How much to budget for a 'round the world' trip in 2023/4?

hugheskevi

TheLondoner said:

I've heard the bolivian salt flats are worth a visit. Check them out if you have time . 

Also re: patagonia, is there any good bouldering there? I'm a rock climber and if it's easy to find climbing buddies (either sport or bouldering) I'd be well up for that! Good shout re: learning spanish. I did a year or spanish at university but I sucked at it so bad - keen to improve so i'll check out duo lingo and dig out my old uni book too.

Bolivian salt flats are good - there is a pretty standard 3-day trip from Uyuni in Bolivia to San Pedro de Atacama that is not expensive (about £180 per person I think) and hits all the main sites. It was amusing how much effort went into avoiding people having to stay in Uyuni - many of the overnight buses arriving are timed so that people have time to arrive, find a tour and leave, all within a few hours.

I didn't see any bouldering in Patagonia, but there probably was some somewhere - either around El Calafate or Ushuaia most likely. Nicaragua and Bolivia were more into that sort of thing.

TheLondoner

hugheskevi said:

Bolivian salt flats are good - there is a pretty standard 3-day trip from Uyuni in Bolivia to San Pedro de Atacama that is not expensive (about £180 per person I think) and hits all the main sites. It was amusing how much effort went into avoiding people having to stay in Uyuni - many of the overnight buses arriving are timed so that people have time to arrive, find a tour and leave, all within a few hours.

I didn't see any bouldering in Patagonia, but there probably was some somewhere - either around El Calafate or Ushuaia most likely. Nicaragua and Bolivia were more into that sort of thing.

Speaking of tourists, I was in Chiant Rai and Tonsai beach/Krabi in Jan and that place was awful for tourists - just so many of them everywhere - totally hated it!

I also did the everest base camp trek in Sep and that was a bit touristy - lot of tourists in the park. That said it got even busier in Sagarmatha National Park when I was leaving out (about 100 a day were going in). In the peak period just after I left (Oct) about 1000 people a day go into the park! So if you're ever in the himalayas, best time to go is early to mid sep in my opinon. Perfect for trekking.

TheLondoner

I still haven't been on that magic 2nd round the world trip. The mini breaks have kept me sane for now. I'm coming up to 2 years in my job in august and they allow me to take a year's sabbatical so i'm thinking of doing that now! work till end of aug, then take my sabbatical! . Should have saved another £20k by then!

In total i'm setting aside £36k for travel. For anyone who has done a trip recently, should that be enough? Bit worried with inflation being so high and flights and accommodation and everything being so expensive right now!

@ hugheskevi

 

where are you travelling these days?

hugheskevi

TheLondoner said:

I'm coming up to 2 years in my job in august and they allow me to take a year's sabbatical so i'm thinking of doing that now! work till end of aug, then take my sabbatical! . Should have saved another £20k by then!

Remember to consider tax efficiency. Taking a break of about 6-18 months is great for optimising income tax paid in two different tax years by selecting a departure and return date to best exploit tax allowances and bindings.

You will probably be able to save up leave and possibly take leave in advance of actually returning back to convert leave into cash at a very good rate (particularly when combined with tax efficiency).

In total i'm setting aside £36k for travel. For anyone who has done a trip recently, should that be enough? Bit worried with inflation being so high and flights and accommodation and everything being so expensive right now!

The total cost for myself and my wife for a bit over 16 months travelling the full length of the Americas was £57,000 for what I would describe as a mid-range budget trip (no dorms, generally 1 bed apartments, eating out once a day, a few expensive trips like a 10 day trip into the Amazon and 10 days in Galapagos, but equally nothing very luxurious in terms of accommodation or food).

That worked out at an annualised cost of £42,000. So if your budget is £36,000 for 1 person to travel for 1 year that should be absolutely fine unless you are planning to spend a lot of time in Western countries.

The costs per day for us in each country were (for 2 people, only including costs incurred in country, so no flight, insurance, etc, costs included):

USA	£171
Mexico	£111
Belize	£128
Guatemala	£103
Honduras	£105
Nicaragua	£92
Panama	£104
Colombia	£81
Ecuador	£111
Peru	£118
Bolivia	£80
Argentina	£94

I kept a detailed log of all costs broken down by category, destinations, etc at this spreadsheet link if you are interested in more detail.

@ hugheskevi

where are you travelling these days?

Nowhere. We came back to UK in January, so having a nice relaxing spell back working in London. So the most travelling I'm doing is a 14 mile round-trip cycling commute into central London.

Although there are a few trips I think would be interesting:

• A trip through the 'stans - I've mostly not been to that region, having been north of there on Trans-Siberia trip through Mongolia, and south of there on a drive from London to Singapore which went through Iran, Pakistan and India.
• A trip from Singapore down along the Indonesian main islands of Sumatra and Java through to Bali - lots of great volcanoes along the way.
• There are very interesting overland trips emerging, although the number of providers is far lower than it used to be sadly. The average age of travellers is far higher than it used to be (which being 46 myself isn't an issue but it is a shame the old trips full of 20-somethings don't exist anymore, they were amazing times), and it isn't really a budget option either compared to doing it yourself and staying in much nicer accommodation. Still, it does make everything easier logistically, and I might be interested in something like this trip through the 'stans, or quite a few trips with Oasis Overland or Madventure. 

I suspect my future travels will be more like 1-3 months rather than extending into years. I've done 4 trips of around a year or more covering all of the major continents, so I've seen most of the things I want to.

TheLondoner

hugheskevi said:

TheLondoner said:

I'm coming up to 2 years in my job in august and they allow me to take a year's sabbatical so i'm thinking of doing that now! work till end of aug, then take my sabbatical! . Should have saved another £20k by then!

Remember to consider tax efficiency. Taking a break of about 6-18 months is great for optimising income tax paid in two different tax years by selecting a departure and return date to best exploit tax allowances and bindings.

You will probably be able to save up leave and possibly take leave in advance of actually returning back to convert leave into cash at a very good rate (particularly when combined with tax efficiency).

Hi again,

Very thorough spreadsheet - thanks for sharing. Did you guys fly to anchorage and then drive around north america to south america? Did you drive all the way by buying a car and driving it south, or did you do car rentals, buses etc?

Also, in terms of flying in and flying out, how did you go about handling nosey immigation officials if they asked if you had a return flight? It sounds like you booked two one way flights (one into USA, and one out of Brazil) - just wondering if that causes problems whilst travelling as a lot of countries want to see plans of onwards travel etc?

hugheskevi

TheLondoner said:

Did you guys fly to anchorage and then drive around north america to south america? Did you drive all the way by buying a car and driving it south, or did you do car rentals, buses etc?

We flew from Dublin to Anchorage, hired a car there and drove around Alaska for a couple of weeks. Then we returned car and took an 8-day Royal Caribbean cruise to Vancouver (cheapest and best way other than flying as car hire and buses are extremely difficult). Then a bus across the border to Seattle and we hired a car there for 6 weeks to drive in a huge clockwise loop down through Yellowstone, Vegas and the Grand Canyon all the way down to Phoenix and then back up the west coast through LA, San Francisco, Yosemite and Portland to Seattle as one-way car hire is very expensive. Then we flew from Seattle to Phoenix and from there it was buses all the way to Ushuaia, taking a flight across the Darian Gap from Panama City to Cartagena.

Also, in terms of flying in and flying out, how did you go about handling nosey immigation officials if they asked if you had a return flight? It sounds like you booked two one way flights (one into USA, and one out of Brazil) - just wondering if that causes problems whilst travelling as a lot of countries want to see plans of onwards travel etc?

We took the following international flights:

• Dublin to Anchorage via Seattle
• Panama City to Cartagena (due to Darian Gap)
  
• Rio to Manchester via Lisbon

Not a single country asked about onward flights at any point, that includes both airports and land borders. Lots of countries include in their list of requirements evidence of onward travel, but it is very rare for it to be checked. I've traveled to something like 90 countries on various long-term jaunts and can't recall ever being asked for evidence of onward travel. Just have a plan of what ticket you would book online at the airport if it really came down to that (ie one that is wholly or largely refundable), but it almost certainly won't.

In a couple of central American countries and for arriving into Colombia I booked a ticket with Copa Airlines that allows you to reserve a flight for 24 hours for no charge before heading to the border ('Pricelock' feature). That isn't foolproof as officials are aware of these things, but it is a lot better than nothing if challenged. I also had the Panama City to Cartagena flight booked a while in advance as evidence of onward travel, but that is only really valid for Panama, as if entering Costa Rica from Nicaragua you do not have evidence of onward travel from Costa Rica despite it being obvious what your plans are - so again, a lot better than nothing but not foolproof.