Category Archives: Round-the-world trip

June 19, 2015 · 11:45

Am I practicing what I preach? Hell yeah!

I have written on a number of occasions how I find it strange that people who travel are in such a rush. As an alternative, I suggested taking the time, going to less places and staying longer in one destination. But I wondered whether I practice what I preach? To check whether I follow my own recommendations, I looked at a recent example – the Grey Wave camper vacation in Western Europe, and at an older one – the big Round-the-world trip.

“Grey Wave tour”

We’ve spent a whole week on this camping and would have stayed longer but they were closing for the winter

Let’s start with the recent trip. In September of last year, we rented a camper van and traveled for 3 weeks, going to Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and France. Four countries sounds like a lot, but its less than it seems. Firstly, we’ve been to all these countries before, so we were under no pressure to see as much as possible. Secondly, we stayed mostly in the border region of these countries, which limited the travel times. All in all we stayed in 5 different locations – on average, that’s 4 nights at a place. So not bad, for a short trip to familiar places, I would say.

Our route for 3 weeks

Our big Round-the-world trip took us to 4 continents, 15 countries and countless destinations over a time span of about 10 months. But we managed to stay calm and never (well, almost never) rushed around.

First leg – Europe and the Middle East

Starting with a day in London, just to board a plane, we went to Ukraine, spending almost two weeks spread between Crimea and Kiev. From there we went to Israel for a few days with the family and crossed to Jordan just to see Petra. Excluding the week in Israel, where we were on a family visit and basically just dragged along, we’ve been to 4 ‘destinations’ in two weeks.

Second leg – Indian subcontinent

After a few days in Delhi to acclimatize, we went for a couple of weeks to Rajastan (Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur), and then to Rishikesh. From Rishikesh, we went on a trek to Hemkund and then left India, going to Nepal. In Nepal we mostly hiked (Around Annapurna and Annapurna Base Camp treks), and spent the remainder of our time in Pokhara, Kathmandu and Chitwan. We then returned to Delhi for a few more days, before flying out to Bangkok. All this took us 3 months, with a total of ~13 ‘destinations’, depending how you count them.

Third leg – South-East Asia

Here we’ve been a bit more mobile, going to no less than 5 countries and a variety of destinations I will not bother listing (“the banana pancake trail”). Sufficient to say we’ve spent about 3 weeks each in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. With a few days in Singapore, I count ~17 ‘destinations’ in 3 months, which is a bit busier than our time in Nepal but we were certainly not in a rush.

Fourth leg – Oceania

Most of our 3 months in Oceania we spent in New Zealand, where we drove a lot around, camped on remote beaches and hiked a variety of tracks. After New Zealand we spent three weeks on a remote atoll in French Polynesia, and stopped by at Easter Island. The ‘destination’ count does not really work on this leg, but I can tell you we were in absolutely no hurry.

Pearl farming can feature on Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs”

Fifth and final leg – Peru

Originally our plan was to make a brief stop in New Zealand and spend more time in South America. We chose the comfort and safety of New Zealand though and cut our final leg down to Peru only (hurray for flexibility!). Our two weeks in Peru were split between Cuzco and Lima, with side trips to the Nazca lines and Macchu Picchu.

Sure, we sometimes stayed in a place just for one night and moved on. Overall though, we usually spent between 3 days and a week in a place, taking day trips and/or longer tours before coming back to the “base camp”.

Conclusion

Having critically reviewed my own travel habits I can now safely claim to live according to my own preaching. Of course, sometimes I do travel at a faster pace. But most of the time, I do my best to slow down a bit. I’m not saying this gives me the right to claim moral superiority or something. But I think I can safely say I know what “slow travel” means. Its not like I avoid the tourist highlights. I just not limit myself exclusively to them.

So how much does it REALLY cost to travel around the world?

Planning a big trip? Probably you’ve noticed that there’s A LOT of planning to do. Choosing your destinations, scheduling the travel time table, getting vaccinations, buying some gear, saving money for travel… Wait, how much money do you actually need?

When me and my significant other were planning our 10-months trip around the world, that was one of the big unknowns – how much are we going to spend? The ultimate answer depends, as you may guess, on your travel style, the activities you undertake and – not to forget – your destinations. Because, and it will probably not be a shock to you, while some countries are cheap, others are expensive.

Singapore can be a budget destination, too 😉

Being a total nerd and a statistics geek, I’ve meticulously kept a note of our spending. It wasn’t too difficult in this day and age – all I had to do was use the bank card to draw cash everywhere we went. Back home I could look up the numbers by logging in to my bank account and now I can report them here. Beware that these are just a rough reference and I can not be held accountable for any budget mishaps you may have using my notes as a guideline.

Rather than specifying the costs per country, I’ve split it into regions – this way the duration of travel per destination (region) is longer and more statistically valid, and rounded the numbers. All the numbers are for a couple travelling together – which means that if you’re on your own you may end up spending more or less, depending on whether you will pay for a separate room (which we did) or find the cheapest bunk bed (which we didn’t). The numbers include all the visa costs, internal and connecting flights, food, lodging, transport, and everything else you may think of. All the costs are given in Euro’s and although we’ve travelled some 5 years ago the numbers are probably largely valid as inflation was mild in these years due to the financial crisis.

Pre-travel
Costs – 9000 Euro
Including Round The World tickets (about three-quarters of the sum) gear, vaccinations, insurance etc.
Europe and the Middle East
Countries – England, Ukraine, Israel, Jordan
Duration – 3 weeks
Costs – 60 Euro per day
Notes – staying with family in Israel saves quite a bit
Indian subcontinent
Countries – India and Nepal
Duration – 3 months
Costs – 60 Euro per day
Notes – some splashing in Nepal on an upbeat lodge in Chitwan and gift shopping in Kathmandu. Also includes more than 300 Euro in visa costs, and a flight from Kathmandu to Delhi to avoid a couple of days of bus/train travel.
South-East Asia
Countries – Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore
Duration – 3 months
Costs – 70 Euro per day
Notes – includes two weeks of non-stop diving on Kho Phi Phi and flights from Hanoi to Luang Prabang and from Phuket to Singapore.
Oceania
Countries – New Zealand, French Polynesia, Easter Island (Rapa Nui)
Duration – 3 months
Costs – 90 Euro per day
Notes – includes two months of car rental in New Zeland and three weeks on a remote atoll spending nothing (although the flight there cost 600 Euro).
Peru (only stop in South America)
Duration – 2 weeks
Costs – 120 Euro per day
Notes – includes a flight from Santiago to Lima, a lot of expensive activities like a flight over the Nazca Lines, and a lot of shopping for gifts and souvenirs as this was our final destination.
Total budget
Duration – 10 months
Costs – 100 Euro per day
Notes – includes EVERYTHING

As I reviewed the numbers I was quite surprised. How did we end up spending more per day in SE Asia than we’ve spent in Europe? And Peru was supposed to be a cheap country, wasn’t it? But there is a simple explanation – always look at the big picture. For example, India has cost us only about 30 Euro per day to stay in. But the visas were a 100 Euro per person, adding about 20% to the overall price tag of a month in India. Couchsurfing in Singapore made it one of the cheapest countries to stay in. We’ve had 3-course meals in Peru for 1 Euro, but bagging several (pricey) top attractions in a couple of weeks eats a big chunk of your budget, and we were quite travel-weary so weren’t minding spending a few extra coins to support the local economy by staying in better lodgings and buying an alpaca skin rug. All in all we’ve had a smashing 10 months trip for just 100 Euro per day for the two of us.

Can you do it cheaper? Sure! Buy a less extensive RTW ticket, for starters. Ours included some weird detours and a lot of stops, so we had a lot of mileage and airport taxes to pay. The cheapest round-the-world tickets cost only 1500 Euro! If you do buy an RTW ticket, don’t plan any land segments. We initially intended to travel from Thailand to Singapore and from Santiago to Lima over land and ended up buying plane tickets because we’ve seen enough dusty roads. Staying longer in a country (or even a region) helps bring down the costs, as the visa fees and cross-border travel costs are already included. But most importantly – think Zen! Its not the destination that matters, its what you will do there that will make the difference.

Around the world in 15 pictures

Its that time of year again. The time for all sorts of summaries. And I’ve realized I’ve been writing posts about our round-the-world trip, but that I’ve forgotten to summarize the experience. Now I could write about what we’ve learned, what were the best and the worse experiences, which places are the cheapest and which the most expensive, and so on and on. But I won’t. Not because I have nothing to tell, or because I am too lazy to write, but because I’ve got something much better – pictures. Thinking of it, I will tell you one thing that I’ve learned – you can never take too many pictures. This is how we spent 10 months travelling, in one picture per country.