Total Cost of Our Round The World Trip

[YLTL_Dan]

The cost is ridiculously inexpensive by 'western' standard. For example you can rent a small apartment near the Skytrain in Bangkok for about $ 15. [USD] per night, buy street food made just for you, travel all day on the Skytrain, watch free Thai entertainment in the courtyard of major hotels, and buy a pass to swim in hotel swimming pools for less than $ 15. per person, per day. You learn how to bargain for purchases PDQ since that's the culture and it's fun.

Best of all they really want tourists and are incredibly kind and helpful...unlike the resorts we're accustomed to here.

We definitely felt the same way. All of the big hotel brands you'd recognize from the US were very overpriced, but they could do it because many Americans stay there since they're comfortable with the brand. As you mentioned, we loved the little boutique hotels because you got to live more like the locals. I still dream of $1 Pad Thai in Bangkok...

[YLTL_Dan]

That is a great trip. We hope to go around the world on a sailboat, but probably take 2 or 3 years to do it. I have to figure out how to get our two Yamaha 250cc motorcycles on a 40 foot sailboat first.

I am curious if the amount you listed includes the money you spent maintaining a home, or are you homeless right now? (we plan to be homeless). If we took off right now we would have $10,000 or so in home maintenance plus real estate taxes/insurance.

We're actually thinking our next big adventure might be on a sailboat too! We spent a month island hopping in Croatia - which was incredibly beautiful!

We sold our house and a car so we didn't have any expenses at home. We thought about keeping it, but I didn't want anything to worry about while we were gone. We also weren't sure we'd go back to the city we lived in, so it made selling easier. We're currently in transition and trying to figure out where to go next, but we probably won't head back to where we lived before.

[YLTL_Dan]

I like that!

As I said, I've got my eye on a world cruise. Personally, I'd be good with the DIY version that you guys did but my wife is far less adventurous than I am and that would not be her idea of a good time. Having the "home base" of the ms Amsterdam always docked close by whether we're in Ft. Lauderdale, Melbourne, Cairo, or Bora-Bora would be the preferred method of travel for us. Plus that eliminates any issues with hotel reservations, plane or train tickets, etc. Of course, we wouldn't rack up a zillion reward points with Marriott but such is life. It is a lot more costly than what you did so you pay for the convenience for sure. Right now, it starts at about 20K/person for an interior cabin but if I'm going to be on a ship for 114 days, I want a balcony. That's 42K/person.

I'm a Starwood guy and actually made Platinum for life on our trip - I consider that one of my biggest career accomplishments

The cruise is a great way to get around, and it'd be really nice to worry about less, but it also limits you quite a bit and means every time you go to a port, your tourist attraction is filled with thousands of other people. The best example we had was in Dubrovnik, which filled with 5,000-15,000 people during the day when the cruise ships docked, but when they left the city was back to its quite and local self. It was amazing at night when no one was around, but you'd be unable to do that with a cruise.

It makes it a little more challenging to plan it on your own, but we thought the extra freedom definitely made it worth it. And in all actuality, it wasn't too bad planning out the trip on our own. We'd usually plan 5-7 days ahead and quickly find flights or hotels and easily book them online. It's amazing how much good information you can find on Google these days which makes it all a lot easier. But either way you choose, the most important part is choosing to do it

[disneysteve]

I'm a Starwood guy and actually made Platinum for life on our trip - I consider that one of my biggest career accomplishments

I'm a Marriott guy and can appreciate that. We made Gold this year for the first time and I'm excited about that.

The cruise is a great way to get around, and it'd be really nice to worry about less, but it also limits you quite a bit and means every time you go to a port, your tourist attraction is filled with thousands of other people.

Very true and you do tend to miss out on nightlife though that varies a little. For example, we loved cruising to Bermuda because the ship docks there for 3 full days. On the world cruise, there are multiple ports that have overnight stays so it isn't all "off by 9 - back by 4" running around.

The thing that slows you down with the cruise, though, is the oceanic crossings. By plane, it is a matter of hours. By boat, however, it is a week at sea.

It makes it a little more challenging to plan it on your own, but we thought the extra freedom definitely made it worth it. And in all actuality, it wasn't too bad planning out the trip on our own. We'd usually plan 5-7 days ahead and quickly find flights or hotels and easily book them online. It's amazing how much good information you can find on Google these days which makes it all a lot easier. But either way you choose, the most important part is choosing to do it

As I said, I'd be happy to do it. I'm the adventurous free spirit. My wife not so much. If it is ever going to happen, it is going to be on a ship with her lounging on the balcony with a good cup of coffee in hand.

[riverwed070707]

Super inspiring. Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm impressed with how little you spent given the amount of time you were away! I'd like to do the same but over the span of maybe 5 years choosing a new home base maybe every year or so. someday

[cardtrick]

We liked having the freedom to do as we chose. We planned the first 6-8 weeks and had an idea of where we wanted to go, but after the first few destinations we just researched and took the advice of other travelers to figure out where to go next.



We had about 30 free nights thanks to hotel points. Outside of that, our average spending on hotels was $45 per day, so figure adding $1,500 to $2,000 to the total amount. However, if you directly quantify how much we would've paid to stay in the same places which were more expensive than our normal hotels, we probably saved around $6,000.



The only two visas we got before we left were China and India because they're a little more complicated. I'm not sure about your country, but most Visas were pretty easy to get with a US passport. There were some we had to get in advance like Vietnam and Myanmar, but we could usually figure it out a few days before we visited the country. This is an area where Google will come in very handy.



For us, it was the trip to take before we had kids. Also, I took a ten month unpaid leave and she quit her job, so there wasn't really the option to do two months this year and then a few months next year. Overall, I'm glad we did it the way we chose to because we got to see so many places and experience so many cultures. Some would argue that we didn't get total "cultural immersion" because we didn't spend six months in one place, but I don't really agree with that theory. Now we know what places we'd want to go back to and spend a month, and what places we'll never go back to again.

Thanks for the detailed answers. That makes sense. Visiting a lot of places and figuring out what countries you want to go back to.

[asmom]

That's pretty incredible. I'm feeling very inspired right now!

[TBH]

Wow! Good for you.

And to think some people would have spent that same amount of money on a car.

I'd rather have 10 months of amazing memories instead of fancy wheels.

[disneysteve]

I'm impressed with how little you spent given the amount of time you were away!

I'm actually not particularly surprised by the cost. That's the equivalent of $1,600 for a 1-week vacation which is a pretty typical number I'd say. As noted, the costs are much lower in many other countries which makes it much easier to stay on a budget like this.

[riverwed070707]

I'm actually not particularly surprised by the cost. That's the equivalent of $1,600 for a 1-week vacation which is a pretty typical number I'd say. As noted, the costs are much lower in many other countries which makes it much easier to stay on a budget like this.

I suppose but I still think thats impressive given the number of flights since that is usually the expensive part. For example, you couldn't go from the US to China for a week on $1600 becuase the flights alone would exceed that cost. Being away a long time allowed them to travel to places that might have otherwise been less accessible becuase of less expensive transportation options and balancing the lower cost areas with the high.

We spent $2500 to go to Belize for 10 days this year, staying in hostels and overall taking a pretty low budget vaca with the exception of a couple of spendy tours. $1000 of that cost was flights and its a fairly short flight for us.

[Petunia 100]

What an awesome trip. Good on you.

I'm enjoying your wife's blog.

[YLTL_Dan]

What an awesome trip. Good on you.

I'm enjoying your wife's blog.

Thanks, I'll tell her! She's an incredibly talented writer... a lot of people are trying to get her to write a book, but I'm not sure she's ready for that kind of commitment!