What Full-Time Travel Really Costs

so way before we started traveling full-time we had a really hard time figuring out how much this lifestyle was going to cost so sure we looked at a million blogs and Vlogs but the information it was just it was never quite right so there's a ton of information out there about how to save money while traveling how to do it on a shoestring budget but honestly that's just not us I mean we really admire Backpackers but we're not in our 20s anymore we want to see the world but we want to feel comfortable while we're doing it for us that means going out for really great meals it means not just doing free stuff but going to museums galleries maybe a tour here and there and of course staying in amazing airbnbs like this one here behind me foreign so after the last few years of travel I think that's probably 14 different countries 40 airbnbs I think we've really got a handle on how much this lifestyle costs and we know this is something you guys really care about because if you can't make the numbers work what happens to your big dream since we get so many questions and so many comments about how much we spent we just wanted to lay it all out for you guys so we've looked at all of our spending for the past few years and we're going to tell you exactly what we spend every month to make this lifestyle work so of course we're going to dig into how much we spend on our airbnbs but we're also going to be sharing the other essential costs as well so that's Entertainment dining out Transportation but before we get into all those details a bit hello to all of you Nomads so if this is your first time here I'm Stephanie this is Jillian we're traveling the world full time and sharing it as we go and by the way isn't this place just amazing so we're in kind of a remote part of Columbia's coffee region we came here for a little peace and quiet after spending a whole month in very busy Medellin and wow it was the right decision so it's a farmhouse but it's done up in kind of this modern industrial style we just love it and if you come with me all the way over here you'll see exactly why we were so happy to rent this place just look at this amazing view I think we can see the whole coffee region from here now technically this place is a little on the pricey side but we're going to talk later about how we make this kind of splurge work within our budget all right let's get into our monthly spending we're going to kick things off with entertainment okay so when we looked at the past years of travel we found that on average we've been spending about a hundred dollars a month on entertainment but that's just an average so it actually hides a whole lot of areas definitely so on the high end of things so places where we ended up spending quite a bit last summer we were in Mexico we were in Puerto Escondidos and Del diende Mexico City Oaxaca and in each of these destinations I mean we spent at least a couple of hundred dollars on tours if not a few hundred dollars yeah and that really seems like a lot especially because we're usually quite independent with our travel yeah but I have to say that those tours they were really worth it so this is really wild I have no idea what to expect we've come down to the Waterfront where the Aztecs originally built wonderful canals and today they are primarily used for entertainment so there are all kinds of colorful boats that cruise the canals and there's food and there's music oh gracias wow what a setup okay so this is my official accessory for the boat ride I have my little tiny cup and inside it's a shredded tequila so cheers [Music] [Music] well this has just been a super fun afternoon out on the water now it is something that you can do as a DIY trip but we decided to join a tour which turned out to be super fun just an all-around fun Saturday afternoon on the other hand we've gone to quite a few places where we've actually spent under 30 dollars for entertainment and that's for both of us I'm thinking of places like Albania Serbia turkey a so in those countries if you want to go to a historic site or Museum often that just costs a few dollars I've seen so many photos of Ephesus but really nothing compares to being right here in person foreign ly we're not the only people who figured out that this is a really nice place to visit [Music] but normally in places where we spend so little on entertainment it's actually because our entertainment is all about heading out and enjoying nature thank you [Music] well our final destination is the creator all the way up there it's something like 2 000 feet straight up from here no choice but just to press on [Music] wow this is when heck of a climb but we've been going up for a few hours and I'm getting a little bit tired but the views are absolutely amazing well I'm really feeling the altitude now but we've got just one more Switchback to go and then we'll be at the top [Music] do it I can do it I can do it okay finally we finally made it on here and I'm just about to see the crater it's supposed to be really spectacular okay so I'm just making my way to the edge here and oh my goodness this is so beautiful oh it's an absolutely enormous Crater Lake I mean it's just so huge and spectacular oh my goodness totally worth the hike even the worst toughest hardest moments totally worth it of course if you want to do all those great hikes or go see ancient ruins you do have to get there something yeah so we usually need some kind of transportation to get around our average spend on transportation for the past few years was also a hundred dollars a month but again that hides a whole lot of variation if we're in a city with good day trips we often rent a car for a few days and that can cost maybe a couple hundred dollars in Albini we actually rented a car for a whole month because we were traveling all across the country and that was amazing but it also added up to 500 although I have to say I think we got a very decent price because of covid man this is quite a merge let's keep calling forward Albanian Style thank you I'll just go with me watch out watch out with my hand out the window okay I'm going Elvis okay we did it yeah I put some shades oh yeah well you know you love the city when you see a flock of sheep on the highway so we can definitely see why you would avoid driving on these roads so there's not much in terms of Lane width and then of course you can easily fit at least one car on this road at least one car oh I think we arrived okay it should be literally anywhere here I think we've passed it I don't know where it is here it is it's right here no stop of course there's been many months where we've hardly spent anything on Transportation that's right so in cities like Belgrade or Tirana we would spend probably under 20 a month and that's because we stayed in a central location and basically walked everywhere and if we did take a cab it was always pretty cheap okay new topic let's talk about food we aim to spend about 800 a month on food and that includes both dining out and cooking at home so when we took a look at our average spend for the past two years it came in at 760 dollars so that's right within budget and the interesting thing about our food spending is it seems to be kind of like a self-regulating category we always end up spending around the same so when we're in a place where restaurant prices are high we tend to do a lot more eating at home and dining out becomes more of a special occasion it can be expensive to eat a lot of meals out in Western Europe but here in Spain we've discovered that you can get a great deal by coming out at lunch time to order the menu Del Dia the menu of the day to get things started I have a first course of coquetta so these are the very typical deep fried fritters that you'll find on any Tapas menu so it is a staple of Spain so our main dish has arrived and I'm very excited about this one as you guys know we are in Valencia and one of the main dishes that you can find in Valencia is of course paella this is where paella was invented so we're having a dish that is related to paella but instead of being made with rice it's actually made with noodles wow that looks amazing so this one is made with these small noodles and we have shrimp so it is a seafood fideia padea padea I'm still working on my Spanish but it looks really good well we've cut things pretty traditional so far today but we saw on the menu key lime pie and cheesecake and we just couldn't resist did you want me to share some with you Stephanie I would take a bite either one it's fine on the other hand when we're in a place where prices are low we might eat at once or even twice a day yeah definitely once a day very often twice a day so since it's our third time now in Turkey I think we've become pretty experienced to choosing amazing restaurants for a really great Turkish breakfast so this one has all the right components we've got a variety of breads here along with some freshly made donuts we have some healthy vegetables we've got eggs we've got some stewed vegetables over here a variety of cheeses olives and then we have what to me is really the best part of a Turkish breakfast which are all of the different kinds of spreads so some of these are Savory and some of them are sweet and they're all really really good so of course I love all the components of the Turkish breakfast but my absolute favorite part is of course having a freshly made donut so good and then we just come over here and we add a little bit of this cream and then a little honey and that is delicious so decadent so delicious that really shouldn't be called breakfast at all it's like dessert okay gracias well this gordita looks amazing it is very hot and Fresh Off The Grill we have the works I believe it's the gordita Especial um so there is a thinly sliced beef we've got queso we've got Papas some nice salsa I'm gonna give it a good squeeze of lime wow look at that and nothing left to do but to give it a taste hmm oh yeah that is a delicious hearty breakfast I might have to make this a daily ritual now when it comes to our groceries I know that our regular viewers already know this Jillian is our resident grocery Shopper honestly if it was up to me I would just go into the first store I see I would never compare price buy what looks pretty but Jillian is way more diligent than the best now we will be eating out a lot but I think most breakfast we'll have at home so let's get these cage-free eggs which are 24 Lira for 10. I'll get this cheese which is just 20 liras for this whole big container of course we'll be eating a lot of Olives here I just got this package here and it was only 13 and a half lira and I'm also going to get some Jam this one's 26 Lira and it's got no sugar added looks great I also got some vegetables which were incredibly cheap add all these together and we'll have the makings for a delicious Turkish breakfast at home okay now we're gonna get into the big category our airbnbs this is the area of spending that gets the most feedback from all of you and I should know because I'm the one who is answering all of those comments she sure does so on one hand our viewers who want to have kind of the same lifestyle as uh so going from Airbnb to Airbnb they're usually pretty impressed with their apartments and also the amount that we pay for them but budget Travelers and especially locals are often quite shocked by what we pay they're always very quick to point out that what we've paid is outrageously High by local standards very quick to point that out anyway our response to that is always the same it all depends on what you're looking for in your short-term rental so we have a pretty long list of must-haves and nice to have because we're not just tourists spending a few days in a place no we're seeing for a month so we really want to make a home there so that means that there is a list of things that we would ideally like to see we want a modern bathroom we want a modern kitchen and we want that kitchen to be honestly as equipped as possible yeah I mean we can't always get an oven or just washer or a microwave but at least we'd like to have a full set of dishes and all the pots and pans yeah I mean that's like bare minimum and we want nice Decor because that makes life at home just a little more comfortable and and one more thing we want to be an essential location so that we can walk everywhere I mean that one really drives the price up and once you throw in the Airbnb service fees maybe some local taxes yeah it's not going to be cheap so we have spent an average of Seventeen hundred dollars a month on our accommodation but again huge variation there both price and quality for example we spent 2200 for a month in Sevilla and what we got was a nice little apartment in a good location yeah I mean it was very nice everything was really nice it was fine yeah and then we paid the exact same amount in Mexico City and when we got there was an absolutely gorgeous luxury apartment in a prime location and we've also discovered that you can pay a lot for an apartment I mean relative to the local market and still end up with a kind of disappointing space yeah so we paid 1700 for our place in Izmir which is really a huge amount for turkey a and I can tell you we did not love it and of course nothing says welcome home like an enormous stack of beer crates so we're enjoying this little curb appeal that we have going on here so I'm just coming over here and I'm going to use my elbow to turn on this filthy light switch there we go so I'm pretty sure that at least one cat if not more are living in this stairwell so I know this doesn't seem like the nicest place but trust me on the inside it's a different story okay here we go guys well it's hard to believe that a Lobby that awful leads to an apartment this nice so this living room is lovely it's a nice selection of cozy Furniture we've got this huge dining table here and of course all the plants in our make it feel really homey in here unfortunately the rest of this place is not quite as nice there's like empty bottles sticky stuff and I'm definitely going to want to pack all this up I've got all kinds of miscellaneous spices that have been open for I'm not sure how long I'm just gonna tuck them away and someone else can decide if they want to use them okay I think this cupboard over here is going to be a good spot to tuck all the stuff away that we just don't want to see again [Music] all joking aside the reason why we can afford to spend more in places like Sevilla and Mexico City or for this amazing apartment that we're in right now it's because other times we're actually spending a lot less yeah so just a couple months ago we paid twelve hundred dollars for our lovely apartment in Cuenca Ecuador and I can tell you that place had everything two bedrooms two bathrooms it was a beautiful place great view so we manage our budget by balancing out the high-cost countries with the low-cost ones over the course of a year and if we do a very good job of managing our Airbnb cost this way well as you saw the rest of our expenses are actually really affordable of course we've only talked about some of our travel causes this video there are all kinds of other expenses that come with the lifestyle so you're probably sitting there wondering about things like Medical Care Health Insurance data travel gear and the really big one fight yeah that's the one that really adds up so you can find out how much we spend on all those items and more by clicking on the next video right over here

Channel: Our Freedom Years

Views: 18,931

Keywords: how to retire early and travel, retire early and travel the world, life in early retirement, life after early retirement, our freedom years

Id: fDPls0wwT4M

Length: 17min 49sec (1069 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 26 2023