Spending/budget on finished 3.5 month trip in SEA
Hi!
I want to share a bit of my expenses during my last trip, as maybe it helps someone figuring out their own budget. A few months ago, when I did the planning for our trip I bumped into some values, which doesn't necessarily seem enough. Of course, it depends on your requirements, and you can "survive", but not necessarily having the time of your life there.
I read in many places that you live like king with less than 1000 USD per month. However, our experience is a bit different and while you can manage it, so might miss out a lot that SEA can offer experience wise.
I will try to highlight some values, the "expensive" tours or activities that can be subtracted from the total values if someone wants to see the "baseline".
General notes: our approach was to save on:
* accomodation: hostels whenever possible, private room when it's cheaper (since we're a couple, it was quite many times the case)
* transport: take public transportation, walk for short distances. (we don't ride a scooter, so in some cases we had to use taxis or walk longer distances).
* food: eat as much local, in small restaurants/buffets, food markets and local eateries (had no food problem before anyone worries)
* flights: as few as possible (we failed misserably in Indonesia, because of the current fuel prices, we spent more than expected on flights between the islands).
* no alcohol/coffe every day. My partner doesn't drink alcohol at all, and I also can count on my two hands how many times I drink anything. Same with coffee, I don't drink it at all and my partner occasionally. No night life, we had a single night out.
Trip details:
* 2 person
* 118 days in total
* Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia
!! All daily prices include a 5 EUR base price, coming from expenses for the trip: insurance, travel vaccines, international driving license cost, some medicine like some anti-malaria pills (never used it). Prices are per person.
**THAILAND**
42 days, total: 2240, daily avg: 59 EUR
Includes:
* 500 EUR for diving course (open water + advanced).
* flight from Bangkok to Vietnam (95 EUR)
* one flight from Chiang Rai to Bangkok.
* some moderate shopping for souvenirs and some sport equipment from decathlon (±100 eur per person).
* mostly day tours, nothing fancy here
**VIETNAM**
31 days, total: 1380, daily avg: 45 EUR
Includes:
* flight to Indonesia (95-100 EUR)
* bicycle rental for a week (18 USD per day) for Ha Giang loop (so we don't have that tour price)
* very few day tours like Fansipan, Lan Ha bay, ...
* aaand a very expensive 2day cave tour (250 eur), which was a total disaster for me, who has some caving experience.
Without the cave tour expense, Vietnam spending would have looked really really good, thanks to mostly doing DIY tours.
**INDONESIA**
42 days, total: 2860, daily avg: 67 EUR
Includes:
* many many tours and once in a life experiences.
* 6 day jungle trek in Sumatra: ±400 EUR
* lost visa (I applied too late for the e-visa and we had to pay then the visa on arrival too)
* quite some internal flights (internal + back to thailand)
* diving in multiple locations: 460 EUR
* 3/4 day boat tour: 180 EUR
* Rinjani 3 day: 180 EUR
* and many day tours with various price tags.
Closing notes: if you stick with low-cost accomodation and local food, the daily base costs are extremely low. You can have a meal for 2-3 EUR, but as soon as you crave a bit more comfort or western food (even just sweets from a supermarket) the costs starts increasing. The attractions/experiences/tours are the ones adding up. In our case this was clearly visible in Indonesia, where we wanted to see as much as we could.
I hope someone might find it useful, if you have any further question, I'm happy to answer anything.