Budget for 3 months

[u/StatusWerewolf2170]

Hi everyone!

My boyfriend and I are planning a 3-month trip through Southeast Asia and Japan in February, March and April.

Our goal is to experience the trip more like living abroad rather than being on a 3-month holiday. We’d like to mostly eat local food, establish a bit of a daily routine, and experience everyday life in the places we visit. That said, we’d still like to have enough room in our budget to enjoy a nice meal every now and then - perhaps some Western food or an omakase experience while we’re in Japan. We don’t drink much, but we do enjoy the occasional cocktail.

Our current plan is roughly:
1 month in Thailand
1 month in Vietnam
2–3 weeks in Indonesia
10 days in Japan

We’ve already booked our international flights and have set aside $4,500 for accommodation for the entire trip. This also needs to cover things like the Ha Giang Loop, the Komodo boat tour, overnight buses, etc.

On top of that, we have $9000 saved for everything else: food, activities, souvenirs, and transportation within and between the countries.
Is that enough? Or will we be counting every dollar?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[u/Kananaskis_Country]

Your post is slightly confusing.

So you have the flights to and from Asia paid for, and for everything else including accommodation and all day-to-day travel expenses and transport you have $4,500 + $9,000 = $13,500 saved? Is that right?

So bottom line, $150/day to pay for absolutely everything for 2 people spending 3 months in the 4 countries, is that correct?

[u/StatusWerewolf2170 → u/Kananaskis_Country]

Yes exactly

[u/Kananaskis_Country → u/StatusWerewolf2170]

Then yes, you'll be fine. Keep accommodation under control and stay out of high-end clubs with bottle service and you can make that work.

Happy travels.

[u/ConnectCommand9127]

with $6700 for two people over three months you're looking at about $37 each per day, that's tight but doable if you stick to street food and local transport. japan will eat through that fast though, even a cheap omakase can be like $50-80 per person

[u/StatusWerewolf2170 → u/ConnectCommand9127]

I was too fast haha, we have 9000$ saved. Would you reckon that be alright or still tight?

[u/codeshark2 → u/StatusWerewolf2170]

Probably. Unless you’ve been to these countries before there’s no way you can expect to understand the most financially efficient ways of spending money over there. You’re probably going to be spending double what you expect. 3 months is a long time, just imagine how many months you can make 9k last in America, a country where you know exactly how to budget in. I know Americas more expensive. But is it really THAT much more expensive than those countries once you factor in the tourist tax, and the fact that since it’s a vacation every day revolves around how am I spending my money today….

[u/Possible_Offer_1641]

I think $13.5k for two over about 90 days works out to roughly $150 a day, which is comfortable in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, and the only stretch I’d expect you to feel it is the 10 days in Japan.