Through personal travels to various cities around the world, we will share the actual price of a day in that city.

This series should assist travelers in planning their next trip to specific places around the world.  Each city will have a realistic example of the cost of one full day, including an evening of lodging.

“The Backpackers Price” is covering is Paris first!

A day in Paris – with lodging in the Latin Quarter

All prices are based upon October mid-season, not the winter low season and not the high season of summer!

• 1 Night private room with double bed at Young & Happy – 56 euro = $77.28
• almonds, raisins, apples & bananas – 6.14 euro = $8.47
• Justin’s 1st baguette in Paris – 1.80 euro = $2.48
• Metro – Arce du Triomphe to Latin Quarter – 2.20 euro = $3.04
• Natalie’s new Parisian orange scarf – 9 euro = $12.42
• 2 pears, brie, 1 red bell pepper – 4.64 euro = $6.40
• another baguette – 1.60 euro = $2.21
• Nutella crepe – 2 euro = $2.76

(two adults) Total – 86.8 euro = $115.06

The total is for Justin and I, two grown adults.  If you are traveling alone you can cut the cost in half.

Solo Total – 43.4 euros = $57.53

In addition, you can save money on lodging and get a bunk in an 8 person dorm for 13 euro a night.  Super cheap!  Don’t buy the Parisian scarf or other souvenirs and save even more money.  This means traveling Paris for $50 a day is easy to do.  In fact, I met an American traveling Paris for $25 USD a day.

How to travel Paris for $25 a day?

1. Self catering – communal meals prepared in hostel kitchens with other travelers you meet – then split the cost of the meal (most are $3 or $4 per person)
2. Sleeping in a multi person bunk room.  You might have to buy ear plugs for when the guy above you starts to snore, but it’s worth the money you save.
3. Don’t spend money on stupid stuff – the key chain of the Eiffel tower, the 5 euro crepe, and avoid all other Parisian impulse buys.
4. Go on the FREE day.  Museums and art galleries tend to have a regular FREE day.  The first Sunday of each month is the FREE museum day in Paris.
5. Walk or bike – Paris even has bikes you can rent and then drop off in a designated bike drop once you arrive at your destination.  These bikes are literally all around the city!
6. Be a smart and travel on the limited budget.  Take out the amount of cash you plan on spending each day.  Pay for your bed in the morning.  Then you have a realistic view of how much money you will want for food, and what you have left over as entertainment and play money.

It’s amazing to know that Paris can be traveled with very little money.  Really cheap if you want!

I do not ride alone.  Each day, as I ride my bike to work, I see dozens of other individuals choosing transportation via pedals. Some are biking to work like me. Others are cycling to class, a friends house, a local coffee shop, the store, an appointment, or they are doing it for the health of it.

Fort Collins, Colorado is an extremely bike friendly community. The parents of my students will often ride to the school with their child or children riding behind them.  You have to admit, that in a vehicle dominated society, this is impressive.  I often experience this new, hard to describe feeling of pride and excitement for living in an area of the country that is as “pro-bicycles” as this area of Colorado.

It’s a feeling of pride because I know our community has a smaller carbon footprint than areas that rely upon motor vehicles for transportation. The air is cleaner. It’s easier to see the mountains in the horizon. If hundreds of people stopped biking to work (and other places) and began driving cars everywhere, I am sure that our local air pollution would increase rapidly.

I also get an energetic rush as I pedal in the bike lane, experiencing the trill of my commute. Alright, it’s not so thrilling when it is raining. But I am not the only cyclist getting wet!

I have lived in several places that have no bike lanes (or even sidewalk), causing extreme difficulty for anyone attempting to bike or walk. These “non-bicycle friendly communities” force individuals to rely solely upon their vehicles.

I enjoy the freedom my bike offers. No oil change, less money spent on gas (petrol) and no speeding tickets.  It is such a cheap method of transportation! If you are serious about travel and adventure, why wouldn’t you live in a community that caters to bike riding and/or offers a reliable form of mass transportation? It’s easy to cut out the cost of owning or leasing, and maintaining a motor vehicle. Then you can save that money for travel, adventures and fun!

Justin and I are currently a one car family. We would like to continue to have only one vehicle to insure and maintain. Living in Fort Collins, Colorado should allow us to continue to practice our “one car family policy” as we utilize bicycles for a majority of our transportation needs.

Our Bikes

Justin just bought a bike this weekend.  Now we are both able to leave the car at home and bike downtown for entertainment or bike to friends house.  I found a great vintage bike about a month ago, at Brave New Wheel, the bike shop behind our house.  Ironically, Justin also bought a vintage cruiser from Brave New Wheel.  It is a great shop that fixes up bikes from the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s, as to be both environmentally friendly (re-use) as well as, allowing classics to cruise the streets again.  

My bike is a dark green mens “ALL PRO” from the 70′s.  It was made in Troy, Michigan, where my brother and his wife live.  However, the bike itself was not the “corvette” of bikes back in the day.  In fact, it has a vintage KMart sticker on it.  But that’s how I roll!  My bike’s name is Green Tea (or in Mandarin Chinese - lǜ chá).  Brave New Wheel is such a fun store, they even gave me the teapot bike bell (with the Chinese character for tea on it) for FREE.

Justin’s bike is also from the 70′s, it’s the classic Schwinn.  His bike was one of the last to be produced in the Rockbrook Chicago factory before Schwinn outsourced their manufacturing needs to Japan (Panasonic) and Taiwan (Giant).   We have installed the bell, the rack and a steal basket.  Now all Justin’s bike needs is a name.  You Choose:  Justin’s bikes name.  Vote in the You Choose Poll now!

How do you find a bike friendly city?  

The League of American Bicyclists is a good place to start.  They have ranked Fort Collins at GOLD, when it comes to Most Bicycle Friendly Communities.  

You don’t even have to spend a cent to get a bike.  In Fort Collins, you can save more money for travel by volunteering 20 hours of community service (with any non-profit organization in Fort Collins) and earn a bike for FREE.  The Fort Collins Bike Co-op is the perfect organization to unite a community to bike together.  

Do you bike to work? Go on bike-cations? Let me know about your biking experiences and adventures. Feel free to email me a picture of you and your bike. I would love to see your Earth-friendly wheels!

Traveling allows more time to read.  It’s a simple fact.  Travel is a reason to love books.

Whether it’s on an 8 hour flight or a few days at the beach.  Traveling will even inspire a non-avid reader to flip through pages endlessly.

Books are great travel companions.  They are lightweight.  If you get tired of what they are saying you can simply close it.  If you loose a book along the way, it could be upsetting if you were at a suspenseful place in the book.  Overall books are inexpensive and easily replaceable.

As you complete a book along your travels you may give the book away, bring it home for your personal book collection or donate it to a local library.

If you want a new book along your journey, there are countless options beyond the airport bookstore.

Get new books as you travel

• A used book store
• A garage sale
• Book exchange shelves at hostels
• Ask the person sitting next to you on the train, bus or plane if they have finished reading their book, you could even offer to buy it from them.
• An Amazon Kindle or other electronic book reader – this will allow you to bring an entire library (100’s of books) along your travels.  Easily the the best item in my backpack.  I would recommend a Kindle to anyone!

As you travel and explore the new places, it is also good to explore new elements of reading.

Mix reading and Traveling

• Read a fictional novel set in the area of the world in which you will travel to in the future.
• Read a new form of literature – ex. Always reading the classics?  Try a modern tale by an unfamiliar author.
• Read a text book – learn a new language
• Read the local newspaper – attend a local activity or sporting event
• Go for a reading walk (works well in urban environments) – read billboards, traffic signs, flyers and other forms of media that have infiltrated the culture.
• Be creative!  Experiment with new forms of travel that play well with literature.

Reading and traveling can be fascinating.  Mixing the two together can often lead to even more enjoyable experiences and adventures.   Some individuals have began to combine Book Crossing in their travel adventures.  This will allow you to leave books behind at a cafe, museum or other fun location for someone else to discover and read.  You will be able to follow the books online and track who else reads them and where the books travel.

Even if you are currently unable to travel, a book can take you there.  Don’t let anything hold you back.  You too can say, ‘been there, read that’.

© nomadbackpackers.com -  All rights reserved 2009

Now we have a plan! I spent most of yesterday in my pajamas sorting through places on maps, looking into various forms of transportation, and mixing up dates on the calendar to create a starting route.

Justin and I have fallen in love.  Not only with one another, but with New Zealand.  We have both dreamed of going to New Zealand for a long time.  In fact, it was where we really wanted to go on our honeymoon, but we went to Belize instead.  We could afford to go to Belize, while New Zealand has always seemed out of reach.

So out of reach that we spent the past several months discussing ways to get to New Zealand.  We even explored the possibility of crewing a yacht.  However, our transportation decision was made upon the discovery of reasonable air fare from London to New Zealand (as long as we leave on November 1st…I know we are missing Guy Fawkes Day in London Remember, remember the 5th of November).

The Recap

Where do we begin? -> Italy

Why? -> My brother is getting married in Italy

Any other Italian adventures? -> Yes – visiting the small town Bagnoli Del Trigno where my grandma was born…with my grandma and grandpa (AWESOME!!!) and hiking and enjoying Italy with our good friend Cup.  We end our time together in Padova where Cup will then live for a month (or a few years).  Padova is west of Venice. 

Once our Italian travel plans solidified we were left with the following question

• - “How do we get from Venice (around Oct 17/18) and end up in London by November 2nd so we can fly to New Zealand?”

Going to London the Long Way

I had everything sorted out, and had planned a wonderful path for us.  As I was attempting to book a series of flights on RyanAir it suddenly became apparent that I wasn’t fast enough. The flight from Barcelona to Madrid wasn’t 10 euros anymore. Now Justin and I would have to pay 95 euros per person.  A few of the other flights I wanted to book had also gone up in price as well.

Wait a minute! I spent a leisurely hour or so, selecting the flights and formulating a plan. Why did my plan fall through so quickly?

The only option was to redesign our plans, destinations, dates, and everything. We are backpacking. We do not have a specific place to be, so it doesn’t really matter where we go or how long we stay. I applied our flexibility to the problem. At the same time, I had to keep the time crunch in mind.

I found new hope upon finding the first flight we would take from Venice to Paris. Only 20 euros! Alright, this is good! Then I found another at the same price from Paris to Barcelona! Then Barcelona to Dublin at 20 euros again! Finally, Dublin to London, again for only 20 euros!

Just as I was realizing, that I had our “new transportation plan”, Justin (also on his computer) mention he had a cheap flight from Venice to Barcelona. I immediately responded by saying, “Great! But I figured all the flights out. I’ve got em! Only 20 euros a piece for all of our flights, but we need to book them right now.” Both of us still in our pajamas teamed up and booked all the cheap flights with RyanAir. That last click with the mouse was a victorious moment. I don’t think people realize that a couple can fly around Europe without spending a lot of money ($170 for all of our flights). Compared to purchasing rail passes, we have been able to save hundreds of dollars with our inexpensive flights.

Overall, I never imagined that Justin and I would ever have the opportunity to visit these cities. It doesn’t even seem real yet. We have already begun trying to brainstorm ways to afford to stay in each of these cities.

googlemaps

HELP US SLEEP AND EAT:

Do you have a friend or family member that lives in one of these cities? Could we crash on their couch for a night? Know of a great hostel in one of the cities we plan on visiting? Is their something we must see or do? Know of a good market to buy food to cook? How about a good place to eat vegetarian food? Any opportunities you know of to volunteer?

Let us know your ideas or advice for the places we plan on traveling to.

Increasing our income

1. As Natalie is currently working part time for Starbucks, we can greatly increase our income if she begins to work full time. To that end, Natalie has taken a full time job in Dearborn, Michigan.
2. In addition to working full time at her new job, Natalie will also continue working at Starbucks. Currently, she is attempting to transfer to a store in the Metro Detroit area. Starbucks is usually very accommodating but as her transfer has not gone through yet we are not sure whether working 1 or 2 nights a week at Starbucks will be a possibility.
3. As a consultant, I am paid on an hourly basis but I am expected to work 40 hours a week (so is everyone else right?). However, currently I am involved with several projects and my work load lends to exceed 40 hours a week. This extra money will be helpful in saving for the trip.

Cutting Expenses

1. Our current largest monthly expenditure is rent. Drastically decreasing our rent is a vital part of cutting our expenses. Currently Natalie and I live in Winter Park, Fl but we will be moving to Livonia, Mi in 6 days. As Natalie and I grew up in Livonia, the easiest way to lower our rent would be to move in with someone with an extra room or two.
   • Suffice it to say that Natalie and I will be living in my parent’s house (for a small monthly rate) for the 5 months we will be in Detroit. This will only work because during the summer my mother moves 3 hours north where she takes up residence at my parents vacation home. Meanwhile, my dad works late most nights and commutes to Northern Michigan on the weekends. In reality, the 4 of us will not be spending much time living in the same house. I point this out not because I don’t love my parents ( I do) but because I would not want our dream to inconvenience their lives. I think sharing a home with their son and his wife might qualify as an inconvenience.
2. The only other way to cut our monthly expenses is to live as cheap as possible. This means that we will not be going out to eat, not buying stuff we don’t need, and generally making every dollar we spend go as far as possible. (I will try to post some specific examples of what this actually means in the future.)

At the moment, this is all I can think of. in terms of increasing our income and decreasing our expenses. I know that the list is small, but the calculations show that these sacrifices (yes I know some of them are drastic… beer is not usually considered a need) will allow us to save the necessary cash to make this trip a reality.
Disclaimer: My parents are not getting divorced nor are they planning on an extensive separation . Although it is a bit odd, my parents do live in different locations every summer. Trust me, they talk enough on the phone that they may not realize that they are living in different geographical area

So, here’s a tip if you ever plan on going on a nomad backpacking adventure.  Everyone has some type of musical talent or magical ability (juggling, card tricks, etc).  And if you don’t you can learn something really fast!  I’ve even found a helpful Tips on Busking website.  Justin’s been throwing around buying a harmonica because it will travel light with us.

UPDATE 29-Jun-2008

Video Updated as per Hannah’s request.

Using the library to assist in initial research is something I would highly recommend.

1. It’s FREE! I don’t have to spend money Justin and I are trying to save for travel and transportation on 100′s of books.
2. We cannot carry lots of books. I am not sure how many we will bring at this point but it’s not going to be a ton. We will have to plan on buying additional informational books and maps as we go.
3. It’s a great way to see whats out there, new and old resources. Whereas a large book store will only carry the most recently released travel books. These are great! But their are other good resources that only library’s can offer.

An example of a lesson I learned from some items I checked out today:

Book: “Spectrum Guide to Maldives” The islands south of India (yes, in the Indian Ocean). After looking into the islands I realized that they are tiny islands (most that you can only reach by boat, not even enough land for an airplane to land), that house upscale resorts. I plan on returning this book on my next trip to the library.

Book: “Driving Over Lemons, An Optimist In Andalucia” This is a book by Chris Stewart (a guy who originally grew up in the states) who moved with his wife, Ana, to El Valero, a mountain farm in Andalucia, Spain. His book is a tale of his adventures that resulted in “both hilarious disasters and blissful serendipity”. He still lives in Spain today with Ana (his wife) and they have a daughter, Chloe. And I think he has a dog too, because his official author photo was taken with a dog. However, Chris could have stolen the dog to look extra awesome in the photo.

DVD: “Hairspray” That’s right, the movie based on the musical. John Travolta plays a woman and I heard he can still shake it and look good on the dance floor. I’ll have to put him to the test and find out. What can I say? This is not directly related to becoming a nomad backpacker. The last two DVD’s I checked out contained factual information on two different countries. I think it’s important that I do not become obsesed with other cultures and loose focus on my own culture. Which at times may mean John Travolta as a woman.

Maps: Alright, so I didn’t “check” any out. And you can’t actually check out maps at the library I have been currently going to. However, they have a used book section; they sell used books, magazines, travel brochures and even maps. I took a look to see if any of them would be helpful. A few of the maps I came across today would probably come in handy, including maps of Amsterdam, London, and Southern France. But as a nomad backpacker, I believe it will be important to wait and buy maps once we will need them. Instead of traveling with a backpack that could be mistaken as an atlas. Once we know our first few destinations, I plan on having a few maps and resources prepared in advance.

I got a few other books today too. So far it is proving to be the best way to explore resources for FREE without accumulating loads of books that I could never bring in the limited (size and weight) capacity our backpacks will offer. I think this is a great way to begin to educate myself during this initial stage of planning

We were able to check out some of the usual St. Augustine sights. The most popular, Castillo de San Marcos, the original fort the Spaniards built upon creating the first town in America. I was most impressed at how much we were able to experience for FREE because of the Pirate Hostel.

Captain Conrad, the hostel owner helped us to park for FREE a few blocks away on a residential side (Riberia Street). We were also able to eat Pirate pancakes for FREE. Go to the St. Augustine Lighthouse for FREE. And the Farmer’s Market was FREE. Conrad gave me a couple FREE grapefruits picked off the tree behind the hostel. And my absolutely favorite FREE element of our time in St. Augustine was “The Old Trolley Tour”. A couple from Colorado that is biking from the Keys all the way north to Bar Harbor, and stopping in Boston for their daughters college graduation in May. They bought tickets ($21 per adult) the day before (good for 2 days), and they gave us their extra passes, since they were biking north continuing on their journey. Justin and I had a great time hopping on and off the trolley for FREE. We were educated about various parts of the city and learned a lot about the history. At one point, we even hopped off at the Sans Sebastian Winery for some FREE wine tasting.

What did we pay for?

The pirate hostel – $40 total with tax ($20 per coed dorm bed)

Castillo de San Marcos – $12 ($6 per adult for a one week pass)

Sangria at Taberna del Gallo – $10 ($5 per glass) an awesome 18th century authentic tavern, no electrical lights in the whole place (all candles) and one local, a 50-something year old woman even busted out with an old sea shanty (a pirate song).

Pizza – $13.25 at Pizzalley on St. George’s

Total – $75.25 – backpacking in America is the most expensive global locations to navigate.

Daily expenses depending on the region of the world can vary. The most expensive places to travel range from $65-125 a day. The middle range of regions will vary between $35-65 per day. And the lowest price range to travel within (developing countries) can range between $15-40 a day. These facts were all taken from The Rough Guide to First-Time Around the World.

Overall, it makes me really excited to see how many random FREE adventures we may participate in as we live as nomad backpackers. I know we will have to pay for stuff all the time, but our experiences in St. Augustine proved to us that with only minimal effort, we were able to receive a great deal from the generosity of others. It’s very inspiring and makes me want to have a generous spirit as well.

So what was the hostel like anyway?

Well, Saturday morning I woke up. And I made my way across the coed dorm to the bathroom. I suddenly noticed that two guys were cuddling in a lower bunk together. At that point I looked around and noticed that all the bunks that were empty (the day before it was Lewis, Justin, myself, and a guy in a tropical shirt), now had guys in all of them. Well, I ended up being the only woman in the coed dorm. But I felt safe because Justin was there.

As I was showering I realized I forgot soap. So, I ended up using a bar of Dove that I believe came all the way from England. I showered in my flip flops as (just in case) I don’t want foot fungus. Overall, it was a stretching experience. It was a reminder of how parts of backpacking will just suck. However, I am hoping that the gross bathrooms, smelly guys that snore, and all of the other unpleasant elements of hostels will be tolerable because of the experiences and adventures that traveling offer will offer.

What I want to discuss is how Natalie and I are going to save money for a trip of this nature. Now, as I am a bit squeamish about publishing details regarding our financial situation, I will be leaving specific numbers out of this discussion. (Those of you with a voyeuristic interest in our finances should probably stop reading: no juicy details will be forthcoming  )

Disclaimer

This post is designed to demonstrate the following.

1. Natalie and I are not independently wealthy
2. With some hard work and common sense (and a few sacrifices), it is possible to finance a trip around the world.

In making that claim, I feel that it is necessary to explain a few things about how we look at money and about our current financial situation.

What We are Starting With

To start, here is a brief summery of our financial picture (I feel like I am writing an article for Money Magazine).

• Natalie is currently employed by Starbucks as a part time barista and I work as a software tester and technical writer for a consulting company.
• We rent an apartment
• Outside of computer technology and typical home stuff (i.e. dishes, flatware, books etc.) we own the following assets
  • A 2001 Toyota 4Runner with 104,000 miles
  • A 12×7 Hallmark Cargo Trailer
• About one year ago we began investing money into various retirement funds (IRAs, Roth IRAs, etc)
• We have paid off our (translation: my) student loans and we have no credit card debt

Natalie and I live a very simple life. In part, this simplicity is a direct result of living as Nomads for about 9 months. In terms of stuff, if it does not fit into our 4Runner and our trailer we don’t have it. (If you want more details about the Nomad America lifestyle you can read our other blog.) The other major contribution to our simple lifestyle is some great advice I received right around the time I graduated from college (go broncos!) Here is the gist.

As a working professional, live at the same level as the broke college student you were 2 months before. You graduated college. So what? A lot of people have shown that to be possible. You don’t deserve a new car, a new wardrobe or really anything new to celebrate. All you proved is that you are capable of going to school. During the time when you attempting to prove that you really are an adult, save your money. You are accustom to being broke and not having nice stuff. If you live that way for another 4 or 5 years and invest that money instead, you can eliminate your debt and create a solid financial foundation.

This way of thinking has proved to be a solid guiding principle and has helped Natalie and I develop a healthy way of looking at, and spending, money. At the same time, in order to save enough money for this trip (we are leaving in 170 days), we need to figure out a way to cut our expenses and increase our income.

In my next post, I will discuss, in detail, the methods Natalie and I will use to drastically cut our expenses and increase our incom