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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."
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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.
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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!
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Yes, but I'm not sure there's such a thing as the "Third World"... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/tongue.gif
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good god. $100 day? $200 a day. Jeeeeeeez! A decent bottle of wine at a medicocre eatery is going to cost me $40-$50 - add gas, lodging, food to have with that wine ;-) and we might be close to Werner's budget... but I've planned on $100/day RTW... should cover it but might have to settle for cheap wine once in awhile....
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Our budget for crossing Africa was +- 1000 GBP per month for 2 people each on their own bike. That covered for all visas enroute, fuel, food etc. We did spend a couple of nights in a pricy hotel in Nigeria, and splashed out on a few game park trips in East Africa which left a few teeth marks in the budget. Also we didn't have any big mechanical problems on the way. Our trip was over 8 mths and covered 26,000km.
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hi folks
my wife´s and my budget was some 35$ a day a head going to Central Asia and back. 4 1/2 months, 25.000 km, quite fast. Some 8-9$ a day was only to pay the visas. (Maybe it´s the reason why so few people go there by bike). The slower U go, the less you pay. Werner, you went fast. I read all your books and we met personally at TTT ´04. And it´s true, the "old" buggers do need more dough. We are in our 40ies. If we´d go to the Americas, I´d reckon on less a head a day. Whatever style we ride, let´s just ride and go there. Goetz ------------------ ïóòü = öåëü |
Hello to everybody
Just thought I would contribute before you all go off the deep end about costs! As a prospective RTWer I was interested in this string. This information is often hard to come by in terms of the 'rough' cost of trips. I know that it is a bit like 'how long is a piece of string' but all information is useful. I am interested in the costs as I will be separating from my wife in a few months (house sale etc.) and will have a fair (probably £30-40,000) amount. I have been on motorcyles for 30 years (am 49) and need to spend some time on the road to work through events. Thus I am interested in everybody's wide variation / experience along with comments on how long they were away and how much you all got through - whether sleeping beside the bike (more like me) or splashing out (probably occasionally!) Thanks for any posts which pick up this question. |
Hi Boxerman,
I'm in a similar situation as yourself (no emotional ties)/ age bracket/finances. I'm planning my RTW for after june 2006 (when my contract in singapore ends). Presently, in the process of planning route, organising stuff etc. If interested in exchanging info. give me a bell (email). JS |
I've always averaged about USD $100 a day. I don't drink, but I like to sleep in clean places - not luxury at all, just clean. I don't camp. I find that the $100 a day budget works just about anywhere in the world - some places cost more, some less, but that's the average for everything, fuel, food, lodging, visas, sightseeing, everything except motorcycle maintenance costs (tires, etc.).
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Renee,
How is it? Still stuck on the CA? I travelled Africa in 2001 on approximately 500 quid a month plus a 2 grand (pounds sterling) in-the-pocket-bonus and that was sleeping cheap but drinking heavily. And Werner - 'I'd rather sleep under 5 stars' - brilliant. As the League of Gentlemen Hooligans says - 'Ride like a hooligan, eat like a gentleman'. Cheers, suerte, Dan Walsh |
hey guys, this is just my tuppence worth -
Look at how much money you will have in your pocket when you start the trip - that is X Work out how long your trip will be in days - that is Y. Divide X by Y and you have your daily budget. It will be enough. Personally - I have found that $100USD a day is too much, but $700 USD a week is just right. |
Did West Africa South last year on about $20 per day. Had to camp quite a bit as there wasn't always a place to stay. Of course on 4 wheels with a tent on top we are really a mobile hotel, so don't need any stationary ones. ;-) The $20 included food, fuel, visas etc. I would think that the East coast of Africa may be a bit more expensive as they get more tourist traffic. cheers Graham www.africaoverland.org |
talking on budgets.Therese and I went home overland two up on a R65 BMW in 1994. I know awhile ago now. London to Sydney via asia. all up costs including shipping of the bike and flights for us ,mix of camping and hotels ,site seeing ,chitwan, xmas in Kathmandu[gifts]carpets and nic-nacs for 6 months we spent just under $10,000 Oz dollars between us, around $55 Oz aday for us both.
Why Fly when you can ride steve treloar |
This has always intrigued me, the cost of travelling on a bike, no one has broken down the costs of "per day" against the actual living costs PLUS the bike costs. Almost 12 months on my GS650 thru Asia and sticking to the Manufacturers recommendations for servicing, plus replacing, tyres,chains and sprockets. I believe alot of your budgets leave the bike maintenance underdone.
In my travels I have seen many RTW bikes in pitiful condition, after all thats what your life depends on. After asking them about how much they have allowed for bike maintenance, every one of them had not allowed enough. Safe Riding costs more than a cheep hotel. |
Being very rich but also miserly I spent 6 eur per day for the 4 of us!!! in a VW transporter. We travelled for 4 months through Maroko, Mauritania, Senegal (no carnet just a very lucky border blag), Gambia, Gunea Bisseau, Guinea and back to Europe.
We slept out ,ate with the villagers, supplying the rice and condiments, and learnt a lot about the people and countries we visited. How did we do it. We bought fuel where it was cheap, drove at carefully. We ate every other day and took the advice of our Gambian friend who "smoothed" our border crossings, village visits and various "dash" situations. In fact an altogether an African travel experience. On our return we were slimmer, wiser and yes richer.... Rather good eh..... |
Since you are in Germany and you seem to know the tricks for cheap travel. What do you think it would cost per day to travel from Frankfurt to Armenia through Poland, Ukraine, etc?
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I mean it's not like you wouldn't be eventually performing these tasks if you stayed at home anyway. Unless you're only a weekend rider in which case it's cheaper than car maintenance hey ;) One of the things I found most appealing about using a motorcycle for a RTW trip is just that - it's so much easier to work out glitches along the way and take care of the routine maintenance by yourself. Changing chain and sprockets on a bike seems a lot easier that changing the belts on a car. Also with a lot of bikes still running with carbies and only on 1-2 pots (for those hardcore adventure bikes :P) it's easy do do those "tune-ups" and oil changes on the road that would cost a pretty penny if done to your car in a workshop back home. Anyway I'm rambling. Ride on guys! -Roadhawk |
Oldie
Roadhawk,
The question you answered is 5 yrs old now ! He could of been RTW 3 times now and has answered his own questions re:budgets. Has you said ride on.:scooter: Cheers Paul:thumbup1: |
I think the lessons learnt on this thread is that there is no right way and no wrong way !!
You pay what you want to pay ! Everyone has different tastes, ideas, plans, routes etc etc etc.. There are just TOOOO many variables to say how much it all exactly costs. We have assertained that East Africa can be done cheap (great, im doing that trip in September with limited cash).. There is no limit to what you can spend, and if someone has worked their lives to save a good fund, good for them !! Enjoy it at your leisure. Live and let live.... |
Well put Ted.
It would be interesting to hear back from Rene (OP) though to see what he eventually spent on his trip. |
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