RTW itinerary and costs

Hi,

I’ve been planning a RTW trip for more than a year. I started with a very ambitious itinerary but, as time passes and we don’t reach the target I have been shrinking the itinerary…
So, at the moment the plan is as follows:

Leave Portugal and go to St. Petersburg by plane as cheap as possible, even if we have to stop somewhere in the middle.
Go to China, passing trough Russia and Mongolia on the Transiberian (considering 3 weeks to get to China).
Visit China and Tibet (considering 4 weeks)
Go to Nepal and do trekking “everest base camp” (considering 3 weeks)
Visit India and Sri Lanka (considering 6 weeks)
Go to Kenya by plane. Visit Kenya and Tanzania including safari and trekking Mount Kilimanjaro (considering 3 weeks)
Visit Mozambique for 3 weeks.
Get back to Portugal by plane.

So, this last version of the trip it will take us 5 to 6 months (the initial plan included all the South America from South to North and USA from coast to coast)
According to my calculations we can do this 5 to 6 months trip for 30.000 USD (price for 2 people – 15.000 each).

Please let me know your thoughts on the itinerary and on the costs.

Thank you very much.
Best regards
Daniel

Hey there, Daniel!

My name is Adam, and I'm a writer here at BootsnAll, focusing on RTW travel. I'd love to help you out with your trip and offer some feedback/advice.

At first glance, it looks like a good itinerary. You don't seem to be moving too fast, and you've left a good amount of time in each location, which is good. As you know, it's not realistic to be on the move every few days, so you've done a good job of paring down.

As far as a budget, it looks good at first glance, but I do wonder how you came up with these numbers? I'm not saying they're wrong, but I am curious as to where the number came from? Do you have a per day budget worked out for each country? Have you priced big ticket items like the Trans Siberian and a safari, both of which can be pricey? What about flights? Have you looked into RTW plane tickets since you have a pretty good idea of your itinerary? You may be able to get them cheaper if you go that route instead of flying point to point? If you're interested, let me know, and I can point you in the right direction.

Also, how do you plan on traveling? HOstels? HOtels? Private rooms? Shared rooms? Are you cool with eating street or market food? Do you plan on cooking for yourself sometimes? All are things you need to think about when planning your budget.

Just to let you know, my wife and I did a RTW trip in 08-09, and we spent about $40,000 between the two of us. We were gone for an entire year, and we traveled in S. America, New Zealand, SE Asia, and India. We stayed in hostels most of the time, but we did have private rooms with a bathroom the vast majority of the time. We tried to limit our flights and travel overland most of the time. We cooked a lot of our own food and ate super cheap when we could (street carts, markets, etc.). So the initial look at your budget looks good.

Check out some of our planning pages on the RTW section of the site. We have tons of information that we've been updating and adding to over the past months. I would start here:

http://www.bootsnall.com/rtw/planning

Let me know if you have any more questions!

Cheers, Adam

Hi Adam,

Thank you very much for your reply.
I’ll specify the numbers (all numbers are per person):

Major activities:
Transiberian – 1300 USD
Trekking on the Himalayas – 1000 USD
Trekking Kilimanjaro – 1000 USD
Safari on Tanzania – 1000 USD

Flight tickets:
Lisbon / St Petersburg – 250 USD
Sri Lanka / Kenya – 400 USD
Mozambique / Lisbon – 800 USD

All the other connections will be by train or bus, we don’t mind to take a few more days to get to the places and travel on bus is not a problem. Regarding the trains, I am always considering at least 2nd class for the longer distances.

Costs at home:
Rent and other expenses – 2000 USD (for 6 months)
Travel insurance – 1000 USD
Vaccines – 500 USD
Backpack, wear, etc – 350 USD

Costs per day and country:
Russia – 20 USD
Mongolia – 30 USD
China – 30 USD
Tibet – 40 USD
Nepal – 30 USD
India – 10 USD
Sri Lanka – 25 USD
Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique – 25 USD

My biggest doubt is on the costs per day/country because I have never been to any of these countries. I am using numbers from sites I have been seeing but I can’t be sure if they are correct...
We will be on activities for some time so the costs per day on that period will probably be less than stated above. For example on Nepal we will be 14 day doing the trekking where we do not expect to expend much more money than the 1000 USD considered. Also while on the Transiberian I don’t expect that the cost per day will be very expensive...

Regarding the food, we will do our own meals sometimes as well as go to some fancy restaurants but surely most of the times we will eat at the street.
We prefer not to share rooms, definitely private rooms with bathroom is our priority. We don’t need any luxury, as long as the place is clean is ok for us. Of course that while doing trekking we will stay where it is possible to stay, but that is a different situation.

In Mozambique we will stay some days at my uncle’s house but that is all, no more family/friends along the way.

We already reached the budget of 30.000 USD but I still don’t have the 10.000 USD that I consider minimum to have as reserve when we return... However we are both completely saturated on our life as it is. I have a great wage at the moment but definitely am not happy with the life style I have. We are both 29 and we promised ourselves to do the RTW before we reach the 30s, in fact that is the only reason why I am still keeping my job.
We see this world crisis and particularly the Portuguese situation as a good opportunity to do the RTW but at the same we are scared of what is going to happen when we return... I read on several articles that this is a wrong idea but in fact is hard not to think of it...

Let me know your thoughts, if possible.

Thanks a lot.

Best regards
Daniel

As a guide to expenditure and having done our 12month round the world in 2007 - 2008 our cost for two was £28,000. It would have been more expensive except for the fact we had a friend with us who shared the cost of car hire and campsite fees and some hotel cost.
The itinerary was 3 months USA coast to coast including car rental for 6 weeks, accommodation was tent (bought in US) camping, hostels, motels, lodge cabins.
Canada 1 month including one domestic flight and car hire for 2 weeks accommodation camping and budget hotels.
Fiji 2 week accommodation hotel.
Australia 3 months including camper van rental for 6 weeks accommodation tent camping, caravans,
Singapore,Malaysia,Thailand,Cambodia,Vietnam, southern China to Shanghai, Shanghai to Hong Kong by train. Accommodation in budget hotels.
India 6 weeks travel by train accommodation in budget hotels.

Round the world ticket, in addition one international plane ticket.
Insurance, Visa, all inoculations and malaria tablets.

This didn't include extra clothes or backpack or case.

Hmmm- I can't comment on all the places you list, but I find your daily averages per country to be rather low. The reason is while yes, in China you could do US$30/day you're going to be traveling every few days on an overnight train if you want to make it to Nepal in 30 days (you sort of have no choice as you only get a month at a time in China unless you leave, and Tibet will take a week of that 30 days), and overnight trains+ activities along the way will add up. Tibet can be ok if you find folks to join up with for the required tour group, but that's not guaranteed...

I think a higher budget in Africa would also make me feel better because it's not really that cheap a destination though everyone thinks it is- transport is not the best and often expensive, and lots of things need to be imported. For example, a few months ago in Tanzania a hostel bunk in Arusha was US$12, not bad and you could live on the US$25 budget then, but the cheapest place in Nungwi, the backpacker place in northern Zanzibar, was US$20 for that "complimentary roaches" feel and more like US$30 for a bare bones but acceptable sort of place. Not to mention getting to Zanzibar is US$20 on the ferry and probably double that on the bus from Kilimanjaro, or even more if you opt to fly it.

I guess my point is while you could get by on that budget with a bed and food in your stomach, you probably wouldn't be doing too much else. Transport, in particular, is a lot more expensive than people think.

I agree with Andromeda on your per day costs looking a bit low. I haven't been to many of the countries on your list, but let's take India as an example. While it may be posssible to do India on $10/day, you won't be able to do much of anything, and if you spend $3-5 on a bed, be prepared for what you pay for. My wife and I spent about $70/day total in India, but we wanted to be somewhat comfortable. We stayed in hostels and guesthouses, but always had private rooms, much of the time with a/c. While I understand certain creature comforts aren't necessary for everyone, most still like a basic level of cleanliness. Travel in India is cheap if you go by bus or a lower class on the train, but it won't be comfortable at all (not that travel in India is terribly comfortable anyway).

Many travelers can get by on the bare minimum, so I certainly don't want to tell you that you can't, but I just want to make you aware of what you need to expect by traveling on a budget like that.

Have you shopped flight costs? Those look a bit low to me as well, but if you've already found some of those exact flights for those prices, then good on you.

Check out this site, I found it on the Internet just recently and it as lots of information which may be of interest.

http://www.travelindependent.info/countries.htm

Jean

Jeanie99 wrote:Check out this site, I found it on the Internet just recently and it as lots of information which may be of interest.

http://www.travelindependent.info/countries.htm

Jean

Interesting & from a quick skim seems pretty accurate, with the exception of Australia where his costs were nowhere realistic + completely ignoring the west coast & Tasmania was not right IMHO but he did mention Fraser Island.