Around the world trips.....

[BillyNoMates]

Sorry if this is a real how long is a piece of string question.

My best mate and I are going to take a year out to go travelling around the world (backpacking). South East Asia, austriala , New Zeland , Fiji , then home either through north america or south america.

I've started trying to guessimate what the costs involved will be.
Its a very difficult. I know it would vary considerably from person to person.
countries visited activites done etc.

Before I whip out the spreadsheet and 5 or 6 travel books in order to see what our trip might cost, I was wondering is there anyone out there who has done something remotely similar and would like to share their experiences of the trip they took and the costs involved.

Any estimates of countries and typical costs per day would be very instructive.

 

[bskinti]

I think you will only be able to do this through a travel agent due to visas etc,Asia will be cheap enough, Auz & Nz have loads of backpacker hostels which are cheap,you should be able to get round world trip flight with 6 stopovers at no extra cost, Flights running at around 12-1300 at moment

 

[CN624]

It depends on how many stops you want to take on your trip.
There are packages available from One World & Star Alliance which have different airliines as members and therefore different countries that you can visit.

You can buy tickets based on milage or on stops. I was looking at a package at the weekend that had 4 stops in 4 continents (Europe, Asia, Australia, South America) and it was costing approx 2,700 euro.

Give ebookers or trailfinders a call.

 

[Thrifty]

Living costs really depends on how long you are staying in various places. I travelled in South East Asia for 6 months in 03. Travelled with a friend so accommodation costs are for the most part halved. We had a budget of 4000 sterling each, but lived on £16 (€23) a day for accommodation and travel. Comes to about £3000 and the other £1000 was used for diving lessons, trips, walks, extra flights etc. We weren't sure how long we'd last on the budget but managed very comfortably. We purposely only did SE Aisa because of our limited budget. Australia, NZ and America are obvoiusly alot more expensive and other friends who have gone have usually had to work for a bit depends how flush you are.

 

[sun_sparks]

That's a lot to pack in to a year. We did pretty much that trip in two years!! (Mind, we worked for 9 months in Oz)


First off, if you're backpacking I would forget about round-the-world tickets. I know so many people who bought them and then let them elapse because they wanted to spend longer away.

Thrifty is about right for SE Asia - we probably budgeted a little more, but you do spend more if you try to cram in additional travel or extra excursions.

Australia/NZ - NZ is far cheaper than Oz for general costs but you spend (or can spend) a fortune on sky-dives, etc (and the videos/t-shirts/etc.). I can't remember off the top of my head, but you'd be better off getting up-to-date prices anyhow. I think for Australia we had about $50-60/day (camping in campervan) with extra set aside for activities.

S Ameria varies widely from country to country, bolivia being one of the cheapest and argentina one of the more expensive. Again, I'd do individual checks to be sure. Also note that distances are VAST in S America (more than you'd think) and that you should budget for additional costs like flights and top class coaches (trust me, there will be times when you will appreciate these!), especially in Argentina.

For prices, etc. there's a really good website at http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com People on there will be able to help with budgets for individual countries.

If you need more info, PM me.

 

[ciara_gmail]

Also booked a trip through Trailfinders 2 years ago and it cost 1800. Dublin - Frankfurt - Singapore - Brisbane - Cairns - Syndey - Los Angeles - Las Vegas - NY - home. They do really good deals on internal flights within Oz also.

 

[JohnnyBoy]

Can I give some advice-don't know your financial circumstances,but my advice would be to get a decent loan from your friendly bank manager,over the course of your life,it will seem like a tiny amount of money anyway.Concnertrate on doning whatever it is u're into ,eg doing a skydive over Lake Taupo,NZ or learning to dive omn the Barrier Reef-it will be the best time of your life-live for the present(sounds as though you're doing it anyway!!!)

 

[annR]

- Go on the net, find up to date accomodation prices for where you want to go and budget the same again for a days food.
- Get prices for flights
- Budget things like insurance. I recommend paying attention to your health insurance.
- Think about other things you may want to do like diving, camel safaris, whatever, look up price and factor in.
- Include contingency fund which you can spend at the end of your trip when you're running out of cash
- If you're going to Oz camping is a good plan as the place is very set up for it and it's a great way to see it and cheap. Campervan is the thing, buy one there and sell it again. This is easier on east coast, if you're doing south west and north you want to know what you're doing because of the huge distances and extreme weather.