7 month rtw budget?

Hi Damen. I usually budgeted $50 a day for my travel, excluding initial airfare and insurance. If I were to go traveling again tomorrow, I'd probably budget twice that so stay in slightly nicer places and fly instead of taking 24 hour bus rides. Reply to this

thanks for your reply's, we are hoping to take 6000 gbp each, because we are spending so long in S E asia i am hoping it will streatch as far as aus and NZ. the trip is all booked we fly to bangkok on 19th june! Reply to this

Hi there, you are going to have the best trip ever! I did the same route about three years ago, excluding India.

$50 a day Is a great budget for Asia that will leave you enough to do all sorts of activities too (which people sometimes forget to include in their budgets)

What I would worry about is OZ. If you plan on going there for December that's when all the prices go up like crazy. A bed in a dorm will cost you around $34 per night. So you're accommodation alone will be about $1000 aussie dollars for the month. To feed yourselves it's going to be between $5-20 per day depending if you gracery shop or not and how much you eat. So over a month at $10 per day is another $300. I don't know if you drink or not but cocktails are a big part of traveling OZ, your booze buchget should be about $20 per day. I'm not saying drink every day but over the month that's what it would average out to. So there's another $600. These three things alone will put you at $1900 for the month (1100gbp) and that's not even including your transportation and activities. You would likely take the greyhound up the coast, a hop on hop off 45 day ticket from Sydney to Cains is around $400 aussie dollars. So now you're at 1300gbps. Also make sure you reserve a seat well ahead of time! I cannot stress this enough. There are so many backpackers doing the same route around the same time that sometimes you can't even get on a bus. Real pain in the ass.

NZ can be a bit costly as well. Hostels will be less aroun $24 per night. What I did was rented a car with two others wich was $800 for the month ($266 each) plus about $150 each in petrol. We slep in the car a lot of the time so we saved on accommodation as well as transportation. It's also a beautiful way to see the country North to South. It only ended up costing about $600. There's so much to do in NZ as well so you'll be spending a good chunck on activities. Sky diving, bungy jumping, rafting,zorbing, all cheaper than in other countries but still cost quite a bit. You will likely end up spending $1000 just on activities for the month. Most hostels have travel agents and all of them offer budget trips to Fiji, I booked mine through Base X Backpackers I believe and it was super cheap.

I'm curious to know if you've booked all your flights already? Have you gotten a RTW ticket? I hope this info helps you a bit. I'd love to go on and on so let me know if you want some more😊 Reply to this

Hey Damen! Three weeks, you must be getting excited.

Malaria, and the prevention of, is a controversial subject amongst travellers. Some take tablets all the time, others only in high risk areas and some not at all. The decision will have to be yours. On my previous trips to India and asia I had started to take tablets (travelling with a huge bag of them) but soon gave up.... From what i understand most urban areas will pose no threat at all, whilst some rural areas a minimal threat with the occasional jungle area a higher threat (check the WHO website for some slightly alarmist advice).

Most tablets need yto be taken for a short period before entering a risky area and for anything up to 4 weeks afterwards which, if traveling between areas of high/low risk would be frustrating. Some people take a small amount of, say, Chloroquine, to take a high dosage of, if and when they suffer any symptoms. Likewise if (even if taking a preventitive) you feel any flu-like symptoms a trip to the nearest hospital and an easy blood test will diagnose the desease easily. The treatment is simple and affective - Malaria is rarely fatal in healthy adults and about 90%!o(MISSING)f all deaths are the very old or young (almost all, sadly, preventable).

The cheapest medicine would be Doxycycline which has few side effects (other than mild photosensitivity) and is also a broad spectrum antibiotic which can help against all kinds of tropical nasties! Including, apparently, Delhi-belly!

Malarial mozzies bite at night so the best advice is to cover up during this period and use lots of DEET, especially around your ankles which is a favourite snacking place.

Long, sorry!! I'm back in Asia in Aug for 8 months and plan to take Doxy only when in remote areas of the Philippines and Indonesia, we'll see if I live to regret it!!

Oh, one last thing, although anti-malarials are not TOO expensive they can all be bought over the counter in most all Indian and SEA cities for a fraction of the price.

Oh, and another, what problems were you having with your India Visa? I'm in the process of aplication myself at the minute, getting my head around some new rule changes - anyway, perhaps I could help?

Have an amazing trip!!

Scott Reply to this

Thank you both for your tips about maleria, the doctors showed me a map of SEA and the areas where the risk of maleria are high and others where the risk was lower. i will have to work out roughly how many i need and get them asap.

its actually 2 weeks this saturday, finishing work next friday so it might have sunk in abit more when i leave there. lol

well i think we may have left it too late for the india visa unfortunatly! i dont want my passport being stuck in the post whilst im waiting outside the departure lounge. its a shame because i was looking forward to visiting india but i cant risk missing our departure date. Reply to this