Dueling Backpacks

We tracked our spending on this trip for simple budgetary purposes so we would know how long we could afford to keep traveling, but it turns out that these records are a wealth of information that tell us all sort of interesting things about our trip. A deeper dive into over 2,600 line items of expenses tells us how often we moved around, where our cheapest accommodations were, where our highest bar bill was, how much our average meal cost, and much more. This post is all about taking a close look at these facts and figures, which shed light on what this trip was like for us.

At the very beginning of our trip, we set out to travel around the world for $50 a day. This was a rough figure that we came across in our research. In fact, there is even a book titled, How to Travel the World on $50 A Day , which we bought and read cover-to-cover before departing. But in our online research we had heard of others who had also managed to travel on similar budgets. So, after 500 days on the road, how did we do?

We made no excuses. We knew a cruise was way outside our typical budget. But we justified it by the facts that it included what would have otherwise been a long-haul flight across the pond and, for a cruise, it was a pretty good deal. In the past we had paid similar prices for one-week cruises, but this was for two weeks and it took us through some new locations in Spain and Portugal on the way home.

It’s difficult to distill our time in Europe down to a few comments, but we certainly saw our fair share of town squares and old churches and we sat outside at countless cafes. Most of our time in Europe was spent within the Schengen Area, where there are no passport checks between countries and the currency is most often the Euro, but not always. Overall, it was fairly easy traveling. Especially after having come from China not too long before, traveling through Europe was a breeze. There are always delays, complicated logistics, and moments of intense confusion to figure out, but in general we had fewer of those moments traveling through Europe than other places we had been to on this trip.

We have continued keeping track of our expense, even though we have not shared them since Georgia , which was nearly three months prior. We decided that breaking down expenses by country did not make sense for our travels through Europe. Countries were too small, and we did not always spend a great deal of time in each of them. We found that our travel costs by country could be more influenced by our transportation expenses than anything else, especially for shorter stays. Instead, we broke our Europe travels into three segments: costs from travel within the Schengen Area, costs for travel outside of the Schengen Area, and expenses incurred from our cruise home. This entry is for our travels outside the Schengen Area, which included Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia, which for simplicity we just call the Balkans.

Georgia is a hidden gem. It’s solidly on my list of favorite destinations from our trip so far. Georgia is in an area of the world that seems often overlooked. In fact, the only reason we considered going there was because our friends Nick and Jenny  from Australia recommended we visit (so thank you for the recommendation!). It’s not quite Europe and it’s not quite Asia. It’s the Caucasus region and it’s a bit of both. Had I known of my interest in the area beforehand, I would have been curious to visit neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well. Perhaps on a future trip.

We had such a great time in Japan. It was so unlike anywhere else we had been. It was ancient and modern all at the same time. You could be walking down a bustling and chaotic street one minute and the then the next duck into a perfectly serene garden in the middle of the city. It wasn’t out of the ordinary to see a man in a business suit strolling through a Shinto shrine or a woman in a kimono riding the subway.

China! Where to begin? This is my attempt to make this short, but it seems there is no end of things to talk about from our time in China. It was a challenging travel experience but rewarding and eye-opening.  It was by far the most culturally different place we visited this year.  

Thinking back on our Thailand travels will evoke images of sandals, sunscreen, and sand. Most people might imagine themselves running away to a tropical island one day (or at least wishing they could) and we pretty much did just that for a whole month. There were never any important sites to see or museums to visit. There was only the beach and we spent days on end walking through the sand and swimming in the ocean. 

Malaysia was a great destination for our Thailand visa run. In fact, it should have been on our radar all along. We saw beautiful beaches on Langkawi and ran around the vibrant city of George Town , snapping pictures of street art and eating as much food as we could.

We were in Singapore for such a short time, only four days, that reporting on expenses seems a bit unnecessary. However, for the sake of completion, here we go. This is short and to the point.

Bali was a great start to our travels in Asia. We had a lot of fun during our short two-week visit. It felt like we were on a vacation from our vacation. Relaxing, swimming, eating, drinking… everything that you want out of a quick get-away. It’s touristy but fun. We enjoyed beers on the beach at sunset, reading books in the sand, swimming with the fish, and bar hopping in the evenings. None of it was particularly adventurous but we were happy to indulge for a while.

Australia was a fun time for us that felt like a break from our normal travels. Staying with friends really changed the whole experience of being somewhere. It was fun to catch up with people we hadn’t seen in years and I felt like we were getting all the local insights to everywhere we went. It was a different pace. We didn’t feel the need to run around everywhere and take in the sights. We were happy to just hang out and catch up. But, our friends, being the awesome tour guides they were, made sure we got around to all the big (and small) attractions in their area.

New Zealand was awesome. I’m so glad we decided to go. We almost didn’t because we knew it would cost a fortune. The only reason we ended up there was because we used award travel to get across the Pacific from South America to Australia and it was the same number of points to fly to either Australia or New Zealand. Had we been paying for it outright New Zealand would have been the more expensive ticket, so we decided to get more bang for our buck on the award travel and go for it. 

Our time in Peru felt both very short and very long. The time leading up to our Machu Picchu hike passed by really quickly. We spent a few days on the beach in Mancora and then ran around Cusco like madmen collecting supplies. After we finished our hike and returned to Cusco, after having been to Cachora, Choquequirao, Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu, and Ollantaytambo, it felt like we had been gone a month even though it had only been a couple weeks. Our remaining time in Cusco, Arequipa, and Lima felt like it was just a long recovery from our hike that seemed to comfortably and quietly pass by.

During our month in Ecuador, we saw big cities, small towns, hiked the Andes, relaxed in thermal pools, and even took a week of Spanish class. Ecuador has a lot more to offer, but we never had time to see it all. There is an entire coastline along the Pacific Ocean and the opposite side of the country is home to the Amazon jungle. Our travel style is definitely slowing down a bit, having been on the road for four months now, so there still remains a lot of Ecuador we'd like to see one day if we return.

Colombia is one of the world’s best kept travel secrets. We’ve traveled fairly extensively over the years and Colombia remains one of our all-time favorite countries to visit. During a one-week vacation in 2017 we traveled to Colombia’s Caribbean coast, visiting Cartagena, Santa Marta, and Tayrona National Park. It was only a week, but as soon as we got back home I already knew that I wanted to return one day. When thinking about where we wanted to go on this year-long trip, we thought of many places, but the one place that I knew for sure we needed to go back to was Colombia.

Our two-and-a-half-week trip to Costa Rica was packed with beaches, hiking, and many long bus rides. Fortunately, the beaches and hiking were easily accessible and the buses were very inexpensive.

Fifty dollars a day. That’s what our research told us a trip around the world should cost. Many people have done it for less and, of course, it’s not hard to spend more. Over a year that comes to roughly $18,000. That’s less than I spent on my car and is supposed to cover the entirety of one’s travel and living expenses for a year. I feel a bit strange talking about our finances knowing that others are reading this, but I know we’ll be curious in the future to look back and see what this trip cost us, so we’ve been keeping track of all our expenses. Tacos for two in Antigua.