At the beginning of your travel adventure, the most important thing is to plan your travel budget. This means you must check how much money you can spend on that journey.
It is easier if you have some savings that you can spare on that, but it is not essential to have it all in advance. Along the process, you can monthly put aside an amount and gather a sum before your trip.
It can be helpful to know how much the travel you have in mind could cost so that you can start with some figure. I usually check with some travel agencies how much would similar tour cost per person. Use it as a starting point. The aim is to get more and better for less money. And with planning, you will succeed to do that.
You should divide the amount of money you can spend on travel into sections. The journey consists of transport, accommodation, food, local transport, tickets, souvenirs, etc. The most helpful tools are spreadsheets because they simplify doing the calculations. Here are some I used for our travel to Portugal to get an idea of what you can do with them (see Tables, lists ).
The biggest amount from your travel budget will go to transport and accommodation expenses. But at the same time, those two figures are very flexible. By searching in advance you can save a lot here. You should search over specialised sites for the best options (see more on Transport and Accommodation).
For the basic amount of money for the food, I take what we usually spend at home per day and multiply it by the number of days on the journey. If possible try to find online some information about food costs in the visiting country. And don’t forget to add some amount for little pleasures like drinks in cafes, some local restaurants…
If you plan to go around on your own you should count in some money for rent-a-car or local transport like bus, train, boat. Also don’t forget the money for local transport in towns like the metro, trams, and buses (see Transport).
When you have done the list of places and sites you want to see find out if the entrance is free. If not, see how much it will cost you and if are there any discounts and put the amount on the table.
And finally add something for souvenirs, shopping and unexpected costs.
In the end, add it all up and see how much you stay within your travel budget and if necessary make adaptations.
