Travelling so far it’s easy to look at the headline cost of flights, add on a couple of thousand for accommodation and think that’ll be a rough estimate. Estimating the budget is hard! How cheap can you do it for, and then do you really want to do it that cheap?
Optimistic Budget
With potentially free accommodation in Philippines, and cheap activities there, the bulk of the budget could be spent on travelling Italy.
Flights were estimated to be NZ$6600, cheap accommodation for 10 days NZ$2200, food and activities another NZ$2000, expenses in Hong Kong and Manila bringing the total to around NZ$13000.
But really, that was never going to be realistic. Could it have been done for that total? Maybe. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much though!
Realistic Budget
A more realistic budget meant working out how long we’d be in Italy for, and get a rough idea how much accommodation actually cost.
To cover the places I wanted to go meant at least 2 weeks in Italy. Accommodation was on the higher side of what I wanted to pay. Hostels are cheap only if you’re travelling alone. For only a little more we could get places in hotels or B&Bs with much better arrangements. We don’t expect 5 star hotels, but a private bathroom and reasonably good location were preferable.
Activities were also much more expensive than I would have guessed, especially when every entry ticket is multiplied by three. Tourism has increased dramatically in the last 20 years, and crowds have multiplied. This means for some places special tricks need to be applied, and these cost money.
So the accommodation budget was upped to NZ$6000, activities upped to $4000, food upped to NZ$2000.
With more realistic estimates for Hong Kong and Manila the total now came to NZ$21000.
Next: The Itinerary
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