You will have many expenses while traveling overland, with over 100.000km under our belts, in this article we will share a breakdown of costs you can expect.
What costs do you have while traveling overland? Expenses for an overland trip can be divided into the following categories
- Fuel
- Accommodation
- Food and sundries
- Sights and parks
- Border crossings and visas
- Shipping and flights
- Maintenance and repairs
- Insurance
- Miscellaneous
Depending on your level of luxury, daily expenses can range from US$20 per person per day to US$100.
These categories apply to being on the road and we'll discuss how your travel style affects each one. We’ll split up the costs in those that you will pay for daily and the ones that are spread out over the course of your trip. Besides the mentioned list there might be some startup costs you have to take into account. Finally we'll discuss how normal people afford a trip around the world.
How is Traveling Overland Different from Backpacking When Creating a Budget?
Overlanding in your own vehicle is different from going on a holiday in many ways, but one important difference is the way you spend your money. Instead of taxis or public transport you’ll now have to take fuel and repairs into account, costs for crossing borders and potentially shipping of your vehicle. Other costs that are similar to traveling more traditionally like accommodation, food and entry fees for sights and other entertainment are also part of an overlanding budget. Let’s discuss the categories individually and how travel style affects the range.
Daily expenses for traveling overland
Things you pay for (almost) every day.
Daily fuel costs while traveling overland
The following factors influence how much you will be spending on fuel for your vehicle
- Type of vehicle; scooter, motorcycle, car, truck etc.
- Fuel consumption of that vehicle
- Type of fuel your vehicle needs; petrol, diesel, lpg, electricity, human power
- Weight of your luggage
- Country you are in; price per liter
- Type of roads you are traveling impact your fuel consumption
- Average travel speed; slow travel means less spent on fuel
- Weather and altitude
- Number of people in the vehicle; costs per person will fall greatly if you travel with more people
- Number of paying hitchhikers
As you can see, there are many factors that heavily influence how much you will spend on petrol per day. The slower you travel, the less you will spend on a daily basis on fuel. The really slow explorers sometimes stay weeks to a month in the same location. Working or volunteering and getting to know the place before moving on.
Another factor that has a very big influence on the average price of fuel is the country you are in. Places like Norway and the Netherlands are knows for their high price per liter for both petrol and diesel. While other locations are know for their incredible low prices such as Iran, Turkmenistan and Sudan. On average, you already know where petrol prices are going to be low and where they are going to be high but there are always some surprises especially in Africa.
So if you want to estimate how much you will be spending on petrol, calculate how many kilometers you will ride in a country, take your estimated average fuel consumption and multiply by the average petrol price in the country you are planning to visit using [this website]
[1]: https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices
Daily Accommodation costs while traveling overland
This is one of the places where people distinguish themselves as a budget traveler or a luxury adventurer. A budget traveler will try to find free accommodation as much as possible. Free or wild camping is a favourite among adventure travellers for a good reason. It’s great to find a spot in nature, where no-one is around and just sleep under the stars while paying absolutely nothing. Despite it being absolutely amazing in my opinion is not for everyone nor is it possible in every place in the world. Some countries like India and Ethiopia are just too crowded and there are people everywhere. You could ask if you can pitch in peoples gardens if you are really tight but most people will upgrade themselves to a hostel or a cheap hotel.
Another free method is to couch surf using websites such as couchsurfing.com and it is an absolute great way to meet the locals. While free, it is usually expected that you interact and share with your hosts so if you were looking to just netflix and chill this might not be the best option for you.
If you decide to volunteer and stay longer in a place a website like workaway.info is a place where people offer accommodation for free in exchange for your help. Another great way to keep that budget under control.
If all those adventures off the last days, weeks, months have made you weary a nice private hotel room might be all you need for the next few days to recharge. I personally use booking.com most of the time to find an affordable hotel. Especially traveling as a duo or in a group a hotel room quickly turns out to be cheaper than a hostel.
Food and sundries costs while traveling overland
A pretty straight forward topic I would say. Depending on your preference, you can cook, eat street food or go to fancy restaurants and everything in between. This also depends on the countries you are planning to travel and your travel speed. Slower travel means more of your budget spent on food.
Also drinking alcohol will add a big section to your budget. If beer or wine is something you cannot go without make sure you keep that in mind.
Recurring costs for traveling overland
Things you pay for once in a while but need to be taken into account
Paying for Sights and parks on your trip
You know what kind of style visiting tourist attractions, national parks or game parks. Think museums, castles, hot air balloon rides, pyramids, national parks or game drives. You must already have a list of things you are interested in doing, but I can promise you that you will add and remove some of those things off the list. No matter what, you want to add a section onto your budget to see some of the things on your trip.
Budgeting for Border crossings and visas on your adventure
How many borders are you going to cross? If you go on ioverlander you can check the border crossing reports and get an idea what every border crossing costs. It depends on which vehicle you are traveling with. Sometimes you have to pay for road tax, a fee for crossing, stamping vehicles in or out, maybe you will want to travel with a Carnet de Passage that is going to cost you money.
Visas will cost you money too. Some countries will provide you with a VOA (Visa on Arrival) when you rock up to the border. Others you have to apply for before, which often requires copies of passports etc.
Shipping by container or RORO will require you to spend quite some cash.
Budgeting for shipping and flights on an overland trip
If you want to travel to multiple continents you want to budget for shipping your vehicle. Motorcycles and bicycles can easily be transported by airplane but cars and trucks can only be shipped by ship and the biggest trucks can only go on RORO (Roll on roll off) ships.
Most of the time you will have to take a flight and wait either at the departure location or on the destination location for your vehicle to arrive (except when transporting by air, then you). This will add some extra costs to the whole shipping practice. My advice is really to minimise the amount of shipments you are planning to make.
Saving for Maintenance and repairs on your overland trip
Vehicles require maintenance; oil changes, filter replacements, greasing bearings etc. The bigger your vehicle, the more expensive maintenance will be. If you are a handy man/woman yourself you can save a lot of money but parts will always cost you money. Cheaper countries do not mean cheaper parts. Actually most of the time it will be more expensive than at home. You can take some spare parts with you, but my advice is to find out which parts would be difficult to get abroad and break often on your brand/model vehicle.
Repairs always need to happen when you least expect it. It really depends on how good you are with your doing your own repairs, but sometimes you will need specialist tools that you cannot take. Find a local to borrow some space in a garage to save on costs. If you are not so great with tools, then try and find out in which countries you will be able to find a dealer to do your maintenance and repairs.
don't forget to get Insurance
This is a topic people often don’t talk about, because it’s boring, or go without. DON’T! It’s also to something people tend to exclude when to they talk about their budget. Make sure you get any kind of insurance that will cover your medical expenses in case of emergency as a bare minimum. You don’t want to be the poor traveler who got into an accident and then cannot afford the medical bills and have to set up a crowdfunding so they can fly home. We personally also travel with an insurance that covers things breaking because of the routes we take, electronics tend to break. Safetywing offers travel insurance for nomads at a very affordable price. Check them out using this link.
All the other things that don't fit into any other category aka. Miscellaneous
Anything that doesn’t fit into the other categories. Think of laundry, replacement electronics, new clothes, replacement camping equipment, doctor visits, postcards, souvenirs, toll roads, taxi rides, sim cards, phone credit, etc.
Preparation costs for a trip around the world.
Before you can ride into the sunset, you need some things most of the times. I know I did. So keep in mind that you will want to reserve some of your savings to get a suitable vehicle, some safety upgrades or get new or upgrade your camping gear. Also think about getting some first aid training, mechanical instructions on your vehicle or finance a test trip close to home.
How to afford a trip around the world?
Save as much of your money and spend as little as you go. That is what 80% of the people do. If a ride around the world is your dream the best option is to start saving. Other methods are traveling on your pension, invest in property and travel from that income or become a digital nomad. Getting sponsored and starting a social media profile is usually not a very reliable method to fund your trip.