Ok – so this is still just over a year away but after spending the last 12 months researching, reading and calculating I thought it may be about time to get a bit of feedback on a plan. I know its early to post this but I guess I’m just looking to see if people think what we are planning is waaaaay out and not do-able. If this turns out to be the case then it gives us time to save more / re-think etc etc. You get my drift.
We are from the UK, married for 2 years and reasonably well travelled. We’ve covered a lot of Europe, Scandinavia and North America. I’ve been to Japan before and we also travelled across India for 3 months back in 2009. This has inspired us to go for a longer backpacking trip. The costings below are all in £GBP’s and are for 2 people. We will absolutely be on the budget end of travel – obviously sharing rooms which will help, aiming at cheaper guesthouses or dorms in the more expensive cities. We will eat street food where possible and stick to lower end restaurants / guesthouse food / cook for ourselves when kitchens are available. Flights/Trans-mongolian costs are also not included in the costs below. We don’t plan on finding any work or doing any volunteering, unless some interesting opportunities were to present themselves.
Based on previous travelling styles we wont be undertaking any extreme sports, but do enjoy a hike. We wont be going on every tour going, but would like to do the obvious ones (Ha Long Bay, Angkor Watt, great wall, etc etc). We enjoy having a slow walk around the place we’re in, taking in the cultire, finding hidden gems and socialising with any one we get chatting with. Not huge party animals but would probably enjoy a couple of cold beers a couple of times a week. Will go without if we start going hugely over budget. If we find somewhere we like, we’ll end up staying for a while.
You will notice that the first month or so of the trip is fairly scheduled and planned – due to pre-booking trains etc – we are probably going to book all of this plus arrange visas through RealRussia -after that its going to be pretty free and easy, moving on where and when we feel like it, until the end section. So…..
July 2014 – Fly to Moscow (easyjet now run some VERY cheap flights from Manchester)
4 days sightseeing Moscow (£100 per day)
Trans-mongolian – Irkutsk (£30 per day on board the train)
Irkutsk for maybe 3 or 4 days (£70 per day)
Back on the train to Ulan Bator
Ulan Bator for 3 days (£50 per day)
4-5 day Mongolian Tour (booked through a local agent / hostel – approx. £150-£200 each)
Back on the train to Beijing then 4 or 5 days in Beijing (£80 per day)
Then we get a bit more free and easy. We’d like to work our way south through China over about a month or so – possible areas of interest so far being X’ian, Chendgu, Kunming, Yangshou and finish up in Nanning so we can train it over the border to Vietnam. (we are budgeting for an average of about £45-50 per day in China).
After this we get really vague! We plan on working our way around SEAsia taking in some combination of Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and possibly even the Philippines or Singapore. We will have around 3 and a half months to do this (no way we’ll see all of them, but we’ll see where it takes us, I’d guess we’re gonna manage maybe 3 countries). We are looking at a budget of about £38-£40 per day for this region. We then have a plan with some friends in the UK to meet in Thailand for New Years 2015. No idea where in Thailand we’ll end up but that’s the plan! We have decided we will treat ourselves to somewhere classy for 3 nights or so (daily budget up to £100!) before moving on somewhere cheap for another couple of weeks, then they will head home.
After this we plan on moving over to the sub-continent region, once again taking in some combination of Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka in a 4 month period. For this region we are budgeting on about £33-£35 per day.
Around May 2015 we will then fly to the USA. We will fly to either San Fran or LA, spend a few days and then make our way over to Vegas, where we have a family wedding to attend. We have a budget of £100 per day -this doesn’t include accommodation in Vegas as we will be put up at Caesars palace at no cost to us
After this we want to head down to Mexico, arriving in Mexico city for a few days before heading down to Oaxaca and onwards to central America. For Mexico we are looking at about £75 per day. We will then head to central America for around 10-12 weeks (or until the money runs out!) on an average budget of around £60 per day. I’m guessing that this will rule out Costa Rica.
After this we head home, miserable and broke (don’t worry, we are leaving ourselves a buffer to come home with!).
So I guess I am asking for peoples thoughts on this – are there any glaring errors here that I have missed – any recommended changes of route or are we under budgeting at any points?
Really appreciate your time for reading this far!
Thanks
I'm only going to reply to the US part of the trip: the budget for SF/LA seems very low for a safe place to stay and transport. Are you plannning on going overland from SF to Vegas by air or transport. Keep in mind that within the US, we don't have good or cheap public transport connecting cities.
Vegas accomidations are cheap (since most are attached to casinos). Distance wise, LA/Vegas is a day drive by bus.
I prefer SF to LA but housing/transport costs are going to be above 250 USD for 2 people per day unless you bring over the savings of Vegas into Cali, I'd fly directly to Vegas from SEA.
Thanks for quick reply zebras - we were planning on travelling overland to vegas, probably via bus which ive found online for about £65 each - ideally doing this overnight to save on a nights accomodation. I was only really basing my £100 per day on vegas when we would have accomodation already paid for so I totally agree - I'm guessing we'd look at throwing an extra £50 on top of that whilst in LA or SanFran. So you'd say this wasn't do-able?
I absolutely love your itinerary. In 3 months you will easily be able to do Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Good budget as well for a lower end budget. You could do it cheaper but for the days you do it cheap means that the savings can go onto the obvious tours you mentioned.
I think is it is a doable, well budgeted trip with a lot of variety that will keep it interesting.
Others will disagree. For example I spent 1 month in Mongolia and think you should spend more time there, but, having said that, you will have enough time to see and experience a good time in Mongolia.
Thanks so much for the reply gerard - much appreciated. Good to hear that we are in the right ballpark at least! Any recommendations for mongolia?
If you have already booked with your hostel, then it will be a good trip for the area around Ulan Batoor. So, do not change anything, not much can go wrong with these trips to the steppes, as you are looking for ghers and wide open spaces which you are sure to see.
Sorry misread, thought you had booked it already. Even better. When you get there have a look with your hostel and other local agencies and choose one that suits your needs. In the Hostel you are more likely to find other travellers to share the costs, and book through them.
All sounds good to me, seems well thought out all the way, both costs and timings.
In terms of budget I'll only comment on central america, where I think £60 a day should be plenty. Not sure about Costa Rica, as I've not been.
Overall looks good. Not specifically what you asked but while Realrussia provide a great service, they do but put a huge mark up on tickets. You can save a significant amount by buying the tickets direct off the Russian Trains website. Really is not that difficult even as a non-Russian speaker. Have a look at the Russian branch for how to do this.
Great wall of China is approx £30 from Beijing (hostel organised tour including transport, breakfast and lunch). Beijing is a lot cheaper than I personally expected (£5 per night accomodation, £3 for a big meal plus a beer at hole win the wall with plastic chairs on pavement, metro is 20p a ride and goes to all the major tourist sites), so you should not have trouble fitting in the tour and coming out under budget.
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