It’s now been seven years since we took the plunge, sold everything, and left San Francisco to slow travel the world full-time. Since 2018, our nomadic life has taken us across continents, cultures, and countless everyday moments that remind us why we chose this lifestyle in the first place.
As always, we tracked our spending in great detail because we love numbers, but also because we want to show what long-term travel actually costs. If you are planning to slow travel the world, become a digital nomad, or simply rethink how much life abroad might cost, this report will give you a detailed look at our full-year expenses, including accommodation, food, transportation, health, activities, and other real-world costs.
Everyone’s travel style and budget is different, so use our numbers as one reference point rather than a universal answer. We are a couple in our early 40s, we travel to a mix of higher and lower cost-of-living countries, we are value conscious without being extreme budget travelers, and we usually prefer staying longer in each place rather than rushing through destinations.
In 2025, we spent $60,001.80 while traveling across 13 countries, 20 locations, and 4 continents and the Pacific. We covered an estimated 30,114 miles across 22 travel legs,. This report covers two people traveling together for most of the year, which helps explain both the total cost and the pace behind these numbers.
So how much does it really cost to travel the world for one year as a couple in 2025? For us, the answer was almost exactly $60K. This is our highest annual travel spend so far, and in this report we’ll break down where the money went, what changed from prior years, and what these numbers say about the true cost of living a full-time nomadic lifestyle.
Travel style
Our pace matters because slower travel changes the budget. Staying longer in each place usually reduces transportation pressure and makes the numbers closer to normal cost-of-living expenses than a short vacation budget.
The goal here is not to present the cheapest possible version of travel. It is to show what a value-conscious year looked like with the pace, routing, and day-to-day choices reflected in the data.
Our 2025 travel style was still rooted in slow travel, but it was not our slowest or cheapest year. We mixed longer stays in places like Chiang Mai, Da Nang, Ljubljana, Berlin, Valencia, Ubud and Ko Samui with several shorter stops, family visits, and one major repositioning cruise across the Pacific.
This matters because pace has a big impact on cost. A month in one city usually gives us better accommodation deals, lower transportation costs, and more normal day-to-day routines. But in 2025, our route included more expensive regions, a 29-day cruise, and a few overlapping trips where we were not always in the same place at the same time. So while this report still reflects a value-conscious lifestyle, it was also a more movement-heavy and experience-heavy year than some of our previous ones.
This budget is most relevant if you are:
- A couple traveling full-time
- Value-conscious but not ultra-budget
- Staying weeks or months in each place
- Mixing Southeast Asia, Europe, and higher-cost regions
- Expenses are shown in USD using the exchange rate stored at the time of the transaction.
- Per-person figures are based on 2 participants.
- We split spending into cost-of-living and non-cost-of-living so destination numbers stay comparable.
- When trips overlap because travelers are in different places at the same time, destination day totals may exceed tracked report days. Per-day budget figures use unique report days.
- We exclude business, investment, and property expenses so the report stays focused on the cost of long-term travel.
The headline number
First, here is the all-in number, split between daily living costs and broader long-term travel costs.
With that context, our total spend was $60,001.80. Cost of living came to $48,854.17 (81.4%), while non-cost-of-living expenses came to $11,147.64 (18.6%). In plain English, that means $164.39 per day, $82.19 per person per day, or about $5,003.57 per month for us as a couple.
| Cost bucket | Total | % of total |
|---|---|---|
| 🏠Cost of living | $48,854.17 | 81.4% |
| ✈️Non-cost of living | $11,147.64 | 18.6% |
For reference here is our spending since 2019
Year-over-year comparison
Comparing this year to last year helps answer the question we always ask ourselves: did we simply spend more everywhere, or did a few big choices reshape the whole budget?
Compared with 2024, total spend changed by $11,923.01 (24.8%).
Sum of increases: $20,816.10. Sum of decreases: $8,893.09. Net change: $11,923.01.
Largest increases
- Accommodation: $13,929.15 (+102.2%)
- Self Improvement, Education: $1,311.28 (+416.5%)
- Gifts: $1,100.51 (+176.7%)
Largest decreases
- Visas (Residency & Citizenship): $2,165.90 (-94.1%)
- Health Optimization (Biohacking, Longevity…): $1,976.54 (-36.5%)
- Health Care: $1,527.10 (-50.8%)
The biggest reason our spending increased in 2025 was not because every category got more expensive. It was mostly because the shape of the year changed.
In 2024, we had a much lower-cost year anchored by long stays in places like Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and South Korea. In 2025, we spent more time in Europe, added time in the United States and Australia, and took a 29-day cruise ($14,611.60) across the Pacific. That alone changed the cost profile of the year.
The headline increase was $11,923.01, or 24.8% more than last year. But underneath that, the story is more nuanced: accommodation increased dramatically, while several categories actually went down, including visas, health optimization, and health care. So this was not lifestyle inflation across the board. It was mostly a routing and accommodation story.
The largest increase by far was accommodation, which went up by $13,929.15, or 102.2% compared with 2024. This is the category that explains most of the higher annual total. In 2024, our housing costs were unusually efficient because we spent a lot of time in lower-cost destinations and had several long stays. In 2025, accommodation became much more expensive because we spent more time in Europe, included higher-cost destinations like Australia, and added a 29-day cruise, which shows up mostly as a living cost in our report. (Actually the cost for our 29-days cruise itself was $13,831.24 which we put as accommodation cost – while it also technically cover food and entertainment).
This is a good reminder that “slow travel” is not automatically cheap. It can be very affordable when we stay longer in lower-cost places, but the budget changes quickly when we add cruises, shorter stays, peak-season Europe, or higher-cost countries.
Where we traveled in 2025
The map shows the route at a glance, and the summaries below show how that year was spread across continents, countries, and specific locations.
During the year we tracked 365 days across 13 countries, 20 locations, and 4 continents.
Estimated distance traveled: 30,114 miles across 22 legs.
Continents visited:
- Asia – 2 visits, 153 days
- Europe – 1 visit, 158 days
- North America – 1 visit, 27 days
- Oceania – 1 visit, 44 days
Countries visited (alphabetical):
- Australia – 1 visit, 16 days, 2 locations
- Austria – 1 visit, 3 days, 1 location
- Cruise at Sea – 1 visit, 29 days, 1 location
- France – 2 visits, 50 days, 1 location
- Germany – 1 visit, 49 days, 4 locations
- Indonesia – 1 visit, 23 days, 1 location
- Italy – 1 visit, 4 days, 1 location
- Laos – 1 visit, 12 days, 1 location
- Slovenia – 1 visit, 29 days, 1 location
- Spain – 1 visit, 29 days, 1 location
- Thailand – 3 visits, 79 days, 4 locations
- United States – 1 visit, 27 days, 1 location
- Vietnam – 1 visit, 43 days, 1 location
Locations visited (alphabetical):
- Bangkok, Thailand – 2 visits, 8 days
- Berlin, Germany – 1 visit, 30 days
- Cairns, Australia – 1 visit, 6 days
- Chiang Mai, Thailand – 1 visit, 30 days
- Cologne, Germany – 1 visit, 8 days
- Da Nang, Vietnam – 1 visit, 43 days
- Daly City, United States – 1 visit, 27 days
- Equator Crossing, Cruise at Sea – 1 visit, 29 days
- Freiburg, Germany – 1 visit, 6 days
- Froges, France – 2 visits, 50 days
- Ko Samui, Thailand – 2 visits, 44 days
- Ljubljana, Slovenia – 1 visit, 29 days
- Luang Prabang, Laos – 1 visit, 12 days
- Milan, Italy – 1 visit, 4 days
- Munich, Germany – 1 visit, 8 days
- Phuket, Thailand – 1 visit, 4 days
- Salzburg, Austria – 1 visit, 3 days
- Sydney, Australia – 1 visit, 16 days
- Ubud, Indonesia – 1 visit, 23 days
- Valencia, Spain – 1 visit, 29 days
Note: the list abobe did not include the stops of our trans-Pacific cruise which included Honolulu, Maui, Kaui, Apia, Savusavu & Vanuatu.
The bar chart below ranks the countries by total days spent there, so it shows where the year was concentrated rather than just how many stops we made.
The table below groups spending by country, with the locations we visited nested underneath each country. The one-time-expense bucket captures costs that belong to the year but were not tied to a specific location. The non-living cost column shows the difference between total spend and living cost only.
| Country / location | Date range | Total spend | Living cost only | Non-cost of living |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇹🇭Thailand | Multiple visits: 2025-01-01 – 2025-01-30; 2025-02-10 – 2025-03-14; 2025-12-16 – 2025-12-31 | $7,829.07 | $6,849.38 | $979.69 |
| 📍Chiang Mai | 2025-01-01 – 2025-01-30 | $2,443.14 | $2,025.58 | $417.56 |
| 📍Phuket | 2025-01-09 – 2025-01-12 | $494.71 | $187.71 | $307.00 |
| 📍Bangkok | Multiple visits: 2025-02-10 – 2025-02-14; 2025-12-16 – 2025-12-18 | $736.98 | $608.58 | $128.39 |
| 📍Ko Samui | Multiple visits: 2025-02-14 – 2025-03-14; 2025-12-17 – 2025-12-31 | $4,154.23 | $4,027.50 | $126.73 |
| 🇱🇦Laos | 2025-01-30 – 2025-02-10 | $828.88 | $828.88 | $0.00 |
| 📍Luang Prabang | 2025-01-30 – 2025-02-10 | $828.88 | $828.88 | $0.00 |
| 🇻🇳Vietnam | 2025-03-14 – 2025-04-25 | $4,122.26 | $3,549.48 | $572.77 |
| 📍Da Nang | 2025-03-14 – 2025-04-25 | $4,122.26 | $3,549.48 | $572.77 |
| 🇫🇷France | Multiple visits: 2025-04-25 – 2025-05-23; 2025-08-12 – 2025-09-01 | $1,708.93 | $1,421.57 | $287.37 |
| 📍Froges | Multiple visits: 2025-04-25 – 2025-05-23; 2025-08-12 – 2025-09-01 | $1,708.93 | $1,421.57 | $287.37 |
| 🇮🇹Italy | 2025-05-23 – 2025-05-26 | $863.09 | $672.26 | $190.83 |
| 📍Milan | 2025-05-23 – 2025-05-26 | $863.09 | $672.26 | $190.83 |
| 🇸🇮Slovenia | 2025-05-26 – 2025-06-23 | $3,801.44 | $3,738.17 | $63.27 |
| 📍Ljubljana | 2025-05-26 – 2025-06-23 | $3,801.44 | $3,738.17 | $63.27 |
| 🇦🇹Austria | 2025-06-23 – 2025-06-25 | $534.31 | $534.31 | $0.00 |
| 📍Salzburg | 2025-06-23 – 2025-06-25 | $534.31 | $534.31 | $0.00 |
| 🇩🇪Germany | 2025-06-25 – 2025-08-12 | $4,696.79 | $4,663.90 | $32.89 |
| 📍Munich | 2025-06-25 – 2025-07-02 | $868.42 | $868.42 | $0.00 |
| 📍Berlin | 2025-07-02 – 2025-07-31 | $2,428.40 | $2,395.51 | $32.89 |
| 📍Cologne | 2025-07-31 – 2025-08-07 | $799.22 | $799.22 | $0.00 |
| 📍Freiburg | 2025-08-07 – 2025-08-12 | $600.76 | $600.76 | $0.00 |
| 🇪🇸Spain | 2025-09-01 – 2025-09-29 | $2,859.78 | $2,451.18 | $408.60 |
| 📍Valencia | 2025-09-01 – 2025-09-29 | $2,859.78 | $2,451.18 | $408.60 |
| 🇺🇸United States | 2025-09-16 – 2025-10-12 | $1,984.50 | $1,509.23 | $475.27 |
| 📍Daly City | 2025-09-16 – 2025-10-12 | $1,984.50 | $1,509.23 | $475.27 |
| Cruise at Sea | 2025-10-12 – 2025-11-09 | $14,622.80 | $14,611.60 | $11.20 |
| 📍NomadCruise ’15 | 2025-10-12 – 2025-11-09 | $14,622.80 | $14,611.60 | $11.20 |
| 🇦🇺Australia | 2025-11-09 – 2025-11-24 | $3,049.28 | $2,591.46 | $457.82 |
| 📍Sydney | 2025-11-09 – 2025-11-24 | $1,666.94 | $1,426.66 | $240.28 |
| 📍Cairns | 2025-11-15 – 2025-11-20 | $1,382.34 | $1,164.80 | $217.54 |
| 🇮🇩Indonesia | 2025-11-24 – 2025-12-16 | $3,389.82 | $2,832.69 | $557.13 |
| 📍Ubud | 2025-11-24 – 2025-12-16 | $3,389.82 | $2,832.69 | $557.13 |
| 🚩2025 One time expenses | $9,710.86 | $2,600.06 | $7,110.80 | |
| Total | $60,001.80 | $48,854.17 | $11,147.64 |
Detailed breakdown of cost to travel for one year
The category breakdown is where the annual total becomes useful, because it shows which expenses actually drove the budget.
The largest top-level categories were Accommodation (45.9%), Food (12.3%), Transportation (12.1%), and Everyday expenses (11.3%).
Within those, the biggest subcategories were Groceries (6.1%), Health Optimization (Biohacking, Longevity…) (5.7%), Local Transportation (5.4%), and Dining Out (5.2%).
| Category | Total | % of Grand Total | Monthly equivalent (for 2 ppl) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation | $27,552.74 | 45.92% | $2,297.63 |
| Food | $7,394.72 | 12.32% | $616.65 |
| – Groceries | $3,648.06 | 6.08% | $304.21 |
| – Dining Out | $3,133.86 | 5.22% | $261.33 |
| – Cafe, Coffee Shops, Sweets, Snacks | $612.80 | 1.02% | $51.10 |
| Transportation | $7,266.90 | 12.11% | $605.99 |
| – Local Transportation | $3,263.96 | 5.44% | $272.18 |
| – International Transportation | $2,685.44 | 4.48% | $223.94 |
| – Travel Rewards, Travel Miles | $1,073.20 | 1.79% | $89.49 |
| – Intercity Transportation | $244.30 | 0.41% | $20.37 |
| Everyday expenses | $6,761.93 | 11.27% | $563.88 |
| – Gifts | $1,723.44 | 2.87% | $143.72 |
| – Self Improvement, Education | $1,626.10 | 2.71% | $135.60 |
| – Fitness, Gym, Workout | $1,227.61 | 2.05% | $102.37 |
| – Clothing | $1,157.91 | 1.93% | $96.56 |
| – Personal Care | $440.14 | 0.73% | $36.70 |
| – Subscriptions (recurring) | $373.84 | 0.62% | $31.17 |
| – Data (International) | $98.00 | 0.16% | $8.17 |
| – Home Furnishing, Home Supplies, Home Maintenance | $54.60 | 0.09% | $4.55 |
| – Living Expenses | $53.49 | 0.09% | $4.46 |
| – Data (Local) | $6.80 | 0.01% | $0.57 |
| Health | $5,735.69 | 9.56% | $478.30 |
| – Health Optimization (Biohacking, Longevity…) | $3,444.70 | 5.74% | $287.25 |
| – Health Care | $1,477.94 | 2.46% | $123.25 |
| – International Health Insurance | $813.05 | 1.36% | $67.80 |
| Fun | $2,696.24 | 4.49% | $224.84 |
| – Recreation, Museums, Sightseeing, Tours | $2,500.80 | 4.17% | $208.54 |
| – Entertainment (Books, Games, Hobbies) | $195.45 | 0.33% | $16.30 |
| Legal | $1,212.49 | 2.02% | $101.11 |
| Long term travel | $1,160.46 | 1.93% | $96.77 |
| – Personal Equipment, Electronics | $812.38 | 1.35% | $67.74 |
| – Visas (Short terms & Travel-Related Entry Permits) | $178.47 | 0.30% | $14.88 |
| – Visas (Residency & Citizenship) | $136.73 | 0.23% | $11.40 |
| – Travel Gear | $32.89 | 0.05% | $2.74 |
| Professional Services | $121.61 | 0.20% | $10.14 |
| Others | $14.51 | 0.02% | $1.21 |
| TOTAL | $60,001.80 | 100% | $5,003.57 |
How to explain our accomodation spending?
Accommodation was our largest expense in 2025 by a wide margin: $27,552.74, or 45.9% of our total annual spending.
That is much higher than usual for us, and it deserves context. This category was pushed up by a few big factors: more time in Europe, a long cruise, and stays in higher-cost places like Australia. The cruise especially changes the accounting because it bundles lodging, meals, transportation, and entertainment into one travel experience, but in our system it shows up mostly as part of living costs.
This is why we like looking beyond the headline number. If someone only saw “$60K for the year,” they might assume our entire lifestyle became more expensive. The more accurate takeaway is that 2025 included a few expensive structural choices, especially around where and how we slept.
How to explain our food spending?
Food came to $7,394.72, or 12.3% of our total spending. This included $3,648.06 in groceries, $3,133.86 in dining out, and $612.80 in cafes, sweets, snacks and coffee shops.
This is one of the categories where our travel style really shows. We are not trying to eat as cheaply as possible, but we also do not eat out for every meal like we are on vacation. We usually look for apartments with a decent kitchen, shop at local markets or grocery stores, and cook a good portion of our meals at home.
That balance lets us enjoy local food scenes without turning every day into a restaurant day. It also keeps our lifestyle closer to “normal life abroad” rather than “vacation mode,” which is one of the big reasons slow travel can stay financially sustainable.
How to explain our transportation spending?
Transportation came to $7,266.90, or 12.1% of our total spending. This included $3,263.96 in local transportation, $2,685.44 in international transportation, $1,073.20 in travel rewards and miles-related costs, and $244.30 in intercity transportation.
We actually saved ~$5,000-1$0,000 every year on flights thanks to our ultimate guide to Travel Hacking!
For a year where we traveled across 13 countries, 4 continents, and more than 30,000 estimated miles, this number still feels reasonable. Travel rewards continued to help keep international transportation lower than it could have been, though this was not a year where transportation disappeared from the budget.
The bigger lesson is that transportation is not just about flights. Local transportation adds up too, especially when we move often, take day trips, use rideshares, rent scooters, or spend time in places where walking and public transit do not cover everything. Also this year we decided to cross the pacific on a boat, which helped us with the jetlag and did not count as transportation cost due to our categorization for the cruise as mostly ‘accomodation’.
How to explain our health spending?
Health remained a meaningful part of our budget, but it was lower than last year. In 2025, we spent $5,735.69 on health, including $3,444.70 on health optimization, $1,477.94 on health care, and $813.05 on international health insurance.
This is still a category we are willing to invest in because we see health as part of the lifestyle we are designing, not just an expense line. That includes blood work, supplements, preventive care, dental or medical visits when needed, and other health-span related spending.
Compared with 2024, health optimization and health care both decreased, which makes sense because 2024 included more one-time testing and setup costs. Going forward, we expect health to remain part of our annual budget, but hopefully closer to a steady maintenance level rather than a big spike year.
What would this cost for your own travel style?
If you are planning your own year on the road, treat these numbers as anchors rather than rules. Your stops, pace, comfort level, and how often you move will matter as much as the headline total.
Our baseline per-person per-day number was $82.19. The ranges below are simple planning anchors, not rules.
| Budget style | Cost per day |
|---|---|
| Shoestring (0.75x) | $61.65 |
| Mid-range (1.00x) | $82.19 |
| Comfortable (1.35x) | $110.96 |
If your travel year is mostly Southeast Asia or Latin America, you could probably come in well below our 2025 number. If your year includes more Europe, the United States, Australia, cruises, or frequent moves, you should build in a much bigger margin.
What did we exclude from our budget?
As in previous reports, we exclude expenses that would make the travel numbers less useful for our readers. This includes:
- Business expenses related to running Nomad Numbers.
- Investment activity.
- Property expenses not directly tied to travel.
- Any other spending that would add noise to the real cost of long-term travel.
Our goal is not to show every dollar that touched our bank accounts. It is to show what this lifestyle actually cost us as full-time travelers.
Our bottom line
So what is the practical takeaway? In 2025, our full-time travel lifestyle cost $60,001.80 for two people, or $164.39 per day. That breaks down to $82.19 per person per day, or about $5,003.57 per month.
If you were planning a similar year, we would start with the baseline and keep enough margin to drift toward the upper planning anchor when routing, health, or one-off logistics get more expensive.
Previous spending reports
For reference, here are our spending reports:
- 2019: Total spending: $33,280 (including living cost of: $25,464)
- 2020: Total spending: $27,337 (including living cost of: $23,980)
- 2021: Total spending: $36,303 (including living cost of: $23,379)
- 2022: Total spending: $38,537 (including living cost of $29,983)
- 2023: Total spending: $34,473 (including living cost of: $26,532)
- 2024: Total spending: $47,515 (including living cost of $32,295)
Our biggest lesson from 2025 is that slow travel can still be affordable, but the route matters more than the label.
Calling ourselves “slow travelers” does not automatically make the year cheap. A year anchored in Southeast Asia will look very different from a year that includes Europe, the United States, Australia, and a long cruise. The same couple, with similar habits, can end up with a very different annual budget simply because the route changed.
That said, we still see this as a successful year. We spent more than in previous years, but the money went toward a life we intentionally chose: time with family, meaningful travel, better health, new places, and experiences we will remember. For us, that is the whole point of tracking the numbers. Not to spend the least possible, but to understand what kind of life our money is actually buying. And for 2026 we have already budgetted to spend about the same amount!
What about you? How much did you end up spending in 2024? Were you able to spend less or more than the previous year? How did you feel about it? Please feel free to share your numbers or your biggest surprises!
Since we are beginning a new year, we encourage you to take a few hours in your life to think about the life you want to design for yourself (check out our tips to get started on the life design process & get yourself a Remarkable Tablet).
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