World Travel for $100/day USD

Through our travels, we are attempting to use a budget of $100 USD per day, including all local costs: lodging, food, entertainment, and transportation. (We also have fixed costs such as cell phones and insurance.)

We will have two types of traveling, which we are calling “slow” and “fast” travel. Fast travel will be major cities like New York and Paris: areas where the budget will either be difficult or impossible to meet. In those cities, we will act like normal tourists, and try to explore the city quickly. Certain popular resort destinations may also fall into this category: we will stay for three nights or so, and hope to make up the budget elsewhere. While we are only cruising when the all-in cost is well under $100/day, our shore activities (wine tours, nice meals, fancy hams) justify going over budget for those days.

But the majority of our travel will be slow: We will arrive and stay in a destination for an extended period of time, reducing transportation expenses. When we can, we walk instead of taking taxis. We will generally try to find ways to live like the locals do, while also exploring the tourist attractions. For these cities, $100 USD is a round arbitrary figure. It represents an attempt to travel in a comfortable middle-aged fashion: no bunking in youth hostels, but also steering away from luxury resorts that are charging American prices to American travelers.

We look for lodging with a kitchen so we can take advantage of local food, take home leftovers, and keep our beer and wine cold. The budget should leave enough so that we can enjoy the local culture and cuisine, without feeling rushed to check off boxes in a short period of time.

With slow travel, we can spend a day exploring a museum, enjoying a beach, or staying to watch the sun fully set for the evening without feeling like we are missing out on essential sightseeing.

As we continue to post about our travels, we will also be sharing some of our tricks for saving money or lessons learned. We maintain a weekly note of all of our expenses. This will help us analyze our spending and make better estimates for future travel.