chloedickensonLast Updated on 15th December 2022
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Planning a trip around the world is no easy feat and when it comes to the initial cost to travel the world, the mounting pile of expenses you’ll face can soon become pretty overwhelming.
Thankfully, I’ve been there and done that and I’m now equipped with the knowledge to help you guys out and help you manage all your pre-travel costs.
Whether you’re looking to embark on a crazy year-long trip around the world and you’re looking for advice on initial travel costs, or you’re just nosey and want to know the answer to “how much does it cost to travel the world before you go?”, I’ve got just the post for you!
How much does it cost to travel the world? – Before you go
The amount of money you’ll spend to begin your travels will differ immensely depending on so many factors, such as where you’re going, how long you’re going for, what you’ll need etc.
I’ve tried to be as inclusive as possible and I’ve included everything in this list that I can think of that you’ll need to pay for/buy before you go travelling.
Now, let’s get onto the juicy part – how much did we spend before we started travelling?
Matt and I both spent £1,815 each on our pre-travel costs.
This included the cost of our initial flights to New Zealand (£462 each), travel vaccinations (a whopping £503 each), plus our backpacks, clothes, miscellaneous items (£450) and travel insurance (£392.13 each).
Throughout this post, I’ve broken it down into various sections and I’ve included an approximate cost of each thing you can expect to pay for before your trip. As I said, each thing will be very interchangeable depending on what your plans are, but hopefully, it’ll give you a rough estimation of the amount of money you can expect to spend before you go travelling.
Backpacking Equipment
Whether you’re travelling as an actual backpacker, or you’ll be choosing to travel with a suitcase, you’re still going to need to invest in a few things before you start travelling.
Backpack
If you’ve been reading my blog since before we started travelling in April 2019, you’ll know that I’ve raved constantly about my adoration for my Osprey Fairview 70L backpack.
It’s undoubtedly one of the best purchases I’ve ever made and it’s by far the best backpack (in my opinion) for long-term travellers.
My backpack cost £150 which I think is a pretty reasonable average price for a backpack for travelling.
Clothes/Shoes
Of course, the amount of money you spend on new clothes and shoes will depend on how much stuff you have already that you want to take with you.
For example, I didn’t really buy many new clothes at all apart from a few more t-shirts, shorts and trousers so I probably only spent around £100 on new clothes.
One new thing in particular that I did purchase was my beloved hiking boots (yet another one of my favourite ever purchases) which were around £69. I wore these boots almost every single day in New Zealand and Australia, and I also wore them every time we did any kind of sporty or outdoor activity in Southeast Asia.
Miscellaneous items – how much does it cost to travel the world
The miscellaneous items you’ll need to purchase before travelling will be based entirely on the kind of travelling you plan on doing. Some of the miscellaneous items that we invested in included a dry bag, a bumbag, a microfibre travel towel, plus much more.
You can find an extensive list of our backpacking items on my Amazon.
I was also going to include things like my camera and GoPro, but as these aren’t entirely essential for pre-travel costs, I decided to let you guys decide whether they come under your budget before you travel.
I also wrote an entire post which includes everything I bought and packed for our trip around the world which will give you more information about the kind of things you’ll need to bring with you.
Travel Insurance – cost to travel the world
One of your biggest pre-travel expenses will undoubtedly be travel insurance and even though you might be tempted to find the cheapest (and therefore probably least comprehensive) insurance policy possible once you see just how expensive it can be, I would strongly advise carrying out detailed research.
There are hundreds of travel insurance companies that all claim to offer the best insurance policy for backpackers, but it’s really down to your own personal preference, needs and wants when it comes to deciding which company and policy is the most suitable for you.
For example, we opted for World First as our travel insurance provider. Thankfully, we never had to claim on our insurance so I can’t really say just how good they are at providing compensation if required. However, we did conduct very thorough research before we bought our policy with them and for us, they seemed like the best option.
We paid £392.13 each for the World First Backpacker & Longstay Silver travel insurance policy for a 12-month policy. We also paid an optional additional £91 each for gadget cover for 12 months as we both took a lot of expensive gadgets and technology with us while travelling.
Another incredibly popular travel insurance provider for backpackers is World Nomads and I think almost every travel blogger in the world recommends their services. Their travel insurance policies are excellent for all kinds of backpackers in dozens of countries around the world.
Vaccinations/Medication
Depending on where in the world you’re from, as well as where you plan on travelling to, will depend on which vaccinations you’ll need and therefore, how much money you’ll spend on them.
Matt and I spent £503 each on our vaccinations for travelling, and that’s not even including the ones we got for free on the NHS.
You’ll have to do a lot of research on the countries you’ll be travelling to and the vaccinations you may require to enter those countries. To be perfectly honest, we probably went a little bit overboard with the ones we got, but we’d much rather be safe than sorry.
The CDC offers great advice on which vaccines you’ll need for which countries and while we did do a lot of our own research, we also booked a consultation with our local GP who provided us with great information on the ones we needed.
You’ll need to fill out a form of all the countries you plan on visiting (we still included the countries we weren’t even entirely sure we’d be travelling to just to make sure) and then the doctor can recommend the vaccination you might need for each respective country.
For example, some of the vaccines we had included Hep A, Typhoid, Rabies, Japanese B Encephalitis and Hep B. The reason that vaccinations are so expensive is that with many of them you usually have to have 2 or 3 vaccinations. We had 3 for Hep B, 3 for Rabies and 2 for Japanese Encephalitis. Each vaccine can cost anywhere between £15 and £80 each (sometimes even more), depending on what you get so make sure you’re aware of these hefty costs.
We were so shocked at how much it cost for our vaccinations as we assumed most of them would be free – the expense of these injections is definitely something to remember when you’re saving up to travel.
Initial flights
Of course, the cost of your initial flights to begin your travels will differ enormously depending on where you’re beginning your adventure.
Our flights out to New Zealand from London Heathrow cost us £462 each at the end of April 2019 which I don’t think is extortionate considering there was an 8-hour stopover in China included, plus the cost of adding our backpacks on both flights too.
If your initial flight is just from Manchester to Germany for example, it’s going to be a lot more affordable, but a flight out to South America is going to set you back a lot more. If you can, try and look for flights a good few months (if not even longer) before you plan on flying out to try and secure the best deal possible. We purchased our flights pretty much exactly 5 months before we flew but we’d been researching for a couple of weeks before that as well.
Visas – cost to travel the world
Many countries around the world require you to have a visa before you can enter; some will charge you for the privilege, and some will often have a visa-free period of a certain amount of days.
We didn’t need to pay for a visa to visit New Zealand as we stayed for less than 90 days and the only visas we actually paid for were Indonesia (to extend to a 60 day stay), Cambodia (which you need to pay just to enter the country) and Vietnam (to extend to a 30 day stay).
Even though we didn’t need visas initially, we did require them throughout our travels and the best website to use to find out which countries you’ll need visas for is Visa HQ. You simply enter the country you’re from and the country you’re travelling to and it tells you how many days you’re allowed and how much a visa will cost (if one is required).
I would highly recommend doing a bit of research before you fly out to start your travels on any visas you may require throughout your trip. Even if you don’t need one straight away for the country you’re visiting first, it’s still a good idea to have the visa requirements in mind for other countries as you may need to apply and pay for some in advance.
Storage costs
This cost of travel before you go is quite subjective depending on your personal circumstances and even though it’s not quite directly related to travelling as such, it is a cost that you might be faced with before you start travelling.
If you plan on travelling for a year, or even longer, you’ll have to think about what you’ll do with all your belongings that you simply can’t take with you.
Can you leave them at your parent’s house? In your grandparents’ garage? Or will you need to pay for a storage facility in order to keep all your belongings stored safely while you’re gone?
Matt and I only lived in a very small studio apartment before we started travelling so we didn’t have an awful lot of belongings apart from sentimental items that we stored at our parents’ house so we didn’t need to pay for storage while travelling.
However, if you do have a lot of stuff and you plan on coming home and using it all again one day, then you might have to pay to store it somewhere. As I said, we didn’t use this option so I can’t really give an estimation of the cost of storage, but it is something that you might have to consider.
I hope this post has provided you with plenty of information about how much it costs to travel before you go. As I’ve mentioned many times, the exact figure that you’ll spend will depend on so many factors, but if you have any other questions or want to know more about the cost of travelling, please leave me a comment at the end of this post or send me an email and I’ll try my best to help!
Related posts:
- How Much Money We Spent On A 3 Month Trip Around New Zealand
- 13 Things No One Tells You About Planning A Trip Around The World
- What I’ve Packed For A Trip Around The World
- 13 Things No One Tells You About Full-Time Travel
- Backpacking Southeast Asia – Packing List Essentials
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How much did you think it cost to travel the world? Is my total cost what you expected? Let me know in the comments or on Instagram at @imjustagirl_16.
