Well the epic adventure has officially come to a close! I am so unbelievably grateful that I got to spend so much time exploring this beautiful world – what an enormous privilege. As per usual, I tracked every penny of what I spent so here is the final installment of what I spent on this trip! See here for the original post of my 1 Year trip Cost Summary & the Two Year update. Also if you are considering doing a big trip, check out my best tips for planning an epic adventure here.

Some considerations:

• This is only for one person (me)
• I travel fairly cheaply (mostly staying in hostels) & in general don’t have expensive taste in food or transportation, but I also am saying yes to any experiences that I want to say yes to
• I am traveling fairly quickly so taking lots of flights + moving locations every 3-5 days usually. It’s much cheaper to travel slower
• I am not traveling in a super logical route. For example, while in Europe I went to England, then Northern Ireland, then France, then England, then Switzerland, then England, then Ireland… I was meeting up with different friends at different points so while it wasn’t logical, it made sense for what I was doing. However, again this is an area that one can make cheaper if they don’t travel in circles like I did haha
• When in Europe, I did spend a decent number of nights staying for free with friends!
• I am flying home to California quite often for Christmas, my 30th birthday, and for some weddings. Again this is driving up some inefficiencies.
• I have spent both summers at home in CA (a total of about 5 months between the two summers). This has actually saved me some money as I don’t pay for accommodation while I am home (thanks Mom + Dad!)

Here’s the trip summary leaving in June 2023, covering 54 countries across 7 continents:

• 6 months in Europe + Egypt – 19 countries
• 1 month Fiji & New Zealand with my family – 2 countries
• 3 months Southeast Asia + Japan – 6 countries
• 6 months Mexico + South America + Antarctica- 6 countries
• 1 month Australia + Vanuatu with my family – 2 countries
• 3.5 months in Central America – 7 countries
• 3.5 Months in Western Asia + Europe – 15 countries

Here’s how many days I spent on each continent in my 2.5 years of travel:

In full transparency, my parents kindly paid for Fiji, NZ, Australia, & Japan since I was with them for those four countries (very, very lucky!!) so this analysis will cover roughly 27 months (as the aforementioned countries were essentially free). This does include any spend I had while in CA, which is usually cheaper than traveling as I have no accommodation costs while at home.

Also, on this trip, I have tried to add what I spent in each country to its dedicated blog post so hopefully that’s helpful. For example: scroll to the bottom of this blog post to see how much I spent for 3 weeks in the Philippines!

One last caveat – I did not include my costs for going to Antarctica because I got a deal through Freestyle Adventure Travel & signed an agreement that I wouldn’t share what I spent. Check them out if you are ever interested in exploring the one of the coolest (pun intended) places I’ve been.

Here we go…

Total Spend: $78k USD

Overall this about what I expected to spend on this trip! I’m averaging just under $3k per month while really enjoying life. I haven’t really said no to too many things while on this trip. I spend an average of $40k per year in my “regular” life while living in San Francisco, CA, so I’ve spent about 25% less by traveling to 54 countries (over the same time period) – not bad!!

Spend by Segment

This shows a breakdown of the total spend by trip segment. Obviously Europe would be the most expensive since that was the longest segment of the trip by far (a total of 9 months spent there). Pre-trip expenses include: clothes, Workaway membership, initial flights, & electronics. Scuba diving really drove up costs in Central America.

Average Daily Spend by Region

I was pleasantly surprised that I naturally (without too much oversight) maintained an average daily spend of less than $100, regardless of the region. Without scuba diving, Central America would have been far more affordable (perhaps the most affordable not including Oceania & CA, which are anomalies). If you are looking for bang for buck, it will be no surprise that Central America (outside of Costa Rica + Belize) & Southeast Asia would be my recommendations! You could also get great value in the northern parts of South America with Colombia, Bolivia & Peru.

Outside of Antarctica, the countries that cost me the most per day were Liechtenstein, Switzerland & Belize.

The cheapest were Tunisia, Kosovo & Latvia.

Spend by Category

This is a breakdown of how much I spent by category. As expected, accommodation is my largest spend, but I am actually proud of myself for spending so much on activities! I can be pretty stingy with spend so I love that I have said yes to so many experiences on this trip. A lot of them ended up in my top 5 memories of the trip 🙂 You’ll find the breakdown for the trip overall, as well as by region.

Europe (6 months): $18.1k

Southeast Asia (2 months): $7.5k

South America & Mexico (4.5 months): $14.5k

Central America (3.5 months): $13.2k

Europe + Western Asia (3.5 months): $9.9k

Top 5 experiences of the trip:

• Antarctica ($$$$$)
• Riding Motorbikes through the Ha Giang Loop in Vietnam ($300)
• Hiking Milford Track in New Zealand ($2,045)
• Climbing Acatenango in Guatemala ($105)
• Scuba Diving with Thresher Sharks in the Philippines ($88)

Top tips for traveling cheaper:

• Stay in dorms in hostels – you might sacrifice a bit on quality of sleep but in general the cost savings + meeting so many cool people makes this a great resource for traveling on the cheap.
• You’ll notice I spent almost $11k on eating out. If you are staying in airbnbs or hostels with kitchens (more common in Europe, NZ & Australia), buy groceries!
• Travel slower. As I mentioned, you’ll save a lot on accommodation costs if you can book a month long airbnb rather than hotels/hostels for a few nights at a time. This also will bring down your transportation costs.
• Fly less! Unfortunately I did a lot of flying. I would have saved a ton of money if I did more bus/train travel.
• Only take a carryon backpack. You’ll save on baggage fees every time you do have to fly.
• Use credit card points to book flights.
• Consider doing WOOFING or Workaway to save money in exchange for working a few hours a week (usually ~20).
• Make friends on the road and then go visit them in their hometowns. It’s the best way to experience a place in a (usually) non-touristy place & you save money on accommodation: it’s a win-win!

Bonus section:

Since I track so many things beyond just expenses, here are some other fun facts from the trip!

• Took 117 flights
• Visited 201 cities in 54 countries 
• Spent $1950 on massages (avg per hour cost: $31) in 27 countries
• Went scuba diving 37 times in 8 countries across 4 continents (North America, South America, Oceania & Asia)
• Sent 274 postcards in 38 batches (Grandpa was #1 recipient)
• Country visited the most times: England (9 unique visits). I spent 67 nights in England and spent $0 on accommodation thanks to all my friends there 🙂
• 18 land border crossings (mostly in Central America & Asia)

Well that’s the final cost breakdown of this epic trip around the world!! I hope this was helpful and as always, feel free to ask me any questions!