BootsnAll Travel Community

My wife and I live in the States and are planning on doing a Round the World Trip starting in Feburary of 2007. We've seen lots of lists that break down the cost, day-by-day, for most of the countries we are planning on going to, but most of those budget break downs seem to be for solo travelers. So, I was wondering if anyone here has travelled as a couple, and how that affects expenses?

I imagine, in most cases, we will probably be sharing a private room; but we also aren't opposed to staying in dorms from time to time as need be.

Here's a list of the areas we are planning on travelling, if that helps:

-Lima and Peru
-Santiago, Easter Island & Tahiti (only a couple nights in each to keep expenses down)
-New Zealand and Tasmania (will likely rent a car in at least one, if not both)
-Southeast Asia (have not settled on where exactly, but probably one to three of the following Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam)
-India (probably just one region, though it has yet to be determined)
-Turkey
-Egypt
-Kenya (staying with friends near Narobi)
-Croatia

Thanks in advance for any thoughts and advice!

I'll tell you what I think as of October 2006. That when hubby and I leave for our RTW trip!

Couples save on the room costs..everything else pretty much stays the same.I would take the solo cost plus 1/2 of the solo cost again. In general I noticed that my room was about 45-50% of my daily cost. 3 meals + internet etc etc made the other half. Transportation etc will be about the same as solo traveler.

Unless you both really really really know each other and are absolutely lockstep in just about everything, taking a cheap solo budget and multiplying times 2 will not be sufficient.

Cost savings acheived are usually off set by the costs of the greatest common factor. You probably know your better half well, but there will be times when disagreement arises. It may be about accomodations, what sites to see, or whatever. When this happens, it may be the case that is the greatest costing (rather than the least costing) element that prevails.

Moreover, there will be more than one occasion where you may want to do something 'nice' with eachother and spend some extra, where a budget solo traveller may not.

Chances are also higher that you may want the private room rather than the shared dorm or the room that isn't above the night club, that a solo traveller may be more willing to book.


That looks like an awesome schedule. Where's your blog link?

I agree. I always end up spending more $$ with my girlfriend than without. Whatever you save on hotels you spend on "treats" for each other...

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I hadn't really considered the fact that we will probably spend as much money on treats and nice things for each other that we could possibly save by sharing a room. But, you are probably right about that.

Slip, I have a blog here, but I've been bad with updating it. So it doesn't fully reflect more current developments and itinerary.

But, thanks again for the feedback everyone!

The way I budgeted for my wife and me was to start with the estimated budget for one person from the LP website and multiply by two (I used the low-midrange numbers as my target.) I then adjusted this amount by difference between a double and two singles.

(daily budget for one * 2)
- (cost of single * 2)
+ (cost of double)
--------------------------
daily budget for two

So if the LP (or your other favorite source of cost information) says a country will cost $25/day for one person for your budget range, the average single room in your range costs $10/day, and the average double room costs $12/day, your daily budget would be:

(25 * 2) - (10 * 2) + (12) = $42/day for the pair of you.

Of course, if you're staying in dorms, this won't work. But if you're more of a "midrange" traveller (like my wife and me), I found this formula to be pretty accurate for budgeting.

Your money as a couple also goes further with services that aren't per-person -- like taxis or private guides. Or with things you can share -- like internet, snacks, books, souveniers, etc.

A agree with what's being said about budgeting at least the cost per person that the guidebook says x 2.

I am travelling with my partner and have been in SEA for 2 months and would say we have been spending slightly more than the 2x solo traveller budget without living the high life. Luckily we have some give in the budget.

Part is probably to do with wanting to treat each other a little bit - sit down for dinner together at a cheap restaurant, etc. Another part for us is that as a couple we're drawn less to the backpacker ghettos (the likes of Khao san Road in Bangkok) and more to quiter areas.

Maybe if we were on the pull the cheap accomodation and rampant nightlife might be a bonus, but we're looking for quiter places, which doesn't have to mean expensive, but you're likely to find all the rock-bottom prices in backpacker ghettos.

Another thing you have to account for is your differing attitudes once you're there. Dorms occassionally sounded fine in theory to my husband, but he hasn't been able to stomach one yet. I am not going to force the poor bloke to share if he doesn't feel comfortable with it, even though I would and I knwo it would cost us less. No point in finding more things to argue over.

Finally - you don't say whether this is your first big trip or whether you are seasoned travellers, but this can have an effect too.

This is the first big trip for hubby and I and we found it's easy to look at the guidebook figures before hand and the descriptions that go with them and think 'sure - I'll eat most of my meals from street hawkers, take public buses and hardly drink beer I fit into the ultra-budget catagory.'

Thing is you don't know until you're on the road, you might excel at budget living or might sart to want slightly better accomodation for a few more dollars a day (whcih mounts up). After a long hot day you might 'need' to eat at a local cafe and have a cold beer and to heck with the budget. Local buses sound good in theory, but when you find that a minivan takes a quarter of the time, goes direct and has air con you might just decide to spend the few extra dollars.

It varies from country to country and area to area too. You might be able to out up with 'basic' in one place, but can't stomach what passes for 'basic' in the next.

There was a thread on here somewhere about the cost in the guidebooks being really low estimates (and giving reasons for this such as the time between when the cost was researched to the book hitting the shelf, as well as other factors). I will try and find it.

Good luck with the planning though. You're in the right place for advice. We have found this site invaluable.

KG

Pity you're not planning on seeing more of Oz other than Tasmania - I would tell you about shopadockets - coupons to get 2 meals for the price of one.

Depending on how long you're doing Lima Peru and SPac you do know you will be heading into cooler weather for NZ and Oz and Tasmania being part of Oz most similar to NZ.

In NZ and Oz you could find on site vans and/or cabins in caravan parks being as cheap an option if not cheaper to twin/doubles in hostels.

There are some of us who are doing more of OZ, so do share more about the "shopadockets", Gonorth. There are four of us in our group, so this could really come in handy!

quote:

There are some of us who are doing more of OZ, so do share more about the "shopadockets", Gonorth. There are four of us in our group, so this could really come in handy!

Me too! We get three whole months there.

Shop-a-docketssite is pretty much self explanatory but my Tips:

You do not need to actually buy anything as
1. Outside of supermarket registers a quick scrounge of shopping trolleys and/or a peek in bins will avail you of a wealth of freebies.
(My shouting of the wife to dinner out often made use of such a practice)

2. There used to be a provision where you could search by state city and see what dockets were current and print them off the web site - could not see that on the link but will look further.

Happy docketing of expenses.

Yes, seems as though they have changed the system a little - perhaps their clients were saying it was too easy for people to get free stuff without actually shopping.

So go to hotdockets (which you can via the other site too) and then by postcode rather than state/city you can search for what is on offer.
Major postcodes Brisbane 4000, Sydney 2000, Melbourne 3000 and I have to look the others up myself so search here

And OK, another Tip - free internet is widely available at public libraries in towns and cities eastern states and you can print stuff off.

And for whereabouts of those, you may have to look by statebut they are usually in prominent locations and any town of reasonable size will have a Visitor Information Centre manned by mix of paid/volunteers who will fall over themselves to assist international visitors and may even have free cuppa facilities.

When in doubt always assume a higher number.....

Mamababe

quote:

When in doubt always assume a higher number.....

And just in case you have not read it before!

If you are only going to be here for 90 days or less - save yourself that Visa money and have your agent/airline do you an ETA - free Visa class976

And a whole group of passengers on a recent United or American airlines flight into NZ all got fined $200 because they put the nice shiny apples issued on board into their bags to eat later and forgot about them - Rules is Rules when it comes to those Customs people.

check your bags and eat or dispose of any fruit and declare anything else on your customs entry form and ditto for Australia.

It is a good little trick to each have a chocky bar, declaring it as food and then you go through quicker on the Red Line

JS and KPG, thanks for the additonal advice. It's good to hear different peoples experiences and suggestions.

KPG, in response to your question about us travelling abroad, both of us have taken several 2 to 3 weeks trips (in my case once to Thailand, once to Europe and once to Argetina and Chile) and we took one 2 week trip to Jamaica togther. So, we both have a general idea how we travel... though I'm sure that will change in one way or another after an extended period on the road.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions everyone!