"If you have a dream, you can spend a lifetime studying, planning, and getting ready for it. What you should be doing is getting started."
Drew Houstan
How much does a trip like this cost? An easy answer would be that it depends. It depends on your style of travel, what you are willing, and not willing, to do without, the car you buy, where you choose to stay, and where you go.
We have chosen to buy a cheap car, we are going to camp as much as possible, cook our own food often, and visit as many places as we can. When we first began planning this, we had a rough estimate of about $12,000 each. This was being very conservative, and I'm guessing we will come in a bit below that total of $24,000.
Here is a running list of my personal expenses so far just to get started:
(for the most part, other than big items like plane tickets and car purchase, Colorado state tax is not included in the listed price)
Price breakdown: Car and travel arrangements
- Plane ticket from Denver, Colorado to Zurich Switzerland: $441.34
- 6 months travel medical insurance from Squaremouth: $202
- 48 hour GNV ferry ticket (car and a berth in a 4 person cabin) from Genoa, Italy, to Tangiers, Morocco: $300
- 2000 4x4 Fiat Panda car: $2750
- Carnet de Passage deposit, document, postage and a $50 international bank transfer fee (price of the vehicle deposit is specific to the year and type of car you are taking, and I think it might vary on how much the actual document itself costs depending on where you get it. As our car was bought in Switzerland, we got the Carnet in Switzerland. If we get the car back to Switzerland, we will receive our deposit of $3000.00 back): $3407
- Car registration, road tax, license plates, European insurance: $770
Car and travel arrangements total: $7870.34
Equipment:
- 12 Volt inverter (to be able to charge electronics from the cigarette lighter): $23.99
- 12 Volt inverter (a back up one, as they were cheap ones from amazon): $14.99
- Steri Pen (UV water treatment device. These things rock!): $85.55
- Sleeping bag (cheap 3 season bag from Sierra Trading Post): $22.49
- Sleeping mat (went with a nicer one, I like to be comfy): $39.99
- Whisperlight International stove (small camp stove that can burn gasoline. I already had this from previous trips): $0.00
- Deuter 65L backpack (65L is pretty big, and I do not need this size when I travel on my own, but I used the big bag as we had a lot of gear to carry. I already had this bag from previous travels): $0.00
- Small collapsible cooking pot (already had): $0.00
- Camp stove fuel bottle (already had): $0.00
- Duffle bag for camping equipment (already had): $0.00
- 12 foot by 9 foot ground tarp: $12.98
- Duct tape (2 rolls): $4.96
- Mosquito repellent (2 bottles): $13.90
- Tent pole splint (you can easily just cut a piece of copper pipe for this): $4.95
- Camp mirror (for trimming the beard!): $3.25
- Camp cup (have to have coffee in the morning): $9.95
- Collapsible bowl for eating: $15.95
- Collapsible pour over coffee filter: $17.95
- Copies of documents (passports, fiche cards, yellow fever vaccination, travel insurance, drivers license. I am bringing 30 copies of my passport, 20 of my yellow fever card, 50 fiche cards, 3 drivers license, 2 travel insurance. Yes you can just make copies while in country, but I was having a fun time planning.): $10.00
- New passport (my old one was full): $80.00
- Vaccinations (I already had all the required ones, but this can get a little pricey if you have to get them all, and your hepatitis shots take about 2 months to get the first 2 done, so start early): $0.00
- Converter plugs (I have tons from previous travel): $0.00
- Camp headlamp (already had): $0.00
- Northface Firefly tent (have had it for 20+ years): $0.00
- Camp cutlery (spoons, forks, knives, just took a few from home): $0.00
- Camp cooking equipment (we were really lucky, our Swiss friends already had all we needed, but this does not need to be expensive, just buy cheap pots and pans in a local market on the trip): $0.00
- Swiss army knife (already had): $0.00
- Car tools (screwdrivers, socket set, needle nose pliers, pliers. Took from home): $0.00
- Small ground tarp (a second one, I already had it): $0.00
- Laminating of fake drivers license (make 3 copies of your drivers license, cut them out, and laminate them. When police ask you for any document, its best not to give them an original, that way they can not ask to be paid to give it back. Most people are honest though, this is just an extra precaution): $3.75
- 30 passport pictures (You will need LOTS of these to apply for visas. Download a passport picture app, take your own picture, and then put 6 of them on a normal sized photograph and print them at Walmart): $11.50
- 1 role of electrical tape (good for electrical issues on the car): $0.57
- Auxillary cord (to plug our phones into the radio to listen to music!): $3.97
- Waterproofing spray for tent (extra layer of protection on an already very waterproof tent): $5.97
- 2 bottles of tent seam sealer (I have not done anything to the tent in over 20 years. As we are going in the rainy season, I wanted to make sure the tent and rain cover were as waterproof as they could be): $12.92
- Personal toiletries (just the basics to get me started, you buy the rest in country. Shaving cream, toothpaste, floss, toothbrush, etc...): $20.00
- International drivers license from AAA: $20.00
Equipment running total: $439.58
Additional costs (estimated)
- Visas (this seems to vary. We are looking at going to about 20 countries on this trip. The visas change price depending on which country you get them in. I've seen a total of anywhere from $1300-$1800. I'm going to be conservative and estimate the higher): $1800.00
- Gas/Petrol: Our car has a 30 liter tank (8 gallons). We are estimating a conservative distance of 19,200 km (12,000 miles). We used an average of $1.00 per liter for gas prices ($4.00 per gallon). As the roads will not be so great, we are thinking an average of 10Km to the Liter (25 miles to the gallon). As the car could potentially go 300km on a tank of petrol, 1 tank of petrol will be $30.00. With an estimated distance of 19,200 km, that means we will need 64 tanks of petrol, which would cost $1920.00, so say $2000.00. Split by two people, that does not seem so bad in the long run.: $2000.00
- Shipping the car back to Switzerland (we need to get the car back to Zurich in order to get our deposit back from the Carnet de Passage, as well as sell the car. We think we can share a container, as our friends have done it before, so two cars in the same box! They think it would be about $1200-1800, so lets go somewhere in the middle: $1500
- Return plane ticket from South Africa to Denver, Colorado: $1200
- Food. I'm not sure how to really estimate this, so I'm just going with $20 a day, and overestimating a 6 month trip, (180 days): $3600
- Hotels. We will need a lot of visas for this trip, and that means time spent in cities where camping may not be so easy. I am thinking we need about 17 visas, so that means probably around 30 days in cities, plus some days where we just want a shower, so lets say about 40 days in a hostel/hotel. We are pretty cheap, so lets go with $30 a night and add some: $1500
- Fun and repairs. Extra things, souvenirs, and car breakdowns: $3000
- Car insurance. The car insurance seems to be fairly cheap. According to one overlander who wrote down the west coast and up the east on a motorcycle, he only paid around $250. I imagine a car will be more expensive, so will budget around $400 for this: $400.00
Additional cost total: $15,000
Running total so far: $23,309.92
My share alone (half the car, carnet, gas, shipping, and $1500 personal spending): $15,646.32
So who knows? We could each spend over our estimated $12,000 per person, or we could come in a bit below. I've taken some steps to reduce the cost, like signing up for a United Credit card that has a $95 annual fee, but gives me 70,000 bonus miles. Add that to my existing 20,000 miles, and the prices I was getting on United's website were about $30 for a flight from South Africa to Denver. $95 for the card fee plus $30, $125.00 flight, that's not so bad. I also just learned that the car has a 35L tank, so gas might be a bit cheaper. We are pretty good at eating cheap, so food should come in under budget, and we are going to try our best to camp as much as possible to save on hotel costs. We also get $3000.00 back on our Carnet de Passage deposit, and whatever we can get for the car when we sell it.
No matter how it all goes, we will enjoy the experience. We are privileged beyond belief to even have this opportunity to see more of our world, meet new people, make connections, and have a great time!. Enjoy the ride, and I hope this was useful to anyone planning such an adventure.
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