Contrary to popular belief, the most common question EVER in the travelling world is not “how do you crap in an Indian toilet?” nor “won’t you get lonely? Do you want a cuddle, Ant?”. It’s “how much does travelling cost?”. As boringly simple, as that.
In fact I get asked it so much I’ve considered having a t-shirt printed that states “£1k a month + tickets + kit + insurance=RTW Trip. Sponsored by TrailofAnts.com” that I can just nonchalantly point to.
That is, of course a complete blasé response. If say, you were travelling in India for a year it could cost half that, but stumble into Japan and I figure you could double it, at least. It all depends how thrifty you are, what you choose to do with your time and a whole heap of other things. You can, god forbid, get a job while you’re going. Woah! Calm down, it was merely a suggestion. I’m sure of one thing, I’ve never heard of a traveller die from running out of money. But if they did, I’m pretty sure they’d die happy.
So, this page is also going to gradually log the main costs of the trip. It won’t detail the beer I grabbed at the airport or the Big Mac I guiltily devoured. It will be purely things I think you’ll find useful, like the cost of a domestic flight or a stubborn visa, particularly high costing accommodation or costs that I think you need forewarning about. Naturally, I’m just one man on one trail so it might not answer every question but it will give you a good idea. All costs in £GB because I’m English and proud, a rough conversion to the sinking $US is to double it i.e. £30=$60 (gutted, ha ha!). The main cost to consider when travelling is ‘time’, so arm yourself with an abundance of that currency and you can pretty much achieve anything.
Main Costs
- Flight from London Heathrow to Moscow- £177
- Visa for Russia- £45 + approx £8 postage
- Trans-Mongolian train ticket from Moscow to Beijing via Ulaanbaatar- £325
- Visa for Mongolia- £40 + approx £10 postage
- 12 months travel insurance (exc USA but inc my Digi SLR)- £250
- Tibet Permit and Train Ticket- 450RMB (£30). Plus mystery tour- 200RMB (£13). Plus train from Chengdu to Lhasa- 700RMB (£46). All sorted in less than an half an hour from Sim’s Cozy Guesthouse, Chengdu i.e. don’t worry about it!
- Overland tour from Lhasa - Kathmandu - 1560RMB (approx £100). A five day tour through the mysterious Himalaya, a minivan bounced us around, and the price also included access to the unmissable, Everest Base Camp.
- Return flight from Chennai to Colombo (Sri Lanka)- Approx £80. Booked through Air India Express, couldn’t do it online as they don’t accept foreign credit cards so this includes a slight commission (nothing extortionate).
- One months Royal Enfield rental in South India - IRS12,000 (£150). This was excluding the numerous costs of repairs, and excluding all the fuel (which was regularly stolen!). One of the best investments on The Trail so far.
- On way flight from Chennai to Singapore - £80. Tiger Airways, one of the cheaper airlines I’ve come across. No frills. No problems.
- A new MacBook - £914. Ok, so not your usual backpacker accessory, but as I’m gone for a while, I need a tool to spin some reddies. Needless to say, the longer I stood in the shop talking to the sales guy, the more I spent!
