Budget Advice- Asia - Australia - USA

Hello Debbie and Angelo 😊

For SE Asia and India, I think a backpacker budget of 30 Euros per day between you would be enough.

For Japan and Australia I would have 50 to 100 between you per day.

Also I would have 100 per month extra between you to cover visas, replacements.....

These costs do not include flight costs. And if you have more money to spend than the above for your daily budget that is always better, but not necessary.

About the driving part in the US: I am not sure how much driving actually costs, because I never do it. Hopefully somebody else will comment.

In Japan, apparently a train pass is available and is the most economical way to go. Hopefully somebody will post more details about that here.

In SE Asia and India train and bus transport is very inexpensive.

I havent been in China for 10 years, but my guess is that around 40 toi 50 Euros per day between you could cover it. As I remember trains, boats and busses were not too expensive there.

Mel Reply to this

I spent 20 years in Los Angeles before moving to New York and without a car, you are stranded. The public transportation system in LA is quite bad and taking cabs everywhere is expensive. I would suggest staying in a central part of town (and don't let the travel agent convince you that east LA is the central part of town). Pick either the beach or the city and stay within these parameters: Beach: Santa Monica, West Los Angeles or Venice; City: West Hollywood, Los Feliz or (and this is already stretching it) Echo Park. Otherwise, make friends with a cabbie.

As for New York, I don't agree with the comment above mine. I have lived in New York for some time now and STILL don't feel like I have seen it all or had enough. Spend less than 2 weeks in New York and you'll regret it, I promise. Its a great place (all US animosity aside).

I've traveled through Europe but not Asia, so my advice stops here.

Hope that helped,
Anna Reply to this

True that SE Asia is much much cheaper than NY. I guess I love NY so much I want people to stay longer and see more of it. But you're right, 2 weeks in NY, relatively speaking, is not necessary.

Debbie and Angelo:

Have a great trip! I write for a travel magazine and will be developing our Asia section in the next couple of months. I'll keep you guys posted.

Anna Reply to this

from north end of india (i.e kashmir) to south end of india(i.e., kanyakumari) ,almost 3000km costs you Rs1000
i.e., 13 pounds in sleeper class of indian railway.if you want more information please feel free to phone me at
. (p.s. i am not a travel agent nor i am going to travel with you. i can give you a good advice.
thank you

Reply to this

Thanks for all the replies!

For any of you wondering why are only doing a week in Australia......

We didnt originally want to go to Australia this time but our travel agent said we have to stop over in Ausralia on our RTW ticket anyway and Angelo has family in Sydney, so we thought we might as well take the opportunity to see them. We will be staying with them so should save some money there with accomodation.

Anyway thank you everyone for all your advice!

Debbie and Angelo x Reply to this

Debbie, I apologise - have heard of many people that think there gonna spend a week in Sydney and see kangaroos hopping around on the side of the road and koalas in the local parks! However, the decision to spend the week in Sydney to visit family is fair enough (plus it will definitely be worthwhile to stay with them) especially since it's a compulsory stopover on your ticket!
Again, I apologise! Reply to this

No, they weren't joking - I swear I've met people who thought us aussies all had pet kangaroos. Sydney is like a lot of other places; it's just a city; I would say it's not a true reflection of Australia and only offers 1% of everything Australia has to offer.

I suggest Debbie if you guys can - either borrow the family's car or see if you can hire one and go along the NSW border a little bit - for example the Three Sisters is quite nice (its in the Blue Mountains) and it's not that far from the CBD: at least it'll give you something to do and show you a bit of nature and the opportunity to hear a little bit about the Aboriginal Culture. Reply to this

if you drive outside of major cities in Australia, you will definitely see kangaroos hopping on the side of the road and koalas crawling around too. They e not hugely common, but you do occasionally see them. But kangaroos are dangerous, don run into them, as they will continue to kick you through the windshield post-impact!!

In terms of LA-SF road trip, its a great idea and we wanted to do it as well, but the costs just added up to too much once we did the maths. We were also under 25, so they charged us a premium, plus because you are dropping it off at a different location it will cost a lot extra too. If you have the time, the best thing is to book a bus ticket that is good for the whole of the west coast of Cali and hop-on and hop-off at places you want to stop off at.

Staying at hostels, eating out once a day and having meals at the hostel the other 2, drinking once or twice a week, sightseeing every day but no more than 1 museum or major attraction a day and using the public transport not cabs --- in the US our budget was about USD$70 pp per day

Staying at 2-star budget hotels, eating out 3 meals a day, drinking 3 or 4 times a week, sightseeing every day, using tuk-tuks/taxis/rickshaws/whatever public transport was going -- in SE Asia our budget was about USD$40pp per day.

If you e using the bus in Thailand, I would highly recommend a company called Nakhon Chai Air-they are the best in Thailand and are a little more expensive than the others, but one of the locals recommended it to us as its the most comfortable. Plus, with western exchange rates the difference is next to nothing. A trip from Chiang Mai to Phitsanulok (near Sukhothai) took about 6 hours and cost around USD$20. A trip from Phitsanulok to Khon Kaen was about the same, and Khon Kaen to Bangkok was 8 hours and around USD$25. Plus, they feed you, the seats recline, theres air-conditioning and the buses are not crowded.

In Vietnam, trains are the best way to go-I would recommend trying to get a sleeper cabin though for overnight journeys. We had some bad experiences but mainly because we got food poisoning at the beginning of a 12 hour trip and needless to say, trying to throw up in a moving pit-toilet is not fun (yes, the toilets are holes in the floor of the train). You can get a lot of package deals for trains/accommodation/tours once you are in Hanoi or Saigon, but if you want to do it yourselves, a train trip between Hanoi and Hue is about USD$12. Flying is also quite cheap if you don have time-Jetstar does budget domestic flights between Vietnamese cities, as does Air Asia. Buses I hear are not reliable and not very comfortable.

In Cambodia, there are no trains (well there is one between PP and Battambang but it goes at 20km/h) so buses are the way to go, you can get a bus ticket from Saigon and book the ticket for Saigon-PP and PP-Siem Reap (I presume you e going to Thailand via Siem Reap) for about USD$30. When we were there, the Cambodian Riel was virtually being phased out so carry lots of $1 US bills on you-they e good for tipping. Theres no public transport in Cambodia (or at least, for foreigners) but a cyclo or tuk-tuk will cost about US$4 from one end of town to the other. In SR, I hired one for the day for $12 and he took me from my hotel in SR to the Angkor Wat temples, drove me around all the temple, and took me home at the end of the day. Of course I tipped him well cos this was amazing value-and they really appreciate it-$1 will go a lot further in his country than mine.

Malaysia is slightly more expensive than the other countries around, mainly because hostels aren that big in this country so you e better off staying at 2-star budget hotels, plus standard of living is generally more expensive e.g food, transport, shopping etc. KL has a pretty good public transport rail network though. Buses are the best way to travel within Malaysia, but if you don have time, KL is Air Asias home so youll find lots of cheap deals exiting KL to other parts of the country.

If you want a better idea of costs for hostels/hotels, just look up hostelbookers or hostelworld or one of those other hostel booking sites and theyll give you a rough idea for costs/night. Hope that was helpful! Reply to this