$1,100 a month to travel around the world, July 2016

jetsetter (54)in #travel • 8 years ago (edited)

Hi Steemers!

I have been traveling for 18 months now and you can say I learned a thing or two. I have kept a close eye on my spending, I know exactly what it costs to travel around the world with my lifestyle. Contributing factors are the frequency of your travels, the longer you stay in a place the less you spend on transportation & better deals on accommodations, lifestyle, traveling alone or with someone, season, country, etc.

On average I spend around $1100 a month in Europe and even cheaper in South East Asia & South America. Most places in this world are doable for under $30 a day. Let me show you how.

1. Accommodation

I like to bounce between Hostels & Airbnbs, there is also the option of Couch Surfing and using your social network that I will go into. I believe this gives the best flexibility of meeting a plethora of people and having your own down time.

First off its Airbnb, people renting their home or a room. When I go this route I like to rent the entire home. This is much better then a hotel, staying in a nice relaxing home after exploring a beautiful city. They also have a review system that looks like this :

I am writing this post from an Airbnb in Prague. For this one in particular, the everyday price was high and I planned on staying 2 weeks. I sent a friendly message saying how much I liked their place and it was perfect for me. I also gave some details about myself then included my negotiating offer, saying I would love to pay ____ from ___ to ___ date. Are you interested?

I sent this generic template email to my favorite ones that had the dates available, and many of them agreed or asked me to be a little flexible on my days. I also mentioned I can pay everything up front to sweeten the deal.

I picked the best one and ended up negotiating 50% off!!! Now I am staying at this gorgeous apartment that is $42 a night for $20.5 a night and locked it up for 2 weeks. Also, Airbnb gave me a free $50 business coupon to make it $16.9. On top of that I am allowed to have 3 other people stay here. So imagine with all your friends, it would be even cheaper. I have plenty more stories like this, for example, negotiating beach front property in Thailand and Indonesia. When in doubt, negotiate. Of course it makes it easier if you stay longer. In life, if you don't ask you will never know. Fortune favors the bold. The whole negotiating world I picked up after 3 months in Turkey. Man oh man do they love negotiating, it is part of their culture.

This is the Airbnb, I just mentioned :

You can sign up with my Airbnb code and get a $20 travel credit and $75 if you host someone! You can also rent out your place when you go on Vacation or want some extra cash.

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Hostels

"When you travel alone, you travel with everyone"

A typical hostel a night in Europe can range from $10-$25 with my average of $16. I have seen these prices both in off and peak seasons. That being said I have had as low as $11 in Berlin and $7 in Prague (off-season). Of course the country/city plays a great deal, Amsterdam, Switzerland, Scandinavia will be more expensive then Croatia, Portugal, Czech Republic. But even London you can pay $16 a night and be in the heart, as I was there last week (peak-season).

The number 1 tool for hostels is Hostelworld

There is also a huge range from quiet & relaxed to the biggest raging party ones. There is a filter section to specialize your search, for me it is important to have security lockers, so you can check that. And I won't stay at a place under a 7 rating, so you can set those parameters and then sort by price or rating. Every hostel has reviews by people who stayed there giving them 1-10 scores in the following categories :

Here are some of my favorite hostels :

My closing note for Hostels, I have meet a plethora of lifelong friends and have shared an abundant of unforgettable experiences all thanks to the communal friendly spirit of them. When travelers meet, its like an instant friendship sparks.

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Couchsurfing is a platform where people offer place in their home for free. They simply want to meet travelers. I like to return the favor by buying them food or libations for the evening. Set up an account and send a request.

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Also, you can throw a post on your social media. "Hey everyone I am flying to Paris next week, anyone have friends there I can meet or stay with" Once again if you don't ask you will never know. A friend of mine did this all around the world and was always staying at friends of friends places and having the time of his life.

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Average cost of accommodation a month $500. You can of course get this way lower or higher if you want to get fancy pancy or be frugal.

Side note - In Pai, Thailand I had my own bungalow for $6 a night in the mountains and rented beach front property on the island Koh Toa with my friend and paid $10 each!

2. Food

Have your better meal at lunch time, as restaurants give lunch deals and raise prices for dinner. I am also a firm believer every city/country has something affordable to eat. Kebabs in Turkey and Germany, baguette sandwiches in Paris, Warungs in Indonesia, chapati houses in Kuala Lumpur, and so on. There are also quality travel videos & blog posts on cheap good places to eat on almost every city. Google is your friend.

For real though, there are places in the world that are just cheaper. You can use Numbeo & Nomadlist to find out cost of living in cities. You can have an amazing meal in Indonesia at a restaurant for 7 people all getting fresh smoothies, a main and appetizers for everyone to share for....drum roll please...$25 total! Its ok guys I got this one ;). I stayed in Kuala Lumpur for 2 and a half months spending less then $700 a month and I was living good! Had my own place, gym, was eating 4 meals & having 2-3 fresh fruit squeezed fruit juices a day! I was fine dining for under $3!

Back to Europe, On average I spend $12 a day on food, $7 and $5 dollar meals. Making it $360 a month. Also, if you have your own Kitchen which all Airbnbs do and pretty much every hostel, you can cook your own food. But of course, every now and then splurge.

3. Activities

This is where I am going to lay it straight. Do everything, you didn't travel to skimp out because you want to save money. I have seen it time and time again, people traveling all across the world and not do something because they are worried about their finances or want to prolong there trip. What is the purpose of prolonging it if you aren't going to do the best things? Don't be one of those people. For example, a friend of mine - we were on one of the most world-renown islands for scuba diving in Thailand. And she didn't do it because of "money"...seriously? Or when I was in Cappadocia, Turkey where a 100 hot air balloons rise together with the sun over looking one of the most beautifully unfathomable landscapes I have ever seen in the world. People would come, and not do it because it was expensive...seriously?

4. Travel

For flights, travel light - carry on! There is luggage designed to be the same dimensions of the carry on limit, get one of those. Airlines are notorious for charging for checked baggage.

For flights use Skyscanner, type in where you are flying from and to where. You will 100% always get a better deal if you are flexible on your days. You can say I want to fly from "London" to "Split, Croatia" and then select monthly price and it will tell you the price for every day. Sometimes going a day earlier or later will save you a lot. I just flew London To Prague for £42, the day before and after were more than double the price and I had just bought the ticket the night before the flight. You can also cross reference with Google Flights. Also, if you want to add some spontaneity into your traveling life, instead of saying you want to fly to "Chiang Mai, Thailand" you can select "everywhere" and it will give you the price to every place in the world! The daydreaming mecca for travelers.

From getting place to place use Rome To Rio, same premise put in from and to and the rest is self explanatory.

Another favorite of mine is BlahBlahCar, its the Uber of carpooling from city to city.

And if you are one of those ultra adventurous types, hitchhike.

I also believe the "RailPass" for Europe isn't good value for the money. I recommend just taking the cross-city/country buses. Buses are always cheaper than trains, so look at those first.

Here are some of my more notable deals I have got, without using points:

Los Angeles to Bangkok = $377 (China Southern)(Booked 6 weeks before)

Los Angeles to Paris = $337 (Norwegian airlines) (3 weeks before)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Frankfurt, Germay = $228 (Vietnam Airlines)(16 days before)

Copenhagen, Denmark to Los Angeles = $162 (Norwegian Airlines)(1 week before)

London to Prague = 42£ (Czech Airlines)(Booked 1 day before)

5. Credit/Debit Cards

Many Credit & Debit cards are brutal for traveling, but you are in luck. I have spent countless hours to find the very best!

Get yourself the Chase Sapphire Credit card and spend $4,000 in the first 3 months of opening the card and you will get $650 to use for flights, hotels or activities. By the time you spend the $4,000 it will accumulate to around $770! For every $1 purchase you get 1 point and 2 points for a traveling purchase. There is no fee for the first year of the card, but 2nd year is $85. So you can cancel before the 2nd year if you like. There are a plethora of more travel cards too. There is a whole concept on this called Credit Card Churning. Where you accumulate travel credit cards to get the spending bonus and rinse and repeat.

If you want the Chase Sapphire Credit card, include your first name and email below and I will send you an invitation.

ATM fee withdraws can be criminal. Its normal that Banks charge 3% of the withdraw plus $5 for every time. But low and behold Charles Schwab Debit Card came to save the day with their debit ATM card. They will reimburse you any and all ATM fees! For example, the Thailand ATMs charge 200baht ($5.7) every time. But the Charles Shwab will send you a check at the end of the month reimbursing you of everything. I literally got a deposit in my account for $80 in the first month of Thailand.

Key Points

- NEGOTIATE

- For accommodation, use Airbnb and hostels for social atmosphere

- Eat your best meal at lunch

- At a restaurant, if they look like you - you are at the wrong place. Don't travel to eat fast food, frozen food or any garbage. Eat the local food & try something new! Google search authentic "input country" cuisine.

- Get a travel rewards credit card (Chase Sapphire - put everything on this card to build points) & the Charles Schwab debit card

- Traveling with someone can be cheaper, meet a friend or a lover ;)

- Don't overplan, you can book your ticket to there and back home if you must, but give yourself wiggle room in case you don't like a place or want to stay longer or with someone ; ) I guarantee you will get to a new city and all of a sudden hear about all these amazing places and things to do nearby and you will go shit..I wish I could stay here longer.

Resource Links

Traveling Resource Links

Accommodation

Airbnb Code -$20 travel credit and $70 if you host, online marketplace that enables people to list, find, then rent vacation homes.

Agoda - Accommodation booking services through its website and mobile app. (Best for SE Asia)

Couchsurfing - Stay on peoples couches for free

Hostelworld - Find a Hostel

Booking.com - Accommodation Website

Transportation

Skyscanner - The Best Flight Search Engine & Google Flights

Rome To Rio - How to get from city to city (Trains, Buses, etc.)

BlahBlahCar - Uber of carpooling from city to city

City Maps 2 Go or Maps.Me - Find directions with detailed offline maps, in-depth travel content, popular attractions and insider tips.

Cost Comparison

Numbeo - Living cost comparison tool for cities

Nomadlist - The best cities to live and work remotely for Digital Nomads, based on cost of living, internet speed, weather and other metrics.

Additional

UpWork - Global freelancing platform where businesses and independent professionals connect and collaborate remotely. Make money on your computer or iPad while you are traveling

TripAdvisor - Reviews of travel-related content.

Lonely Planet - The Largest travel guide book publisher in the world.

BootsnAll - Independent Travel Guides & Community for Indie Travel

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

8 years ago in #travel by jetsetter (54)

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cryptocylon (45) 8 years ago

Love this. These are some seriously good, non-obvious pieces of advice.

Thought it would be worth sharing (for those new to cryptocurrencies) that you can often side-step ATM fees with Bitcoin, specifically: https://localbitcoins.com/. There are also Bitcoin ATMs in many countries (although the fees vary): https://coinatmradar.com/.

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jetsetter (54) 8 years ago

I am glad you found it valueable. Awesome, thank you for mentioning these links very useful!

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cryptoctopus (75) 8 years ago

This is an epic article. Thanks! Great read. :-)

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jetsetter (54) 8 years ago

Cheers I am glad you liked it! I also just updated a Resource List at the Bottom.

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