Budget Wrap-up

If I decide to write a book about my trip, I could give it the boring title "Around the World on $75 a Day." In the final calculus I spent roughly $30,000 over 400 days... a lot less than I anticipated.

I feel that I struck a good balance between saving money (e.g. my round-the-world airline ticket cost a mere $420 in taxes and fees thanks to frequent flier miles) and splurging on nice hotels (e.g. in Eilat and Bali), activities (e.g. scuba diving and safaris), and purchases (I bought enough gifts to ship thirty-six packages to the US).

The cheapest country was Laos ($20/day) as compared to super-pricey Switzerland at $193/day. The weakest currency was the Vietnamese Dong (I was rich with $1 = 16,000 VND) while England's Pound was the strongest (£1 = $1.88). I spent the most time -- one month each -- in Indonesia, Israel, and China.

Below is a country-by-country summary:

1 China $2,000 for 31 days ($65/day)
2 Malaysia $1,500 for 27 days ($55/day)
3 Philippines $450 for 9 days ($50/day)
4 Indonesia $2,635 for 33 days ($80/day)
5 Singapore $765 for 8 days ($95/day)
6 Vietnam $900 for 17 days ($53/day)
7 Cambodia $400 for 11 days ($36/day)
8 Laos $255 for 13 days ($20/day)
9 Thailand $750 for 15 days ($50/day)
10 Egypt $1,265 for 25 days ($51/day)
11 Israel $1,225 for 32 days ($38/day)
12 Turkey $1,435 for 22 days ($65/day)
13 Jordan $215 for 5 days ($43/day)
14 Kenya $1,480 for 22 days ($67/day)
15 Tanzania $1,300 for 15 days ($87/day)
16 Holland $486 for 9 days ($54/day)
17 Spain $1,052 for 13 days ($81/day)
18 Portugal $1,182 for 10 days ($118/day)
19 Morocco $523 for 14 days ($37/day)
20 Belgium $548 for 4 days ($136/day)
21 France $709 for 6 days ($118/day)
22 England $790 for 7 days ($113/day)
23 Switzerland $1,350 for 7 days ($193/day)
24 Greece $2,415 for 23 days ($105/day)
25 Bulgaria $130 for 4 days ($32/day)
26 Romania $295 for 6 days ($49/day)
27 Hungary $328 for 2 days ($164/day)
28 Slovakia $230 for 6 days ($39/day)
29 Poland $412 for 9 days ($46/day)
30 Czech Republic $375 for 3 days ($125/day)