How Much Did Our RTW Trip Cost?
We departed the United States on July 5, 2018 and returned February 13, 2019. The expenses outlined below are for 2 people and are in United States dollars (USD). You can find country-specific budget breakdowns on the following pages. They are organized in the order of our RTW trip.
Total Number of Days
224
Total Expense
$34,271.13 USD
CONSIDER THIS: According to statista, in 2017 the average selling price of a new vehicle in the United States was $34,670.
Average Daily Cost
$153.00 (equates to $76.50 per person)
**Our average daily cost is higher than we were budgeting. However, this is due to the fact that we ended our RTW trip early (click here for our blog post as to why) and did not visit the lower cost countries that would have lowered our average daily costs.
BUDGET BREAKDOWN
Transportation (airlines, trains, buses, metro, ferries, Uber, Grab, vehicle rental, fuel, etc.)
Total: $11,971.17
Cost per day: $53.44
% of budget: 34.93%
This includes the cost of the flight home to the United States from Portugal.
We saved $1402.63 in transportation by using credit card points.
Accommodation (AirBnBs, hostels, hotels, etc.)
Total: $8,409.56
Cost per day: $37.54
% of budget: 24.54%
The majority of our time was at AirBnBs.
Food (restaurants, groceries, wine, snacks, etc.)
$7,147.92
Cost per day: $31.91
% of budget: 20.86%
Activities/Entertainment
$5,304.57
Cost per day: $23.68
% of budget: 15.48%
Miscellaneous (bathroom supplies, kung fu slippers, medicine, donations, post cards, etc.)
$940.25
Cost per day: $4.20
% of budget: 2.74%
Mobile (local SIM cards)
$497.66
Cost per day: $2.22
% of budget: 1.45%
What does this not include?
- Storage Unit
- Life Insurance
While these are costs associated with our travels, they are not country-specific, which is why they are not included in this expense report. In addition, they are optional expenses (not everyone will get travel insurance) or expenses not applicable to those in other countries (those with universal health care).
Trail Wallet
To help keep track of our budget and expenses, we have been using an app called Trail Wallet, which is what allowed us to easily track and report category-specific expenses. Click here for a separate post about Trail Wallet.