I´m plannig a long trip(10 months), starting in Spain, heading east to Greece, Turkey, India , Thailand.... and get to New Zealand. Then to Chile and then thru South America to Colombia. Most of it by land.
How much money do you think I´d need? I´m planning on doing it as cheap as possible.
8000€???
gracias

I'm planning a similar trip (add in the rest of Europe, Cambodia, and Australia, and add about 4 - 6 months) and I'm budgeting about $40,000 (33,000 Euros) for two of us.

Is that your entire budget? Like, airfare, train, bus, food, lodging, insurance, supplies, everything? Because if it is - that seems tight to me. That's 26.67 Euros per day - I don't know how you could make that work.

Looks as tho it could be a bit light on Simon, particularly if you're looking for it to include your land/airfares that even with budget carriers in Europe and Asia will still ammount to near 1500/2000E I'd suspect as Thailand to NZ and then NZ to SA will not be so cheap.
You'd then be left with say 600E/m which will be cutting it pretty fine and just how fine will depend on your split of time between the lower cost countries like India, Thailand, SA, and to some extent Turkey.
There are organisations like www.wwoof.org where you can do some work in exchange for accomodation and meals to help lessen costs, but you would have little money for luxuries unless you were able to find a bit of paid work for a few weeks here and there.

Thanks guys, as I see i might have to safe a bit more of money, uh? Do you think you could live with 20€ a day in Asia? I´m from Colombia and I know that in South America you can. Airfare and transport are expensive everywhere. I was thinking 1500€ from Chile to Sydney and then 2000€ more for the rest (transport only) that would leave me with 4500€ that divided into 10 month (300 days) is 15€ a day, almost 20 US$.
Doable?

20€/day is fine for India (and the rest of the subcontinent) or Thailand (and the rest of SEA.)

When I was in those areas I spent about C$20/day, so about 15€. This included everything; food, accomodation, visas, overland travel...

You should be fine there, so long as you're not looking for luxury

Oh , no luxury at all!!! I can live as cheap as it gets. And as for golden rule,
the least you spend the longer you travel.
Thanks oswiu, you gave me some hope

I was going to say Ossie, C$20 is doing it tight, but then you say do not expect luxury for that.
Yes Simon, E20 would allow reasonable living, and if you are happy to have basic accomodation, simple meals you'll do it easy enough to have money for a few beers and other stuff.
Your trip now seems to have expanded to include Oz., and on doing Oz cheap, if you have a swag/sleeping bag or whatever, a cheap nights accomodation in the right weather can be had on the beach, there being a couple of english girls sleeping there o/n who wanted to know if I could knock them up some pancakes and a cuppa!
But Oz cities can chew up the $$ just like western europe cities.
I reckon that you might be able to do a little better on your transport costs, but for sure, I'd try and get another E1000 -2000 in the kitty.
Have a look at www.attitudetravel.com for a list of budget airlines in Europe/Asia, www.tigerairways.com having cheap flights Singapore to Darwin, but when in Thailand, see what Charlie at www.travelconnecxion.com can do for you re Oz - NZ - Chile, also listed on www.khaosanroad.com to compare with www.justfares.com and you could a pleasant surprise.
Note that you'll need an onward flight from NZ to be allowed to board a flight to there, and you'll save yourself a few more dollars by having an airline/agent process your ETA (visa) for Australia for free, or it should be.

WOW! thanks gonorth! that´s some information!!! I´ll try to get 1000-3000€ more in my bank! I´m now in Ibiza working my head off to do it. In fact I only have 2000€ at the moment, but I´m gonna work the whole season (until midle Oct.) in order to do it. Those sites are cool, very handy.
I think I´m gonna start travelling in October, so I´ll post some more things and let you know how I´m doing
Gracias mil gracias
=)

My budget abroad is $1,000 a month. That gives me $10,000 a year, plus $2,000 a year for any airfare. I don't know why people spend so much... I think there is just some sort of inherent lifestyle that's hard to shake.

I went to Los Angeles recently and got there, from Alabama, for less than $5, and stayed for two weeks spending around $50. It was not a pleasant experience (pleasure was not the purpose of that adventure), but it goes to show you how cheap you can be if you NEED to be. With that in mind, imagine how someone used to dealing with those kinds of tight situations could handle $1,000 a month? Quite well. I would make that your core budget (excluding airfare, but get good deals!), and use any extra money you have (unless you want to save it) for splurging on drinks and dinners with the friends you will meet.

Hi! Ok so that means I have to safe a bit more. The 12000$ Subnubilus says (=10000€) seems to be ok, that´s taking the 2000$ extras for Airfare.
I think as well, that for many people is hard to give up their life style, the one the have at home, and start living cheaply. I have done it , may be not at that extent, t I think I´ll be ok.
Thanks =)

quote:

Originally posted by subnubilus:
My budget abroad is $1,000 a month. That gives me $10,000 a year, plus $2,000 a year for any airfare.

That is essentially my budget. Average of 30 USD/day. Half that for SE Asia. Twice that for Western Europe. You gotta pinch some pennies, but it is worth it.

quote:

I went to Los Angeles recently and got there, from Alabama, for less than $5, and stayed for two weeks spending around $50. It was not a pleasant experience (pleasure was not the purpose of that adventure), but it goes to show you how cheap you can be if you NEED to be

Now that is some black belt nonspending.

quote:

Originally posted by go girl:

quote:

I went to Los Angeles recently and got there, from Alabama, for less than $5, and stayed for two weeks spending around $50. It was not a pleasant experience (pleasure was not the purpose of that adventure), but it goes to show you how cheap you can be if you NEED to be

Now that is some black belt nonspending.

Why thank you! I wasn't planning on doing anything of the sort, but my plans died early. I had to spend my first night in a hurricane, so that roughed me up for the rest of the trip. Santa Monica is really cold on September nights though. It was definitely a good experience to have under my belt (and I was just eighteen at the time).

Skimax, you really think $2,000 in Western Europe is necessary? I'll be in the United Kingdom later this year and I hope to stick to my budget. I figure it will take some doing, but shouldn't be that bad. If I stay in London for any amount of time (and I will), I'll be sure to stay with someone for free or for cheap. Accomodation and alcohol are the two things which eat my cash up if I'm not careful.

The only place I've been out of the country is Japan, though, so I guess I haven't tested my budget abroad except for there (but supposedly Japan is really expensive)... and honestly, I think it'll be easier to live cheaply (or at least more comfortable to live cheaply) abroad than it is here in the US.

i'm fairly new to this site, but i have noticed that most people are planning on taking more for a 6 month trip than i make in a year!! excluding airfare, you could probably go with nothing and be able to survive if you're willing to work!!

good luck!!!!

Yep, I'd agree with you, subnubilus. If you're willing to do things the non-customary way in a homogeneous society (like Japan) then you can often get by for much cheaper. It's been painful to readjust to living in the states where it's a hell of a lot harder to find corners to cut w/ respect to expenses, they've already been cut by so many other people that the price goes up! Harder to learn cheaper ways to do things as a traveler too b/c it takes time to learn what corners there are to cut.
Something that also figures in is how long people are willing to search for the cheaper routes to take as opposed to coughing up some cash and just enjoying trip. It took me a while to realize that not all societies are accommodating to squaters who are willing to pup their tents anywhere for a free nights sleep (perfect if your touring on your bike..). Stubborn me finally stopped searching for the squat spot and decided to abide by norms in some places, just put down the bills for cheap accommodation.
I have to admit, I wonder how long those who make it by on super small budgets spend looking for their bargains...wish I could fess up to living off of $5/day in the states! that's a feat.