Researching Costs

Spent last night researching costs for traveling between my intended destinations. I cannot believe how cheap it is to take the train in India! 26 destinations planned and the cost is roughly $120 Canadian! Mind you, a few of those transfers are with buses and I don't have costs yet - however, I feel safe in estimating that total travel costs while in India will be less than $150. My god... 60 days of traveling an entire country for the same amount as I pay for my cable/phone/internet each month.

All costings for the trains was done on the India Railways site (which is run by the government, so its 100% accurate). You can get there to do your own research here: India Railways Site

So now I have costings for travel (minus 6 bus rides I need to take) at a maximum of around $150. And most of the trains run at night, so I won't need to factor in hostels / hotels into it. Probably not the best way to sleep, but certainly cheaper! And what a better way to really see India than from a train! Next up is the research for places to sleep in areas I will spend more than 1 day in. I estimate it won't cost too much for that either. On average from what I've seen, it's about 300 - 400 rupees per night. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on which place you are in.

I have no way of knowing how many nights I will need to stay in a guest house / hostel, but even if I assume half of the time there I will do that, that's still only $225 for 30 nights worth of real rest. Not bad at all.

So now I'm looking at $375 for travel and sleep. Food is so cheap, I don't even think I need try to calculate it. I'm such a sporadic eater anyways, there is no way to really know. Some days I eat once, others 3 times. I can estimate though, that if I eat twice a day (which is normal for me), it should cost me about $225.

Now I'm at $600 for 60 days of travel, sleeping in hostel and food. And I've budgeted $1500 for the trip, so I'm doing very well. However, there are still a great many costs to factor in like entrance fees to attractions / monuments. But that shouldn't be too bad either, depending on the places I want to see. In truth, I've tried to see the things that are free to see. The one's that cost money, I've narrowed down to conserve as much of my money as possible.

I'm guessing I may hit $1000 total for the whole trip once my feet hit Indian soil. And that just blows my mind!