It’s been a remarkable six years since we took the plunge, sold everything and left San Francisco to slow travel the world full-time. Since 2018, we’ve clocked over 142,899 miles and touched down in 55 cities across 22 countries (across 4 continents), our adventures keep on going! We love numbers and have been tracking all of our spend in great detail. If you are planning and budgeting to slow travel the world or become a nomad, this detailed report will give you the insight into the cost to travel the world for one year including flights, accommodation, food, activities and insurance.
How Much Does it Cost to Travel the World for One Year?
Everyone’s travel style and budget is different so you will have to account for the differences based on your personal preference. We are a couple in our early 40s, we travel to a mix of high and low cost of living countries, stay at least one month per location and are value conscious but are not budget travelers. We also save a lot of money on flights by using travel rewards from credit cards. Keep in mind, traveling as a couple versus traveling solo does save on accommodation on a per person basis. Staying longer in one location is also less expensive because there’s less transportation cost and usually a big discount on long-term accommodation.
Now with that background, our cost to travel the world for one year in 2024 as a couple was $46K(still below what we used to spend back in pricey San Francisco). For the first time, we’ve significantly increased our annual cost of full-time travel. We will take you through the highlights of the past year, sharing not only the places we explored in 2024 but also the detailed expenses of our unforgettable travels. If numbers are your cup of tea, you’re in for a treat – let’s dive in!
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Definitions
Here are some definitions of terms we use on this blog post that might be worth explaining as it might be different for each of us
When we track our spending, we break it down into two main categories: cost of living and non-cost of living expenses.
- Cost of living covers all expenses directly tied to our stay in a country. This includes groceries, local transportation, accommodation, and other daily necessities—essentially, what it takes to enjoy life in that location.
- Non-cost of living expenses, on the other hand, are things we pay for regardless of where we are. These include recurring subscriptions (like our Traveling Mailbox), international health insurance (we use IMG Global or SafetyWing), and global transportation (mostly flights). It also covers travel gear that isn’t tied to a specific destination.
We separate these categories because we want our cost-of-living expenses to reflect what someone might actually spend in a given country. For example, flight costs vary based on departure city, and we often cover our international flights with credit card rewards—so including them would distort the numbers. The same logic applies to residency fees. While residency might be location-specific, for us, it’s a long-term strategy to establish multiple home bases, and we’ve spent a significant amount in the past two years applying for some of these.
This approach helps keep our spending data transparent and relevant for anyone looking to understand real costs in different locations.
Which countries did we travel to in 2024?
In 2024 we went to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore (1 day layover), Japan, Taiwan, France, South Korea, California, Hong Kong (1 day layover), Vietnam and Thailand. The map below shows all the countries (blue areas) and cities (purple dots) we traveled to:
The table below provides details about how long we spent in each location along with our spending for the two of us.
| Location | Total cost (for 2) | Living cost only (for 2) |
|---|---|---|
| Chiang Mai | Thailand (Jan) – 10 days | $218 | $165 |
| Penang | Malaysia (Jan-Feb) – 48 days | $4,511 | $4049 |
| Singapore (Layover) | Singapore (Feb) – 1 day | $107 | $90 |
| Nozawa Onsen | Japan (Feb-Mar) – 6 days | $1,412 | $1,409 |
| Okinawa | Japan (Apr) – 30 days | $3,253 | $2,634 |
| Taipei | Taiwan (Apr-Sep) – 158 days | $12,615 | $12,477 |
| Mr. NN’s Home | France (Apr) – 33 days (While Mrs. NN stayed in Taiwan) | $1,033 | $915 |
| Hehuanshan | Taiwan (Aug) – 3 days | $280 | $280 |
| Jeju | South Korea (Sep-Aug) – 6 days | $951 | $450 |
| Busan | South Korea (Sep) – 29 days | $2,281 | $2,202 |
| Jeonju | South Korea (Oct) – 4 days | $496 | $494 |
| Seoul | South Korea (Oct) – 15 days | $2,242 | $2,197 |
| Mrs. NN’s Home | California (Nov) – 31 days | $2,832 | $2,612 |
| Hong Kong (layover) | China (Nov) – 1 day | $129 | $129 |
| Hanoi | Vietnam (Nov) – 13 days | $498 | $455 |
| Chiang Mai | Thailand (Dec) – 26 days | $3,327 | $2,979 |
| 2024 One Time Expenses | $11,372 | $0 |
| Total – 366 days (leap year) | $47,515 | $32,295 |
Our total spend for 2024 was $47,515 USD (or $130.17 / day) and our living cost was $32,295 USD (or $88.47 / day).
Mr. & Mrs. Nomad Numbers
2024 Spending
$47K is a ~37% increase from last year but this is still below our spend when we were back in our static life in San Francisco. (Read: for reference about our spending in California, pre-nomadic life, check out our 2018 Year End spending report – which is about $60,000 in 2024 if we adjust for inflation).
If you are interested to get more details on the budget related to each place we’ve visited, please take a look at both our destination reports, getaway guides or day trip guides.
Detailed Breakdown of Cost of Travel for One Year
Let’s look at our spending per category to see where our money went in the table below:
| Category | Total | % of Grand Total | Monthly equivalent (for 2 ppl) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation | $13,623 | 28.67% | $1,132 |
| Health | $9,659 | 20.33% | $803 |
| – Health Optimization (Biohacking, Longevity…) | $5,421 | 11.41% | $451 |
| – Health Care | $2,659 | 5.60% | $221 |
| – International Health Insurance | $1,241 | 2.61% | $103 |
| – Local Health Insurance | $338 | 0.71% | $28 |
| Food | $8,841 | 18.61% | $692 |
| – Dining out | $4,060 | 8.55% | $337 |
| – Groceries | $3,422 | 8.29% | $327 |
| – Cafe, Coffee shops, Sweets & Snacks | $827 | 1.74% | $69 |
| – Food Delivery, Take out, Street food | $14 | 0.03% | $1 |
| Transportation | $5,451 | 11.47% | $454 |
| – Local Transportation | $2,427 | 5.11% | $202 |
| – International Transportation | $2,343 | 4.93% | $195 |
| – Travel Rewards, Travel Miles | $680 | 1.43% | $57 |
| Everyday expenses | 4,105 | 6.02% | $237 |
| – Clothing | $750 | 1.58% | $62 |
| – Gifts | $619 | 1.31% | $52 |
| – Personal Care | $451 | 0.95% | $37 |
| – Subscription (recurring) | $383 | 0.81% | $32 |
| – Self Improvement, Education | $315 | 0.66% | $26 |
| – Fitness, Gym, Workout | $258 | 0.54% | $21 |
| – Home furnishing | $49 | 0.10% | $4 |
| – Data (Local) | $32 | 0.07% | $3 |
| – Living Expenses | $1 | 0.00% | $0 |
| Long term travel | $3,957 | 8.33% | $328 |
| – Visa (Residency & Citizenship) | $2,299 | 4.84% | $191 |
| – Personal Equipment, Electronics | $883 | 1.86% | $73 |
| – Travel Gear | $696 | 1.46% | $58 |
| – Data (International) | $76 | 0.16% | $6 |
| – Visa (Short term & entry permits) | $3 | 0.01% | $0 |
| Fun | $1,922 | 4.05% | $160 |
| – Recreation, Museums, Sightseeing, Tours | $1,701 | 3.58% | $141 |
| – Entertainment (Book, Games, Hobbies) | $215 | 0.29% | $18 |
| – Alcohol, Bars, Nightlight | $7 | 0.01% | $1 |
| Legal | $1,169 | 2.46% | $97 |
| – Taxes | $1,169 | 2.46% | $97 |
| Business | $20 | 0.04% | $2 |
| Others | $299 | 0.02% | $2 |
| – Donation, Charitable Giving | $10 | 0.02% | $1 |
| TOTAL | $47,515 | 100% | $3,949 |
Here are the major highlights of our spending:
- Our top 3 spending categories were housing (28.67%), Health (20.33%) and then Food (18.61%).
- Our health budget increased significantly in 2024 as we introduced a new category: Health Optimization ($5,421). This includes various activities, tests, and supplements we’ve incorporated into our lifestyle. The change was inspired by Outlive by Peter Attia, which we read in 2023, leading us to adopt some of his health-span optimization protocols. While some required one-time expenses we don’t anticipate in future years, we expect Health Optimization to remain a part of our budget moving forward.
- Our International transportation spending (mostly international flights) was only $2,342 because we love using travel rewards to get free flights and you should as well!
- Our Local Health Insurance spending was only $338 to cover us while in Taiwan since we became permanent Taiwanese residents, we are now utilizing Taiwan’s very affordable healthcare at about $28 USD / month and per person. (Note: for accounting purposes, we’ve moved under the ‘international health insurance spending’ the portion of the Taiwan National Health Insurance that we pay while we are outside of Taiwan so we can keep our coverage when we return).
- We had a large expense of $2,299 that covers Mrs. NN both Taiwanese and French citizenship! (In 2023 we spent another $2,095 towards my Taiwanese Permanent Residency and the application process for Mrs. NN’s French citizenship)
Here are our major changes from last year
If we look more closely into each spending categories, here are the major changes that explain the increase in our budget for 2024 (for an increase of ~$13,013)
- Health Optimization jumped by 1,900% (from $281 to $5,421)
- Health Care increased by 240% (from $1,116 to $2,659)
- International Transportation increased by 170% (from $1,381 to $2,342)
- Cafe, Coffee Shops, Sweets, Snacks increased by 157% (from $525 to $827)
- Recreation, Museum, Sightseeing, Tours increased by 153% (from 1,107 to $1,701)
- International Health Insurance increased by 149% (from $832 to $1,241)
- Local Transportation increased by 144% (from $1,678 to $2,429)
- Dining Out increased by 136% (from $2,969 to $4,061)
- Accommodation increased by 120% (from $11,403 to $13,624)
While we reduced spending in the following categories (for a decrease of ~$3,033)
- Taxes decreased by 58% (from $2,021 to $1,169)
- Gifts decreased by 53% (from $1,158 to $623)
- Personal Equipment, Electronics decreased by 49% (from $1,795 to $823)
- Food Delivery, Take Out, Street Food decreased by 10% (from $128 to $14)
- Donation, Charitable Giving decreased by 4% (from $181 to $10)
- Visa (Short terms & Travel-Related Entry Permis) decreased by 1% (from $392 to $3)
In total this pretty much add up to $10,000 in increased spending which is close to our difference in budget between 2023 and 2024.
What did we exclude from our budget?
The only expenses we aren’t reporting are related to:
- the spending to run this blog (however you can see our numbers on our Blog Income Reports)
- our investments (like Property Taxes, Property Repairs and so on).
- the property taxes we paid on our investments
Btw, are we missing an important category in these spending reports? Please let us know by leaving your feedback in the comments section below.
For reference, here are our spending reports:
– 2019: Total spending: $33,280 (including living cost of: $25,464)
– 2020: Total spending: $27,337 (including living cost of: $23,980)
– 2021: Total spending: $36,303 (including living cost of: $23,379)
– 2022: Total spending: $37,818 (including living cost of: $30,525)
– 2023: Total spending: $34,473 (including living cost of: $26,532)
– 2024: Total spending: $47,515 (including living cost of $32,295)
Our bottom line
We hope this report has provided valuable insights into the cost of traveling the world. Long-term travel is often more affordable than people assume, as it differs from the pace and expenses of a short vacation. By sharing our costs, we aim to inspire and empower you to embark on your own journey. With the right planning and budgeting, full-time travel is well within reach!
What about you? How much did you end up spending in 2024? Were you able to spend less or more than the previous year? How did you feel about it? Please feel free to share your numbers or your biggest surprises!
Since we are beginning a new year, we encourage you to take a few hours in your life to think about the life you want to design for yourself (check out our tips to get started on the life design process & get yourself a Remarkable Tablet).
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