The Real Answer:

A trip around the world costs what you have to spend.

However”¦

Most people, when asking how much it costs to travel around the world, really want to know…

“What’s the bottom end of the ”˜normal’ travel zone?”  

Normal travel is the kind of travel you do on a ten day trip to Italy where you move to a new city every few days, stay in gorgeous villas, eat sumptuous pasta in restaurants overlooking plazas with beautiful fountains, and bustle between places you’ve seen in movies or read about for years.

“Normal” travel is NOT: ”˜wasting’ time hanging out at a park reading a book all day, spending half those ten days helping a farmer weed their family garden, and ”˜wasting’ a sleepless night at a train station to save on hotel costs.

Since most people tend to think first about “normal” travel, let’s talk about the rock bottom cost of a trip around the world done in a normal, familiar way.   That means sleeping in the cheapest bed you can find each night, eating the cheapest food possible, and visiting free or cheap tourist attractions.

2016 Travel Costs

Below you’ll find  the bottom end of a “normal” travel budget ¹I used budgetyourtrip.com‘s calculators to find the cost to travel in each of the countries listed.  I checked countries I’m familiar with and found them accurate.  You can click  the country links here and then use the site’s drop-downs to see information in your own currency.  Hope this helps you estimate your cost to travel around the world! in a handful of  countries on various continents.

Africa

• Botswana – $26  USD per day
• Burkina Faso – $11  USD per day
• Egypt – $19  USD per day
• Ethiopia – $6  USD per day
• Kenya – $23  USD per day
• Rwanda – $26  USD per day
• South Africa – $31  USD per day
• Uganda – $23  USD per day

Asia

• Cambodia – $12  USD per day
• China – $31 USD per day
• Indonesia – $16  USD per day
• Japan – $45  USD per day
• Laos – $12  USD per day
• Philippines – $21  USD per day
• Singapore – $38  USD per day
• South Korea – $43  USD per day
• Taiwan – $85  USD per day
• Thailand – $19  USD per day
• Vietnam – $14  USD per day

Australiasia

• Australia – $56  USD per day
• New Zealand – $42  USD per day

Europe

• Bosnia and Herzegowina – $21  USD per day
• Croatia – $28  USD per day
• France – $57  USD per day
• Germany – $42  USD per day
• Greece – $40  USD per day
• Iceland – $107  USD per day
• Ireland – $44  USD per day
• Italy – $52  USD per day
• Norway – $47  USD per day
• Poland – $23  USD per day
• Portugal – $37  USD per day
• Russia – $19  USD per day
• Spain – $37  USD per day
• Sweden – $56  USD per day
• Switzerland – $74  USD per day
• United Kingdom – $62  USD per day

Indian Subcontinent

• Bangladesh – $25 USD per day
• India – $10  USD per day
• Nepal – $10  USD per day

Middle East

• Bahrain – $58  USD per day
• Israel  – $35 USD per day
• Turkey – $19  USD per day

North America

• Belize – $20  USD per day
• Canada – $36  USD per day
• Costa Rica – $28 USD per day
• Greenland – $89  USD per day
• Guatemala – $13  USD per day
• Mexico – $17  USD per day
• United States – $80  USD per day

(For what it’s worth – I think the U.S. number is inaccurate.  It is absolutely not more expensive than Sweden or Switzerland.)

Pacific

• Fiji – $40 USD per day

South America

• Argentina – $9  USD per day
• Brazil – $19  USD per day
• Bolivia – $11  USD per day
• Chile – $23  USD per day
• Columbia – $9  USD per day
• Ecuador – $14 USD per day
• Peru – $13  USD per day

BUT WAIT!

Remember these figures are for “normal” budget travel.   There are other options!

Not only is “normal” travel relatively  expensive, but it can also really suck.

Why?

See part 2:  Why “Normal” Travel Sucks
Or skip to part 3:  What Does It Cost To Travel the World Cheaply?  

You can also see what I spent on three sets of RTW flights:
What My Round-the-World Flights Cost

Happy Traveling!  â™£