Budgeting for a Round the World Trip can be so difficult. I read around the subject so much and ended up completely bamboozled! Our STA agent gave us a figure of £1000 a month each and we based our travels on that. We know that along the way there will be more expensive places and then ridiculously cheap places but it all should average out in the end.
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So this blog covers what we spent during our time Brazil. There will be some maths along the way but only to divide by two if you are a solo traveller. We had aimed to do a whole month in Brazil but we fell a little short on this with 25 days.
Transport
It might help if you know the route we took through Brazil. It looked a little something like this:
Rio de Janeiro (Copacabana) > Rio de Janeiro (Santa Theresa) > Ilha Grande > Paraty > Sao Paulo > Curitibia > Foz du Iguacu > Porto Alegre > Uruguay.
This involved 8 coach journeys ranging from 154 BR to 566 BR for us, totalling 2077 BR. We used Coste Verde coaches (115 BR for both) to go from Rio to Angres dos Reiss, in order to get across to Ilha Grande. For a detailed description on how to get there, click here. The following coaches costs are for 2 people:
⦁ Paraty 170 BR
⦁ Sao Paulo 154 BR
⦁ Curitiba 178 BR
⦁ Foz du Iguacu 126 BR
⦁ Porto Alegre 566 BR (20 hour overnight in Leito seats)
⦁ Punta del Este 510 BR (across to Uruguay)
We found the cheapest way to travel was the bus and metro, ranging from 8 to 15 BR for us. Throughout our travels through Brazil we took 10 buses totalling 87 BR and 4 metros totalling 33 BR. As long as you stay within the metro station you don’t have to purchase another ticket and so can ride as many metros as you need in one go to get to your destination. This was also the case for one bus station in Foz du Iguacu, you get on the bus further down rather than the front where you buy tickets. If the locals jump on half way down, just follow suit.
Taxi’s are more expensive but I suggest using them when needed most. If it is late and you are half asleep and don’t even know where your feet are nevermind your hostel, just get a taxi or Uber. Or in the Mister’s case if you injure your foot, take a taxi! I’m proud to say we only used 3 taxis and 2 Ubers through Brazil totalling 150 BR for us.
When getting to Ilha Grande you have no choice but to use water transport. We spent 34 BR on a ferry ride and 50 BR on a water taxi. For a full details on how to get to Ilha Grande and why you may need a water taxi, click here to read our ‘Weekend in Paradise: Ilha Grande’ blog.
Overall, we spent 2431 BR on transport in 25 days. This equates to £541.05 for a couple or £270.52 for a solo traveller (May 2018).
Food and Water
The breakdown for basic food and water we spent 1342 BR (£298.68), alcohol 277 BR (£61.65) and we ate out three times totalling 292 BR (£65.91).
Overall, we spent a total of 1911 BR on food and drink (including alcohol!) in 25 days. This is approximately £425.32 (May, 2018) for a couple. This works out as 76.44 BR (£17) a day if you like a tipple and a weekly eat out.
Accommodation
Our accommodation ranged from 50-104 BR for the two of us, per night. Sometimes hotels are cheaper and we opted for this in Curitiba. However, we had to have microwave meals for two nights.
Overall, we spent 1650 BR (£367.23, May 2018) on our hostels and hotels in 22 nights (we took 3 overnight coaches). This was % of our budget with an average stay of 75 BR a night (£16.69) for us both.
Sight-Seeing
Now you can’t travel through Brazil without paying to do some of the ‘Touristy things’. We have been up close to Christ the Redeemer (150 BR for 2), saw Sao Paulo’s skyline up high (40 BR for 2), enjoyed far too many Caiphrinas on a Boat Trip (140 BR for 2), seen the Iguacu Falls from both the Brazil and Argentinian side (126 BR and 179 BR) and thoroughly enjoyed taking in the culture on 5 free walking tours (tips totalling 180 BR).
Overall, our sight seeing adventures cost 815 BR (£183.96, May 2018) and I don’t feel like we missed anything out due to cost.
Laundry
This deserves it’s own little section as it can be a pain in the bum if you ask me. One of those adult things that just needs to be done regularly. We have Travel Wash which has it’s cost saving advantages but be prepared for the clothes needing 2-3 days to dry depending on the weather. We have needed to select hostels with laundry services a few times. The first cost us 15 BR for a gigantic load at the hostel. The next place wanted to charge 2 BR per piece of clothing so we refused and the final hostel used an external company that cost 13 BR a kg but turned out to cost 42 BR but it smelled divine and was ironed, so we didn’t mind.
Overall, laundry cost us 57 BR (£12.69, May 2018).
Summary
Our 25 days travelling through Brazil cost in total 6864 BR (£1527.68, May 2018).
For a solo traveller this would be approximately, 3432 BR (£763.84).
Based on the advice we were given to take £1000 a month each, we came £140 under budget.
Where your most money will be spent:
⦁ Transport 2431 BR 35%
⦁ Food and Water 1911 BR 28%
⦁ Accommodation 1650 BR 24%
⦁ Sight Seeing 815 BR 12%
⦁ Laundry 57 BR 1%
Go the Distance with your pennies!
Chloe
chloegoesthedistance.com 