u/Shoddy-General4649

A while ago, I decided to go backpacking through South America and Asia for approximately six months. Naturally, the big question was: “How much is this going to cost?”

After doing some research and drawing on my own experience, I decided to stick to a daily budget of €45 (excluding flights and train tickets in China) and save a total budget of €20,000. For those of you who are good at maths, this left me with a reasonable buffer in case I went over my daily budget. I did this deliberately to make sure I would stay under the €20,000 mark.

During my trip, I kept track of my expenses in an Excel spreadsheet. It automatically showed me whether I was staying within my daily budget and whether I was on track to stay within my overall budget for the entire trip. In the end, I went slightly over budget quite often, but I managed to make up for it on other days. What I particularly liked about the spreadsheet was that it gave me a sense of control over my spending.

To help future travellers plan their budgets, I’ve broken down my expenses by country. I spent approximately €3,000 on flights and €500 on train tickets in China.

Of course, your budget depends heavily on your travel style. I mainly stayed in hostels, ate local food, skipped some paid activities, and tried to keep flying to a minimum.

P.S. In Sri Lanka, I also spent nine days at a surf resort, costing approximately €110 per day. Since I knew I would stay within my overall budget, I decided to treat myself a little. These expenses are not included in the breakdown I’m sharing here.

Overall itinerary:
Colombia: Flew in and stayed for one month.
Ecuador: Took a bus from Colombia and stayed for half a month.
Galápagos Islands: Flew to and from the islands and stayed for 11 days.
Peru: Took a bus from Ecuador and stayed for one month.
Bolivia: Took a bus from Peru and stayed for one month.
Europe: Flew back to Europe to attend a wedding and stayed for five days.
China: Flew to China and stayed for one month.
Sri Lanka: Flew to Sri Lanka and stayed for one month, including the time at the surf resort.
Europe: Flew back home.

Hi there!

A couple of days ago, I arrived in this beautiful country, and at the moment I’m in Sigiriya.

My plan is to head north all the way to Jaffna, and then continue to Kandy, Ella and Komari for surfing. My current plan is shown in the attached screenshot. The first column shows the date, the second column shows potential activities, and the third column shows the location of the hostel.

I still have a couple of days left to fill in (where “Sri Lanka” is written in the last column). Furthermore, I have no idea how many days I should spend in each location.

Could you please give me some advice on my current plan? In particular, I’d love to know whether the number of nights in each location is sufficient, what activities you would recommend, and whether there are any places I should visit that I’m currently missing.

Thanks in advance!