How to Plan Your Backpacking Travel Budget
Backpacking is one of those once-in-a-lifetime trips one takes to “experience the world”. Chances are that you have spent a long time planning for this trip and every penny has been put to use. Here are a few tips that will help you plan your backpacking travel budget a little more easily:
- Make sure you have accounted for all pre-trip expenses. This includes getting your passport, sorting out your backpack (read: luggage) and travel accessories.
- Pre-book your air tickets for the entire trip well in advance.
- Calculate how much you would need for your day-to-day expenses.
- For accommodation, look at the cheapest options available and book well in advance.
- Also remember to budget for local transportation.
- Always keep a little extra so that you have money to enjoy the local fare as well as sights. After all, that is why you’re taking time out to backpack through the world, isn’t it?
At this time, your backpacking costs will be looking pretty huge and travel insurance may seem like an unnecessary expense. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Having backpacking insurance can, in fact, end up saving you a ton of money.
Getting the right kind of travel insurance is essential when you’re planning such a long trip.
When you are away for such a long time, chances are high that things can go wrong; you could miss a flight, you could get injured, fall ill or need to return home due to an emergency, cutting your trip short. Worst of all, your entire trip could get cancelled. There are so many things that could happen when you’re taking a long-term trip. And this is where travel insurance helps.
So the next question is — where should you get your travel insurance? Today, you can simply go online and look for backpacker travel insurance. But be warned, do not pick the cheapest policy you can find. You could end up just wasting your money since it may not really cover what you need.
What you should do is compare what different policies have to offer and see how flexible they are. However, remember, comparison sites will only compare policies of companies that have signed up on their websites, so you will not get a complete picture of what is available in the market.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the comparison sites will only give you an overview of the policies. So it would be advisable to read through each of the policies in detail before you choose the one you want.
Also spend time talking to your network of friends and family and ask for advice on the best deals on backpacker’s insurance.
Backpacking should be an experience you treasure, not something that turned into a nightmare that you just wanted to escape from. And having travel insurance is one way of making sure that you have a safety net in case something should go wrong.
