Introduction
The intent of this presentation is to show and better explain how I was able to travel the world for nearly a year on such a low budget compared to what a typical vacationer might spend. It is important to realize that although I was always trying to perfect the art of reducing costs as much as possible, I still did almost everything I wanted to do. It can definitely be done cheaper or more recklessly. The figures below are simply how I spent my money in each location, not the cheapest or most logical way of doing so.
Central America Overview
Most of my spending was done in cash because credit cards were not accepted in most areas, so I chose to track my spendings by manually logging everything into specific categories in a personal spreadsheet everyday. This logging or record keeping was done purely off of memory so it is not perfect, but it is pretty darn close and gives the overall picture. Based on this data, I spent about $52.58 per day throughout all of Central America, and you can see that money distributed into each category of spending in the chart below. Below that is a table showing how much I spent on average in each specific country, while also highlighting how much I spent per day on necessities.
Here are bullet points to complement both the table above and all the pie charts in the slideshow below. You will notice that each pie chart looks significantly different, pointing to some key differences in my spending habits in each country. My spending habits changed constantly depending on how fast I traveled or what activities I chose to do.
- Guatemala: overall was $58.24/day but I chose to divide into three separate time periods:
- $67.38/day - when I was in Spanish immersion program #1 - Don Pedro de Alvarado @ 6 hours per day for 3 weeks. This was a top ranked program that I did little to no research in before, so it was great but could have been done cheaper.
- $40.64/day - when I traveled Guatemala for fun at a fast pace and doing everything I wanted. This could have been done cheaper with public "chicken" buses and doing some things without a hired guide/tour.
- $49.15/day - when I was in Spanish immersion program #2 - Antiguena @ 4 hours per day for 1.5 weeks. After returning to Guatemala, I chose this school because of cheaper classes and homestay expenses.
- Belize: is expensive, but I splurged on some meals and I was there for a quick 4 days. Tours were not cheap with one snorkel tour in Caye Caulker at $65.
- Honduras: overall was $59.80/day, but I also got two scuba diving certifications. Without any scuba diving classes or fun diving, my average spending was $32.35/day. The PADI Open water certification was $273 and the PADI Advanced Open Water certification was $252, which included included a total of 4 free fun dives and free accommodation for my entire stay on Utila Island!
- El Salvador: at $35.85/day it was in line with the typical cost of traveling Central America (except Panama and Costa Rica) because I traveled at a moderate pace with public "chicken" buses while also doing most touristic attractions.
- Nicaragua: overall was $39.53/day but this included the cost of a one week surf camp in San Juan Del Sur. A two hour surf lesson with transportation to the beach and board rental costed me $35 per day. If you were to assume that I only rented the board and didn't need lessons, then my overall spending throughout the country drops down to $34.06/day.
- Costa Rica: overall a very expensive country that I traveled through very fast. I never ate out once and only purchased one beer the entire time, yet my daily average was still upwards of $51.66/day. Unavoidable transportation cost are high, and it is easy to get trapped in spending at least $50 on short tours, so I avoided those when possible.
- Panama: although I spent more per day here than Costa Rica due to activities, the cost of most things was generally less. I chose to avoid eating out and drinking here to reduce costs here just like in Costa Rica. Two tanks of scuba diving here was $140 in Santa Catalina (verse $55 in Honduras) and I did a $175 4-day tour of the San Blas Islands.
Southeast Asia Overview
My average spending in all of Southeast Asia (minus Thailand) was about $30.15 per day. Below is the same analysis of this region like was presented for Central America.
- Cambodia: food was slightly a little more expensive here for me than the surrounding countries. Besides the $62 two-day pass to Angkor Archeological Park that I purchased, everything was very cheap here. Beers at restaurants were $0.50 to $1.00 per glass.
- Vietnam: by far the cheapest country around. I traveled the country extremely fast while doing doing something everyday during the 10 days with my sisters and also while solo traveling with random people along the way. For how much I did here, I am shocked how little I spent. The already cheap lodging cost at fairly nice hostels usually included free breakfast and free unlimited beer happy hour. Renting a scooter for the day might cost only $3.
- Laos: I spent 8 days volunteering at the Don Khamao project in the 4000 islands area, so I like to split Laos into two separate time periods:
- $9.30/day - when I was teaching English at the project, I donated $6.82 per day to cover the cost of 3 meals and lodging.
- $28.69/day - when I traveled through the rest of the country my daily spending was still nearly almost $30 a day although I barely spent anything on tours, activities, and beers. Everything seemed to be slightly more expensive than the rest of Southeast Asia because I went north up the mainstream tourist trail.
- Phillipines: everything here was very cheap, but my daily cost went up because I went scuba diving several times. Diving was still very cheap at about $27 per tank with transportation and gear included. My last few days were here were amidst the start of the COVID-19 chaos, so I was illogically hopping around and spending lots on transportation while creating an impromptu escape plan before the country shut down.
Overall Spending Habits - Data When Expenses Were Logged
The chart below shows my overall spending habits during the 227 days time period that I was logging my expenses in my personal spreadsheet. This was through all the countries I mentioned above: Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and the Phillipines (my entire trip except Colombia & Thailand).
"Unkown Expenses" can be defined as the difference of the total that flowed out of my bank account verse the total spendings that I logged in my personal spreadsheet. It mainly consist of expenses I simply forgot to log in my spreadsheet as well as other various things that were too difficult to track. These expenses that I cannot account for are different than "Miscellanous Costs", which are costs I recorded for things like visa fees, buying gifts, replacing lost/used up things, or anything else that didn't fall into a pre-established category. "Unknown Expenses" is a new category that I chose to ignore in the in-depth overviews of each region and specific country because it was such a small portion of my overall spending. Furthermore, trying to track things like the value lost on ATM exchange rates or border exchanges, cash that I pulled out in one country made it to another country or even back to the USA, or maybe even cash that I lost is & was too much effort.
"Unkown Expenses" can be defined as the difference of the total that flowed out of my bank account verse the total spendings that I logged in my personal spreadsheet. It mainly consist of expenses I simply forgot to log in my spreadsheet as well as other various things that were too difficult to track. These expenses that I cannot account for are different than "Miscellanous Costs", which are costs I recorded for things like visa fees, buying gifts, replacing lost/used up things, or anything else that didn't fall into a pre-established category. "Unknown Expenses" is a new category that I chose to ignore in the in-depth overviews of each region and specific country because it was such a small portion of my overall spending. Furthermore, trying to track things like the value lost on ATM exchange rates or border exchanges, cash that I pulled out in one country made it to another country or even back to the USA, or maybe even cash that I lost is & was too much effort.
"Medical Insurance" was the cost of premiums for an international health insurance plan (Patriot International through IMG) that I purchased for emergencies and never used. I was covered for a total of 199 days total at about $1.31 per day. I was not covered for the entirety of my trip because I forgot to renew it a few times, so I chose to ignore this expense in my prior in-depth analyses of Central America and Southeast Asia.
Total Spending for the Entire Trip
As shown in the chart below, I know that $18,115 flowed out of my bank account during the total 314 days that I traveled. The green portion below of $11,396 was already covered in detail above. It accounts for all of the money that flowed out of my account when I was actively logging my expenses, which was in every country except for Colombia and Thailand.
There is not enough data or records to speak to my spending habits in these two countries simply because I chose to stop manually recording my spendings during these times. All I know is that $4,459 dollars flowed out of my account while I was in these two countries ($1,993 over 39 days in Thailand, and $2466 over 38 days in Colombia). I happen to have two weeks of logged expenses from solo traveling in northern Thailand, that I used to approximate the cost of daily food and lodging.
A good chunk of my overall spending ($2,260) went towards international flights. All domestic flights were already categorized as "travel" within each country. To see a breakdown of all the flights I took, scroll to the bottom.
There is not enough data or records to speak to my spending habits in these two countries simply because I chose to stop manually recording my spendings during these times. All I know is that $4,459 dollars flowed out of my account while I was in these two countries ($1,993 over 39 days in Thailand, and $2466 over 38 days in Colombia). I happen to have two weeks of logged expenses from solo traveling in northern Thailand, that I used to approximate the cost of daily food and lodging.
A good chunk of my overall spending ($2,260) went towards international flights. All domestic flights were already categorized as "travel" within each country. To see a breakdown of all the flights I took, scroll to the bottom.
Although both Colombia and Thailand are known for being cheap countries to travel through, I ended up spending a lot more than solo traveling through other countries. This was mainly because I traveled through these countries quite fast with a friend from back home, so we were more focused on having fun within a short period of time rather than budgeting. The range of potential cost of traveling can range from extremely cheap to relatively expense in both countries depending on how you do it and where you go.
Please note that the total sum of $18,115 has already taken into account a tangible savings of $588. I received a total of $289 back in rebates from international ATM fees thanks to my free Charles Schwab Debit Card. I also used $299 worth of credit card points towards international flights thanks to my Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit card (which also saved me an unknown sum of hundreds of dollars on several perks that I am not considering like free travel insurance or free airport lounge access with free food). It is very advantageous to travel internationally with cards like these.