BootsnAll Travel Community

Hot off the presses, I've sculpted my initial budget and itinerary. I'm trying to keep the total cost at $30k, then see how much time I can travel for that amount. As of right now, that equates to about 500 days. Unfortunately, storage, and travel and medical insurance take a big bite, plus I'm somewhat conservative on my start-up costs up returning home.

The excel sheet is posted at this link. Thank you to those whose previous examples I cannibalized.

http://mediamax.streamload.com/dave925/Hosted/David%20Plan.xls

My two potential departure times are either Oct-Dec 2007 or March/April 2008.

Link was updated 8/21/06 based on feedback to-date.

Wow, cool spreadsheet. You've put a lot of thought into this!

I have only three points:

1) I think you should be able to spend significantly less in SE Asia and India than you have budgeted for in this spreadsheet. But it's always good to overbudget anyway

2) Is it just me or are there some transportation links missing like Australia-to-Indonesia and Egypt-to-Greece...?

3) I think this will be the most awesome 500 days of your life and the lives of pretty much anyone else you've ever met. I just wonder if you're trying to do too much. Some things that jumped out at me as being very small amounts of time were only 7 days in Italy (especially as it's one of your must-sees), 10 for Egypt (ditto), 10 for Greece, 14 for Australia and 15 for Mexico. If it were me (and it's not me, so feel free to ignore), I would pick fewer countries per region. In Europe, ditch Germany and add all that time to Italy and maybe take a few days from Spain and add to Greece; in Africa, skip a couple of countries and add more time to South Africa and Egypt (both of which you have identified as must-see) even though this might require an extra flight; in Central America, skip or go quickly through Panama and Honduras and add time to Mexico.

Just a few suggestions. But really, well done for doing something like this. It's absolutely mind-blowing to think of everything you will see and do on this trip; you will experience way more in these 500 days than most people do in their lifetimes.

Good luck!

Mr. Rabbit - thank you again for your feedback.

1. Glad I overbudgeted somewhere in your opinion, I was thinking of adding 10% on at the end of my daily costs total anyways, as I'm prone to pay for adventurous activities and am not too confident in my ability to say "no" on the road.

2. Yep, I didn't yet account for the smaller transportation links.

3. I agree about cutting down on countries - believe it or not - I've been trying to do that! I've already had 2 weeks in Italy, so I really want to get to Venice again, eat a pizza, sip some wine, and then move on given the cost. As for Germany, I skipped it my first time through Europe, and only have an interest to experience a concentration camp first hand. I could definetly be happy spending more time on the Greek isles. As for Central America, having been to Costa Rica and Belize, I've got a feel for them, so I could see myself skipping some of the others, or spending less time.

I'm so excited, which is why I channeled that energy into a spreadsheet - dorky but fun!

Dave, what a great spreadsheet! Since my wife and I are planning out first RTW trip, I don't know if I can give you too much advice myself. I hope you don't mind if we steal your spreadsheet though, it seems like it would be a very useful tool.

And, as someone who's trip will be closer to 200 days, you're more ambitious 500 day plan has me in awe!

quote:

Originally posted by Tyler Hill:
I hope you don't mind if we steal your spreadsheet though, it seems like it would be a very useful tool.

Are you going to take on his debts, too?

It keeps wanting me to log on to some account to view the spreadsheed. Am I doing something wrong?

You shouldn't have to log onto the site to view it. If you'd like, I can e-mail it to you. Just let me know your address.

Im obviously doing the wrong thing as well cos it wants me to log in too!

my email is michey_b21@hotmail.com

thanks
michelle

Sorry everyone, I fixed the problem, so it's now visible again!

I've been reminded of long travel times over land, so I'm still trying to cut back on countries to visit. I need to spend more time reading over guidebooks!

Overplanning can be a detriment too though. I met very few people in my three trips around the world who had stuck to their original itinerary. If you're too rigid in your plans, you miss out on a lot of great opportunities, plus you miss the chance to leave a place early for greener pastures or, conversely, to stay longer in paradise. Cut it down and leave lots of wiggle room.

dave, 17,000 dollars for 500 days of travelling seems somewhat..uh conservative...I'd estimate somewhere between 6000 dollars more(23000) and double this (35000 dollars). for a 300 day trip , about 20,000 dollars will be in the ballpark. (I haven't done a RTW yet, so what do I know!).

I'm sure you can live on $ 35 a day in most places, but tourist destinations and places like Australia/ Italy...it would be more expensive than that.

Rambo -

I met a British guy last year in Costa Rica who had a $23000 budget for his trip. he made it all the way to Costa Rica using $18000 (including transport I believe), and only had Central and North America left before going home. he was gone about a year I believe. I didn't learn all the details, but it gave me hope!

Dave,

You ALWAYS overbudget and underspend.

I think a credible year long RTW trip (specially an active one like yours..or my planned trip) should be about $ 30000 US and you shopuld save about three thousand dollars from it from finding cheaper deals than you budgeted, and spend the money doing MORE things on your trip than you budgeted...but when you make a budget, you not only want $ 5000 or so sitting in a bank in a country your own profligate ways cannot get at, you also want to understand how well you spend if you like the places you are in, and not on the basis of how little you could potentially get by on..

but that's just me. other people try to find the bare minimum feasible, and embark, and try to find(and often do) money making/ saving methods on their way. I just assume that there NO saving possible enroute, and that I HAVE to spend it all if I have to make it around the world.

my current number is 240 days , 30-35000 dollars including 6-8000 dollars of buffer at home.

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.

Hey, I'll be more valuable in responding later...
For now I'm just curious where exactly you found a flight from Madrid -> Rio for $750??

Thanks!

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.