What I spent traveling around the world for nearly a full year!

Let’s get down and dirty with the full details for budgeting for a RTW trip – how much will it likely cost you?

My money notebook!

My full tally is complete…I traveled around the world for for 328 days (11 months) and we’ll take a thorough and detailed look at what I spent, what each and every country cost, and where you can do better.  (Not interested in the dialogue? Skip the right to my full RTW Travel Budget – navigate by country at the top!).

Many people have asked me, “How can you afford to travel around the world?!”

This is hands down and without a doubt the question I’ve answered the most often – even before “what’s your favorite place you’ve visited?” Well, as most of you have surmised by now, I am do not live off of a trust fund but instead budgeted for the trip (and did freelance SEO from the road) and came to the same conclusions as all those backpackers who have adventurously gone before me: RTW travel is cheaper than you think!

I’m quite meticulous and managed to pretty accurately document all of my expenses from this RTW trip. My almost anal obsession with accurately tracking my expenses is epic but hopefully other backpackers will benefit from this breakdown of just how much I spent over the past (nearly) year of travel.

So here it is. The total cost of my RTW trip: $17,985

You’re shocked right now, I know.  Close the gaping jaw.

That’s it?!

Yes. Fully and completely inclusive of everything from getting jabbed in the arm for my Yellow Fever vaccine to buying all of my pre-travel gear, all of my plane flights, bus rides, camel safaris, surfing lessons, zip-lining adventures in the Laos jungle, and straight through to my first sub back on home soil when I passed through Philly on my final layover of the trip.

What does this not include? Personal choices that upped the price bit: bought an external hard drive, new camera (old one waterlogged in Australia), and I rented a car alone in Ireland (most backpacker budgets wouldn’t allow for this so I included my car’s petrol to approximate the cost of public transportation for three weeks). My personal total, inclusive of all of that, just under $19,000…still a bargain for all of that!

Now, the following tables and charts will further outline my RTW budget including some of the country-by-country expenses. And because I just had to go that extra mile, the thorough budget is available for viewing; my around the world budget spreadsheet includes every single expense itemized out in an absolutely gorgeous spreadsheet if I can toot my own horn for a moment!

As an added bonus, I published a blank but formatted spreadsheet as a downloadable excel file so that others can use it for logging their own RTW travel budget!

RTW Travel Budget Breakdown

Total cost for each category

**Lodging: All accomodation with some couchsurfing and a few contacts along the way.
**Food: Snacks, meals, and my chocolate obsession.
**Entertainment: Going out on the town – this will be higher if you drink often.
**Activities: Includes my volunteer program and all tour, trips, and group adventures.
**Transportation: Excluding flights and all intra-country transportation.
**Misc: Shipping things home, gifts, and toiletries along the way.
**Interent: I work from the road and paid a lot for internet at times – lower if you’re not taking a laptop!
**Flights: Includes MANY puddle-jumper little flights. Did not use a RTW ticket, booked along the way (and still happy I did it that way!)

RTW Budget: Average Daily Costs per Country

RTW Budget:Total Costs of Each Country and Number of Travel Days

**This total does not include flights, travel gear, and other misc. Only the actual on-the-road costs.

Again, if you’re looking for my full RTW budget and expenses or download a clean version to track your own expenses as you travel around the world.

You might also be interested in:

Should you start your own RTW Travel Blog?

Resources for launching your own travel blog