BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi all! My boyfriend and I have the following 5 month trip planned and need some budget advice:

China - 7/14-7/29
Thailand - 7/29-8/29
Bali - 8/29-9/9
Singapore - 9/9-9/22
Australia - 9/22-11/3
New Zealand - 11/3-12/1
Fiji 12/1-12/14
Hawaii - 12/14-12/16

Anyone have any idea what type of budget would be reasonable? We were thinking 7,000 USD for the whole thing. Is this is under/over/just right? We have some wiggle room if we need to adjust. Thanks!

Hi Jessica, in NZ, for basic living you need NZ$25 per night for a dorm bed, and about NZ$30 per day per person for modest meals - self-catering mostly. If you eat out a lot or drink out a lot, then you budget needs go up, of course. For a double/twin room from NZ$65 - NZ$100. This depends on the location ie city etc . For example Queenstown hostels are generally higher priced than Wellington. On top of that you add your bus pass, or car hire and the adrenalin and adventure activities you can afford.

Similar prices for Auatralia, but I'd allow up to AUD$30 for a dorm bed. Double/twin rooms allow AUD$60 - $100. AS with NZ hostels in (capital) cities are usually dearer. Melbourne is (generally) cheaper than Sydney. Allow AUD$25 per day per person for meals - again self-catering.

Have you decided yet on your mode of transport? A car will give you the advantage of being able to travel where you'd like plus as there are two of you it would be IMO more cost effective then long distance buses and trains.
Cheers.

EDIT: I've always found that working out the basics as described above ie, bed, food, and transport is the best way of starting. Once those are done, activities/touring can then be looked at.

Hi Jessica,I know you asked for budget advice but just scanning your itin I'd make one major suggestion...Cut down your time in Singapore...You really dont need more than 4 or 5 days there to do it justice. Any more than that and I think you'd get bored quite quickly. Why not add that time to NZ and give yourself a month there...A lot of people wish they had given NZ more time and 3 weeks is going to be a real burn around the country!!

As far as budget goes Oz was the real killer for me...I reckon on spending £1500 a month there sleeping in dorms, enjoying a drink or 2 in the evenings and a decent meal every once in a while. The trouble with Oz is that alot of teh major attractions require quite a bit of money...Whitsundays, Fraser Island, Uluru, Barrier Reef etc all quite expensive on a backpackers budget.

Budget is all releative of course and depends just what you want to do and how you like to live on a daily basis...Its possible to scape by in thailand for £300-400 a month but its easily pssible to spend £700-900 a month whilst still staying in hostels/guesthouses if you like to take advantage of some of the great trips that are on offer or if you like to eat out once a day. We ended up having to spend £35 for our first night on Phi Phi because it was the only thing we could afford that was on offer..In the end we landed in a 500TBH a night bamboo hut and stayed a week...It just took that biggie at the beginning to get us in.

Just remember water, mossie spray, suncream, shampoo, deoderant, laundry etc all cost money and somepeople forget to budget for such things...