We Traveled To 19 Countries In One Year And Spent $13,500: Here's How

It’s officially been a year since we dropped everything, left New York City, and packed our bags to see the world. It was mutually decided that our twenties were too valuable to spend doing something we didn’t believe in. In 12 months we managed to visit 19 countries across two continents: Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Cyprus, Turkey, Italy, Morocco, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Greece, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, and Lesotho in that order. So much did it cost us to travel the world?

When we left we had a decent savings account, but ultimately had no clue how much we would be spending every day. We shot for a goal of $35/day in Europe and $40/day in Africa.

We took: 37 Buses, 17 Flights, 11 Trains, 8 Ferries, 6 Rental Cars And we slept in 98 beds across 78 cities.

We stayed in all sorts of accommodation – hostels, Airbnb’s, African lodges, beachside condos, and standard hotel rooms. For the most part we ate well, and never skimped out on a coffee when necessary. Are you ready for the price this all cost? As I was going over all the calculations last night I got nervous. “Just how much have we spent this past year?”

$13,543 per person. Of course, this can be done and many people can do it for much less, but because of our need for sushi and fresh local produce at every farmers market, I didn’t think we pulled it off this year. So we spent $27,100 for the two of us, and this is including the recent purchase of our DJI Phantom 3 Drone, that will help capture incredible aerial footage of Africa.

When we lived in our one bedroom apartment in the Bronx we spent at least $1,300pp a month on basic living expenses, with ZERO fun involved in that cost. Just the apartment alone cost $60 a day. All we did was sleep there after our long work days!

How did we spend our money? Accommodation - 29%, Transportation (flights, buses, car rentals) - 35% Restaurants - 7%, All activities (visas, tickets, entrance fees, groceries, coffee) - 29%.

What these costs include is the cost of travel insurance, property insurance, and even personal choices like replenishing clothes, haircuts, new camera toys, and things like catching a movie out every once in awhile. Every whale shark dive, African safari, Berber family homestay, Italian cappuccino, and airplane ticket is included in the breakdown.

This isn’t to show you just how cheap we traveled because I don’t believe we traveled on a shoe string budget at any point. I want to showcase that it is possible to travel comfortably while staying on a fairly strict budget. I know that most people don’t want to stay in hostels or Couchsurf – and that’s okay. Quite frankly, we prefer not to stay in shared accommodation anymore either. We like having our own bathroom, a private bedroom with no snorers present, and our own private space to work. If we want to zone out into our computers all day, we have no fear of being judged. This isn’t to say we don’t like hostels, they are actually are a great place to meet people; especially, when you are traveling solo. We prefer our comfort over cost now.

Although, it may seem like we ate ramen noodles every night and slept in bed bug infested places it very far from reality. What is our greatest strength at cutting costs while traveling comfortably? We travel as a pair. Every car rental, apartment, and hotel room – we split the cost. The second factor? Our decision to stay out of Western Europe. We’ve both traveled there and love it. It is a wonderful part of the world. I could live there and maybe call myself some sort of European someday…but to visit, it’s expensive and touristy. We couldn’t justify the cost. So, we decided to start our trip in the Baltics and work our way down through Eastern Europe. The only expensive Western European country we spent a large portion of time in this year was Italy for six weeks. Other than that, we spent the majority of our European time in the Balkans and in the Mediterranean.

Next comes Africa. As it’s the least developed continent you may think that it would be dirt cheap. News Flash. It’s not. From the country’s we have been in so far I would say Africa is much more expensive than Southeast Asia, but definitely cheaper than a holiday in France. It’s right about on par with prices in Croatia, Slovenia, and Greece. This is assuming you don’t go all out and blow your dough on some sort of overland safari.

So here are some of the highlights of our past year (in money terms) presented in USD and EUR:

-The cheapest accommodation we stayed at:

Was an entire apartment off Airbnb in Tirana, Albania for $16/night total. You want bargain in Europe? Head to Albania!

The next step up from that was Antigona Apartments in Ulcinj, Montenegro for $10/night per person. The room was situated on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Aegean Sea. We woke up to the sound of the waves crashing into the cliff. Who said comfort and serenity has to be expensive?

-The most expensive accommodation we stayed at:

Was an Airbnb apartment rental in the Seychelles for a whopping $100/night. We could have gone a tad bit cheaper and got bare bones, but these islands definitely aren’t welcoming to the budget vacationer. For $100 a night we got a basic but nice apartment surrounded by the lush forests with no WiFi included (WiFi is very expensive in the Seychelles, so we lived without).

-The best place we stayed at:

Was obviously one of our amazing sponsored stays like at Anvil Bay in Mozambique or at Montusi Mountain Lodge in the Drakensberg. But I will have to give the best place we stayed at and paid cash for to Rododaphi apartments in Cyprus. The fully equipped apartment cost us $17/per person while overlooking the Mediterranean sea. It was run by the friendliest Cypriot with beautiful gardens growing fresh fruit, and a grotto just below the property to take a dip in the Med Sea. We still reminisce about it and would recommend the property to anyone in a heartbeat.

-The worst place we stayed in:

Also in Cyprus, the worst place we stayed at was Delphi Hotel on the Greek side of Nicosia. This place was overpriced, right next to the bus station, and even airing on the dirty side. Unfortunately at $23/per person a night it was the absolute cheapest accommodation we could find in the city. (And this was with three people in a room!)

-The cheapest car rental we had:

Was in Croatia for €56/week. It was brand new Smart car. I’m still not sure if this was a mistake or if their prices were just that low. Either way, I wasn’t complaining. we’ll certainly be using SiXT whenever possible again.

-The most expensive car rental we had:

We rented a brand new, 45km on it, Mazda NP200 for the first two months of our African journey through South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Mozambique. Little to our knowledge we should have went with a 4×4 for those Mozambican roads…but went a step down with a 2×4 bakkie. This cost us a grand total of $1050. It was a necessity for the kind of travel we wanted to do. We can’t afford to keep renting cars though, so our current plans are to purchase a 4×4 in Cape Town. This we’ll drive through Africa. We can’t tell you where, yet. It’s a secret.

-Our most expensive flight

We didn’t take many flights this year as Europe is a great place for overland travel. You may have guessed our most expensive flight was from Istanbul>Seychelles>Johannesburg for $493 each. No, we couldn’t pass up the chance to spend a long layover in one of the most beautiful places in the world for less than some people’s monthly Starbucks bill.

-Our cheapest flight

Would be from Istanbul to Cappadocia with Turkish Airlines for $25 including baggage and a meal on board. Istanbul has won our hearts over as one of our favorite cities, but we absolutely could not miss out on seeing the hot air balloons over the fairytale chimneys in Cappadocia.

-Our most expensive meal

We splurged for both our birthdays and spent $55 total each time. One was at a fantastic sushi spot in Cape Town, completed with a bottle of wine and the second was in Bodrum where we gorged on fresh fish. Our next priciest food option was when we went to Le Saveur De Poisson Tanger so that we could eat where Anthony Bourdain went in Morocco. All of these meals are still a fraction of what a nice meal out in New York City would have cost us.

-Our cheapest meal

Would probably have to be a packet of ramen noodles somewhere along the way when we couldn’t find food. Otherwise our best bang for buck would have to be in Naples, Italy where we each got our own famous Margherita pizza for €3.50. Oh, what I would do for this pizza every day.

-The longest place we stayed.

We have traveled South Africa for 2 months and counting. This is inclusive of our amazing month long apartment rental in Cape Town. Which was needed as a base and workspace as we plan the rest of Africa. After that, the longest place we stayed in was Belgrade. There we were able to score a cute 2 bedroom apartment in a hip neighborhood for $550 for the month. Didn’t I tell you the Balkans were cheap? While we don’t always think Airbnb is the best for short term rentals because of the fees, it is perfect for anything longer than a week. Where we are able to settle down and make ourselves at home. Have you tried Airbnb yet? Here is $42 for your first trip!

So, how did we keep our expenses down?

1. As I mentioned before, traveling as a pair definitely helps keep expenses down. If you can grab a travel buddy for any leg of a trip I would recommend it. We even traveled as a triplet for 2 months through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Cyprus, and Turkey when Cameron’s sister joined us. This helped us keep food cost down when we cooked in!

2. Travel Slowly. We travel as slow or as fast as we want. When we love a place – we stay. When we aren’t feeling somewhere – we leave. More often than not we want more time in a certain destination, so we stay longer. This helps keep transportation costs low, as well as food costs. Since you are able to purchase more perishable goods to cook your own meals. However, most importantly, when you stay in one place for a long time you can work out deals with accommodation providers who are more often than not happy to give you a discount. We usually save 30-40% on Airbnb’s when we stay at someone’s place for more than a week.

3. Stay out of expensive countries. For optimal money saving try to stay out of North America, anywhere west of Poland, and away from Australia. I will also throw Africa onto this list as safari tours can really break a budget. I love all of these regions of the world. They are beautiful and provide western comforts. But after traveling to parts of Europe, Southeast Asia, and South America nothing drives me nuts more than an overpriced latte.

4. I won’t say to just cook all your meals in, because half the fun of going to a new country is trying the cuisine. But always make sure to check the prices of menus beforehand and allocate a set budget to food prices. And never forget about a service charge or tip, those little costs can add up.

Could we have done this whole year for cheaper? YES! Without the restaurant eating, nights out, coffee shop runs, and everything else that a human doesn’t need to survive we could have easily come in at under $9000 per person for the year. However, as much as we like to travel we also like to be comfortable while on the road.

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