Any ideas for monthly budgets?
 

We are currently on a RTW in South America, and will be here for another year, going to South Africa and up Africas east coast afterwards. I would love to get some monthly budgets of folks that have done the south-north (or n-s) trip to better help us plan that stage. The route is not well defined north of Ethiopia, but rough figures is all I am after at this ponit.
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Rene and Amy
www.renedian.com

Hi Guys,
I've done around South America and around Africa, the latter in 2002, so I have a good idea about the cost. If you are mostly self-contained, e.g. camping, you could do East Africa on US$50 average a day per person, including visas, gasoline, food. But if you want to travel a bit in style, figure double the amount. If you want to see sights, e.g. Victora Falls, Zanzibar, up Kilimanjaro, safari, add more. Breakdowns? bring credit cards. No fear of the road in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Sudan can get more expensive, if you decide to take the train between Khartoum and Wadi Haifa. You must take the ship on Lake Nasser; no overland entry into Egypt. Watch out in Egypt. Danger of excessive baksheesh! I'm sure that some Diogenes will have done it for less. I have done it for approx. US$200 a day, but I'm an elderly man, a hedonist; I like my comfort, love beer, lots of it, and the ladies. So, the choice is yours.
Greetings and happy travelling, http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif.

Perfect info, Werner, thanks. I´ll drop you a line as we get closer to further pick your brain.
Cheers,
Rene

Hi there,

to all the people, who wants to travel:

I`m shure you can travel much cheaper!!!

We never spent that much money on our travellings!!!

I swear not a third of the costs!!
It is although easily possible!!!

We had costs on our tour from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego about € 500 a month per person. Includes evrything, also transports by planes, ship etc.!!

And I had much more less on my travelling to India!!

------------------
Best wishes
:-)
RalEva

http://www.Motorradnomaden.de

The homepage has a translation service!!

[This message has been edited by RalEva (edited 11 June 2004).]

I knew it! I knew it! that there would be a reply from cheapy travellers. Of course you can do it even cheaper than that, if you sleep beside your bike, and beg for food, or raid garbage cans. I get quite a kick out of fellow travellers, mostly Germans, who brag that they have found the cheapest hotel, the cheapest country, and have managed to do the world at a record cheap price. Good for you! If that's what you're after. As the French philosopher used to say: "The style is the man himself." "Le style c'est l'homme meme."

I agree with RalEva!
I am a South African travelling Cape to Cairo -currently in North Tanzania. I dont have the luxury of hard currency like Werner has, so I have to do it cheap. So far Im managing fine on $16 a day. No i dont sleep next to my bike or rummage through the trash, Im having a superb time!
Werner, as a reader of philosophy you should know that money does not make the man or by any means decide his sense of style.
Jim (1985 XT600 34L )

Touche! Jim,
You're my man. Perhaps when you find your way to Canada,I can invite you to ride with me so that we can rough it together.
Cheers http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif Werner.

Dear Werner,

what the hell happens to you??

Sorry, but there is a BIG different between the North American travellers and if you like the Gemans and other countries.
Maybe most of the North American travellers have much more money than we do!
We (Ralf & Eva) worked hard for the money to travel around the world and for us it is a shame to throw the money out of the window. We save all our money, we don’t go out to the cinemas or restaurants and we just buy the stuff for the travelling.
I’m very sorry, that I’m not that rich, that I have to sleep very often beside my Ténéré.
But I will tell you, I like that!!
To sleep beside my good old Ténéré and smell the gasoline and the oil of her gives me a fantastic feeling!!
We had always fantastic journeys!
Yes, we look for the money, but we don’t count every Penny!

But why should I beg for food and why should I raid carbage cans.

Your answer is very ignorant and intolerant!!!!
And you will tell me, that you travelled a lot??
But what did you learn at your travels??

Of course, there are very different budgets, but I just wanted to show the people, who wants to travel, that they don’t need so much money!!!
Because it is worth to travel anyway!

But I agree with you Werner, we also don’t like the people who wanted to travel ONLY cheap!!!
That’s not our way, but we also don’t like to travel ONLY rich!!

But Werner, don’t forget, there are also MANY other ways than the North American style!!!

Sorry Werner, for my bad English, but also without speaking any language perfect, we had great times out there in the world!!


Thank you (poor) Jim!! ;-)
See you in Africa!!



------------------
Best wishes
:-)
RalEva

http://www.Motorradnomaden.de

The homepage has a translation service!!

When I went Norway – Cape Town - Oslo on a bike my budget was 25USD per day for (food, accommodation, visa, parks, film, ferry++). In addition to that I had a budget on 1 USD per 10 km for the bike (petrol, oil, parts++)


When I got back, after a year, I still had almost 1000USD left. Should have spend more time somewhere…

Sorry, fellow travellers, if I hurt your feelings. It's not that I'm an armchair traveller. You can check the "Books" section of HU and find my four motorcycle travel books under "B" for Werner Bausenhart (Yeah, guys, I am German-born, but living in Canada). From 1997 until 2002 I crossed all the continents for a total of 190,500 km. But sorry, folks, I'm a retired university professor in my 60's, have a bit of money to spend on travel, and also love the "good things" in life. I've gone for days without food, and only water. But I've also stayed in 5-star hotels with caviar and champagne. I like to pride myself in being an adventure biker and a macho guy, but I must confess that I prefer sleeping under 5 stars to sleeping beside my beloved BMW R100 GSPD or my F650. Perhaps we can all take part in a contest who can "do" Africa on the cheapest.

So its a touchy subject.
I say well done to anybody who makes the effort to travel in the third world. Whatever our budgets at least we are living the dream and not stagnating like so many others of the
"Id love to do that myself, but..." crowd. We all make sacrifices to do this and we are all making a positive contribution to the places we visit.
Travel on what you can afford.
PS I heard of a guy from SA who hitched Cape Town to Malawi on R100,($18)!! Now he I guess was rumaging through teh bins, but hey better than doing it at home.. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif

Boy boy, it's been a long time since I've seen such an utterly useless discussion... I always thought that biking was partly about live and let live - so if someone wants to spend 200US$ a day, what is the big problem? If someone else wants to live on a budget of 3US$ a day, let him do it as well... I thought the purpose was not to spend either as much or as little money as possible, but rather the travelling itself... and if your budget allows you to spend 5 US$ a day, well, ok, but don't get nasty on people who can afford more... and also the other way around...

Anyway, enough said, or we'll all be carried away by the subject ;-)

Enjoy our travelling...

Jef

Hi folks,

I think some things are clearer now!

Thank you Jef for the wise words!!

Here in my Area they say:

"Live your life and let other people live their lives!"

We don`t want any problems!!


------------------
Best wishes
:-)
RalEva

http://www.Motorradnomaden.de

The homepage has a translation service!!

Amen!

Yes, but I'm not sure there's such a thing as the "Third World"... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/tongue.gif