Daily Cost of Living ?
 

Hi All,

At the end of this October I am planning to set of from West Mali on my big trip across teh continent. I am travelling on a Yamaha Tenere and will do bushcamping, cheap local hotels and the occasional sleep in a nice hotel when I get to a capital city. My route will be Mali - Guinea - Ivory Coast - Ghana - Benin - Togo (or the other way) - Niger - Chad etc. heading east and then down. I was figuring on about 50 US$ per day (incl. petrol), but that seemed a bit heavy ?

Any experiences will be appreciated.

hed

we budgeted £60 a day for all three of us in a Landrover so costs should be cheaper on a bike. Another couple in a Landrover were having a fairly good life on £30 a day so you should no problems at $50 a day. As a suggestion if you can set that much as side then do so. Means if bike breaks down, have problems, get malaria and want to stay somewhere decent for a week, etc, etc then money already put aside. If you don't spend it then its there at the end.

Ouch!!
I've only just started the planning for the trip so I hadn't yet considered it but that's more than I was hoping. I was going to base my estimate on a 3 month bicycle tour I did around ZA a few years ago at GBP5 per day inc. the occasional camp site & shower. Add 5 per person fuel and a strict NO to the carpet/trinket/etc. sellers and I thought that might do, with an emergency kitty on the side. OK visas are on top and if spread over the trip could well contribute.
If there is anyone who has done a North-South trip and has a break down (no not the LR type http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif) of where the money went I would be interested in knowing more; it might help a few of us who are in the planning stage.
Thanks
Luke

Luke,

I think you may be OK on a bicyle and if you are really travelling budget. I used to do that, but have been earning expat $$ the past few years so will do a bit more comfy, hence higher daily rate. Remember that West Africa is generally expensive, much more so than ZA or Namibia. You don't have the exchange rate benefit in West Africa. Just a couple of pointers cost-wise in West Africa (CFA to USD currently 685)
Small bottle of coke 450 CFA
small french loaf 100 CFA
Litre of petrol 350 CFA
Typical visa 25,000 - 30,000 CFA
Good Hotel (african style) 20,000 - 30,000 CFA
5 Pounds translates to approx 5,000 CFA per day, which will be fine if you travbel the way you describe, i.e. spartanic. Make sure you have a good kitty !

hed

Tobias, txs for the advice. What portion did u have in cash, what portion travellers cheques and what did u send on later ? I am planning on taking 500,000 CFA cash, plus about 500 US$ cash, then some travellers cheques and a credit card. I will make various hiding places in my clothes and on the bike, but still quite a lot of cash to carry around. Have you ever used Western Union or other means to get money later ? Any other ideas ?

txs hed

Im getting by on about 15-20 US dollars while moving and about 7-8 US dollars not if I keep off this damned computer in Algeria. And Im trying to keep a ratty old BMW alive

Jeff

If you have a bank with a 'hole-in-the-wall'card i.e. Cirrus or Maestro then you may be able to leave carrying so much cash around.

We were surprised just how many banks offered this service around the place. Maybe you could top up with cash from your home account in large/capital cities and use the travellers cheques and credit card for emergencies. We used mainly cash and struggled to use any travellers cheques although you can't beat the safety and replacement of them.

BTW we stuck mainly to a buget of GBP25 for 2 plus fuel in a diesel Land Rover. This enabled us to splash out when we needed to, without too much problem

Jasper

[This message has been edited by Jasper (edited 14 September 2002).]

Hed,

Previous answers are correct in indicating that the CFA zone countries are more expensive than you may think. The currency is fixed to the Euro at 655.957 CFA per Euro. If the currencies floated, it would be a different story!!
Independant cheap travel (backpacking and cheapest hotels) in Mali and Niger for me late 2001-early 2002 was about $US35 per day. Staying on the roof of a hotel would be about CFA4000-5000 per night. The 'occasional nice hotel ' in a capital city will be about the same price as a nice hotel in the West. (eg Bamako/Niamey)

Travellers cheques in Euros were surprisingly easy to change (Jan. 2002)in Agadez (Niger) at a reasonable, flat 2% commission.

Didn't use travellers cheques, would do in future - got robbed and money transfers after that were a pain - only because they pay out in local currency, so to restock in hard currency is difficult. Would still take reasonable amounts of cash as very flexible. Found cash machines in Rabat (morrocco), Ghana (Barclays in several places), Burkina Fasu. Bank in Chad would do advances on visa. Sudan couldn't do anything, same in Ethiopia. Kenya (Barclays), Tanzania (nothing), Malawi (nothing), Mozambique cash advances, South Africa - back to normal.
Western Union is great - found it out of necessity after couldn't transfer money from our European / Aus accounts in any other manner. Only downside is unless you have a US credit card then you have to get someone else to put the money in for you. Fast system though.