Amsterdam, then Vienna, Barcelona, Tangier, Bangkok via Paris, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh, Tokyo, Mexico City (staying at a friend's place as a home base and seeing other parts of Mexico), Medellin, Quito, then returning back to America.
I wanna start this in October 2024 and stay in each place roughly two weeks, except for a whole month in Mexico.
I plan to take just one 35L backpack that has 4 outfits and my necessities.
I want to do this on a budget of $15k, and I think roughly 1/3rd of that will have to be spent on flights/trains/ferries.
Does this sound feasible? Is there anything I should consider that I haven't yet?
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What is your racial and ethnic background?
Ethnically, I'm half Asian and half Latino. A lot people guess Filipino. I'm from the USA.
Gross. good luck to you.
Filipinos are either Mexican-Asian halfbreeds or Spanish-Asian halfbreeds.
shittiest >list of cities i have ever seen
What's so wrong with these? I'm trying to hit countries /cities I haven't been to before, or really want to get back to.
it's like you just went to chatgpt and asked for 10 tourist cities to visit from anywhere in the world
¯_(ツ)_/¯
I like big metropolitan cities. Where would you go? 12 places tops.
Spanish-Filipinos stats and locations.
Mexican-Filipinos stats and locations.
FYI setting foot in Tangier doesn't mean you can say you've been to Africa.
Yeah I'm fine with that. Save Africa for another time.
You're staying in one city, or one country for two weeks? Most of those have 3-4 days tops things to do. Tokyo is the only one I could stay for 2 weeks. For example Vienna you can just take an one hour train to Bratislava, get to Budapest from there in like 2 hours. From Bangkok go see Pai, or Chiang Mai, or the Islands.
The area of one city per each two week period. Like, I might stay out of one or two hostels top per city, but open to doing day trips out of the city. I know two weeks in Vienna is overkill, and for most of these cities too. The idea is to keep the budget low, so not taking extra flights or train rides where I can (at least in Europe) is ideal.
With some cities like Amsterdam and Vienna, it might be cheaper to take cheap bus to another city, and stay in a hostel in that city. Also, better hotels/hostels quality wise. Some cheaper ones in bigger cities are not that great, maybe for few days ok. If it's another country, like with Bratislava, food & alcohol etc. will be cheaper. You have the time anyways. Thats what I would do, pinch the money from somewhere else.
I would do Bangkok-Singapore-HCMC with starting from Singapore, taking a night bus (save up on hostel night) to Kuala Lumpur, stay there for a while, night bus to Samui or Phuket, visit some islands, bus to Bangkok. On the islands you can get cheap accommodation. Then to Phnom Penh and on to HCMC. All can be done on night buses I think, did it in reverse. And they are pretty cheap.
Would maybe add India before South-East Asia and then Taipei or Hong Kong between Tokyo, but thats more money of course. With India you need to get out of the cities fast, so it eat some time.
>it might be cheaper to take cheap bus to another city, and stay in a hostel in that city
That's actually a pretty good idea. Thanks for the tip! I might do a few days in the cities themselves and then the rest of the time on the outskirts and taking public transportation into the city.
Regarding Thailand, I've been before and mostly want to go back to Bangkok as that's one place I felt like I didn't get to see all of. Not that I saw all of the rest of it, but I felt like I got the gist of Samui, Phi Phi, and Chiang Mai. Bangkok just feels like there's a ton of different worlds to get in. But two weeks will definitely be too much, I'm sure I will break it up with somewhere else in Thailand.
But the night bus idea from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur is a great idea. A bus from there to Phuket sounds good too, but probably a little past my comfort level in terms of length. I can afford to shell out a little more for the flight straight to Bangkok.
I wish SE Asia had better transportation infrastructure. The route you laid out makes so much sense, but god I don't wanna spend more than 12 hours on some crammed bus. How long were the buses from Bangkok>Phnom Penh>HCMC?
Kuala Lumpur - BKK is a bit longer yeah, that's why it's good to stop somewhere. There is a train from Surat Thani to BKK, but it's not that much shorter. KL - Surat Thani is a bus, then bus to Phuket or ferry to the islands. I think those are sleeper trains. They get booked fast though, especially winter, so I've only done the buses.
Singapore - Kuala Lumpur bus was alright, normal bus, only thing is you have to cross the border by walking, so that adds time, but at least you can get up and walk. There might be sleeper ones with beds. KL - BKK plane tickets are probably dirt cheap.
Bangkok>Phnom Penh>HCMC buses were like 10-12 hours I think each. They are sleeper buses, at least the ones I took. If you're tall like me, it's a bit crampy, but this was years ago, and I'm sure there are different kind of buses. Not that expensive. There is some frickery on the borders, might want a 1-2 dollar bribe from everyone to let you through on time. Depends I suppose.
15k is light if you still need to pay for flights. I'm a cheap frick, don't drink and never do any paypig tourist stuff and would barely go by with this budget. Try to get a bit more or be ready to sacrifice a lot of comfort.
Make sure you know the weather of the place when you plan to go. January in Paris is grim and march in Bangkok is already very hot.
Have you ever traveled for 6 months ? If yes did you really rush to do the "things to do" (whatever that means) and move cities non stop every 3 days for all the duration ? Sounds like hell to me.
Maybe you can't enjoy 2 weeks in Bangkok or Singapore but most people can.
>Have you ever traveled for 6 months ?
Multiple times, in a few months doing 4month cycling trip where I'm changing places every day. First ever trip when 3month around Asia, where I was changing places every 3-4 days. I realized at that time I'm pretty blessed to be here doing this, it's not a vacation, but a proper trip. Sure, I've stayed months in one place, but those were more leisurely trips in countries I've already been and experienced.
If you gonna have a multi-city 3 continent trip which you have been saving up for, I wouldn't waste the opportunity to sit in Bangkok for two weeks. Gonna look back on that and think wtf I was doing.
Why would two weeks in Bangkok be more of a waste than, say, two weeks in Amsterdam or any other city? Bangkok is one of the most affordable megacities in the world, and you have such a variety of food and experiences to choose from. Yes, it is entirely worth it to meander around the city for two weeks.
Bangkok is just an example, wasn't gonna list every city they mentioned. Two weeks in Amsterdam is also a waste in my opinion, if you have the opportunity to go somewhere else. Of course like
said, Vienna, Tokyo and Amsterdam for example are expensive. If you're on a budget, free and affordable things to do are gonna run out pretty fast, so after 4-5 days you're gonna be spending money every day just to actually do something different, or you're just hanging around. Tokyo is the only one I could spend 2 weeks, which I have done, but even then restaurants and travel around city will cost me. I've done that in cities, just doing nothing special, but they have been places I've been to and probably will return to. With around the world trip you might not ever return to that country, so might as well try to get in as much you can, even if it might be a bit of an inconvenience.
$15K is enough, depending how the flights/travel are gonna go for. $3K maybe total? Buses in Asia are like $20, almost the same in Europe. You can do western cities for like $50 a day, $1500 month. SEA less, Tokyo about the same. Don't know about South America.
I kind of looked up average costs for all the transportation around when I would go. I just took the median price as an estimate for however much I'd pay per flight. I'm expecting the transportation to cost me $5k all in all, which leaves me $10k for lodging, food, experiences.
It's tight, but I think it's possible. If I have to go over, I'm thinking $20k is my time-to-go-home limit.
>Make sure you know the weather of the place when you plan to go
Yup, I think I'm planning for the best. Oct will be spent in Amsterdam and Vienna. November is Spain and Tangier. December is Thailand and Singapore. January is Vietnam and Tokyo.
February is Mexico. March is Colombia and Ecuador.
I think by the timing of all this I avoid monsoon seasons and any harsh Winter climates (aside from Tokyo, but I've got lightweight Winter gear and 32f is hardly cold).
Transport can be very cheap if you know where to look. I'm flying from D.C. to Bangkok in a week for a grand total of $350. Direct booking.
I'm going to be doing something similar to OP but it'll mostly be SEA and Central Asia. 4 months for 5k. I found this thread just looking for backpack recommendations in the archive.
Any luck with backpack recommendations? I need to get a backpack too. I've been leaning towards a Cotopaxi Allpa 35L, but I don't like that it doesn't have a water bottle pocket.
$15K for six months is only $2500 per month. Guys spend that much living the high life in Southeast Asia, one of the cheapest regions on Earth.
But you want to fly roughly 28,000 miles and spend weeks apiece in expensive cities like Amsterdam, Vienna, Barcelona, Paris, Singapore, and Tokyo. And not only that, but you mentioned a desire to take cross-country excursions. I don't see how $15K will be anywhere close to sufficient.
You seem like the one skeptic of the whole thread, which makes me extra concerned to persuade you the trip is feasible in my budget. Let me mention some important details I haven't yet.
My cousin works for American Airlines and presumably I can use their buddy pass. I'd have to fly standby and I'd get whatever seat is left for the price of the lowest economy ticket sold. So, if I'm OK w/ showing up at a major airport and waiting standby until I hit big, I could potentially fly to BKK 1st class/business for the price of the lowest coach ticket sold. Might be able to do that for any other AA flights, but I don't want to overstep my bounds - I'm not the type to like asking favors.
Regardless of whether they can hook me up, I've been racking up my CSR card points like hell. I've enough to get me to Amsterdam. Either by the time I take this trip or by the time it's over, I MIGHT have enough to get me back from from Quito->USA or some other mildly expensive flight.
So, consider two flights in the top quantile of length/cost will be bought with points or can be much cheaper if I'm date-flexible and willing to call in family favors.
Other than that, I'm probably gonna try to keep weekly eating out expenses to $60/week, and the rest of the time I'll cook food at the hostel. This will go quick in Europe, but street food in SEA and SA is very cheap.
Also worth mentioning, I'm not spending any time in Paris. That's just a layover to BKK.