Ben discusses how he plans to spend years away from home... without breaking the bank
One of the very first questions people seem to have when considering the prospect of round the world travel is just "how much does it all cost?" Whether it be in books, magazines or countless Internet forums, a great number of people, including myself, have asked this unanswerable question as this alone really determines when you can leave and more importantly for how long you can be away...
One of the very first questions people seem to have when considering the prospect of round the world travel is just "how much does it all cost?" Whether it be in books, magazines or countless Internet forums, a great number of people, including myself, have asked this unanswerable question as this alone really determines when you can leave and more importantly for how long you can be away...
From what I have read there seem to be two common answers. Either "you should budget for $1,000 a month" or, more sensibly "it depends". But depends on what exactly...
- Where will you be going? Is it a single country, a region, a whole continent or several continents? Rather obviously, the further you plan to travel, the more you can expect to pay;
- Do you plan to work? Or more importantly, are you working to break even or are you actively increasing the savings you have?
- What type of accommodation will you opt for? Options include: camping, hostel, motel, B&B and hotel. On a longer trip, this for me is the most important consideration because whilst a night in a hostel may set you back as little as $12 a night in the States (more commonly $15-30) you can see how over the course of a year this recurring cost could cripple your bank statements - even at just $12 a night this adds up to an impressive $4,380.00;
- How you plan to travel? Options include walking, hitching, coach, bus, train, flying and self-driving. Again, if you plan to cover long distances then whilst a single coach trip may only be $30-$40, if you plan to take dozens of these then then the cost, like your accommodation, quickly piles sky high;
- What will be your general day-to-day living expense? Parks, galleries, museums, attractions all cost money. And there's also those more significant expenses such as sky diving which I think everybody opts to have a few such experiences included in their trip;
- How and what will you eat? Are you prepapring your own food and only buying from the local convenience store or are you having a sit down meal three times a day? Think this one speaks for itself;
Using just the answers to these questions I have found it is quite possible to generate some idea of what you you need to finance the trip you have in mind.
My first attempt at this did not make for happy reading, in fact, based on the sum of cash I expect to have by the end of March, I should expect to be home by Christmas!
Well absolutely not! I'm not quitting my job, leaving my flat and getting rid of most of my stuff for the sake of a few months gallivanting. I mean whilst I don't know how long I'd ideally like to be away for, I do know I'd like the option to be away for years... and by years I mean up to five.
I'm not quitting my job, leaving my flat and getting rid of most of my stuff for the sake of a few months gallivanting
But with no plans to compromise on where I would like to go, it seems I am left with just two options if I am to avoid Christmas 2012 in the UK - I must either work or if I can not work, find a way to rid the cost of food and accommodation - my biggest recurring expense.
Now with my TEFL certificates in one hand, a degree in the other and a load of experience in customer facing roles such as sales and hospitality I don't think I should really struggle to find work - but if I can't, how can I eat and sleep for free?
Whilst I don't know how long I'd ideally like to be away for, I do know I'd like the option to be away for years... and by years I mean up to five
The answer it seems is a work exchange. Referenced in a few books the concept is simple. You do between 20-30hrs work for a host - usually a family with a small business or small holding - and in return you're provided a bed to sleep on along with all your food for free.
Now this for me has two really big attractions...
- Whilst travelling alone, this set up will give me the opportunity to be in one place for long enough - even if its just two or three weeks at a time - to have the opportunity to get to know people well enough not to be left feeling lonely; and
- Secondly, what better way to get to know somewhere than living with the people who actually reside there!?
So yes, OK, you have to do some work, but having looked through the 501 hosts advertised in Canada the experiences this work could bring would be amazing, with just a few of the options including:
- Learning to ride bareback on a cattle ranch in Ontario
- Working at a white water rafting resort in The Rockies
- Childcare in Vancouver
- Renovating outbuildings in Winnipeg; or
- Transplanting blueberry bushes just outside Toronto!
The biggest attraction though has got to be the potential impact this could have on my budget and thus the time I can have on this big adventure. For if I planned this right and scheduled these work exchanges ahead of time, there is no reason why for the nine months I plan to stay in Canada and
the States that I couldn't spend eight of those months living completely
for free.
There is no reason why for the nine months I plan to stay in Canada and the States that I couldn't spend eight of those months living completely for free
And with this realised, I signed up on two websites which facilitate these work exchange projects - WorkAway and HelpX - and over the course of December shortlisted the 501 hosts down to just 11.
So I emailed them both on the 27th, had my first reply within 24hrs and had confirmation from them both just 48hrs after that. To say that I was happy would be a serious understatement, for finally this trip I have been imagining for so very long is finally beginning to have something real I can attribute to it.