We've been thinking about it for a while, a few months or even a few years. We want to discover all these countries visited more than the 2 weeks granted by the school holidays of the children. We just had to decide. Everything seemed difficult to organize:obtaining the agreement of the children's teachers, finding a substitute during my absence at the office, leaving our house to strangers... And then this year, the click, we only have one life, we have only one desire, I don't want to regret, we want to live it now, it's the right time (or never never say never !). We are going on a 6-month trip with the children!
Traveling as a family for several months requires a little (a lot) of money. Money to travel and money to plan for the return. In general, during a trip of several months, you have no more income and you have to dip into your savings. My husband can work anywhere as long as he has an internet connection, it's a great chance for us. Whether you are at home or on the other side of the world, it has no impact on your salary. But this is not a reason to burn all our savings.
We were already in a way of life where we gave little importance to material expenses. I don't have an overflowing wardrobe, neither do the children. I don't spend money on makeup or beauty creams, we don't smoke, we don't go out much. We buy almost everything used. The bulk of our spending actually goes to our travels and hobbies after house credit.
Indeed the credit of the house is a consequent item of expenditure. Either you are a tenant and you just have to return your accommodation. Either you are in home ownership and you have an outstanding loan. How to continue to pay your house loan if you no longer have income?
We made the choice to rent the house in our absence. And the prospect of renting out our furnished home to others while we were away opened our eyes even more to whether or not we materially matter to our business. No more superfluous, unnecessary, we sold many, many, many accumulated business that we kept "just in case" or that were used only too rarely. It allowed us to do a huge sorting in the house, to free up space, to declutter and it also feels good in the spirit! I will not fail to give you a return on the different ways of renting your accommodation during your trip. This money collected in this way by offloading our material goods deemed useless allows us to finance compulsory expenses even before leaving :travel insurance, new passports for girls, purchase of a UV water treatment lamp (Steripen Ultra), new technical backpacks, vaccines…
Then comes the cost of travel there.
The cost of a trip around the world depends on the duration of your trip, the countries visited and the way you travel.
Do you want to go around the world in the strict sense of the term or do you simply want to travel for a longer or shorter period?
The term and concept of world tour geographically means a trip that circumnavigates, from East to West or vice versa, around the globe. Often carried out in 12 months, sometimes 18 months, sometimes 9 months, through around fifteen countries on average, stopping off in each continent of our globe. A world tour therefore contains several long-haul flights to cross the Atlantic and then the Pacific, and therefore a higher cost.
The question to ask yourself is, do you just want to go around the world? Where do you want to travel by taking the time to do so? And which countries do you want to visit? The budget for traveling to Asia or Africa is not the same as that of a trip to Oceania or a road trip in North America. I invite you to read the article on "Our tips for traveling cheaper as a family" to understand why.
The longer you travel, the more the trip will obviously cost you. We chose to leave for 6 months, that's enough to give us a real travel break on the other side of the world. Any longer would have required major professional changes for me and school changes for the children.
The way you travel will necessarily define your budget. Plane or land transport? Luxury hotels or hostels? Restaurants, activities, on-site visits?
The cost of such a trip will not be the same from one person to another depending on their level of requirement.
"Going" around the world is not our ultimate goal as a traveler. Our main desire is above all to take the time to travel. We simply do not want to chain stopovers, to multiply the changes of hotels or hostels or to burn out our savings. 6 months or even 12 do not seem to us enough to take full advantage of a round the world trip. We just want to take the time and devote ourselves to one continent.
So we chose not to "go around the world". We rather go on a trip around the world.
We really want to discover South America , mainly Bolivia, Peru and Colombia over 2-3 months. We would have liked to cross the Pacific to go to Asia directly without the classic but expensive stopovers in New Zealand or other paradise islands (Hawaii, Polynesia, etc.). It seems complicated and above all very expensive for the 4 of us. And then how much time do you spend in each country visited to tell yourself that you have seen enough, that you have immersed yourself in the culture enough? I think it's very personal and subjective.
So the decision is made. We are staying for 6 months in Asia , because we love this continent and want to discover more. On site we will certainly take some inexpensive internal flights and above all land transport such as the train already experienced in India. We obviously use our good old research techniques to find the cheapest plane tickets. And the first stop on this trip to Asia will be China !
For this family trip, we estimate our daily expenses at 90 euros/day at 4 (medium high ) for accommodation, meals, visits, public transport, activities, extras, visas. All smoothed over the 6 months of the trip, i.e. 16,200 euros for 6 months excluding plane tickets, which we estimate at 4,000 euros in all , including internal flights. Knowing that the cost of living is higher in some countries than others depending on the need for a visa, the cost of public transport, visits, accommodation, we will try to maintain this budget of 90 euros / day. We are not looking for great luxury, just a bed and accommodation with a little charm. We also want to review our standards in terms of luxury and comfort. We have already tasted it on previous trips but it is not the main part of this 6 month trip, it is clearly not what we want today.
My husband can work from anywhere as long as he has an internet connection. He will therefore always have an income during our trip which will be able to pay our daily travel expenses and our fixed charges in France.
Here you go! You know everything about the budget to plan for a 6-month family trip! In the next article I will detail the planning of the preparations for our trip. Departure planned in 4 months!
