Of course the number one question we get is “How much did all of this cost?!” Since a lot of people are using this site as a resource in planning their own trip, we decided to post a bit about our budget. We want to be completely up front and honest about what we spent and why. We would feel quite bad if somebody followed our itinerary or recommendations and weren’t aware of some of the costs involved.
We should preface this by saying that we are in a somewhat unique situation. Jason started an internet company a few years back and he is still working a few hours a day from the road helping to run it. Because of this, we still have our normal income rather than living entirely on savings. We are also of the philosophy that nothing in life is for sure and you never – ever – know what tomorrow brings. So enjoy it while you can.
Accommodations: We budget $100 - $200 per night. Rather than adjust that figure up or down depending on how expensive the country we are in is, we adjust the quality of accommodation accordingly. In cheaper places, we stay in 5 star resorts and live like rock stars. In expensive places we try to stay in vacation rentals or mid-range hotels. We also use online discounters like wotif.com to save a few bucks whenver possible. It is important to note that we are from an expensive housing market in San Francisco and we do have our place rented for the entire duration of our trip, helping greatly with this expense.
Transportation: Perhaps we splurged a bit here as well, but we think it made sense. Originally we were going to get a coach Star Alliance around-the-world ticket for about $6000/person. But we found a great resource that was able to get us the same ticket in Business Class through Emirates (an outstanding airline which most people haven’t heard of since they don’t fly to the States) for only a couple grand more. It was worth every penny. Also, in the essence of time and comfort, we usually fly from place to place within countries vs. taking trains and buses for longer distances. You pay a little more, but you have time to do a little more…
Food: Anybody who knows us knows that food is our lives. We live in one of the best (and most expensive) cities in the world for food. So while traveling, it’s very important to us to get to try some of the “fine dining” of the local cultures. We usually try to have one super nice meal out in each place, hit some locals places, and when feeling lazy just grub at the hotels. Even the most expensive places abroad are still cheaper than what we’re used to at home. And hey, with what we save on not having to throw dinner parties for our free-loading friends we actually come out ahead.
Tours: Necessary, and expensive evils. While we don’t do any sort of extended “packages”, we often need to do day tours in order to see all the things we want to see. Prices can range wildly for this stuff, but we will say that you usually get what you pay for. Again depending on the price levels of whatever country we are in we usually adjust accordingly.
Gifts/Souvenirs: We don't bother with them. Sucks for you if you're one of our friends or family expecting something. Maybe we're not sentimental people, maybe we''ll regret it later, but we just don't bother buying any of the local handy craft. Sure we'll replace some old clothes with new ones, but as far as loading up our bags with crap or sending things home all the time we've decided to skip it. That saves a lot of money because anything worth buying usually isn't cheap, and sending stuff home usually costs more than it's worth anyways.
