When I set out last year to travel I really didn’t know what to expect. My friends were placing bets on how long it would be before I returned home, and having never travelled alone before, or for more than two weeks at a time, I was inclined to believe there was a high possibility I would be back within a month too.
I think I spent every single night of my first week in tears.
As someone who liked to firmly remain in their comfort zone, didn’t know how to talk to strangers and was terrified to try new things, I couldn’t help but spend every single second wondering what on earth I was doing, wondering why I was even travelling in the first place, struggling to understand why I was finding this so hard.
And it was really, really hard.
For the first month at least.
And then, suddenly, something clicked. I got over my reluctance to talk to people I didn’t know, I learnt that the likelihood of dying while trying new food was actually very, very low.
Travelling was my new comfort zone.
And the thought of going home suddenly started to terrify me.
I started to realise that returning to my old life back in England was no longer an option – I needed to find a way to make this lifestyle sustainable, I needed to start earning money. And so, after months and months of very little travel and a hell of a lot of work – freelance writing and other online ventures – I finally reached the point where I was able to fund my travels and could travel for the foreseeable future.
Being a physics geek, I love numbers and try to keep track of my statistics as I travel. Here’s my round-up of the last year:
Continents visited: 3
Africa, Asia, Europe.
Countries visited: 22
Austria, Bosnia, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Laos, Morocco, Netherlands, The Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine.
Cities visited: 78
Distance travelled: 60,368km
Number of photos taken: 23,347
Number of planes: 36
Number of trains: 17
Number of buses: 33
Favourite countries:
Thailand, Taiwan, The Philippines.
Favourite cities:
Ljubljana, Slovenia; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Koh Yao Noi, Thailand; Boracay, The Philippines.
Total amount spent: £8576.78/$13,312
I am pretty amazed at how little I spent over the entire year. Why were my travels so cheap? I’ve put it down to the fact that I spent 10 of the 12 months in Asia and I was based in Thailand for 6 of those months – a country where I frequently spent under $500 a month. It just goes to show that travel can be extremely affordable!
Amount spent per day by country:
Austria: £37.50/day
Bosnia: £40.00/day
Cambodia: £47.61/day
China: £21.23/day
Croatia: £36.14/day
Czech Republic: £10.00/day
Germany: £24.16/day
Hong Kong: £18.90/day
Hungary: £17.00/day
Indonesia: £25.52/day
Laos: £9.44/day
Morocco: £22.33/day
Netherlands: £32.06/day
The Philippines: £25.01/day
Russia: £30.00/day
Singapore: £30.00/day
Slovenia: £27.51/day
South Korea: £10.16/day
Taiwan: £13.55/day
Thailand: £17.60/day
Ukraine: £16.00/day
The highlights of my year:
- Exploring the gorgeous coastline and beautiful islands of Croatia.
- Falling in love with Ljubljana in Slovenia.
- Eating at amazing themed restaurants in Taiwan.
- Experiencing overwhelming friendliness and kindness in Taiwan.
- Spending the day walking on the Great Wall of China.
- Dressing up as a terracotta warrior in Xi’an!
- Visiting the crazy dog and cat cafes in Seoul.
- Getting to see the famous Hong Kong skyline at night.
- White Beach in Boracay. Hands down, the best beach I’ve ever visited. Paradise!
- Falling in love with the most amazing guy I’ve ever met – and finding the best travel companion in the world!
- My incredible 1,500km scooter trip around Northern Thailand – and having the brakes fail as we were riding down the side of a mountain…
- Learning to surf in Bali.
- Finally finding my definition of an island paradise in Thailand.
- Celebrating Songkran in Chiang Mai. So. Much. Fun.
- Exploring Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
- Visiting my friends and family back home and realising that it wasn’t as awful and scary as I was originally expecting.
- Flying over Lake Bled in a hot air balloon.
- Celebrating my birthday in Ljubljana.
- Exploring the Sahara Desert in Morocco – riding camels over the sand dunes at sunrise and sunset, camping out under the Milky Way – it was amazing.
The past year has undoubtedly been the best year of my entire life!
The only thing left to say is thank you SO much for reading along with my adventures/disasters, for commenting and sharing my posts, for all the support – I appreciate it so much! Hopefully I’ve been able to entertain you with all my mishaps and I hope I can bring you even more ridiculous stories over the next year!
– Lauren
Pretty sweet budgeting. Good to see that you enjoyed Taiwan. They do have the kindest people in the world!
Thanks, Matt! Ah, I miss Taiwan so much. The people were AMAZING.
Congrats on your first year. It’s always scary heading off on your own. I did my year away a while ago now and loved it. Am currently plucking up the courage to move countries and start a fresh.
Thank you! :) Yep, it’s terrifying if you’ve never done it before – but so worth it!
Lauren, I have loved reading your site. I remember stumbling across it when I was at the beginning stages of my planning. You have inspired me to step out of my comfort zone! I can’t wait to go on my trip in 2014 and I’m really glad I stumbled on your blog.
Jen
Jen, thank you SO much! :) I’m glad I’ve helped to inspire you to travel too! If I can do it, anyone can! ;)
great blog… thank you for sharing all your adventures.
Thanks! :)
Lauren, I’ve loved your blog since I discovered it in February, and you were one of the biggest influences for my realisation that hey, I can do this too!
Thanks so much for being so approachable when I emailed you with all my questions, and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings for you. Hope we can meet up on the road some day!
Awww, thanks Lindsey! :) That’s the point I try to get across through my site – look at all the crazy and ridiculous things that happen to me while I travel, but I’m still alive, I’m still doing it, and if I can, you can too!
Congrats Lauren! Hopefully I’ll be able to make my funds last as long as you’ve managed. Going to CouchSurf a lot to keep accommodation costs down and…hmm….well I guess I have to budget the rest!
Looking forward to seeing where the rest of the year brings you! :)
Spending the majority of your time in cheaper countries definitely helps – never leave Southeast Asia haha!
Wow. Cambodia is more expensive than I pictured it would be.
That’s the entrance ticket to Angkor Wat ;) If I hadn’t paid for that, it would have only been around £15 a day.
As a Psychology PhD, I too am a total numbers nerd, so I love these kinds of posts! And I really love that you were able to travel for so long for so little – we are thinking of spending a good chunk of time in Asia, and it’s nice to see that it really is possible to enjoy life and really immerse yourself in the places you are visiting without completely blowing the budget!
Also, I am hoping one thing I get out of our trip is to get over my dislike of speaking to strangers. If they are the ones to strike up conversation, I do fine, but I really hate breaking the ice with people I don’t know.
Yep, staying in Asia definitely helps to minimise your costs – especially if you settle and live somewhere for a couple of months.
That was a great year, Lauren!
How did you manage to spend £47.61/day in Cambodia and just £10.00/day in Czech Republic?
The price of a 3 day Angkor Wat ticket bumped up the price of Cambodia, as I only spent 3 days there!
I arrived in Prague at night on my final day of travel for this year – so my only expense was the price of the hostel, not food or anything :)
Congrats on a year of travel, I’ve enjoyed reading about all of your adventures :-)
Thanks so much for reading along, Alison :)
Lauren: congratulations on overcoming your anxiety and finding something that truly makes you happy. I know you’ve had some mishaps (that make great stories!) in the past year but at least you’re having more of an adventure than you would had you spent the last year at home.
I felt exactly the same when I’d been in Australia for a year; although I hadn’t been “travelling” around as much, the fact that I’d chosen to leave EVERYTHING I knew at home and start again from scratch in another country and not had a breakdown/died was kinda liberating!
Congrats again hun xx
Thanks, lovely! Yep, i know if I’d stayed at home over the past year I would have probably spent 90% of my time sitting on my laptop, achieving absolutely nothing.
You’ve done awesome too :)
Loved this post! As a new reader, it was a great way to get caught up. I’ve been here for 30 min so far and I’m not leaving any time soon. Lots of posts to read!
Thanks, Diane! Hope you enjoy reading about all my mishaps ;)
I loved this, what a wonderful heartfelt summary of your trip and using numbers! great.
Aww, thanks, Sarah!
Congrats on passing the one year mark! I think it’s so awesome that you spent so little in the past year!
Thanks, Ali! I was really shocked when I added it all up!
That is actually SUPER cheap! Very inspirational! Thank you VERY much for sharing.
No problem, Sal! :)
Gotta love ya Lauren! Very surprised at how little you spent. Do these figures also include long-haul flights across said continents, trains, etc.? If so, I’m even MORE impressed! Def. stumbled this so I can use it for reference when I finally entail on another RTW trip :)
Can’t wait to read more — for another awesome year!
Cheers,
Maria Alexandra
Yep, all the flights and transport is included :) It makes me miss the prices of Asia…. :D
Congrats on your first full year of travel! Traveling the world on that amount of money is definitely impressive, but I’m personally more impressed by your resilience. Kudos to you for sticking with it and finding your happiness!
Awwww, thanks Christy :) I’m SO glad I didn’t give up and run home in the beginning…
Wow… a year already. I remember when you were leaving home. Fuck time flies. I love all the statistics I haven’t kept track of many but have a few interesting ones I cant wait to share once the trip is over…lol!!! Congrats on the year and cheers to many more!!!
I know, a year sounds HUGE! I like telling people in hostels that I’ve been travelling for a year because finally my number sounds impressive LOL.
Love it! Congrats on such a great year!
Thanks so much, Susan! :)
It’s great that you’ve managed to build an income that will keep you travelling. I’m curious – any of the work you do online physics related?
Nope, I think I’ve forgotten everything I learned during my degree now!
Lauren, this post makes me all kinds of happy!! xxxxx
Awww, I’m so glad! :)
Wow. I can’t believe you were able to keep track of all this stuff. You are way more organized than me! Congrats on a year of travel!
Ha thanks Christy! I can’t believe it either! :-)
Congrats! What an amazing year it has been!
Thanks, Jade! Amazing definitely describes it!
Quite impressive. Not just the stats but the fact that you actually are able to calculate them!
Thanks, Stephanie!
Wow! You have really come so far in a year – and I don’t mean in miles! Travel has a great way of forcing you to overcome your fears as it has done with me. Im not sure the person I would have become if I hadn’t traveled. Congratulations on your success!
Thanks, Elle. I definitely agree with you. I don’t think I’d be much of a fan of the person I’d be if I hadn’t travelled…
Congrats on your first year! love how you broke it down.
Thanks, Sara! I’m looking forward to seeing what my expenses are like next year!
Shoutout from the Philippines! Happy that you loved our Boracay!
It’s one of my favourite places :-)
Great summary post :D It always amazes me how people say travel is so expensive, and yet your whole incredible year costs far less than funding most ‘normal’ lives. Keep it up :D
Thanks, Laurence! So true! :-)
Really inspiring to read that you spent less than £9k in a year. Thanks for revealing all your stats – another push for me in the right direction to giving it all up and going travelling :)
Awww, that’s so lovely to hear Vicky! I hope you manage to head out to see the world soon :-)
Wow! I could never keep track of all that. Really impressed with how little you spent–good work!
Thanks, Jeremy! :-)
As I mentioned on Twitter, I find it amazing that you spent less than what an American would make working minimum wage for a year…it just proves how affordable travel really can be!
Congrats on one year of travel! :)
Yep, definitely! I had a lot less comfort but it was definitely worth it for me :-)
What a fantastic year! Awesome!
I’m impressed with how much you’ve managed to do with so little money. It’s an inspiration to anyone who thinks they can’t afford to travel.
Here’s to many more great years!!
Thanks, Michael! It’s definitely much more affordable than people think.
Congrats on a great year, Lauren. I wish I was as good at budgeting and watching my money as you seem to be :-)
Thanks Alison! If I didn’t have my monthly summaries I’d be a lot worse… :-)
The amounts on amounts per day seem pretty surprising. Why is Cambodia so high and South Korea so low? Also, Indonesia and Philippines are both higher than Hong Kong?? What gives?
Well I spent 3 days total in Cambodia and spent all of that time at Angkor Wat. A three day pass costs $40 and I had to pay $15 a day for a tuk-tuk driver. If I’d spent a month in Cambodia and hadn’t been to Angkor Wat then, of course, it would have been much cheaper.
I stayed with friends in South Korea and Hong Kong so I only had to pay for food while I was in those countries, which is why my costs were so low :-)
Hey Lauren, just came across your blog. Great stuff! I’m from Singapore and saw the posts you made when you were here. Just thought i could share with you some stuff.
-Try visiting sentosa at night and catch “Songs of the Sea”. Its a water performance out at the sea at siloso beach.
– Ask around for recommended hawker centers if you are keen on trying tasty local dishes. Cheap and the most authentic tasting. If you want great local food, hawker centers are where you should be heading to. Just have to bear with the heat though as it is not air conditioned. haha
– you can catch a return ferry (S$50) from harbor front that will take you to a small island in Indonesia called batam (1hr journey). Cheap clothes, cheap food, cheap spa, and water sports widely available too. Just make sure you avoid the usual tourist traps.
Just some of the few stuff to share with you. Hope it helps you the next time you visit Singapore. Have fun travelling! Cheers!
Hi Lauren,
What an amazing year you’ve had!
I’m currently planning a RTW trip myself and am starting to worry about the budget and if I’ll have enough money to keep me going for a year.
I’m really impressed with your break-down, thank you for sharing, it really helps other travellers who are organising a trip.
I was wondering how much of that budget was spent on flights and how much on overland travel?
Not long now until your second year summary, can’t wait to read it!
Jenny
Oh wow! I’m so happy you love the Philippines! You should go back and explore Palawan, see the Rice Terraces, etc.!
I definitely need to see more of Palawan. I wasn’t very excited by Coron :-)
Thank you for the statistics! Not many travellers post stuff like that, I don’t know if it’s because they think it might be boring or what, but I find it very useful.
Happy trails in the future, we’ll be following you around :-)
Glad you found them helpful :-) I’m all about the statistics!
What a refreshing post and I wonder how many people have experienced what you did on the slow boat! Not many I hope. I love the statistics of your daily spending per country. This is extremely useful. Thank you. Congratulations on your travels and on a truly inspirational blog.
I hope not many too! :-) I’m so glad you found my statistics useful and thank you for your kind words!
Hi Lauren
I am in the process of saving. To take at least take a year off and travel.
You said “ Total amount spent: £8576.78/$13,312“. In your first year
Did that include flights and main travel between countries ??
If so do you mind saying how much you roughly spent on the travel part..
Many thanks phil