Most of our hotels were booked for 1-3 nights on either TripAdvisor or Booking.com. If we didn't like it, we'd walk around town looking for a better one. Conversely, if we did like it we'd extend our stay. Similarly, many restaurants were found on Tripadvisor. However, we often found it skewed toward American style food. Our other method was either asking other tourists and locals, or finding the restaurant with the most people. We found some amazing back alley street food and restaurants this way. We bought a sim card for my cell phone in Mexico and Peru, but discovered that it was fairly expensive. Instead I signed up for a Skype account and discovered that $10 lasts several months. I have now forgone a cell phone plan now that I have returned to the USA.
Our Equipment list from the beginning had a lot of stuff on it, which we expertly stuffed into each of our backpacks. Out of those items 26 were trashed at the end of our trip, 6 were lost, and 2 were broken. We found that 63% of the items were very useful and 15% of the items not useful at all. All of the clothes were well worn and thrown away before we got home. My cell phone and Ian's Kindle were the most useful giving us the ability to pre-book and decide where we wanted to go next. They also provided a source of entertainment on long bus rides or flights. The camera, of course, was also one of our most prized posessions. Otherwise, we would not have been able to document this epxerience for all of you. Even though we only used them on treks, the water purifer and camelbaks were also incredibly useful. The things we wish we hadn't taken with us include: hammock, sleeping pads, and cards against humanity. That being said, we found a use for most of stuff. When you live out of a backpack for as long as we did, it really puts things in perspective. How much stuff do I really need?
Here are some fun facts compiled about our trip:
-We visited 63 cities in 12 countries over a 10 month period
-We took 82 taxis, 28 buses, 21 airplanes, 12 boats, 7 trains, 5 tuk tuks, 2 colectivos, 2 water taxis, 2 scooters, 2 kayaks, 1 jeep, and 1 bicycle
-We have hiked over 250 miles: Annapurna 185, Corcovado 22, Cerro Chato 3, Colca Canyon 14, Rainbow Mountain 9, Thai Village 18
Below is a breakdown of all of our spending by category for the 10 months. Categories include: housing (hotels/hostels), food, flights, activities (all fun stuff with transportation to and from), and other (souvenirs, transportation, random purcases, etc). Total spent was $30,281 for two people or roughly $15k per person.
After seeing the big picture, it is interesting to break it down by month. Overall, April and May were the most expensive months for us spending the bulk of our budget on housing and food. October came in third mostly because of the set budget of $100 per day on the Annapurna Circuit. For most of April we were in Costa Rica. We found that hotels were a lot more expensive ranging from $45-$60 a night, whereas many locations have averaged about $20 per night. Food was also more expensive, commonly at or exceeding American prices. We were in Peru and Chile in May. Our housing was more expensive becuase we spent the bulk of it in a hotel that also taught Spanish. While we got a discount on our room rate, it was still higher than normal. Food in Peru was cheap, but it was far more expensive in Chile. We also had some activities that we paid for (Colca Canyon, Salar de Uyuni tour), which drove up how much we spent that month. July, August and September were our cheapest months as we spent most of that time moving through Southeast Asia.
We can break it down even further and average our daily spending in each country. Chile, Spain and Hong Kong were the most expensive places we went to. I separated Hong Kong from China to highlight the difference between there and Chengdu. Food in Hong Kong is crazy expensive, and while we managed to find the cheapest hotel (in a not so savory location) in the city, it was still more money than our average. We were in Barcelona and Hong Kong for the same amount of time, and the only reason why Barcelona was so high was that we splurged on a $100 per night hotel room. Looking at the opposite side of the spectrum, Southeast Asian countries fall into the cheapest countries to travel to with food and housing at incredible low prices. Some of the hotels we stayed at in Thailand were below $10/night, and food was a fraction of the price of other countries. Most expensive was Hong Kong, and the cheapest was Vietnam.
Conclusion? It really isn't that much money to travel the world. All you need is to set travel as your number one priority and save, save, save. According to 2015 US Census, the median annual income is $56k a year. We traveled for 2 people for much less than that for 10 months including housing, food, and paying bills at home like student loans and power for our house. We made our motivation for reducing our overhead. We don't live in a fancy house, we don't have nice cars, we don't buy awesome toys. After traveling in many developing countries, I realize that I still don't need those things enabling us to live for our experiences and our future. If we can do it, you can too.
The number one question I get asked is "Which country is your favorite?" This is a difficult question to answer because the world is a big, beautiful place and everyone experiences the world differently. I can tell you that I loved Vietnam, but Ian will tell you he loved Peru. I can't dictate what you will and will not like. I have by no means seen it all, and cannot tell you where is best for you. So, get out there and see it for yourself.
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