Rambo - I agree it's better to overbudget and underspend. I may add an additional 10-20% onto my transport, activities, and daily budget figures to create a buffer. Or, I'll be travelling for less time. My goal as always been to put myself in a position to take time off from work, and travel with complete freedom. My longest trip so far has only been 7 weeks, so after a year, I could be happy to come home, though I'd like the funds to keep me out there longer.

genaro - I know it's better to pay off debt before saving, however it's so much more fun to watch savings go up then debt go down. Alas, your encouragement just lead me to schedule double my monthly credit card payments - a compromise!

Tyler - I used Orbitz.com - who knows how good an indicator it'll be for 1-2 years in the future. I think the time of year I used was October.

quote:

Originally posted by genaro:
I think you've underestimated as well dave, especially on the Americas. I'd say a mid-budget backpacker will spend 1000-1200/month most of the world and 1500-1700/month in western countries. That might set you back about 16-18k/year not including predeparture expenses. It's possible to go for less but I think most on the boards will agree you'll be (significantly) sacrificing experience.
Rambo's numbers are not backpacker numbers. That's james bond traveling with kids.

btw, pay off your debt before you worry about saving.

Hahaha! they're not quite backpacker numbers, although james bond travelling with kids will spend at least one DIGIT more for a 300 day trip.

they are single person, three star(in non western countries) and budget traveller(in western countries) numbers(I have a spreadsheet, but it hasn't been structured or presented well yet). I think if you budget like that and then spend/travel like a backpacker, you'll end up having much more fun on your RTW trip, than if you did it the OTHER way around...

quote:

Originally posted by Rambo:
my current number is 240 days , 30-35000 dollars including 6-8000 dollars of buffer at home.

I'm personally hoping you are really over estimating. My wife and I have been number crunching. And we are only saving about 20,000 for the two of us on our trip (after tickets, insurance, immunizations, etc) which is going to be a little over 200 days.

Then again, we are planning on largely staying out of Europe. And, I'm going to be able to come back to my job.

Tyler, My trip plan consists of at least three legs in the developed world where the cost of living is at least as high as the US: Japan(and neighborhood incl hawaii), Europe and Australia(where I hear it isn't quite as bad as Japan, although it's pretty high).

About half the trip (100 days) is planned in these places.

This is again an excersice in overbudgeting, because if from the islands of the south pacific, I decide to do indonesia instead of australia, I end up saving. if I had planned indonesia, and budgeted for it, Australia would have been out of reach, and my flexibility would have gone.

re one person /two people, if you plan a trip for a 3 star one person style, most expenses work about the same(ie you can easily spend HALF of what you budgeted for each person) if you drop your standards from three star ones in the developed world. your travelling budget doubles, but between deals and cheap one way fares, you'll end up spending only 3000 dollars more for an extra person.

the third person/child can prove expensive, though.

I would think , if you were frugal you could even do one leg in a G8 neighborhood with about $ 22000 for two people.
but then this would be without buffers, no just in case money and strictly backpacker. While I would love my COMPLETE trip to be within this budget, while I plan, I like to include enough elbow room in case it's not like this.

My 35000 number includes $ 6000 money at home for emergencies/after return, too.

When you say 20,000 AFTER tickets for a 200 day trip, though, do you mean 20,000 PLUS cost of tickets? because that would be well in line with my estimates.

Rambo, I meant $20,000 in addition to the cost of tickets, insurance, immunizations and other pre-trip purchases. So, basically, just the expenses we'll have to pay after we board our first flight.

I can easily see how your budget would be significantly higher if you are planning on spending a lot of time in the US, Japan, etc.

My 35000 Includes tickets.(abt 8000 ) and a buffer (abt 6000) if you took out 14000 from my 35, you'd have 21000, which is your estimate (for 200 vs My 240 days) so we're runing neck and neck as far as our estimates are concerned.

I'm estimating for one person, and you for two, so maybe I'm overbudgeting compared to you, slightly- the extra person would consume about 3000- 3500 more in my estimate, bringing the cost up to abt 24000 for 240 days(or 20000 for 200 days, which is Again, same as yours.

The other thing to consider is the exchange rate. The dollar is suppose to drop even farther (great for those who are traveling to the states). So by year end, for example, the exchange rate for a Pound will be $2 for every £1. That will significantly increase the price of the trip.