travel budget Archives - Coconut Compass

June 8, 2015 by Eeva Routio Leave a Comment

Traveling On A Budget: 10 Tips For Keeping Your Travel Expenses On Track

Traveling on a budget. Photo: Eeva Routio. — Keep those piggies smiling! Photo: Eeva Routio.

Smart choices and tracking your expenses will make traveling on a budget easier

“Expenses tracking, oh yes please tell me more!” – said no one ever. I’m the first to admit there’s nothing exciting or sexy about budgets or tracking your expenses. But what IS exciting is that by dedicating a bit of time and effort to your travel budget you can not only ensure that you can keep traveling, but also stay on the road for longer.

Keeping track of your travel expenses can actually be done very quickly and easily. Something that takes maybe a minute or two each day can save a whole lot of hassle later and ensure you can stick to your travel plan and budget. There are also many small things you can do on the road to help you stretch your dollar and your travel budget further. Small adjustments to your travel spending habits can have a big impact long term.

By managing our travel budget carefully and understanding the impact our travel choices make on our budget, we’re actually tracking well under our initial travel budget. This encouraged us [Read more…]

February 8, 2015 by Steve Owen 3 Comments

Using Offline Maps and Apps to Save Money and Sanity

Offline Maps Review – Save Money by Using Less Data Internationally

Albania Signpost — Tethi to Valbone Sign

A review of 4 iphone Offline Map apps

I need offline maps. I get lost pretty easily. I don’t like getting lost. It raises my blood pressure and I yell at signs and maps. Unfortunately I have been cursed with internal compass issues. Rarely do I magically feel where true north is and I have problems asking for directions in other languages (or ever). This is a problem if you travel for a year in foreign countries where street signs are not only in another language but also non-existent. My wife on the other hand seems to have a magic magnet somewhere in her head that tells her which direction to go. She also cheats and studies maps of places we are visiting [Read more…]

March 1, 2014 by Steve Owen 1 Comment

Gap Year Travel Planning Part 1 – Mapping It Out…Kinda

Where are we going again?

We inadvertently started our career break and gap year travel planning sometime after we met in 2009, taking long walks together around Sydney and talking about the places we wanted to see. We agreed that we just wanted to travel to explore places and ideas without answering work emails or calls along the way.

What started off as a fantasy to travel around the world crept into our thoughts regularly until one day we actually started thinking about what we needed to do. The talking and walking progressed until 2012 when we found ourselves getting married in Bali with a honeymoon in Borneo on a one month trip. It was almost a test for us to see if we enjoyed long-term travel. When we returned to Sydney we began to seriously start planning financially and logistically. We were determined to make the fantasy into a reality somehow. Now it was time to put the plans in our heads to paper.

Gap Year Travel Planning Questions

We had some questions we had to ask ourselves for our career break and gap year travel planning purposes:

Budget: What budget do we commit to for a one-year trip? Answer
Length of Time: What if we want to extend?
Destinations: Wait, where are we going again?
Mode of Travel: Planes, trains, automobiles – which one and when do we use it? Should we get round the world tickets or book as we go?
Method of Travel: Traveling fast or slow?

Answers

[Read more…]