I know the budget I spent traveling Europe for the year was considerably low. What makes it more imp

Last Tuesday, my book How to Travel the World on $50 a Day was released, road travel conditions and a lot of people seemed to wonder whether road travel conditions $50 per day was "extravagant" or just the right amount. I got asked questions like "Can it be done cheaper?" "Why $50?" and "What does that number include?"
To answer those questions, let's first talk about where that number comes from. I didn't pick it out of hat! There's road travel conditions a reason why it's $50 a day and not $49, 37, or 69.50! Fifty dollars is a rolling average for a world trip that not only includes day-to-day expenses but also the cost of flights, travel insurance, your backpack, your gear, and special tourist discount cards.
Before we even go, we're looking at spending $4,000. road travel conditions That's a large figure, but it takes care of all our sunken costs and on the road, the discount cards save us money on attractions, accommodation, and transportation. Averaging that amount over a year, we get about $11 per day.
Next, let's talk about expenses on the road, because this is where you are going to spend the majority of your money. In my book, I included the most popular destinations people visit on a round the world trip. Based on my travel experience, this is what I've found to be a good daily budget in each region:
road travel conditions Will you actually be spending $50 USD everyday? No. If you're spending $50 a day in Thailand, I'll find you and slap sense into you. You're spending way too much! If you spend $50 a day in Norway, you're doing great.
If you're traveling to cheaper regions of the world, you won't need nearly as much. If you are sitting in your hostel eating pasta, you can travel very cheap. If you decide not to include your flights in your daily budget, you can trick yourself into thinking you're spending less.
Can you travel for less than $50? Of course! I spent $30 USD per day in Holland when I was staying with friends and cooking all my own meals. And if you decide to camp, hitchhike, or never drink, your expenses can be cut even further.
This book isn't about being a cheapskate – it's about being frugal and finding value. Too many travelers equate cheap with budget. Sometimes they have such a myopic view, they miss the forest through the trees. In my view, traveling the world on $10 a day just to say you did it is dumb. Travel and budget enough to experience the things that brought you to that country in the first place!
Using the plethora road travel conditions of savings tips and tricks in my book, you can lower your spending to less than $50. I'll show you how I, with ninja-like precision, use various discount cards, city cards, road travel conditions transportation road travel conditions passes, and hospitality services to lower my expenses without sacrificing comfort.
Traveling the world on $50 a day is about a philosophy as much as it is about a specific number. If you just focus on that number, you'll miss the entire point of the book which is to get you to travel cheaper, road travel conditions longer, and smarter.
"This book isn't about being a cheapskate – it's about being frugal and finding value." I LOVE this quote. *Finding value* is really what budget traveling is all about, cutting down costs on airfare, food, and lodging to make way for the things that you really care about doing or seeing.
This reminds me a lot of a similar conflict in the minimalism blogosphere. Lots of people like to brag about "Oh, I only own 50 items," but the point of minimalism isn't to show off how little you own or how empty your schedule is, but to *make way for the things that matter*.
If all I did was go to work and home, my own regular life is $37/day (cheap road travel conditions mortgage, heat, car insurance, house insurance, $75/month in gas and $150/month in groceries). I usually road travel conditions end up budgeting $50/day just for food when I travel (N.America/Europe)! lol It s nice to know that it can be done for cheaper though.
I completely agree Matt. I am very anal about tracking my expenses, and I always find that I can make my overall expenses around $50 per day. In Europe a bit more, in South America less. Of course, this varies a lot depending on your itinerary, but it s a completely reasonable goal!
I usually come out between $35-$50 per day too. One thing that s good about getting old is that if you invested in quality stuff, you don t need to buy new gear. I ve had the same North Face backpack since 1992 and it still rocks. So, that s $200 more I get to spend sightseeing.
I have been in Canada for the last 2 years and have not travelled as much as I wanted to during this time due to the price of flights here. $600 return flight from Toronto road travel conditions to Vancouver is just not worth it. It s on to Europe now thankfully.
Must say $50 pretty much works for me too, I don t stay in hostels but that s paying road travel conditions for a double room in Asia. I ve had a lifetime membership for YHA for many years. too. My pack is over 10 years old
You forgot to mention injections -although I don t usually pay for travel insurance (its covered by our credit card) the visit to travel doc can cost a few hundred depending on what you are due. It s also more expensive if you haven t already had things like hep injections which last a lifetime but aren t cheap.
It is tough to get a decent cheap internal flights in Canada but it is do-able. Depending on where you are, it can be cheaper to take a bus/train to the US and fly that way. You just have to weigh the cost vs time ratio. Everyone has their own formula for that but if you are close enough to the border, it can be worth it!
Agreed I had heard that one could do Cambodia for less than I did ($30/day) but they didn t include cost of getting there, the cost of the visa, travel insurance, the expensive road travel conditions entry ticket into Angkor Wat. Of course my food and accommodation were less than $30/day, but there s more to it than that!
But Matt, how often does one set out to travel the entire world, and plan the exact amount road travel conditions of time in each place? Personally I try not to plan that much but I understand that some people would do. However, I would say most people s trips only target one continent at a time. e.g my last one was Asia and I successfully traveled for 5 months on $15 per day (and had a lot of fun!) but I m about to go to the Caribbean for which I m budgeting $50 per day. I suppose as a book pitch your Travel the world for $50 a day makes a neat subject, but breaking it down by continent, road travel conditions as I think you do, is much more useful.
Yes $50 per day is the magic number, but some countries like in South East Asia might be cheaper and some countries in the Eurozone are definitely more expensive but on average, this is a good number. I try to travel as much on countries where $50 can go a long way for a day.
I m trying my hand at being a digital nomad starting in April. I m headed to SEAsia with some savings and royalties (from writing) currently averaging ~$13 a day. I ll aim to be making $50/day road travel conditions (+ taxes) by years end so I can perpetuate my travels.
Excellent post, Matt! I really hate running into travelers who automatically operate under the guise that cheapest is best, especially when this means that they saved all this money to see the world and their stinginess prevents road travel conditions them from actually doing that. For my husband and I, one of the best things (and most important things!) about traveling is getting to eat the local food. This may mean we are spending more money than if we self-catered road travel conditions (though in places road travel conditions like Asia, the difference in cost really road travel conditions seems negligible!), but that expense is worth it to us. Like you say, we didn t travel all the way to Japan to eat ramen ok bad, example, we did, but you take my point!
I also don t understand why certain travelers don t at least take into account their actual traveling costs, whether road travel conditions its planes, trains, buses or otherwise. Those things still cost money, and it would be a bad thing to go on a trip and not account for those costs! I think people sometimes are so enslaved by their budget that they fail to remember how averages work you can spend over $50USD some days, and still wind up with that average budget at the end of your trip so long as you spend less than $50USD on some days too! (And in Asia, you really will! In Malaysia, we are frequently under $50 for TWO people!)
I ve struggled with budgeting while traveling to New Zealand and on my first trip abroad. I definitely didn t even consider breaking it down per day (idiotically) and I also didn t bring nearly enough money. I ll be utilizing some of your awesome trips and try the $50 a day route, next trip is SE Asia and you won t need to slap me I ll budget.
Excellent points. I traveled Australia for $22 a day, but that figure does NOT include the flights or my health insurance. Once I factor in those numbers, my expenses are pretty close to the ones that you ve outlined.
(For the record, buying a car to four-wheel-drive around the country… And then selling the car at the end of the trip… is much, much cheaper than renting. That move was integral to traveling Australia for a cheaper rate, while simultaneously doing awesome stuff.)
So I ve been reading a lot of travel blogs and books, etc. While I think $50 a day is great, I do have a question about how much do you budget for drinking? I don t drink because of religious reasons, and so I am wondering how much that would change my expenses. Although chances are I would probably just spend it on something else like extra sightseeing and food
For myself road travel conditions its definitely a philosophy or lifestyle choice rather than numbers. Everyone s going to differ on what they deem as fun and valuable and ultimately what they re willing to spend for it follows.
I know the budget I spent traveling Europe for the year was considerably low. What makes it more impressive is there s no guarantee I could replicate it myself let alone give solid advice on how to do the same. The hospitality you meet from fellow road travel conditions travelers and locals, your own appetite for risk/pain/adventure (hitchhiking, urban camping) and good fortune are all situational. The improvisational road travel conditions nature of the experience road travel conditions is what makes it memorable road travel conditions and