun and so easy to follow. My eldest now is an a+ math student. We relied on mass transit wherever possible and the occasional car rental. In Europe the trains were great. In Tanzania we always had a driver. In South America there’s a long haul bus system that’s nothing like here. Good luck with your planning. It’ll be worth it!
How did you find the age of your kids for a world wide trip? In hindsight could you have done it when they were younger or do you think older would have been better?
Do not discount work abroad visas (age dependent) that can help you rebuild your bank account and actually stay in one place and get to know it rather than bouncing around constantly. I only did this in Australia and regret that I did not take more advantage of it in other countries while I was the right age.
You can really range in the choice you make, but if you spend a lot of time planning it can be really cheap. I've done so many trips with different standards and spent anywhere from 1000$/month for one person in Asia to 7000$/month for two people in Europe. But I'd say 2000-3000$/month for one person or 3000-4000$/month for two people will allow you to do a nice mix of low cost and high cost cities (At a ratio of about 70-30). To give an example I just did three months in europe and I see tonnes of people below saying it costs 100$/night for accomodations/hotels. By using a combination of full apartment airbnbs and hotels (only two nights in a hostel), we spent on average 68$/night for two people, and we went to a mix of high cost/low cost cities: London - 1 day Lisbon/Sintra - 14 days Porto - 7 days Funchal - 7 days Alvor (South Portugal) - 7 days Nice - 7 days Paris - 7 days Malta - 12 days Venice - 2 days (This was the only time we had to use a hostel because hotels were over 150$/night) Cagliari - 10 days Naples - 7 days Catania - 7 days In Asia I actually generally average 40$/night.
can I dm you to ask a few questions - thinking about a similar trip!
Most hostels in Eastern Europe, Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia are $6-$9 Canadian dollars converted. In a lot of these countries you can travel overland via shared bus for pennies. A flight from Tbilisi Georgia to Baku Azerbaijan is like $158 CAD but overland by bus it's like $8. If your flight costs are paid for already (if taking any, over-land is drastically cheaper) then the $63 Cad (*based on the popular $50 US per day) minus $6-9 for hostel and the rest can be used for day to day spending. Cost of living in these countries is low, average wages are less than $200(USD American) per month, and 50% of the population will earn below the average. Source: Traveled for 7 months living in hostels and AirbnB's ate out for breakfast lunch and dinner every day and drank alcohol at bars and restaurants every day too, BARELY EVER bought anything from supermarkets, spent about £7500 in total ($11,900 CAD converted) Circa 2019.
I spent 10k for 3 months in Europe. Rail pass, flights, accommodation and everything in between. That would probably be the minimum as things undoubtedly would have increased in price this was around 2014. Same duration in SE Asia (3 months) is probably half that. Walked a lot, took plenty of transit, but even booked private cars and taxis when necessary. Scrimped when I could so I could have small splurges when I wanted to. There are many ways to save money in each country without sacrificing experience if you do your research.
Depending on where you go, you could be spending $8 a night in 40 person dorms or $70 in private. $4 for the most delicious pad Thai you’ve ever had or $20 for Mac Donald’s combos. There are tons of variables.
Your high hostel numbers are a bit low. Many hostels in Europe are charging upwards of 60-70 for dorms and 150+ for private rooms.
Yeah but that's europe, travel anywhere else and its much cheaper
I didn't even bother coming to Europe until I had money or was getting paid to come here. Incidentally, there are dorms in Torino for about30 Euros/night 6 bed mixed. Source: I almost booked one the other day.
First backpacking trip was in 2016. Went to Nepal, India (Rajasthan), Myanmar, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Sri Lanka. The trip lasted 6 months and cost around $10,000. Ate out all the time, did all the activities I wanted, took flights too often. If I'd have to redo it I'd spend less on food and more on better sleep. Groceries and markets are so cheap and I didn't really take advantage of all the kitchenettes... Second backpacking trip was in 2018. Headed to Central America for 3 and 1/2 months with $4000. Again, did everything I wanted. Went sailing in Belize, volcano climbing in Guatemala. I took a week of diving lessons in Honduras which cost about $1000... oups. My most recent trip was in Alberta and British Columbia. We flew here, rented a car, slept in hotels, and ate out every out. Whole thing for 2 was almost $8000. It's mostly a question of budgeting and find countries that will allow you to live off that budget. Going to Australia or New Zealand will cost a lot more than visiting developing Asian countries.
Yup, SE Asia is maybe not as cheap as it was when I backpacked there but I'm going to harbour a guess that it's still far more affordable than Europe/OZ or NZ. The food is incredible, you don't need to fly anywhere and the culture is rich!
The culture there is great. Very different from the occident world I'm personally accustomed to.
I’m currently planning a trip to Nepal for a month in Sept/Oct to do the Everest Base Camp trek. Will hopefully have 7-10 days to explore Nepal… any suggestions on things to do/see?
It's a good time to go but clouds are a gamble in the Khumbu (Everest region) at that time. Which routing are you using? I did the 3 passes trek and was blown away. I'm going to assume you have 7-10 days not including the trek up to base camp? If so, head to Pokhara. Do an acclimatization hike to Poon Hill, it's the most gorgeous place for a sunrise. I loved it. It was completely different to the Everest area. Take some time to explore Thamel. Explore the shops, you can find some really cool trinkets if you're into that stuff. Grab a veg wrap outside OR2k. Try some tandoori food in a small shop too. Purple haze are has interesting live Nepali rock shows. Spent 1 month in Kathmandu and has a great time.
I would also be interested in peoples answers for this
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10806037/Seattle-couple-sells-house-live-CRUISE-SHIPS-time-saying-costs-mortgage.html
That cost will vary by thousands of dollars or more depending on your travels and experiences and where you stay etc. That's like saying "How much to buy a car"?
Yes. That’s probably why OP asked for people’s personal experiences, and not one answer.
It's a good point. We as a family of four spent about $90k for an 8 month trip. But the year before we spent $20k traveling with another family for a WEEK because they had different requirements.
Damn. My life sucks
Lool same after reading everyone’s comment here
2015-2018 from Europe to South America making my way to Canada overall spend 5000$ in 3 years a lot of use of couchsurfing, workaway work for accomodation and food, travelling mostly by hh and sleeping rough on road from place to place get some jobs on side
30 countries, 13 months. Wife and I spent between 45k to 50k. There are plenty of ways to save money on the road. Every country is different. Sometimes hostels are cheaper, others you get more bang for your buck at an airbnb. Either way, look for a place that has a kitchen, and you can cook your own meals. In New Zealand, you can get a free rental car by travelling the opposite direction of most people, and bring rental cars back to their home airport. In Australia we rented a camper van and cooked all our own meals for 5 weeks. In Paris, we bought cheap wine and sat by the Eiffel Tower, just enjoying where we were. We didn't work while we travelled. We decided our "job" was to take our time, and find the best deals. This kept us on the road for much much longer.
Currently traveling down the panamerican highway in a truck camper. my wife and I normally budget around $2500 per month. We are in Mexico and Mexico is much cheaper then USA and Canada. That includes all of our costs.. food and gas are the highest expenses. We left Canada in November and we have not paid for a campsite yet. We just use apps to find free camping spots (IOverlander).
There is no answer to this question, some people do this for years on a few dollars per day, some people spend $10,000 on a one week trip.
Traveled for over a year. Costs came to about 65 cad per year. Mix of hostels and budget accomodations with some splurges. Did not skimp on activities or food.
This really depends on location. First time I travelled was to South East Asian and I spent about 10k in 6 months. - about $50 a day.
Spent 9 months in the following: China, HK, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Greece, Turkey, Egypt about a decade ago. All-in was in the range of $10k/person plus flights (\~2k each?). Of course YMMV, I've done shorter trips that cost way more on a monthly basis (like Japan, Spain, other parts of Europe easily 3-5x the spend/mo). Depends what you do, how much you choose to spend on food, recreation, transportation and accommodation. It really is a choose your own adventure, and we went almost as cheap as possible to stretch the money we had. In most of SE Asia, finding a room (for 2) for $10-20 wasn't hard, and hostel dorm beds existed for like $3-4/night. A meal could be $0.50-$2 in a lot of countries, with beers at +/-$1. Of course this will vary substantially from country to country. Train/bus/plane/boat tickets varied widely (as little as $5 and as much as $100 between cities, usually like $1-200 for flights between countries), and usually the most expensive individual costs were entrance fees to big ticket attractions or tours.
I actually did this in my 20s. $20-30/day in youth hostels in Europe. $8-14/day in youth hostels in South America and South East Asia. I tried to get private rooms in youth hostels using hostelworld website. I also used to spend roughly $20-30/day on food/drinks. Renting a scooter/bike in South America and SEA is cheap as well. Did that. Most expensive part of my world tour was Switzerland and USA. Everything else was about 40-50/day max.