Living Costs per Day by Country
I remember researching the living costs for backpacking around the world and finding many different sources. I’d like to add my numbers to the mix.After perusing my credit card statements and ATM receipts, I have compiled the costs associated with my RTW trip broken down by country by day. These numbers are from my trip in 2013 and exclude flights (my RTW ticket, and a few other fares included below) and pre-trip expenses:
Average cost per day by country visited.
I have also included my pre-trip expenses:
Pre-trip expenses by category.
I stayed in decent but cheap hostels everywhere except where I could get better accommodations for free (friends, family, free hotel nights, etc.). I certainly didn’t shy away from some more costly adventures/activities that can affect the daily budget, but if you read through the associated blog posts for a country, you can get a sense of how I traveled and budgeted my funds.
A Taste of the South Pacific: Easter Island
Easter Island on the map.
I had originally crafted my round-the-world flight itinerary so cleverly that I knew something would have to give eventually. I learned a couple months before that my direct Lima – Easter Island flight had been changed to connect through Santiago (where I was going after Easter Island). This meant that I would no longer avoid the $160 charge for entering Chile via international flight since Easter Island is part of Chile. I had time to accept the fact that my plan was thwarted to no fault of my own, but when I arrived in Santiago to get my next boarding pass, the agent told me that there was no record of the SCL – IPC leg. I started freaking out a bit inside. I had wanted to get to Easter Island for quite some time – the 2nd most remote inhabited place in the world – and I was about to get snubbed an hour before my flight. Luckily, the gate agent was extremely capable dealing with my complex ticket and I was confirmed a short time before takeoff. Phew.
rtw7months 