In 2012 I’ll be traveling along the Silk Road from Xi’an to Istanbul.Follow along as I write about my planning process, how I’m preparing for the trip and what’sit like to travel the Silk Road as a solo female.
The idea is now a reality. I’m doing it. I’m going to travel the Silk Road from Xi’an to Istanbul, solo. Now what? I know! I need to create a budget and figure out how much this trip is going to cost me!
Creating a budget is one of the most important stages in my planning process. Sure, it’s difficult to know exact costs, but having a rough idea can help, a lot. Once I researched the Silk Road and made a decision on my route, I opened Google Docs and started a new spreadsheet (I need visual aids), and started to format and set-up the basics.
Bukhaha, Uzbekistan (creative commons photo from flickr)
Separating The Countries
One of the things I want to do is breakdown my budget by country and compare expenses. Yes, it is a tad nerdy, but I really like to see which countries will cost me more in the overall scheme of things. This however, is not enough info, I also need to break things down and delve a little deeper.
I created a separate sheet for each country on my trip. Then within each country I made the following columns: City, Transport Cost (local currency and converted to USD), Hostel/Hotel Cost (in local currency and converted into USD), Food, and Proposed Travel Dates.
This is my base. I then spent hours, and hours researching the various cities on my route, trying to put together a reasonable budget. I reviewed transportation options, hostels, hotels and the price of food. I also debated on the length of time I wanted to spend in each city and country.
Travel cost percentage by country
[Writer’s Note: When I’m making a travel budget, I like to get an idea of the local currency cost and follow this when I do the rest of the budget, and start saving money. I’ve converted the cost in USD to make things a little easier in terms of how much I need to save, knowing that this price fluctuates depending on the exchange rate at the time. I’ll talk a little more about this further down.]
Transportation
Trying to figure out a transportation budget for this trip hasn’t been too difficult. I’ve used guidebooks and blogs to find bus prices, keeping in mind that the prices have probably changed. I also left some cushion for different modes of transportation, as I am also looking into travel by horse and camel during this trip. At this time I’m not sure of the cost of doing either, but as soon as I do, my transportation budget will be adjusted.
[Writer's Note: Finding transportation costs for China, Turkey and Central Asia was fairly easy. Finding prices for Iran was more difficult. For Iran, I’ve taken a higher number and used it for the budget, knowing that this will likely give me extra funds for other things, or I’ll have the option of my own taxi, if I’m tired of sharing.]
Hostel/Hotel
As with the transportation budget, finding prices for hostels and hotels in China, Turkey and Central Asia was easy. Iran, I had to dig a little bit and estimate. Ultimately I’d like to do some couchsurfing on this trip. This will allow the Hostel/Hotel budget to be more fluid, which means I can afford to treat myself if I feel the need along the way. I’m not saying that I’ll need it, I just want the option!
Food Budget
Trying to figure out a food budget prior to travel is a challenge, especially if it’s for a country that I have never been to. How do I know what food I’ll like? I don’t! Well, not until I get there.
I still need to include food in my budget and estimate how much money I’m going to spend.
On this trip I’ve relied on guidebooks and blogs to determine how much money to set aside. I like to ‘aim high’ and budget more than what I need (that way I have some breathing room). For this trip I’ve looked at food prices in the capital city and used mid-range prices. When figuring out my estimated food budget, I kept in mind that I normally don’t eat breakfast, and I prefer to buy from markets and street stalls. That being said, I’ve ‘aimed high’ so that I can treat myself from time to time and not worry about blowing my daily budget.
[The chart below illustrates the cost percentage of the above expenses (for the entire trip).]
Graph of basic travel needs
Proposed Travel Dates
This is another hard one to gage. How do I know how long to stay in a city/town/village? I don’t, not until I get there. I can make a rough estimate (for budget purposes).
When I sat down and started to research the budget for this trip, I relied on Google Images for inspiration, as well as to help me decide on how long I may want to stay in a particular place. If the pictures made my feet itch and my heart skip a few beats, I added a few extra days to my itinerary.
Selecting travel dates is the most fluid part of a trip (and my budget). I know there will be places that I’ll want to stay longer, or places that I’ll want to leave sooner.
The Overall Cost
I’ve decided to separate my total trip budget into 3 parts. The first part is my basic budget (which is what this post is about). The second part covers the one-time fees such as visas, vaccines, border fees and so on. The third part will cover sightseeing and travel extras. The reason for splitting my budget is simple. I want to know my basic travel needs first. If I don’t know those numbers, it will make it difficult for me to reach my travel goals, plus I can give a more accurate cost per day. Visas, vaccines etc. are a one time fee, and I don’t think they need to be included in the overall numbers. The sightseeing and travel extras portion of my budget will be based on the stories that I want to research and cover for this blog, as well as other publications (I’ll be starting that planning next).
So, what is my budget per country?
Projected Daily Budget: $45 -obviously I can go much lower in some countries, but as I’ve said a few times, it’s good to have extra padding in the budget when planning a trip of this size.
As I mentioned above, this budget is fluid. I based my numbers on various books and blog posts. I also took into account that a lot of the data was old and will have changed by now. For this reason the above numbers have been inflated by 25%. By inflating my numbers (and using mid-range pricing during my research), I’m allowing for coverage of travel hiccups like bribes, taking a taxi if a bus is not available, upgrading to a hotel that feels more comfortable and so on.
In reality I will probably spend less than this, as I plan to try my hand at couchsurfing, as well as leaving myself open to traveling by Ox cart if the opportunity arises.
Next Step: Visas and Vaccines (How much? What do I need?)
About Pamela
Wow, I’m really impressed by the level of budget planning and detail! It’s definitely better to budget for a higher amount to be on the safe side. You’ll want to splurge for that glass of wine here and there
You’ve probably already come across this in your research, but CBT in Kyrgyzstan is a really fantastic organization. They do a great job offering home stays and tours with local guides so that money stays in the community. Highly recommend the Song Kul lake trek.
Not sure if you’re planning to go to the Parmi Mountains in Tajikistan. If not, I’d recommend a side trip – this is an incredible part of the world in terms of culture and natural beauty. Transport costs are high as there aren’t a lot of public options, but accommodation is usually just a few dollars as you’re staying with families.
We hosted an Iranian couple via couchsurfing in Berlin earlier this summer. They are super active in CouchSurfing and said there is a good community throughout Iran. As Americans, we don’t have the option to stay with Iranians because of regulations. But I believe Canadians do – not only would it reduce costs, but it would be a wonderful experience. Hope you can make it work!
Visas are a pain in the butt & super expensive, but they are the “entrance fee” for this region…
Thanks, Audrey!
I spent so many hours on research for this budget.
I’m planning to check out the couchsurfing and CBT as well. One of my goals with this trip is to write about every step in the process, as well as write from the road. Hopefully people will find the information useful and not boring!!
This is fantastic! I am planning to do this trip in reverse this year. Good luck!
I’ll be following your budgeting and the trip in general quite closely, as this is a trip I would love to do!
This is a brilliant post. People planning a similar trip (or pretty much the exact same one in my case) rarely find this kind of quality on internet. I won’t thank you, because you’ll get all the gratification for the hard work when you actually travel, but do know that I (and others surely) greatly appreciate this.
I do have a question though. For the proposed travel dates, did you take into account the administrative waiting time in each capital in order to get the visas for the next borders before continuing to travel the country? Visas are indeed a pain in the Central Asia and I fear that too little time in a country might mean most of it lost in painful waiting. Then again, we can’t stay for ever in each place.
Anyways, I’ve been traveling a little in China, and trains is definitely a good way (I would say the best) to travel there. Just don’t get a standing ticket from Xi’an to Ürümqi, I happen to know that’s not particularly smart.
There’s also that train from Teheran to Istanbul, which you might’ve heard of and which I plan on taking. It’s not extremely cheap but taking it for parts of the journey could be a good idea.
Good luck on the rest of the research, though planning a trip is almost have the fun.
_Paul
Hi Paul!
Thank-you for the comment! You know, I haven’t decided on the visas. I was thinking of getting them ahead of time, but it would definitely be more interesting and challenging to try and do them as I go. I’m definitely going to check into it.
If there is any info that you think would be helpful and would like to see here, please let me know!