We knew that our travel adventure wasn’t going to come cheap – that’s why we’ve been saving for this trip for three years. It’s also the reason why I’m securing freelance work before I even leave the country to ensure we continue to make a tiny bit of cash while we’re on the road.
Nevertheless, we still weren’t quite prepared for the amount of money we’d spend pre-trip, before we’d even stepped on a plane. After finally buying the last items on our packing list this week I’ve totalled up the final cost of our pre-trip expenses – here they are.
Pre-trip Travel Costs – Packing
Since we’re going to be on the road for an indefinite period of time we thought it was important to buy quality backpacks. The backpacks we chose are quite small so we also invested in a lot of packing aids which work well to separate and condense our stuff – we’ve already road tested these on our summer holiday to Italy and are happy with the results.
| Packing | Cost |
| Osprey Aura 35L backpack |
£89 |
| Osprey Atmos 38L backpack |
£88 |
| 2 Eurohike compression sacks for dirty clothes |
£10 |
| 2 Vango small compression sacks |
£12 |
| 2 Vango large compression packs |
£14 |
| Eagle Creek packing cube |
£10 |
| Dry sack 25L |
£6 |
| Regatta pack away day bag 20L |
£12 |
| Total |
£241 |
Pre-trip Travel Costs – Electronics
We are lucky enough to have had a camera case, external hard-drive and a kindle each given to us as presents. Despite this, we’ve still ended up spending quite a bit on travel gadgets, even though we tried to keep the amount of electronics we carry to a minimum.
| Electronics | Cost |
| Panasonic Lumix GF3 camera |
£199 |
| 16gb Sandisk camera card |
£8 |
| Acer Aspire 11.1 inch laptop |
£308 |
| Laptop sleeve |
£12 |
| Antivirus software |
£25 |
| Blog domain and hosting for three years |
£146 |
| Total |
£698 |
Pre-trip Travel Costs – Flights, Documents and Vaccinations
This is by far the most expensive category. Although we opted not to buy round-the-world plane tickets to give us flexibility, to be granted travel visas for New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia we have to have proof of onward travel, which means booking flights in advance. However, we were lucky when it came to travel vaccinations as we got most of these for free on the NHS; we’ve also opted to buy our malaria pills and get our Japanese Encephalitis shots in Asia to save money.
| Travel documents & flights for two people | Cost |
| London to New Zealand flights |
£1,082 |
| New Zealand to Melbourne flights |
£283 |
| Gold Coast to Indonesia flights |
£472 |
| Indonesia to the Philippines flights |
£195 |
| Rock-boat tour New Zealand |
£200 |
| New passports (42 pages) |
£171 |
| Rabies vaccinations |
£120 |
| Indonesia 60-day visas |
£70 |
| International driving license x2 |
£11 |
| 1 UK driving license renewal |
£20 |
| New Zealand 1 month car rental deposit |
£64 |
| New Zealand accommodation deposits |
£256 |
| Total |
£2,944 |
Pre-trip Travel Costs – Clothing
I didn’t realise how much we’d spent on clothing for our trip until I totalled it up. It’s worth pointing out though that we hardly ever shop for clothes (or anything else really), so the prices below probably comprise 90% of our total clothing costs for this year.
| Clothing | Cost |
| 2 pairs of Havaiana flip flops |
£43 |
| 2 pairs of trainers |
£70 |
| Montane featherlight marathon jacket |
£35 |
| Montane singletrack jacket |
£39 |
| 2 Regatta micro fleeces |
£14 |
| Other clothing |
£226 |
| Total |
£427 |
Pre-trip Travel Costs – Miscellaneous
| Miscellaneous | Cost |
| Toiletries and medicines |
£18 |
| Six month supply of contact lenses |
£114 |
| 2 micro towels |
£17 |
| Skross World Travel Adapter 2 |
£25 |
| 2 cotton sleep sacks from TrekMates |
£16 |
| 4 combination locks |
£18 |
| Head torch |
£4 |
| Notebook and pens |
£5.00 |
| Total |
£217 |
Pre-trip cost total = £4,527
How much do you spend on pre-travel expenses; do you think we’ve gone overboard?
Love reading your cost breakdown posts for your travel prep, so useful! We haven’t started thinking what we need to buy yet, but I’m preparing for a bigger bill than we expect. Reading posts like this are so helpful for making spending predictions before the spending actually begins. So thanks for sharing!
Hi Charlie, glad you found it useful. We had no idea our pre-trip costs were going to be so high; I just hope we haven’t also underestimated what our actual travel costs will be once we hit the road!
I have never traveled for an indefinite period of time as you are about to do, so I have no comparison, but I think your list seems reasonable. And the fact that you bought quality will hopefully keep you equipped for a good long while. I think it’s also personal preference. I’m sure there are those who would spend less and those who would spend more, you have to go with what works for you!
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Hi Patti, yes I guess it is down to personal preference. I hope that the gear we have bought will last us a while and was a good investment, we’ll see!
It is amazing how things stack up cost wise. As long as you budget well it should be manageable.
I bought a netbook as opposed to a laptop for my travels. It is just as good as my laptop at home, no to be fair it is better. It is really light, reliable and only cost me £200. I’ve used it a lot and don’t have any problem with how small it is. I went for the Acer Aspire One.
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Yes, costs certainly stack up quickly. Since I’m taking on extra freelance work for when we are on the road we’re actually considering buying another laptop when we’re in Asia so We can both work at the same time – a Netbook could be the answer. Thanks for the recommendation!
I think your costs look dead on, and I don’t spot anything on your list that I would say was superfluous. We also have small packs and have found our packing cubes invaluable! They keep everything organized and also prevent our stuff from getting all wrinkled, so I think you’ll appreciate having them along. The one thing I wish we didn’t have to pack was our fleeces as our bags always seem so much emptier without them, but we have had to break them out a few times, so I don’t regret having those either!
I still haven’t written about our pre-trip costs, but I think we were right around where you are now, so I think you’re right on track!
Steph (@ 20 Years Hence) recently posted..Grappling with Greatness at the Great Wall
Hi Steph, glad to hear the packing cubes are a good investment. We did start off with a lot more travel gadgets/items on our list which would have bumped up our costs but buying small packs has forced us to buy only the essentials in the end – I’m glad we made that decision!
With each purchase having to be justified for weight, cost and purpose deciding what to buy and what not to buy is a skill little appreciated by non travellers. Hanging around in travel stores is a great way to build up the anticipation for the adventure ahead. It’s a nice feeling buying new items and picturing how and, more importantly, where they will be used. Kudos for the small bags – ours are stupid big.
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Yep, we’ve done plenty of lurking in travel stores that’s for sure! It’s nice seeing all our travel stuff waiting to be packed up too.
Seems like a good packing list. We’ve been traveling continuously for two years and haven’t regretted carrying any of the things you’ve listed. We don’t use packing cubes though, we use gallon zip-loc freezer bags. This keeps our clothes dry when we’ve learned why they call it the “rainforest” and allow us to squeeze the air out of clothes when packing. It was shocking the first time someone showed me how much smaller clothes get in zip-locs!
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Hi Matt, I like the sound of your zip lock bags actually, we didn’t even consider using those. There are still some other items we’re taking that aren’t listed – I’ll be posting our full packing list, with pictures, (I’m such a geek…) later this week.
Hi Amy. Did you buy all your airline tickets up front? I hosted a CS couple that is on a three year #rtw journey. They told me that they book three tickets at a time (i.e. entry into first country – exit out of first country – entry into second country) They said the flight were genrally cheaper this way. Has anyone else on a #rtw experience this too?
Hi, we initially just booked our tickets to New Zealand thinking we would buy others along the way. However, when we checked out the visa restrictions we realised we’d need onward tickets to be able to enter our first few countries, which meant we had to book flights to Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Consequently we spent more on flights up-front then we thought we would, we’ll definitely wait to book any more flights until we’re on the road.
Thanks for the breakdown, these are always quite helpful. I don’t think you’ve gone overboard. To save money on our pre expenses I’m trying to get as many things as possible as Christmas and birthday presents
Hi Ally, that’s a good idea; our kindles and external hard drive were generous birthday presents that saved us a lot of cash.
Man I remember these posts! So much money spent pre trip that people often don’t realize – important to factor into your budget!
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Hi Dave, yep, there are definitely many costs that you just don’t foresee until you get around to seriously planning your trip. I’m glad we’re almost ready to move onto the actual travelling soon!
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Hi Guys, this was awesome.
Good luck with your trip!!!!
My boyfriend and I are also planning to travel around the world one day, for a year. We are currently living in Phuket, Thailand and we are able to save a lot more living here, than in Austin, TX (his home town) or in Windhoek, Namibia (my home town) – thank you for this cost break down – I’ll definitely come back to this when we start budgeting
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Thanks Lourika, this was exactly the kind of thing we we’re looking for when we first started planning so it’s good to know other people find it useful. We will keep updating our costs once we are on the road too. Hope you get to start your trip soon too!