10 things I wish I knew before budgeting a 1-year trip across multiple countries
so my gf and I just got back from 12 months across 7 countries in SE Asia. spent about €15k each which sounds like a lot but honestly for a full year it's pretty reasonable
our daily target was €30/day. actual average €41/day. that €11 difference doesn't sound like much until you realize that's €4,000+ over a year lol
anyway here's what I learned the hard way:
on budgeting :
- your total trip budget and your daily budget are two different things. sounds obvious but we didn't really get that until month 3
- set a rough daily target per country, even if it's a guess. having no number at all is way worse than having a wrong one
- small stuff adds up insanely fast. we kept telling ourselves "it's just a coffee" yeah well that coffee cost us hundreds
- atm fees and exchange rates will silently eat your budget if you're not paying attention. get a good travel card before you leave
on splitting costs as a couple/group
- write down shared expenses RIGHT AWAY. "we'll figure it out later" is a lie. we almost had actual arguments about this lol
- decide early who pays what and how you split. saves so much friction
on planning
- check visa stuff EARLY. like way earlier than you think. we almost got stuck in vietnam because we assumed we could extend on arrival (nope)
- have a rough route planned (which countries, rough order, how long) but don't overplan. some of our best weeks were places we didn't plan to stay
on staying sane
- keep all your important docs in one place. finding a booking confirmation buried in 3000 sunset photos at 6am when you need to catch a bus is not fun
- you don't need to see everything. FOMO is real but the best memories we have are from weeks where we slowed down and just... lived somewhere for a bit
after struggling with all of this for months (especially the expense splitting and keeping docs organized) I ended up building a small app to handle it, basically does trip planning + shared expenses + doc storage in one place. nothing crazy but it saved our trip honestly
happy to answer any questions if you're planning something similar