It’s been a few days since returning from my trip and I’m already nicely dug into my regular routine. The trip was a door-to-door total of 11 days and there’s a strange sensation upon returning from a travel this long that I quite enjoy. It comes from the contradiction between how things appear (the neighbourhood looks the same) with the logical awareness that alot has (or may have) changed. Friends quit jobs, parties happened, and pets vomited on carpets. I imagined waking up from a coma or getting out of prison is similar (but more intense).
In any case, back to the post. This was my first trip since starting Wanderous so I kept the adventure and costs at the top of mind. What I want to achieve with this blog is showing that adventures and travel can be enjoyed with limited time, money, resources or all three. This involves finding little hacks to get around limitations but keeping in mind scraping by is not a fun way to travel.
A big part of these debriefs is detailing costs. I’ll also describe the travel experience so you can see what level of comfort each adventure has and whether it fits your style. Here’s how this trip priced out:
Costs (all USD)
Duration: 11 days (door-to-door)
Flight (BUF>SFO>AUS>BUF) – $359
Orbitz.com has the best deals on flights out of the half dozen flight aggregators I use and as cheap or better than the individual airlines’ sites. I still check several sites when I book but Orbitz always comes out on top. The seats were all coach and had one stopover per travel leg, pretty standard.
Accomodation – $0
I couchsurfed or stayed with friends the whole time so didn’t pay anything for accommodations. This is easily the single largest expense when traveling so sites like Couchsurfing.com (free) and AirBNB.com (low cost rentals worldwide) are game changers.
Food – $110.30
This was an abnormally low food cost but I was lucky enough to have a few lunches included with my GDC pass, a truckload of Zone Bars being given away on every street corner in Austin and feedings at friend’s homes. Other than those, I ate out every day with eating healthy a top priority. Luckily, healthy eating is often inexpensive so I hunted down local pita shops, sandwich bars, Mexican restaurants and diners – all excellent places to mange.
Transportation – $85.10
Includes public transit and cabs. It would have been alot less had I not forgotten my passport at the hotel in SF which cost me a $45 cab ride. Austin and SF both have good transit systems and I bought week passes so I never had to think about jumping on a train or bus.
Misc (data plans, etc) – $60
I purchased a Boingo Wifi plan ($10) but only used it in the airport (I won’t bother in the future) and the rest came from absurd roaming fees.
Entertainment – $?
I went drinking a few times but don’t really know what I spent; my booze consumption is typically pretty low and I prefer not to include entertainment costs as expenses because they skew the true cost of travel. Everyone has a different idea of what’s good entertaiment; I’m happy hanging with some friends over a few beers where others don’t call it a jam until someone needs to get bailed out of jail.
TRIP TOTAL: $614.40
I also traveled with some new gear. The Kata Sensitivity V, despite it’s odd name, is an absolutely stellar photography daypack. The F-Stop Gear Tilopa, my main pack, I still need to get acquainted with; I feel like we got off on the wrong foot but can still become friends.
Overall, this was a great trip: tons of fun, several scenery changes, new people and experiences all with a reasonable price tag. If you extrapolate the 11 days to a month (approx. $1674), it’s likely less than what most spend living at home (and that’s 1st world travel). When getting out there is the same price as staying put, it becomes alot easier to justify an adventure.
My next one is coming up March 25, 2010 to Boston, MA for the PAX East video game festival. ROADTRIP!
