What We Spent in 1 Month Travelling South East Asia
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We recently finished our first month travelling through South East Asia and after tallying up all our costs we determined we had spent $1,688 USD, or $2,553 AUD! This is how we did it.
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Hi! We’re Rosh & Stace and we’ve been travelling the world full-time for almost 8 months. In our first 6.5 months we travelled through Singapore, Europe and North America and now, we have just finished our first month in Asia. If you’re planning a trip to South East Asia and are curious on how much you might spend, then keep on reading because we will breakdown every major spend category for you, and by location as well!
As we’ve been travelling for almost 8 months now, we keep a very extensive budget, and we use certain cost categories to track all our spend. So we will use those same categories for this breakdown. These include:
Flights
Accommodation
Transport
Meals
Groceries
Activities
Visas
Miscellaneous
A few points before we really get into it:
We tend to spend longer in each city than people normally would. Given we are travelling for an extended period, we use our first 1-2 days in each city as rest and work days, and then the rest of the time to head out and explore. If you’re planning your own backpacking trip, then you can probably cut a few days off each of these cities and maybe even add in an extra city or two!
The actual prices we paid varied in terms of currency - sometimes it was paid in local currency, sometimes it was in AUD. For ease of reference, we will use AUD and USD for consistency, and where we paid in local currency, we will also include this amount (mainly for accommodation).
The conversions we use are generally whatever the exchange rate is when we first arrive in a country, so we note that our conversions may not be perfect, especially if you are joining us from the future!
Without further ado, let’s get into it!
We started our time in Asia in Thailand. We haven’t included the cost of flying to Thailand as we flew from the USA as part of a One World Classic Reward trip (long story short, we used frequent flyer points to save a TON of money on flights - more on this in a separate post, or you can check out our video here!). Additionally, the cost of your flight will depend on where you are coming from, so is not super relevant to include!
On a similar note, whether or not you have to pay for a Visa for Thailand will also depend on what passport you hold. Fortunately for us, we were able to use the 30-day visa free waiver. HOT TIP: If you hold a passport for an eligible country for the 30-day Visa-free waiver, you may want to ensure you have your departure flight booked. Immigration has become pretty strict on this post-COVID, and if you don’t have a departure flight booked, they can deny you entry. The immigration website also notes that land or sea travel is NOT sufficient. So if you’re planning to use the waiver, make sure you look into this and have something organised!
BANGKOK
We spent 7 nights in Bangkok, staying in a serviced apartment, a little bit away from the tourist hot spots like Khao San Road. We used Grab a lot for food as we were struggling with major jet lag, and had a lot of editing to catch up on, so we actually spent a lot of time inside. We think you could definitely visit Bangkok and spend less than what we did by eating street food and staying in a hostel, but it is otherwise quite an affordable city to visit.
In terms of activities, we steered clear of most of the main tourist attractions, having visited them on previous trips, but instead spent time visiting markets, famous shopping centres and eating lots of food. If you want to see more of what we got up to in Bangkok, you can check out our video here.
So our breakdown for Bangkok is as follows:
Flights: $0
Accommodation: $325.10 AUD
Transport: $54.49 AUD
Meals: $177.61 AUD
Groceries: $79.93
Activities: $0
Miscellaneous: $35.06 AUD
TOTAL: $672.19 AUD
Our Bangkok Accommodation: Sitara Place Serviced Apartments
CHIANG MAI
After Bangkok, we took the overnight sleeper train to Chiang Mai, where we spent 6 nights. Our accommodation was about a 10 minute walk to the old town, and had some snacks included which was good enough for us to use as breakfast some days.
During our time in Chiang Mai, we explored the old town, ate so much street and market food, and took part in a 5-course Thai cooking class!
Aside from the sleeper train to get to Chiang Mai, and getting to and from the station, we walked everywhere in Chiang Mai, so spent almost nothing on transport during the 6-days themselves. Chiang Mai is also an easy city to save some money, as a lot of what there is to see and do sits within the old town, or just outside, and majority of this is free to enter, such as the temples. Where you do have to pay entry, it’s quite a small cost as well.
Our breakdown for Chiang Mai is as follows:
Flights: $0
Accommodation: $213.37 AUD (4997 Baht)
Transport: $87.08 AUD
Meals: $138.05 AUD
Groceries: $16.33 AUD
Activities: $90.21 AUD
Miscellaneous: $0.85
TOTAL: $545.89
Our Chiang Mai Accommodation: Canary House Rachawong
Cooking Class: We Cook Thai Home Garden
PAI
From Chiang Mai, we jumped on the mini bus to Pai, which was definitely one of our favourite spots in Thailand. We spent 5 nights staying in a very basic, private bungalow, about a 10 minute walk to the walking street. This accommodation included breakfast as well which was great.
TIP: We loved our stay at Twin Hut. While only a short walk away from Pai town, it still provided a serene environment. Plus, breakfast was included all for just $10 USD a night! You can check out Twin Hut here!
In Pai, we spent our first few days relaxing in our bungalow, exploring the town and visiting the Saturday market. We also paid for a private tour to take us to many of Pai’s famous sites that are a little too far to walk to, like the White Buddha, Pai Canyon, the Bamboo Bridge and more. You could easily save on activity costs in Pai by skipping the private tour and instead hiring a scooter for a day or two. This was the significantly cheaper option, however, neither of us have ever ridden or driven and scooter, and weren’t comfortable enough to give it a go. Plus our travel insurance wouldn’t cover us if we were to have an accident, so that would definitely blow out the budget!
TIP: We filmed two videos of our time in Pai! If you want to check them out, click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2!
Our breakdown for Pai was as follows:
Flights: $0
Accommodation: $85.40 AUD (2000 Baht)
Transport: $17.33 AUD
Meals: $98.23 AUD
Groceries: $15.88 AUD
Activities: $69.39 AUD
Miscellaneous: $3.63 AUD
TOTAL: $289.86
Our Pai Accommodation: Twin Hut
CHIANG MAI (again..)
Following Pai, we were making our way to Chiang Rai. We took the bus back to Chiang Mai and spent the night there to break up the journey. This was mostly just a stopover, however, we of course had to venture back into the old town for one final delicious meal in Chiang Mai! We opted to stay close to the bus station, rather than close to the Old Town, to save on travel time and costs to and from the station.
—> 12Go is the best website to search and book your transport around Asia!
During our time back in Chiang Mai, we spent the following:
Flights: $0
Accommodation: $27.20 AUD
Transport: $29.04 AUD
Meals: $11.96 AUD
Groceries: $11.74 AUD
Activities: $0
Miscellaneous: $0
TOTAL: $79.94
Our Chiang Mai Accommodation: INN Kham Apartment
CHIANG RAI
We spent 6 nights in Chiang Rai, which was our last stop in Thailand! We stayed in a great hostel that was walking distance to everything we wanted to visit in the town itself, including the Night Bazaar, the famous Saturday Night Market, the Clock Tower and more. Even though it didn’t include breakfast, they did provide free eggs and bread for you to cook yourself for breakfast, as well as tea and coffee.
During our time in Chiang Rai, we also used Grab to get to some of those sights that sat outside the town, like the famous White Temple, the newer Blue Temple and our favourite temple of them all, Wat Huay Pla Kang. We even visited a really cool jungle-like cafe! Grab is a pretty affordable option, however, if you do want to save a little more on transport costs, you can try getting a public bus to some sights, such as the White Temple, or otherwise using some of the group transports from Chiang Rai bus terminal which may also work out cheaper. As always, you can also opt to hire a scooter or motorbike and drive yourself!
TIP: Chiang Rai has some of the most beautiful temples in all of Thailand! You can check out our videos HERE (Part 1) and HERE (Part 2)!
During our time in Chiang Rai, we spent the following:
Flights: $0
Accommodation: $188.64 AUD
Transport: $63.61 AUD
Meals: $98.26 AUD
Groceries: $32.01 AUD
Activities: $10.25 AUD
Miscellaneous: $10.25 AUD
TOTAL: $403.02
Our Chiang Rai Accommodation: Na-Rak-O Resort
JOURNEY FROM CHIANG RAI TO LUANG PRABANG
From Chiang Rai we began our big 3-day travel journey from Chiang Rai to Luang Prabang in Laos. This included a border crossing, multiple buses, multiple tuk tuks, stops in two cities and a two-day slow boat ride. As we were travelling into a new country, we did also need to get an e-visa for Laos, which cost us $155.71 AUD in total for the two of us.
Across the 3-days, our costs were limited to transport, meals and accommodation. We actually stayed in our cheapest accommodation of the trip so far, which was in Pakbeng and cost us only $10 AUD for the night!
Our breakdown for this 3-day journey was:
Flights: $0
Accommodation: $30.34 AUD (Huay Xai 1 Night & Pakbeng 1 Night)
Transport: $7.40 AUD
Meals: $52.93 AUD
Groceries: $8.54 AUD
Activities: $0
Miscellaneous: $0
TOTAL: $162.85
Our Huay Xai Accommodation: Oudomphone Guesthouse 2
LUANG PRABANG
To round out our first month in Asia was our first 3 nights in Luang Prabang. We spent another 4 nights after this, however, we’ve included what we spent during our first 3 days which rounded out our first month in Asia!
During these 3 days, we mostly spent time at our hotel catching up on editing and planning, so we really didn’t spend a lot, however, Luang Prabang is quite a small town so you can get to a lot of the sights by walking, which is what we did on day 3.
Our accommodation also included breakfast again which was great, and we were able to find really affordable lunch and dinner options within walking distance.
In total, we spent the following during our first 3 nights in Luang Prabang:
Flights: $0
Accommodation: $131.03 AUD
Transport: $71.04 AUD
Meals: $63.20 AUD
Groceries: $10.73 AUD
Activities: $2.96 AUD
Visas: $0
Miscellaneous: $5.55 AUD
TOTAL: $284.50
Our Luang Prabang Accommodation: Singrarat Hotel
SUMMARY
I’m sure by now your brain is tired from trying to add everything up as we go, so to save you a bit of time and energy, we’ve also included a summary of each cost category for the month below. Obviously your costs will vary depending on the type of accommodation you choose to stay in, the type of transport you use, how often you change cities, and what food you eat, but this should give you a pretty good idea of your rough costs. Again, all of this is for two people, so if you are a solo traveller you can expect to spend even less!
While we think we’ve done pretty well, and we’ve made some great progress in making up for all our over spending in Europe and North America, we definitely could have spent less, through some of the examples we gave, like hiring a scooter!
FLIGHTS: $0
ACCOMMODATION: $1,001.08 AUD
TRANSPORT: $329.99 AUD
MEALS: $640.24 AUD
GROCERIES: $175.16 AUD
ACTIVITIES: $172.81 AUD
VISAS: $155.71 AUD
MISCELLANEOUS: $77.91 AUD
TOTAL: $2,552.89 AUD
We’re pretty happy with how we did during our first month in Asia, however, we’re excited to compare month 2 to see if we can do even better! Stay tuned!
—> 12Go is the best website to search and book your transport around Asia!
