1

Hi 2013rtw!

Welcome to TT!

What currency is your $20k? What does it includes (everything, all except flights...)? How long do you plan to stay traveling? How long do you want to stay at each location?

If you plan to travel overland from Panama to Colombia, Are you aware of the Darien Gap? If not, make a search using the search feature in the upper right corner of the web about it and/or about how to get overland from Panama to Colombia. Alternatively, take a look at the Americas Central America branch to get info about this subject.

There's a sticky thread about itineraries and budget in the Western Europe branch (go to that branch and you'll see it among the first ones) where you can get some useful tips for the European part of your trip.

As you are mainly asking for budget, you could consider to cross-post your question in the Travel on a Shoestring branch. If you don't get enough answers there or if you want to get more specific answers for one (or several) of the legs of your route, you could ask about budget (or itinerary or whatever) for that leg(s) in the relevant destination branch (the Central America branch, the South America branch...).

2

Since your bio says United States I assume your budget for two people at $20K in U.S. dollars. If that is true I think your plans are far too ambitious to susatain two people travelling to five continental areas of the world. Just flying two people between all those places will probably consume your budget.

3

Well it is $20k in US dollars and it includes everything excepts for flights. We want to be flexible with the places we go so we are planning to stay at least 3 weeks at each locoation.

And to be honest we didn't even think about how to get overland from Panama to Colombia. As you can tell we still have a lot to plan hahaha but THANK YOU so much for your advice

4

@CascadeBob
Thank you for your advice we might have to save up a few more thousands before we leave.

5

This is a very extensive itinerary and whilst it depends on how many stops in these countries, how long in these places...etc I would suggest that such an itinerary would be longer than the usual 1 year trip.

The sentiment of 3 weeks in each place is a fair enough sentiment but I would just say go with the flow. Stay as long as you want and then move on. You may back track, you may get diverted, you may end up staying somewhere working in a hostel, volunteering... whatever for a couple months... Don't set yourself targets just go with it (exceptions being if there are specific things you want to do - e.g. if you're dead-set on doing the inca trail then you'll have to book months in advance, though there are other better treks in the area; if you want to go to Carnival in Brazil you'll have to book months in advance (accommodation)...).

In fact my top tip for such a trip is get yourself a ticket to Mexico (or if you're living in the US better yet, just go overland) and take it from there. When you're done with Latin America you can move on to Europe. Just don't get a round the world ticket or anything like that. The key is to have as much flexibility as possible.

And the classic advice still holds true - pack your bags and take half your stuff out, plan your money and take twice as much - and you'll be fine.

6

@ToadofToadHall

Thanks for your advice. I think we are going to take things slow and just take our time enjoying each and every location we go to.