What is a Realistic Budget for Traveling?
One you can afford – seriously.
Look at how much you earn. What can you put aside for a trip? What are you prepared to sacrifice to make your trip a reality? Maybe you’ve been saving for a while and have a few thousand dollars in the bank. You do? Great. Well that’s your realistic budget. If you want to fly to Europe tomorrow and you only have ten dollars in the bank then you are not being realistic. But it might be enough to get you in to the local museum for a few hours escape.
When you are setting your budget, be practical. Everyone has different needs for their travel experience and if your travel plans include overseas flights, you will need to budget accordingly. Sure you can find great deals and get there cheaper than you might have expected, but make sure you have enough money in your budget to not only get you there but to travel around, find a place to sleep, oh and have enough money to be able to eat!
So how do you go about setting a budget? Following these steps might help:
1. Draw up a table with two columns.
2. Column A is for Expense Items. Column B is for Approximate Costs.
3. In column A write down all the things you can think of that will cost you money while traveling. These might include: air flights, car hire/fuel allowance, travel passes, sight-seeing tours, accommodation, food, insurance, immunizations, and souvenirs.
4. In column B write an estimate of how much you think these things will cost while on your trip. You can research your travel costs quite easily on the Internet. Food allowance might be a bit more difficult. If you are traveling alone, as a couple or in a family you will need to budget food costs accordingly.
5. Now add up the costs. This will give you an estimate of how much your trip will cost. Can you afford it? Yes – then this is a realistic budget for you. If not, then you may have to rethink your destination and the type of travel experience you want.
Remember that this table will only be an estimate of your travel costs. You must also budget for incidentals and prepare yourself for things to not go to plan. For example, have you got enough money in your budget to buy new clothes if your luggage goes missing? A realistic travel budget will have extra built in to it to cover emergencies. Setting yourself a budget of about sixty-five dollars a day, if traveling alone, is a reasonable amount. If you are traveling as a family or in a group, this number will be vastly different.
Also consider if you will be traveling and working. If this is the case, then you may not need as much to start with, just enough money to get you to your destination and a place to live while you look for work. (And enough money to buy you food until you begin earning a wage.)
Start making your travel plans with your budget in mind. Don’t exceed your budget, always keep a little in reserve so you can buy that fantastic Italian leather handbag or go jet-skiing in Hawaii if the desire takes you!
This article is brought to you by: Stuart S. Travel – Your Online Travel Guru
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December 18th, 2009 at 10:14 am
the rule of thumb used to be in the 8 to 12% of your total budget for the "better things in life"
a possibly more sound rule of thumb is the 1/3 principal.
Use 1/3 of your extra monies to re-pay what you've brought in the past and still owe for — paying off 12 to 21 % credit card bills ( and eliminating the interest expenses ) is better than getting 5.50% interest in a CD certificate ( and paying Uncle Sam a part of that, as income ).
the second 1/3 is for your current expenses — home auto and all the insurances and utilities and the "monthly" bills you mentioned.
final 1/3 goes to savings, investments and 401(k) type — For the Future — and then don't touch them……people are finding they would have more money at retirement if they started earlier.
there was a story of twin sisters — aged 25
#1 sister started putting money aside each month and did it until her 35th birthday and stopped…and never put another dime in the account ( apying into it for only 10 years)
#2 sister started at age 35, when she heard what #1 sister had done and started an identical savings account & continued paying into the fund until age 55…( or into it for twenty years)
the accounts for both grew at the same rates all through their lives; but at retirement ( age 55 in this case ) since the #1 sister started earlier, due to compounding, her nest egg was over 3 times more than #2 sister's….just because of the ways of compounding and her earlier start. It is the early years that made a difference in their funds at retirement.
December 18th, 2009 at 11:49 am
You can't do all that in 40 days. For example – half a day in Florence and half in Rome? IMPOSSIBLE. My friends waited in line for 3 hours just to see the David (totally worth it – I jumped in line – I had to run a group errand). Plus you don't want to miss out on the nightlife in those places. European night life is something you HAVE to experience. Also, you will burn out from running around to museum after museum so allow some none museum activities (I recommend Versailles gardens one half day, beer garden in Munich, go up to the castle in Saltzburg and just chill – follow a school tour if you can, you get into so much more). You don't need a full day in Cologne (unless you want to watch for Hollywood stars) because there's not too much to do there.
Also, are your calculated costs in Euros or in USD, because if it's Euros double it to get Euros. Finally, you need more than 100 bucks Emergency money – my friend got an eye infection in Zee AM See (a resort town in Austria – great place to visit) and it cost him about 300 USD to get treated. He was fine, but he needed the antibacterial drops to preserve his vision. My point being, since the European health care system is mostly socialized out-of-towners pay a ton for simple health care.
Entertainment you need to budget more for too. Aren't you going to want to see a couple clubs (the good ones are 15-25 Euro cover – about 50 bucks a pop), do a gondola ride (about 60-80 Euros for 6 people, so about 20 bucks a person), smoke in Amsterdam (about 15-20 Euro for 3 joints, 40 bucks)? You also will need more to eat on. Even eating cheap we spent an average of 8-14 Euro a meal.
I could give you tips on what to do, see, and visit – I did a wonderful Eurotrip this summer. But right now you have too much on your plate and not enough money.
December 18th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
In South Florida there is the boat show and the Coconut Grove Arts Festival.
December 19th, 2009 at 12:48 am
You need to plan on having at least 50 EUR per day in Western Europe (France, Germany, Greece), but 65+ EUR would be more realistic. (This is for days spent travelling, exchange time is cheaper.)
For Scandinavia and the UK plan on having about 25 % more than that, for Eastern Europe (EU countries and Balkan states) plan on 5-10 % less.
Northern Africa and Near East are cheaper, plan on 35-40 EUR per day for Turkey, Tunisia and Lebanon and about 25 EUR per day for Syria, Egypt and Morocco.
Moscow and St. Petes are expensive (Moscow especially), plan on 60 EUR per day.
The major restriction you'll have is time, it is impossible to cover all these countries during an exchange year with short trips away. You'd have to be travelling constantly to see all. It is recommended that you plan on having 2-3 weeks per country. So just Egypt to Turkey overland will take you the whole summer vaction. (3 months is the recommended timeframe for it.) Prioritise please.
But if you are determined to travel constantly to see it all, plan on a budget of roughly 15,000- 20,000 EUR. But be sure to sort out the visa situation. Even if you can enter visa-free you cannot stay longer than 90 days in the Schengen Area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area
December 19th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
you ned $100 a day just for survival.
gambling get a players card, some give $50 in free slot pay so you will have somehting to do for fun.
December 19th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
December 20th, 2009 at 2:09 am
Lots of blankets and onsies. If you go the formula route then make sure that you have bottles and stuff for cleaning. Breastfeeding, you might want to look at a pump if you plan on going back to work. Rear facing carseat with the head supports is a must and a diaper bag. Swings and bouncy seats are nice, but I used one of those front pack carriers quit a bit. Diaper Genie- to house the smelly little packages that you will receive.
Good Luck, and make sure to bring personal stuff for you to the hospital and have comfortable clothes to come home in.
December 20th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
No not really but is possible. 1000baht is about 20 pounds or 30 dollars. The cheap rooms can go as cheap as 300 baht but there are not many. Food: Ok eating from street stalls can be less than 100 -300 a day. depending on your hunger.. Drink. Beer is really expensive but san tip thai whiskey is cheap. Bangkok is dear but can be done cheaply but outside the City centers things are cheaper. I spend 10 thousand baht a day minimum.but I like to party………..check out budget travel via The Kao San Rd backpacker websites. Good Luck. Oh 'company' is your main expense. If you can live without that or get it for free that saves a lot of money.
December 21st, 2009 at 8:48 am
i believe from Punta cana to santo domingo is 2 hours (one way)