RTW - Yearly Costs?
 

Hi - from the DVDs 2008/2009, the consensus seemed it costs approx $10,000 USD per year to travel constantly.
I know costs will vary greatly depending on peoples needs in accommodation vs camping, route, food, bike, etc, although has anyone done recent figures on this?
At the recent HU Meet Jindabyne NSW Australia, from the presentations it seemed costs had risen greatly, especially visa's, insurance, etc.

Or is it as simple as this;

Budget per day USD Yearly Cost converted to AUD @0.75C
20 9,733
30 14,600
40 19,467 On average may be around here?
50 24,333
60 29,200
70 34,067
80 38,933
90 43,800
100 48,667

Thanks in advance
Paul

Something of a how long is a piece of string question, I would say minimum of $15,000 to $20,000 US a year now, $10,000 would keep you in India or SE Asia these days.

I agree with Mark Manley. 15-20k is more likely. But it's all up to where you travel and your thresholds. I'm on something like 25$ per day here in east Africa. BUT adding visas, travel insurance, at home cost and bike parts/service it pops up to 35$ er day. If you eat local, use couchsurfing or hotshowers and kick the booze you could travel super cheap.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You can make is a lot simpler on yourself but it is a little more work and requires a bit more thought.

It's a matter of breaking down the trip into fixed costs that you know you'll have upfront. There are only a handful. Transport (incl shipping), papars (visa's and carnet or TIP's), mileage (incl fuel, tires and maintenance), accommodation (hotels and camping) and food. You can continue onto incidentals but I prefer to have a contingency in my budget. It doesn't have to be much but that can include variability in assumed item costs. You also may end up spending less camping and more on hotels.

Work your plan starting with getting yourself and the bikes to where you want. Work out the route you want. How many k's that route is will tell you how many tires, oil and fuel you'll use. Is it land travel or are there flights or shipping costs? Then along that route you can workout if you'll camp and if so how many nights do you spend camping rough or on a camp site. If your route is all about cities it's probably more a hotel story. In any case those are approximate fixed costs. Your estimate will become more accurate the longer you go because the variability of each item will be spread more.

There is no golden rule IMHO. I've never focused on daily cost as a basis. That daily cost thing is a leftover from the Lonely Planet days which gave daily cost estimates for lack of a better method. I've always struggled with their estimates. People used to use that book as a bible so it became norm.

Work it all out then double it.

I've always worked on the principle that you can pretty much go anywhere and do anything for £1000 a month if you can budget yourself pragmatically for the place you are. But then again, the pound is in the toilet so that's probably £1500 a month now.

Camp when you can, don't live in expensive bars, don't buy a BMW etc :innocent:

Travelling in a group is cheaper. Lots of expenses shared.

Drinking and partying will burn through your budget like wildfire.

Hello

It may work for backpackers, but on a bike it doesn't.

As tmotten said, the route will define the cost.
The goal is to find the "hidden" costs.

What's left is to find out, how do you want to live or maybe "just exist" day by day.
But, only you know the answer to that, just a 3-4 week trip is enough to find that out.
Note every expense and figure out how much that will be in the place you will go to and do you need it.
The longer one travels, the more cost efficient one will become, it's almost an art.

sushi

Exactly this. Figure all costs as carefully as possible, without kidding yourself about the things which may not fit your desired self-image (Guided tours? Plush accommodations? Sit-down meals in the expensive restaurants where the ex-pats all go? Or maybe a/c cabins on the riverboats while all the "authentic" overlanders string hammocks on the decks....?). Then double that amount, and you'll arrive home with some minor funds to get resettled, which should be a part of your budgeting anyway.

With more specific experience overlanding on a bike, your advance calculations might become more realistic--maybe so realistic that you can get away with multiplying by a factor of 1.5 rather than 2. Me, I've never achieved this degree of realism on a long trip. Once you graduate beyond trips of a couple of weeks or venture deep into faraway continents, things tend to get more expensive, never less.

Then again, this is why the abbreviation "YMMV" was invented.

Mark

Dunno about doubling but definitely a contingency. Also setup costs for when your back if you want to keep the credit card in check.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

Budget
 

I really think it costs about $1000au a week if you want any quality.:thumbup1: Yes if you want to go feral & not tub etc for days:( it maybe cheaper, but I would rather stay at home then travel like this. Also what is the sense of travelling if you don't have the money saved to get into attractions or do the odd thing.:innocent: I have travelled long distances up to a year & I can't get anywhere near those sort of budgets & I am not particularly extravagant either.:nono: Even Africa is so bloody expensive now, so that really only leaves Asia for the serious budget minded traveller.

Cheers
Paul

Africa is disappointingly expensive. Camping is $10pppn typically.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

1500€ a month will get you around the world...

Your biggest expense will always be accommodation, so if you can camp a lot and couchsurf in the western world, you'll save on that. Also, it will depend on how fast you go. 500km a day or 50km a day is not the same fuel expense...

For every trip we did, from 3 months to 1 year, we always ended up spending around 1500€ a month...

5000 Euro got me 2 years around Africa including bying a bike and all the gear needet see packing list: http://afrikamotorrad.de/?report=en_transafrika

3000 Euro for one year around South America including bying a bike: http://motorradtouren-suedamerika.de...en_suedamerika

1500 was fine for a few months in Asia renting different bikes in different countrys: http://schoene-motorradreisen.de/?re...ailand_bangkok

India with flights and renting bikes less then 1000 Euro. Using a tent for wild camping insted of smelly hotels and not shiping bikes makes travelling so cheap. Only expensive thing in Africa are the Visa. The less money you spend the bigger is your adventure.

Perfect packing list: http://reisemotorrad.eu/?report=en_ausruestung

Half my budget is getting me and myself there. It's all based on quotes. If you don't stress about what you ride I would also ride local.
Have any detail on what you did with that money?
I assume you had a carnet. Based on the info available for a typical East Africa route visas and TIPs alone are US$1100. Tires US$800. Fuel US$1500. That leaves US$1600 to buy and service a bike and live for 2 years! This leaves insurances and health care out of the equation. Lets compare apples with apples.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

It depends so much on where you go and how you do it, that I don't think anyone can really estimate this for you.


Perhaps a better approach is to decide how much you can afford, and plan where you go and how you travel from that. If you're on a low budget, then you know right off the bat to avoid certain areas and certain 'lifestyle' options ie. camping vs. hotels, etc.