6 Months of Travel done... Look at my spending statistics!

I think you did awesome keeping your average daily expenses at under $85, considering six months in Europe. I am planning a RTW budget based on $100 per day, knowing full well I'll spend considerably less in some parts of the world and sometimes a bit more in others - ie, Europe. It all depends on your sleeping accomodations, what you eat and your extracurricular activities. Everyone knows boozing adds up awfully quickly - but hey, IBIZA! Ya gotta indulge once in a while!

I'm sure your post will help many others with their own budgeting.

$100 a day is not a bad budget, think for two it would be about $150 for the same travel style?

Canadian Bacon,

How long are you planning your RTW trip to be? 1 year, 2 years??? Just curious.

Nice job on the detailed financial analysis, but what I'm wondering is how you can enjoy visiting so many places in one month. Britain, Holland, France, Monaco, Spain all in one month? And the same for many other countries. Perhaps you've been to these countries/places before and so you are hitting your favorite spots or trying out new places or just singling some things out. It appears you enjoyed yourself, which of course is the aim, but did you really experience the cultures? Just curious...

great details, thanks this is very helpful

quote:

Originally posted by medievalknight65:
Nice job on the detailed financial analysis, but what I'm wondering is how you can enjoy visiting so many places in one month. Britain, Holland, France, Monaco, Spain all in one month? And the same for many other countries. Perhaps you've been to these countries/places before and so you are hitting your favorite spots or trying out new places or just singling some things out. It appears you enjoyed yourself, which of course is the aim, but did you really experience the cultures? Just curious...

Good question, thats why I spent 2 additional months in Spain just for studying... Monaco is a tiny country and there is no culture except for being obscenely rich. But I see your point... but if i were to spend many months in every country i visit i would have to live to be 300 years old. I have to see a lot of countries and pick and choose which ones to live in for awhile.

What!?!?! You're not planning on living until you're 300. Why not?!? Imagine the compound interest over 100's of years!

wow Max! Ok, the first thing I thought when I read your post?

Max is awesome.

Then as i continued to read on I stumbled upon this gem:

"I only have one weak spot and that is for romance."

With all the travel, languages & good times all I can think now is:

Are you James Bond?

No, seriously...are you?

Furthermore, who are these women and where do they come from?

i think I found the inspiration I was looking for! have been lazy the last month!
thanks, max

I will have traveled for 6 months in 2 days and I did it for $46.05/day CDN. I also kept exact track of my money the entire time from day 1 to day 184. I have so far stayed almost entirely in Europe except for my first stop in the US before flying to the UK. I will be leaving from Russia to Egypt in about a month. Here is a list of my travels in order so far:

New York City, United States
London, England
Manchester, England
Edinburgh, Scotland
Glasgow, Scotland
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Dublin, Ireland
Rhosneigr, Wales
Cardiff, Wales
London, England
Paris, France
Barcelona, Spain
Brussels, Belgium
Bruges, Belgium
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Brussels, Belgium
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Berlin, Germany
Prague, Czech Republic
Krakow, Poland
Bratislava, Slovakia
Budapest, Hungary
Vienna, Austria
Rome, Italy
Florence, Italy
Venice, Italy
Athens, Greece
Istanbul, Turkey
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Sofia, Bulgaria
Bucharest, Romania
Chisinau, Moldova
Kiev, Ukraine
Moscow, Russia

How in the world were you able to get by on 46 CDN a day in places like Paris, Moscow, etc?? Couchsurfing? Cooking all your own meals?

I took whatever the cheapest form of transport was which was usually buses. I didn't cook many meals I mostly ate out. I did CouchSurf for 94 out of the 184 days so I guess over 50% CS which does indeed help. If I had not CouchSurfed it would likey have been $65/day but maybe less as many places I went had hostels under 10 EUR per night that I ended up not needing to go to. I haven't been overly frugal with my money though.

94 out of 184 days of CS absolutely helped...those 10 euro a night hostels must have been a dump...i commend you though for hustling on the CS beds...not bad bud

When I was in Europe I tended to spend about 1500 dollars a month- 2000.
About 30 to 50 euros a day. I ate in restaurants, and at home, stayed in hotels, went touristing.

I can't conceive of spending 15,000 dollars in 6 months.

Travellers ask about "How much do I need for my budget".
There is never an easy answer to this question, what is one persons tight budget is another persons over the top budget.
It varies not only with the countries/towns/cities you travel in but accommodation, transport, eating expenses, going out, drinking, misc expenditure, site seeing etc etc.
The costs quoted here did seem more than I would spend but having said that when we did our round the world we did quite a bit of camping and cooking our own food, we travel on local buses, and don't drink much and this can make a huge difference to your expenditure.