10 months in Asia: Solo female backpacker’s travel budget
Last year (2023), I spent 10 months traveling around Asia on a backpacker’s budget.
I had a general monthly budget of $1,500 USD/month. In order to keep track of what I spent and make sure I didn’t go too far over my budget, I kept a very detailed spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet keeps track of how much I spend within certain categories, my overall spending per month and year, and how much I spent within a specific country.
Some of my totals are a bit off because I didn’t keep detailed track of my cash spending until September, but generally I kept things separated out into major categories like Accommodation, Tourism (tours and entry fees to touristic sites), Transit (buses, metro, etc.), Flights and Shopping.
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What I spent my money on
A note: What you spend on your travel depends totally on your style of traveling. For this year, I went to hostels or cheap AirBNBs/homestays, didn’t do super expensive excursions like sky diving or snorkeling, took buses everywhere and don’t buy a lot of souvenirs. On the other hand, I ate way too much Western food in the last half of the year, which bumped up my food spending.
If you’re someone who like scuba diving, takes Grab everywhere and shops like their life depends on it, then your budget will be very different from mine. 😉
Totals and monthly average
In total, I traveled for 327 days in Asia and spent $18,340 USD!
My spending average was $1,528 USD/month which is about $49 USD/day.
As you can see, I spent the most on Accommodation at $5,619 USD for the year. Mostly I stayed in hostels at $20 USD/night or under, but in Japan and Malaysia I splurged on aparthotel stays which were more like $40 USD/night. There were definitely cheaper hostels available ($4/night in some places!) but I tend to go for smaller rooms which cost a bit more ($11/night average or so).
I visited the following countries from late February to December: Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia.
The totals include domestic flights (under Transit) but not international ones, fyi.
The most expensive country was Singapore at about $76 USD/day and the least expensive was Thailand at $30 USD/day. To be fair to Singapore though, I did a little too much clothes shopping at Uniqlo and the Teva sandal store.
Breakdown by country
Japan (77 days)
Accommodation: $1,976 (see where I stayed)
Groceries: $393 — I did most of my own cooking when not eating from convenience stores and prepared grocery store meals.
Food (Eating out): $335
Tourism: $226 — tickets to see Phantom of the Opera, a day pass to Tokyo DisneySea, some entry tickets to a few historic sites.
Transit: $262 — I took buses for long-distance hauls which was much cheaper than the bullet trains.
Shopping: $130
Other/Cash spending: $368 — lots of vending machine drinks but also snacks and some souvenir purchases.
Total: $3,681 or $48 per day
South Korea (37 days)
Accommodation: $705 (see where I stayed)
Groceries: $0
Food (Eating out): $487 — it was cheaper to eat out here so I ended up doing that almost all of the time.
Tourism: $126 — ticket for Phantom of the Opera, a few entry tickets.
Transit: $180
Shopping: $95
Other/Cash spending: $381 — this definitely included convenience store/grocery purchases, I just didn’t separate them out.
Total: $1,972 or $53 per day
Singapore (11 days)
Accommodation: $279 (see where I stayed)
Groceries: $19
Food (Eating out): $76 — Hawkers markets are a great place to eat cheap and well!
Tourism: $0 — I stuck to free things because entry tickets are so expensive here.
Transit: $44
Shopping: $234 — whoops! I kept buying stuff here instead of in (relatively) cheaper Malaysia.
Other/Cash spending: $180
Total: $832 or $76 per day
Indonesia (38 days)
Accommodation: $540 (see where I stayed)
Groceries: $26
Food (Eating out): $106 — very easy to eat out and get good food for cheap. Plus Gojek does food delivery for like $1/order or less, so I did that a LOT.
Tourism: $57 — this is lower than it should be because I paid for so much with cash, which I put in the “Cash” section.
Transit: $216
Shopping: $17
Other/Cash spending: $580 — this includes the Mt. Bromo sunrise tour.
Total: $1,542 or $41 per day
Malaysia (64 days)
Accommodation: $1,142 (see where I stayed)
Groceries: $69
Food (Eating out): $395 — I did a lot of food delivery here, but in my defense it’s very cheap and SO good.
Tourism: $249 — mostly spent while on Malaysian Borneo.
Transit: $353
Shopping: $27
Other/Cash spending: $405
Total: $2,650 or $41 per day
Brunei (3 days)
Accommodation: $44
Groceries: $0 — we bought groceries, but because I was splitting stuff with a travel buddy while on Borneo, I don’t think I bothered separating out spending categories properly. Apologies!
Food (Eating out): $0
Tourism: $0
Transit: $94
Shopping: $0
Other/Cash spending: $14
Total: $153 or $51 per day — add another $50 maybe for food costs.
Thailand (36 days)
Accommodation: $298 (see where I stayed)
Groceries: $0
Food (Eating out): $381
Tourism: $87
Transit: $169 — this included buses and two overnight train rides!
Shopping: $56
Other/Cash spending: $96
Total: $1,087 or $30 per day
Laos (28 days)
Accommodation: $550 (see where I stayed) — including a stay at the Elephant Conservation Center!
Groceries: $0
Food (Eating out): $352 — I kept getting bagel sandwiches at Joma Bakery.
Tourism: $314 — I splurged a bit on a private Plain of Jars tour, but it was worth it!
Transit: $88
Shopping: $52
Other/Cash spending: $50
Total: $1,434 or $51 per day
Vietnam (27 days)
Accommodation: $190 (see where I stayed) — missing from this are 3 nights covered under Tourism (for a tour) and then I took a few overnight buses which are under Transit.
Groceries: $0
Food (Eating out): $227
Tourism: $575 — including the amazing Ha Giang Loop tour!
Transit: $171
Shopping: $18
Other/Cash spending: $40
Total: $1,221 or $45 per day
Cambodia (6 days)
Accommodation: $27
Groceries: $0
Food (Eating out): $90
Tourism: $75 — mostly just Angkor Wat; I was too sick to enjoy it properly though, so I’d like to go back again.
Transit: $18
Shopping: $0
Other/Cash spending: $48
Total: $258 or $43 per day
Okay, so that’s what I spent on traveling for 10 months across Asia in 2023! Don’t think I did too badly, myself, though in retrospect I’d try buying more groceries and eating out less.
If you have any questions, drop a comment below and I’d be happy to help answer them.
You might also be interested in these posts:
- From Miri to Brunei by package delivery taxi
- Flying over Vang Vieng in a hot air balloon
- What to pack for Southeast Asia | Unpack with me
- A day for musical theatre in Busan, South Korea
- Visiting Mulberries Organic Silk Farm in Phonsavan, Laos
Anastasia Finch
Anastasia is a former librarian turned digital nomad. She's been traveling the world full time for two years and has visited 18 countries so far! Just Gone Wandering is a travel resource for solo female travelers on a backpacker's budget-- or slightly more-- and highlights amazing places to visit as well as providing tips and tricks for traveling smart and frugal.
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