Budget
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Average costs
- How much did we spend?
How much does it cost?
Perhaps this is the first question that comes to mind. It depends on many factors, primarily on your own preferences.
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The most expensive option: Luxury vacation
This usually includes pre-arranged transfers, first-class or business-class flight tickets with onboard meals. Naturally, it also includes accommodation in a luxury hotel with all-inclusive service and the tailored use of your time in the country.
For two people, a 10-day trip can cost up to 100,000 USD. -
Travel agency-organized 10-14 day vacation with a tour
This typically costs 1,700-3,500 USD per person and includes almost everything: airfare, visa, transfers, accommodation, meals, and “optional programs.” However, entrance fees are not always included. -
Self-organized trip
Here, too, much depends on your preferences, the duration of your stay, and the range of optional programs you choose, which will affect the actual cost.
We managed to organize this trip on our own by investing a lot of time, and you can read about it in detail on this page. This is our second round trip, so we traveled with checked baggage, which increased the cost of the flights. Even so, we managed to get it at a very favorable price. You can fly from any country. We departed from Europe.
Details:
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Wizz Air – 2 tickets + 20 kg checked baggage = 160 USD (Wizz Air offers an annual membership card for 40 EUR).
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Etihad – 2 tickets + 30 kg checked baggage = 210 USD.
We only purchased one-way tickets because we are on a round trip. A return ticket would have been a similar price, ±30 USD.
Visa: Applied online for 106 USD (53 USD/person). Purchased on-site, it costs 120 USD, or 60 USD/person.
We stayed at 11 accommodations for 23 days, which cost a total of 673 USD. These included 3-4-star hotels and some homestays. All accommodations included breakfast, which I believe was very favorable.
We spent 200 USD on optional programs. Naturally, we could have spent more, as almost every entry fee starts at 30 USD.
Intercity transportation, which included bicycles, buses, trains, tuk-tuks, and taxis, cost only 240 USD.
Meals for these 23 days amounted to 370 USD, including expensive pizzas, many restaurant meals, street food, desserts, specialty coffees, pancakes, etc.
SIM cards: 2 pieces, 12.5 USD each, with 30 GB of data.
For miscellaneous expenses like laundry, tips, and souvenirs, we spent 58 USD.
So, looking at the average expenses, we spent $14.63 per day per person on accommodation, which includes breakfast. We spent $5.20 per day per person on transportation (this cost covers only domestic transportation). We spent $8 per day per person on food.
I’d like to add that if you look at flight prices, you’ll see that for most countries, you can only reach Sri Lanka with a layover. A one-way return ticket for one person typically starts at 1,000 USD, excluding checked baggage. So, practically speaking, if I added the cost of our return trip, our entire trip would have cost as much as others spend on just their flight tickets.
If you'd like to learn more about the costs or how to reduce them even more effectively, join us and subscribe to our blog newsletter, as we’ll soon be sharing more tips with you!
In the future, we’ll cover topics such as:
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What hidden costs should you be prepared for (e.g., tips, city taxes, parking fees)?
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What are the best currency exchange options, and are there any ATM fees?
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How can you travel or book accommodations more affordably?
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What free activities are worth trying?
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How can you cut costs on transportation or meals?
And much more!
We specialize in these tasks, so feel free to ask for our help with the organization.
Rebeka & Jeno