Probably one of the most frequent questions we were asked during our travels was "How much does it cost to travel the world as a family, it must be a fortune?".
Well, the reality is somewhat different.
We travelled for 10 months.
It cost us around $53,000 or 186,000 NIS.
About $5000 per month.
Significantly less than it costs us to live normally in Israel.
Our spend was probably in line with our budget before leaving, especially as we ended up spending 2 months in New Zealand which bumped up the costs, although not as much as we had anticipated.
This post is not about how to fund travelling, for everyone that is different and so for families who travel without income, then it is a significant amount to fund from savings. We were lucky enough to have income throughout our travelling but the key point is that the costs of travelling are probably lower than most people imagine.
This figure includes absolutely everything: flights, accommodation, visas, insurance, food, activities, attractions, money we spent before leaving for vaccinations, buying rucksacks and other stuff.
We tracked our spend using this great app, TravelSpend, which allowed us to set budgets for each country and keep a handle on how much we were spending. Some travellers find it a bit of a grind, recording every penny spent, but I'm a bit of a data junkie so actually took some sad enjoyment out of managing our finances (I'm the son of an accountant so old habits die hard!).
Our method of travel was probably a little more expensive than the average, we moved around quite a lot, didn't stay anywhere for longer than 2 weeks. It is certainly possible to travel for significantly less, for example in India where we spent on average $3250 per month, by staying in 1 or 2 places for that period, we could easily have reduced our costs to around $2000 per month.
So our costs are specific to us but they do give a fair indication of the costs of family travel.
Below is a breakdown of our spend by country. Within each country spend I have included any entry visas and internal flights.
For anyone interested in more details, feel free to get in touch and I can share.
Well, the reality is somewhat different.
We travelled for 10 months.
It cost us around $53,000 or 186,000 NIS.
About $5000 per month.
Significantly less than it costs us to live normally in Israel.
Our spend was probably in line with our budget before leaving, especially as we ended up spending 2 months in New Zealand which bumped up the costs, although not as much as we had anticipated.
This post is not about how to fund travelling, for everyone that is different and so for families who travel without income, then it is a significant amount to fund from savings. We were lucky enough to have income throughout our travelling but the key point is that the costs of travelling are probably lower than most people imagine.
This figure includes absolutely everything: flights, accommodation, visas, insurance, food, activities, attractions, money we spent before leaving for vaccinations, buying rucksacks and other stuff.
We tracked our spend using this great app, TravelSpend, which allowed us to set budgets for each country and keep a handle on how much we were spending. Some travellers find it a bit of a grind, recording every penny spent, but I'm a bit of a data junkie so actually took some sad enjoyment out of managing our finances (I'm the son of an accountant so old habits die hard!).
Our method of travel was probably a little more expensive than the average, we moved around quite a lot, didn't stay anywhere for longer than 2 weeks. It is certainly possible to travel for significantly less, for example in India where we spent on average $3250 per month, by staying in 1 or 2 places for that period, we could easily have reduced our costs to around $2000 per month.
So our costs are specific to us but they do give a fair indication of the costs of family travel.
Below is a breakdown of our spend by country. Within each country spend I have included any entry visas and internal flights.
For anyone interested in more details, feel free to get in touch and I can share.
- All International Flights, Insurance and Pre-travel purchases
- 55,104 NIS
- $15,600
- Thailand
- 14,500 NIS/ $4,100
- Number of days 29
- Average spend per day 500 NIS/ $141
- Philippines
- 16,250 NIS/ $4,600
- Number of days 48
- Average spend per day 338 NIS/ $96
- Cambodia
- 6,000 NIS/ $1700
- Number of days 15
- Average spend per day 400 NIS/ $113
- Vietnam
- 15,500 NIS/ $4,400
- Number of days 47
- Average spend per day 332 NIS/ $94
- Hong Kong
- 3800 NIS/ $1,100
- Number of days 5
- Average spend per day 760 NIS/ $215
- New Zealand
- 31,000 NIS/ $8,800
- Number of days 53
- Average spend per day 606 NIS/ $172
- Nepal
- 10,500 NIS/ $3,000
- Number of days 28
- Average spend per day 376 NIS/ $106
- India
- 23,000 NIS/ $6,500
- Number of days 64
- Average spend per day 357 NIS/ $101
- Maldives
- 7,700 NIS/ $2,200
- Number of days 21
- Average spend per day 365 NIS/ $103
