A budget for traveling

A budget for traveling
Everyone has a different budget for their vacation. One person’s budget for a fortnight in Egypt might well run to a couple of thousand dollars, for others it would be a few hundred. Generally, budget travel is considered shoestring. Lonely Planet almost made the name their own with their original travel guide to Southeast Asia; for travelers on a tight budget.

Now LP has guides to just about everywhere, and has included mid-range and top end hotels in their places to stay; to cast the net wider. We’ll be looking at the guidebooks next week. If you’re traveling on the cheap, there’s nothing to stop you entering the five star hotels. Some of them have good value, all you can eat buffets; at a price travelers can afford-occasionally.

If you’re starting out on a lengthy 3 to 6 month overland journey, you will indeed need to budget for three to seven thousand dollars. Your budget will vary depending on where you travel. Europe is not as cheap anymore, and the gendarmes aren’t so tolerant of back-packers sleeping on the beach.

When the Summer is over you wouldn’t want to anyway, but it’s still a good time to travel in Europe. The queues for museums have gone, you’ll have less tourists in your photographs, and you will get to meet the locals; in the high season they’re all on holiday too. The accommodation prices are coming down as well; almost half the price in some heavily touristed areas.

Amsterdam and Prague are great budget places in September and October, and Paris is coming back to life — the Parisians desert the French capital in August, and that’s not a lot of fun if you like to sit at a brasserie table and watch the world go by.
Good value travel can still be had in Asia, South America, and parts of Africa. In West Africa, for example, the Francophone countries are more expensive than the former English colonies, with Abidjan and Dakar the two most expensive cities. Ghana is a treasure. Now’s the time to start planning for the Southern Hemisphere

The most expensive part of the trip is usually the flight ticket. You can make reservations online. Your budget for traveling, once the ticket is bought, will of course depend on your comfort requirements in both accommodation and transportation.
So whatever your budget, there’s always something for you — you pay the money, you take the choice. Don’t forget that some countries require you to pay for a visa, and when your budgeted time is out you may well have to pay a departure tax. So, enjoy your trip.

April 12, 2008 | Filed Under Finance, Travel

 

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