Want to break free from the monotonous drag of living at home, working to pay rent, and taking in the same surroundings day-in and day-out? Ever think that there is something beyond the standard week or two vacation, and that you can go “off the radar” for two or three months, or even a year? Perhaps you know that it’s possible. People have obviously done it before, and are still doing it as we speak. To decide to take a leap into the world at large is one thing, but how do you plan a trip of such magnitude?
There are 3 parts to the equation. There are an almost infinite number of places to go and see in this world, and since one lifetime doesn’t offer enough time to see all of them, we might as well consider the fact that there is an infinite number of places to go. Some places are more expensive than others, ranging from ten dollars a day to over a hundred. Which brings us to our first part of the equation: travel costs per day.
Determining travel costs per day isn’t an exact art and you will never really know how much this value is until you arrive at your destination and see for yourself. It will also flucuate between days, which is why the best thing we can do is come up with an estimate of the average cost per day. You can use a variety of online resources to do this, and the way I have done it is by checking out the prices of lodging. Hostels.com is a great place to get an idea of the average price of a bed for the night. After I settle on a good average number, I double it to factor in meals for the day. So if the average bed in a hostel is $15/night, I’d figure on spending $30/day in that area. Of course some days may go over this budget, and some may go under. The hostel average is $15 because some beds are $20/night, but others are only $10.
Once you have this side of the equation figured out, it’s time to move on to the second part, time. Time is something we can’t avoid, and unless you plan on stopping to work, you won’t be able to travel forever. To determine how much time you will have to go hopping around your exotic destination of choice in wide-eyed amazement, you need to use the third and final part of the equation, your budget. This is that big pile of money you have been saving up to fund your travel adventures. With cost per day and budget, we determine the length of our trip like this:
Length of trip = travel budget / travel cost per day
So a budget of $3000 will get you 100 days in a $30/day region. You may want to plan for 90 days and leave another $300 to be used for unknown costs and visas. Maybe you’ll see a really cool gift for someone but it’s not in your daily budget. It helps to have a little cushion.
This equation can be switched around depending on which variables you want to control. Let’s say you are determined to take a year long trip across Southeast Asia and China. You want to determine how much money you will need to save to make this happen. In this case, our equation look more like this:
Travel budget = travel cost per day * length of trip
In this example, the length of trip would be 365, and the cost per day would be your determined average daily expense in that particular region.
In a more complicated example, if you want to plan a trip across multiple regions of varying costs, you would simply calculate each region separately, like this:
Asia travel budget = travel cost per day * 3 months
Australia travel budget = travel cost per day * 1 month
Western Europe travel budget = travel cost per day * 2 months
Add the three totals, and you have determined the budget neccesary for a six month trip around Asia, Australia and Europe.
Factor in plane tickets, and add maybe another 10% for visas and surprise expenses that might pop out at you, and you’ve got a nice, simple travel budget worked out. Now all you need to do is get to work and start saving.
It’s a simple equation that can help you plan the monetary side of your travels quickly and easily.
