How Much Does it Cost to Travel Around the World?

Cat is Out of the Office contains affiliate links and is a member of the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you make a purchase using one of these Amazon links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.

The general consensus from a quick Google search seems to be that it costs about $20,000-30,000 per person for a year of world travel. I think this is a good place to start for most travelers, especially if you’re a budget backpacker, traveling to less expensive areas, and not taking many flights. But I’ll be honest – that isn’t me.

I spent about $53,000 on the first year of my solo backpacking trip around the world.

My First Backpacking Trip in 2008

I did a backpacking trip once as a 19-year-old college student with very little money. That was my first time out of the country, and I remember very little of the trip. I remember we stayed in dorm rooms, sometimes with 16 or more beds. We stayed with my friend’s family for part of the trip. We didn’t do many activities or tours, and we hardly ate out. Since then, I have traveled quite a lot – but because I was working, I didn’t travel on a tight budget anymore. Until now.

In 2021, I Quit My Job and Left New York

In 2021 I left my job and my life in New York City to travel around the world solo. At the time of this post, I am about one year into this amazing adventure, with a goal to stretch the trip for another whole year.

These days, my travel style tends to be more on the luxurious side, so I knew my budget needed to be higher than a typical backpacker. But I also knew I would have to compromise since I wouldn’t have any income for a while. So I made a goal to save enough to spend $100 per day, which includes accommodation, transportation, food, and activities. This does NOT include most flights since I use credit card points, and it also does not include things I bought before the trip (like my backpack and clothes). I don’t buy souvenirs either.

I spent $53,000 in the First Year

If you include my expensive month in Africa (see below for more details), I spent about $53,000 in about 13 months of travel.

If you exclude the expensive month in Africa, which I will since it came out of a separate savings account, I spent an average of $117/day during the first year, which means I’m over budget by more than $6,000. 

It is definitely possible to do a round-the-world backpacker trip on a tighter budget, but I like to do a lot of activities (scuba is expensive!) and eat out, which adds up.  I also alternate between hostel dorm rooms and private rooms, and will sometimes choose a more expensive yet more convenient transportation option.

I know this is A LOT of money. And some of you are probably shocked. I’m a little shocked myself. 

But I don’t regret spending this much money on something I love! And I’ve made some sacrifices to be able to afford this.  

For more details about how I was able to save money for this trip, keep reading.

Breakdown: 6 Months in Europe

In the first year of my round-the-world trip, I spent about 6 months traveling through 14 countries in Europe (Portugal, Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria). 9 of the 14 countries were new for me, the rest I had been to at least once before and wanted to return.

While I was in Europe, I spent more than my $100/day goal, about $132/day. I spent about $22,400 dollars in total during my 6ish months in Europe.

This excludes the bulk of my 10-day trip to the Azores islands in Portugal with my friends since I had already paid in 2020 before we rescheduled thanks to COVID.  

It does include some splurges like the 4-days I spent on a catamaran in Croatia, a day on a chartered boat in Cannes, France when my friend visited, and a 1-month car rental for my road trip through the Balkans.  I really did some amazing things!

Breakdown: 4 Months in Asia

I spent about 4 months traveling through Thailand, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. 

For the Asia portion of my first year traveling, I am just under my $100/day goal, at about $97/day. I spent about $11,600 dollars in my 4 months in Asia. This is pretty high for the region, and higher than I expected.

Scuba diving, including two certification courses and a 5-day liveaboard in Thailand, accounted for nearly a quarter of my Asia Spend. And I spent about $1,800 on a 9-day group trip in Sri Lanka, which was a fun break from solo travel. If you subtract these two big splurges, my spending for 4 months would be about a third less, probably around $65/day.

These numbers also include scooter rentals, flights within Thailand and Cambodia, tuk-tuk rides, a week at an elephant sanctuary, many tours, a visa extension, private rooms with air conditioning, and many Thai massages. Food was only a few dollars per day for the most part, except when I got a craving for “international” food.

If you wanted to, you could easily do South East Asia for under $25/day on average, and I know some people spend even less.

Breakdown: 6 Weeks in the Middle East

I spent about $9,000 dollars in my 6ish weeks in Israel and Jordan. This number shocked me.

I didn’t originally plan to visit the Middle East in the first year – not because I didn’t want to, but because I knew it would probably be a little more expensive. But my cousin recently moved to Tel Aviv, and my aunt, uncle, and other cousin were planning to visit him, so they invited me to meet them – I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to travel with them! So off to Israel I went.

The majority of this trip was spent in Tel Aviv which is well known to be one of the most expensive cities to live in the whole world. This was my second trip to Israel, and I knew I wanted to spend more time in Tel Aviv, because I fell in love with the city on my first visit.

And even though I spent some of the time with my family who treated me a lot (thanks, fam!), my hostel was expensive (since I went for a more luxury option), as was the food, and I ate out every single meal (which was fun but not recommended if you’re on a budget).

In Jordan, I splurged on a fun desert accommodation, desert jeep tour, scuba diving in the Red Sea, private accommodations (guest houses and Airbnb apartments), as well as a rental car – so this wasn’t really a budget backpacking trip at all, hence the high spending.

Breakdown: 1 Month in Africa

I spent about 1 month traveling through Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and South Africa – and actually, I wasn’t solo for this leg of the trip! I had two friends from the States meet me, so I didn’t spend like a backpacker. The total I spent on the Africa portion of my round-the-world trip was about $9,700. 

An African safari has been on my bucket list for a while, so I started a savings account separate from my around-the-world savings account a few years ago. So I had some extra money to spend on this part of the trip.  

The 6 nights of safari alone cost about $6,000 (we splurged on a luxury camp and bush planes), and the permit for the mountain gorilla trek in Rwanda was $1,500 (this is significantly cheaper in Uganda, FYI). We hired a fairly inexpensive private driver in Rwanda to drive the car we rented, and we saved money by staying with some awesome friends for a few days.

Next Up: Central and South America

Will I catch up on my spending goals when I’m in central and south America this fall?  I sure hope so, because I’m trying to stretch this trip out another year. I hope you’ll be following along!

How Can I Afford This?

As you can see, I am spending a lot of money on this trip.  

In the first 13 months, I traveled to 22 different countries across 3 continents, and I’m about to start my second year on continent number 4. 

Am I rich?

I don’t have a trust fund or a rich boyfriend, and I didn’t win the lottery.  I also don’t have student loan debt or financial responsibilities outside of myself. And by prioritizing travel, I may not be able to afford other things in the near future, like buying a home.

How I Saved

I worked for 12 years in Human Resources for a hospital in New York City, but to be honest, I wasn’t that great at saving money until a few years ago. That’s when I got serious. 

I started tracking every single dollar I spent, and made a decision to cut out as much extra stuff as I could.  That meant no more fancy gym, no more manicures, minimal clothes shopping, and cooking meals at home more often.  It wasn’t always easy, but seeing my savings grow and knowing I was getting closer to my goal was extremely motivating.  I know that some people have financial responsibilities or other challenges that make it even harder for them to save money – I am grateful to be able to spend money on luxuries.

One Good Thing About the COVID-19 Pandemic

When the pandemic started in 2020, my job went remote, and I was able to give up my expensive life in New York City. I started bouncing around between cheap and free accommodations like sharing an apartment in Denver for a month with my best friend, house and dog sitting in exchange for free housing, and even spending a couple of months at home with my parents. I saved a lot during that time and was able to leave my job in 2021 to start this trip.

And as a bonus, I was able to work as a consultant for about 7 weeks this past summer (2022), so I was able to save up a little extra money. 

Will I have enough money to travel for another year? I sure hope so!