Travel Expense >

Shishira and I left home on May 15, 2022 on this little adventure of full-time travel. For a few years now, we’d been dreaming about a life on the go and so we planned to take a year off our corporate careers and explore the world. From what we had saved up until May 2022 we earmarked a portion called the full-time travel fund. Our plan is to use this money to fund the expenses of travelling around the world and living this lifestyle while also working towards earning on the go. We’ve attempted to present the expenses related to our daily travel costs (like stay, activities, etc.) and other expenses that directly support our website and making travel videos and photography.

At this point, we are still too unsure of what income streams work for us – we’ve only just about begun our Youtube journey and not eligible for monetization yet. Also, this blog is only resuming activity now in June 2022 as we begin to publish our travel blogs and free guides to the destinations we’ve explored. So there’s definitely a long way to go before either can support full-time travel.

Yes, we are (were?) accountants – so we’re going to present this in a way that makes the best sense! But if you prefer a more insightful view, let us know in the comments section below and we’ll attempt to get it right. After all, nearly everyone enjoys a little bit of math when it comes to money! 😛

Hopefully, you’ll find this full-time travel travel expense report interesting and might even inspire you to go after your dream!

INCOME

In the first quarter of our full-time travel, we earned a total of INR 0 / USD 0. I know, its been tough. If you’d like to support us, please click the yellow coffee button on the screen! 🤓

We grew from 583 subscribers (existing on May 15) to 761 subscribers (as on June 30). We published 15 new travel vlogs every alternate day. In total, we have 25 videos on the channel (including the older ones) and currently have around 91k views. You can see more details here.

EXPENSE

In the first quarter of our full-time travel, we’ve spent money on the below categories:

✈️ Flights: INR 20,854 / USD 264

This quarter we flew to Andaman from mainland India and after spending 6 weeks there, we headed to eastern India to explore Bengal and Sikkim. These were the two flights we took:

• Chennai (India) to Port Blair (India)
• Port Blair (India) to Kolkata (India)

⛺️ Stay: INR 24,545 / USD 311

Hotels, homestays and rooms rented in Port Blair, Havelock, Neil, Diglipur and Kolkata. On Havelock island, our room cost us only INR 200 (USD 2.5) per night and it was located in a beautiful forest patch just off the Vijayanagar beach! Our room on Neil Island was 10 minutes away from the beach, but was also only INR 500 (USD 6.5) per night. On the other hand, we got scammed by the hotel in Kolkata!

Watch our Youtube vlogs from these places to see what the rooms were like… and what scary things happened in Havelock!

🍕 Food: INR 26,517 / USD 336

Breakfast (sometimes), lunch, snacks and dinner; includes water too. We enjoyed many street food dishes in both the Andaman islands and in eastern India. Typically we ate two meals and a day and shared our food to cut costs. Most meals cost less than INR 300 because of this.

🤿 Sightseeing and activities: INR 6,992 / USD 89

We went on a boat trip to Ross & Smith Islands in North Andaman. We also made last minute plans to go to the famous Nathu La Pass in Sikkim, where Indian and Chinese border checkposts are located. This cost also includes tickets to museums and other attractions.

🚌 Transport: INR 14,073 / USD 178

Rides on the local city bus, autorickshaws, interstate bus, We also took the train from Bangalore to Chennai, and from Kolkata to New Jalpaiguri Station (to visit Sikkim) and many inter-island ferries in Andaman. We’ve documented all of these journeys on our vlogs! 

💊 Other expenses: INR 1005 / USD 13

Misc. items like photocopies, soap, laundry, medicines and more. Interestingly, when we fell terribly ill on Neil Island, the healthcare was completely free!

This totaled up to INR 93,986 or USD 1,190 for 47 days of travel. Across these days the average cost of travel came to INR 2,000 or USD 25 per day including flights or INR 1,556 or USD 20 per day excluding flights for both persons together.

So this month, our cost of travel was INR 778 or USD 10 per day, per person.

NET INCOME/EXPENSE

With no actual income and considering the above expenses, we are at -INR 93,986 (-USD 1,190). Our goal is to bring this into the green zone by the end of the year 2022.

Do you have any suggestions or want us to add more details on this report? Let us know in comments below.

Useful links

Here are some useful resources to plan and book your next trip. These are the same websites and apps that we use for our own bookings! We may earn a small commission if you make your booking using the below link, at no extra cost to you. 🤓