Hit 12 different countries this year on a shoestring budget and it felt unreal

I started tracking my locations for tax reasons back in January and just added up my total for the year - 12 countries across 4 continents, all while spending under $900 a month total. The milestone surprised me because I thought I'd be stuck in one place for months at a time, but cheap hostels and bus passes kept me moving. Has anyone else accidentally lost count of their countries and then been shocked when they finally did the math?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona_carr261d ago

Sounds like passport-stamping speedrun.

green.noah1d ago

Echoing what @fiona_carr26 said, that's exactly what it sounds like. A passport stamp collection with barely any time for actual travel. At $30 a day you're basically speedrunning through hostels and eating instant noodles for every meal. I've done the cheap travel thing too but that's not even budget, that's just surviving. You're missing out on the whole point of seeing a new place if you're just trying to hit a country count.

wendy_henderson211d ago

honestly that math sounds kinda sus to me lol. 12 countries on $900 a month means you're either couch surfing the whole time or skipping meals, that's like $30 a day for everything. I've done budget travel too but being that cheap usually means you're just ticking boxes at airports instead of actually experiencing the places.