Money!

So far one of my most popular questions is "how much is this going to cost?". To put things in perspective, a few years ago I did 9 weeks in Europe for about $8000 Cnd. During that time I spend 10 days with family in Poland, so I didn't spend much during that time. I also stayed mostly in hostels. The two tours I did (Ireland and Scotland) were backpacker tours, so we also stayed in hostels. I took cheap flights from country to country. Since Europe is so expensive, I think I did pretty good!

I'm thinking that this trip (which will be 7.5 weeks) will end up costing the same. The differences are the area (Asia = much cheaper than Europe!) and the fact that I am doing 3 tours (through Intrepid, which is not a luxury travel company by any means, but it is a step above hostels!). The rest of the time I am staying with Margaret, in a cheap hotel (Hanoi) and in moderately expensive hotels (Hong Kong, where there really is no cheap hotel, and in Phuket where I may feel like splurging a bit). All the "concrete costs" are adding up to $6000 right now, so I'm throwing $2000 out there as a random number for food, activities and SHOPPING. On the tours breakfasts are included I think, along with some activities and all ground transportation. Who knows how accurate that number is. I was lucky that I booked the trips before they increased their prices for 2009, so I saved over $1000!!!

The cost breakdown:
Flight and insurance- $1960
Trip deposits- $750
Trip Balance-$1600
Local Payments- $530 (an intrepid thing, you pay this upon the start of your tour)
Hotel Hong Kong (first 3 nights)- $470
Flight Phuket- $85
Resort Phuket- (3 nights) $300* (could be more or less)
Hotel Hanoi (2 nights)- $100*
Hotel Hong Kong (last night)- $150*
TOTAL: (excluding ground transportation, food, activities, shopping) = $5945

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