The Real Cost to Travel the World as a Nomad – 5 Years of Expenses

The idea of traveling the world full-time sounds like the adventure of a lifetime but it can also sound very expensive and intimidating. After reading this blog post, you will be much better informed and will find that the cost of the traveling the world as a nomad may be more affordable than you think. Before we got rid of all of our belongings, moved out of the US and embarked on our nomadic journey, we weren’t really sure how much to budget or expect to spend either. It’s now been an 5 amazing years and we are now very seasoned nomads and have lots of cost data to share across many countries. In this detailed post, we are going to share with you the real cost to travel the world as a nomad based on 5 years of our actual expenses. We hope you like numbers as much as we do!

Travel Itinerary Around the World

How much your cost to travel the world will largely depend on the countries that you visit and how often you will be moving around. During these past 5 years, we’ve ventured across four continents, explored the wonders of 18 different countries, savored in the experiences of 48 unique destinations, all while staying at 70+ distinctive Airbnb. We like to spend a minimum of one month in each destination in order to make our nomadic lifestyle sustainable for the long run – both in terms of energy and budget.

We visited the following countries

America

• Aruba
• Canada
• Mexico
• USA

Oceania

• Australia
• Fiji

Asia

• Cambodia
• Indonesia
• Malaysia
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• Vietnam

Europe

• France
• Italy
• Montenegro
• Portugal
• Spain
• Switzerland
  

The Real Cost to Travel the World as a Nomad – Total for 5 years

During our 5 year period of slow travel as a nomad couple, we spent an average of $35K per year or a total of $165,000 USD. This sum was divided into two categories: 85% covered our day-to-day living expenses, while the remaining 15% was allocated for expenses not tied to a specific location. These non-location-specific expenses encompass items like international flights, travel gear, and global expat insurance. We make this distinction to calculate our cost of living for each unique location.

On a monthly average, as a couple, we spent $2,760, which translates to a daily expenditure of around $90 or $45 per person.

Cost to Travel the World as a Nomad – Yearly Breakdown

If we look at how much we spent each year, we can see that we have been fairly consistent every year.

• Year 1: $28,917 (Read: Year 1 Nomad Travel Spend Report – Traveling the world for half of the cost of staying home)
• Year 2: $30,400  (Read: Year 2 Nomad Travel Spend Report – Still half the cost plus unexpected pandemic change of plans)
• Year 3: $32,443 (Read: Year 3 Nomad Travel Spend Report – Unplanned Pandemic Year)
• Year 4: $29,968 
• Year 5: $34,008 (Read: Year 5 Nomad Travel – Back to Slow Travel)

Here is a graph to make things easier to digest. Each color represent one of our spending category

Cost by Category (Accommodation, Transportation, Food, etc.)

Our biggest spend was for accommodations (representing 35% of our budget), followed by food (constituting 21% of our budget), transportation (also making up 11% of our budget), long-term travel (at 10% of our budget), and health (representing 7% of our budget).

Let’s look at our super detailed spending per category to see where our money went in the table below:

Category	Total	% of Grand Total	Monthly equivalent (per person as a couple)
Accommodation	$58,887	35.52%	$490
Food	$35,596	21.48%	$296
–> Groceries	$18,996	11.47%	$158
–> Dining out	$13,528	8.17%	$113
–> Cafe, Coffee shops, Sweets & Snacks	$2,059	1.24%	$17
–> Food Delivery, Take out, Street food	$1,011	0.61%	$8
Transportation	$17,693	10.68%	$146
–> Local Transportation	$8,802	5.31%	$73
–> International Transportation	$6,402	3.86%	$53
–> Intercity Transportation	$1,720	1.04%	$14
–> Travel Rewards, Travel Miles	$768	0.46%	$6
Long term travel	$15,797	9.53%	$131
–> Electronics, Personal Equipment	7,471	4.51%	$62
–> Travel Gear	$4,959	2.99%	$41
–> Visas	$2,140	1.29%	$18
–> Cancelation	$1,018	0.61%	$8
–> Scam	$207.6	0.13%	$2
Health	$11,606	7.01%	$97
–> International Health Insurance	$5,145	3.11%	$43
–> Health Care	$4,797	2.90%	$40
–> Local Health Insurance	$1,663	1.00%	$14
Everyday expenses	10,874	6.56%	$90
–> Gifts	$2,998	1.81%	$25
–> Self Improvement, Education	$2,634	1.59%	$22
–> Data	$2,242	1.35%	$19
–> Personal Care	$999	0.60%	$8
–> Fitness, Gym, Workout	$899	0.54%	$7
–> Subscriptions (recurring)	844	0.51%	$7
–> Home furnishing	$202	0.12%	$2
–> Living Expenses	$42	0.03%	~$0
–> Clothing	$11	0.01	~$0
Others	$7,252	4.58%	$60
–> Taxes	$4,806	2.90%	$40
–> Donation, Charitable Giving	$2,446	1.48%	$20
Fun	$5,531	3.34%	$46
–> Recreation, Museums, Sightseeing, Tours	$4,946	2.99%	$41
–> Entertainment (Book, Games, Hobbies)	$570	0.34%	$5
–> Alcohol, Bars, Nightlife	$15	0.01%	~$0
Blog	$1,612	0.97%	$13
Other services	$926	0.56%	$8
TOTAL: $165,682

Fluctuations in the Cost

If we look at our monthly spending over time, you can see that it fluctuates from a high of $5,000 to a low of $1,400, with a monthly average of $2,753.

The reasons for these fluctuations are twofold: First, we had some one-time non-living expenses that are not specific to the place we visited (mainly our travel gear, international flights, or international healthcare). Second, we have been traveling in various areas of the world that have different costs of living.

If we group our spending by continent/region, we can definitely spot some patterns. For instance, our cost of living in Europe (shown in red) is almost double that of our cost of living in South East Asia (highlighted in orange). When we stayed for over a year in Taiwan between March 2020 and May 2021 (due to the pandemic), our average monthly spending remained fairly steady. Another observation is that these regions have maintained a similar cost of living over time even though inflation is getting more significant in some countries.

Final Thoughts on the Cost to Travel the World as a Nomad

We hope that our very detailed report gives you the insight you need to budget to travel the world. You can use it as a baseline because it is likely that your situation looks different depending on which countries you visit, how often you move, how long you travel for and if you are traveling solo, as a couple or as a family. Don’t worry about budgeting your travels exactly, the beauty of a nomadic lifestyle is that you are flexible and can easily move if needed. Remember to enjoy the journey and embrace the priceless beauty found all around the world.

Is this what you expected to be the cost to travel the world as a nomad? Does this inspire you to start your nomadic journey? Please let us know by leaving a comment in the comments section below!