Daily Budget and Money Generally

[jmgvcb]

We are working out our plans to drive from Texas to Ushuaia, Argentina. We intend to spend at maximum 2 months driving to get there. Question is:
-What is a reasonable amount budget per day?
-What is a reasonable amount to budget or allocate based on a 17,000+ mile trip for gas?

Thanks for your advice and feedback
Jeremy

[Rochelle]

Hi Jeremy,

First of all, I hate to be one of those "you can't do it" people, but I do not think 2 months is a sufficient amount of time for this trip. I even think Dominic Porter is crazy, and he only took 5 months to drive from California to Ushuaia (and he hit all of the little eastern countries in South America), and then back up to Buenos Aires. We just had dinner with him and Alex on their last night in Buenos Aires - they had fun, but driving at that pace is extremely exhausting and keeps you on a strict schedule. You can see his route at https://sites.google.com/a/dominicporte ... odgydrive/.

If you only have 2 months to ramble, I strongly suggest that you choose a closer destination, such as Panama, in order to have time for border crossings, leisurely days in towns you like, car trouble, general travel hiccups, and opportunities to meet others. If you are cemented to the idea of a 2 month trip to South America, that's fine, but if you are flexible and need more reasons to alter your route, just let me know - I have reasons for you! But I will stop with my lecturing for now right here.

Anyway, to answer your questions:
What is a reasonable amount budget per day? (I am answering based on two people without calculating gas)
What vehicle are you traveling in? Are you planning on camping most of the way and cooking your own meals, or are you planning on sleeping in hostels every night? If you are camping and cooking a lot of your meals, you can keep your budget as low as about $15 USD a day. Stick with the lunch deals and steer away from tourist restaurants if you need to save some cash. Taking the hostel route, I would allocate $8-$12 USD a night on average for low-end budget hostels. You can definitely find hostels for $4-6 USD in Central America (they aren't the most beautiful or private places in the world, but they'll do), but these are harder to come by in South America.

What is a reasonable amount to budget or allocate based on a 17,000+ mile trip for gas?
Here is Nick's previous answer to a Money Matters question pertaining to gas:
Gas prices very dramatically throughout the Americas. You will be safe budgeting on something in the range of 3-4USD/Gallon lumping Central and South together. Places like Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela (FOR SURE!) are cheaper, while place like Colombia, Chile and Peru are more expensive. In general prices are cheaper in Central than in South America. If you plan on 3USD/Gallon in Central you should be close. You will be able to find unleaded gas throughout both Central and South America without any trouble. You also should be able to plan your route so that you won't have any trouble with fuel range between stations. We only ended up needing our extra fuel tanks going from Bolivia into Chile, which is a long stretch of beautiful nothing.

So, I would probably use $3.50 USD per gallon while calculating your miles to the gallon to get a guesstimate of your gas spending.

Thanks for posting your questions in the forum, and feel free to send any more our way.
Rochelle

[Nick H-J]

We are working out our plans to drive from Texas to Ushuaia, Argentina. We intend to spend at maximum 2 months driving to get there.

There are as many ways to do this trip as there are people who want to do it. Whatever way you want to do it, and on whatever timeline, you can do it. That said, I would rather throw sand in my eyes than try to make that trip in two months. I like to take my time and see things and places along the way. I like driving because it lets me get to know places in a way that other types of travel don't. If you make it to Ushuaia in two months, you will spend the whole two months driving on a rigorous schedule. That may be what you want to do, to each his own. I'm just saying, be prepared for that.

-What is a reasonable amount budget per day?

If you cook most of your meals and camp most nights, I would budget $10/day/person. Chelle and I talked about this and we think this is closer to what most people could pull of than $15. This number doesn't include gas. It mostly covers food and beer.

-What is a reasonable amount to budget or allocate based on a 17,000+ mile trip for gas?

$3USD/Gallon in Central America is safe. $4USD/Gallon in South America is safe. There are some places (Venezuela, Bolivia, and others) that are substantially cheaper and if you plan your route through those areas, you might want to adjust those numbers down. Your total cost will depend on your vehicles fuel consumption.

Thanks for your advice and feedback

If you figure 50MPH average speed while driving (which is what I would do) a 17,000 mile trip is equal to 340 hours on the road. There are 1,440 hours in two months. That comes to a little more than 5.5 hours of actual driving (at 50MPH) every single day. If you stay somewhere for a day, you have to do 11 hours the following day to stay on your schedule. I would figure an average of 3 hours for each border including time to get insurance etc. There are many ways to route the trip, but for the purpose of this estimate I'll figure 15 border crossings. I will also throw in .25 hours of check points and police stops everyday. Getting from Panama to Colombia with your vehicle will take you at least a week for the complete process at both ends. Also I'm figuring in 8 hours/day for sleeping and 2 hours/day for cooking and eating and washing dishes and setting up and breaking down camp (as well as find a camp site). I will also add in a bit for error to be on the safe side. Here is what I am figuring so far:

Total Hours in the Trip: 1,440

Less:
Hours to Ship Panama to Colombia: 168
Police Check Point Hours: 13.25
Border Crossing Hours: 45
Sleeping Hours: 480
Driving Hours: 340
Cooking and eating hours: 106
Margin of Error Hours 5%: 57.6

Total Hours accounted for: 1,209.85

Remaining Hours for Leisure and Sightseeing: 230.15

That means to stay on schedule you will have a little less than 4.5 hours/day for everything you want to do and see along the way. That is more time driving every day than sight seeing and exploring. For me that would mean more like 2.5 hours, because I will want to spend an hour drinking coffee in the morning and beer in the evening (plus a siesta). You will have a week in there when you are shipping the vehicle so that will be a small break. If you want to see Machu Pichu or any other out of the way place you will be loosing 5.5 hours of driving every day that you take to see these places, and those hours will have to be made up to keep on schedule.

Not trying to discourage you at all. Just want you to know what you are in for. If I had two months for the trip, I would end in Panama. Six months to get to Ushuaia is as little as I would consider. But I will be the first to admit that, if you wanted to, you could theoretically do it.......and if you do, the beers are on me when you tell me about it.