South by Southeast: How to budget for long-term travel

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Welcome back to Gadling’s new series about Southeast Asia, South by Southeast. Starting in October, I’ll be spending the next four months traveling through this much-discussed destination. But as exciting as it is to travel for several months, you can’t just get up and leave overnight. Medical arrangements must be made, backpacks selected and most importantly, you’ll need to do some budgeting.

Perhaps the most daunting obstacle for anyone considering this type of long-term trip is deciding how much money to bring. It’s not an easy question to answer – search around online and you’re likely to find all kinds of responses, ranging from the extravagant to the frugal. So how does one create a budget for long-term travel? And how in the world do you save up the money to make it work? Let’s take a closer look at how to do it, in five steps.

1: Decide Where You’re Going
The most important factor in your budget is the decision of where to go. Although you don’t have to pick a destination when you’re planning a trip, it helps to choose regions you want to visit and consider general costs. As a rule of thumb, travel in North America and Western Europe is most expensive, whereas South America, Southeast Asia or Africa are far cheaper. For my trip to Southeast Asia, I took the region’s cheaper cost of living into account, deciding I could afford to stay longer and stretch my dollars farther.

It’s also worth considering how much you plan to move around. Will you be visiting multiple regions of the world? Or will your trip cover just a few neighboring countries? If you only have a week to see all of Southeast Asia, the flights are going to get expensive quick. But if you’re able to take your time, you might be able to save lots of money on cheaper bus, boat and train rides.

2: Get Some Inspiration
Lots of numbers get thrown out when it comes to travel budgets. According to general wisdom, $20-30 per day is enough for Southeast Asia. This includes a basic, clean guesthouse, three meals and a few activities. If you want high-end hotels, it can cost much more. Regardless of how you travel, wouldn’t it be great to have real-world examples? Thankfully, there’s plenty of resources online to help answer this question.

For general budget queries, head to the message boards at Bootsnall or Lonely Planet, where questions such as “How long will my money last in XXX?” and “Is $XXXX enough for XX months?” are frequent topics for debate. Even more helpful are the budgets of long-term traveler Megan and backpacker David, who posted detailed spreadsheets of their expenses online. With these figures it’s much easier to know what’s realistic and what’s not.

3. Don’t Forget the Extras
The general assumption of long-term travel is you’re on a tight budget. But keep in mind there’s a difference between “tight” and “idiotic.” For every expense you planned in your head, consider there are 10 others you haven’t. There are visa fees to enter some countries, immunizations, and of course, the occasional splurge on a nice hotel. Consider these “other” costs as part of initial budget. You’ll thank yourself later when you have the money to cover them.

Although it’s been suggested $20-30 per day is enough for my trip to Southeast Asia ($900/month), I’ve left myself a bit more to handle unexpected incidentals. That’s not to mention several hundred dollars I spent pre-trip on immunizations and anti-malarial drugs. Take these costs into account.

4. Get Creative About Earning
By now you’ve figured out where you want to go and settled on an estimated budget. Hopefully you’ve also left padding for those extra expenses. But a good question remains – how on earth do you earn this money? You do have a life after all, and putting it on hold to plan a long-term trip doesn’t mean you have to become a hermit. Instead, you need to get creative about ways to save up. Here’s a few ideas:

  • Bring lunch to work. Those meals out add up quick.
  • Coffee drinker? Brew it at home.
  • Have a mortgage to pay? Can you rent your home while you’re gone?
  • Sell stuff you don’t need. It’s amazing what people bought from me on Craigslist.
  • If you have a car, could you sell it and take mass transit instead? Or a bike?
  • Have friends over to your house instead of going out to eat or to the bar.
  • Take on a second job. There’s plenty of freelancing and web-based jobs like blogging you can do from home.

The key is to find a combination that works for you. Not everyone can give up their car, or stop paying their mortgage. Perhaps you even have children to care for. Whatever your circumstances, patience and commitment to a plan make all the difference. If you want to travel bad enough, you can find a way to make it work.

5. Remember You’re Coming Back (eventually)
It’s a great feeling to be able to spend the money you’ve been saving during your travels. But don’t forget that at some point, even if you extend your trip, you’ll probably want to come home. Remember not to spend your travel fund down to the very last dime – you might need a few bucks when you get back to rent an apartment and cover basic expenses during the transition.

Gadling writer Jeremy Kressmann is spending the next few months in Southeast Asia. You can read other posts on his adventures “South by Southeast” HERE.

Artcars given kudos by Smithsonian Magazine

by Jamie Rhein on

This month artcars have well-deserved attention by Smithsonian Magazine. The magazine sent a crew to the H Street Festival in Washington, D.C. on September 19th to cover artcar artists and their work. The result is this video that provides a wonderful overview of the artcars that are tootling about on American roadways. More importantly, it highlights the motivations of the people who create them. An insight into the mind of an artist is a worthwhile ride.

An interesting point made in the video is that artcar artists don’t only take their cars to festivals or put them in parades. Often they are the main mode of transportation for the owners.

This video contains artist interviews and up close looks at some of their creations. As I was watching the video and considered the way cars have been used to create art–whether they are placed in a tree or arranged in a field, or driven around, I thought about how they do have a way of bringing people together in an unusual way.

One can not pass by an artcar without stopping for a closer look. Chances are, if you’ve stopped and looked, so has someone else. Stick around for a few minutes and you may find yourself in a small crowd sharing an experience you may not have expected when you woke up that morning.

To an artcar artist, that’s part of the point they’re trying to make. Stop and pay attention. There’s wonder happening in the world if you slow down long enough to take a look.

Hotels in the U.S. Virgin Islands offer 25 cent nightly rate

by Katie Hammel on

The U.S. Virgin Islands are going to be featured on a newly designed quarter and to celebrate, hotels around the islands are offering up rooms at 25 cents – yes, just 25 cents! – per night.

Of course, there is some fine print to the offer. Guests will still be responsible for taxes of 7%, resort fees, and government taxes of 8%, so the total ends up being a litte more than the 75 cents you might immediately assume when learning of the offer (packages I checked totaled around $100 in taxes and fees). Nine different hotels are participating in the promotion, including the Bolongo Bay Beach Resort and the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort and Spa.

The offer is valid for travel now through December 15, though each resort may have its own blackout dates. There is a three night limit for the 25 cent rate and air-inclusive packages must be booked through the BookIt website. Guests who book the package do get a few perks – they’ll receive a $25 activities credit, $25 dining credit and a commemorative quarter.

The other caveat: you’ve got to act fast. There are a limited number of rooms available and you must book by November 2.

[via Budget Travel]

Escape from Chicago with low Fall rates at The Abbey

by Katie Hammel on

Several weeks ago, I had the chance to check out The Abbey Resort and Spa on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. 80 miles from Chicago and even less from Milwaukee, it’s the perfect Fall escape from either city. Chicago residents don’t even need a car to get there; the Metra train runs from downtown Chicago to the Harvard stop, where a resort shuttle bus will pick guests up. Relaxing on the train as the colorful Autumn leaves go by sounds like a great way to get into “vacation mode:”

Fall rates normally start at $216 per night, but for select weekends throughout the next two weeks, The Abbey is offering a special promotion for its Twitter followers and pricing rooms at just $79 per night. The deal is valid on October 7, 11, 12, 13 and 14 with limited availability.

Covered in the rate is daily admission to the spa, which includes use of the locker room, pool, sauna, steam, whirlpool, and all group fitness classes. The resort also offers plenty of Autumn activities onsite and nearby, like games, fall foliage drives, wine-tasting, and you-pick farm stands.

To snag the deal, follow The Abbey on Twitter, and book online using the promo code: TWEET.

It’s Halloweekends time at Cedar Point!

by Katie Hammel on

As a child growing up in the Midwest, Autumn always meant the same traditions. Sundays spent raking the leaves from the yard, visits to cider mills, and an annual October trip to Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio.

Cedar Point. . .in October? Yes! If you live in the Midwest, you probably know that Cedar Point stays open on weekends through November 1. If you didn’t know, you’ll want to plan a trip now because, while night can be cold, hours are limited, and not all the rides are open (including, of course, the water rides and the Soak City park), the lack of crowds makes this the perfect time to get your roller coaster fix.

For the whole month, the park is open from 6pm to midnight on Fridays, noon to midnight on Saturdays, and 11am to 8pm on Sundays (except for October 11 when it’s open 10am-10pm). And with those reduced hours come reduced prices on Friday nights and Saturdays after 4pm. Daily admission is normally $44.99, but during those times it drops to $29.99 per adult.

During Halloweekends most of the park’s major coasters like Millennium Force, Raptor, Magnum, and Blue Streak are all open, though some of the smaller attractions are closed. The park is decked out for Halloween with zombies, crypts, monsters, and pumpkins scattered around, and there are haunted houses of varying scare factors, a Halloween parade, and costume contests for kids.

But the best part is that, rather than waiting up to 2 hours for your favorite coaster like you will in the peak of summer, you’ll rarely wait more than 30 minutes to move through the line during Halloweekends. At many times, especially when it gets a bit chillier late in the season, you’ll zip through in just a few minutes. You get more coaster time for less money.

Cedar Point is one hour from the Cleveland airport and Sandusky, where the park is located, is serviced by Amtrak and Greyhound. There are several hotels located just outside the park gates and in the town of Sandusky ranging from around $70 to $200 per night.