Africa Series – Part 3
We gave a rough estimate before we left that the trip would cost us in the region of £5,500 each. Was our estimate right?!
A lot of the costs were already known before we left. We had paid for the flights, the tour with G Adventures and some extra hotel nights at either end of the trip. The tour costs also included a lot of food and transport etc.
The unknown quantities were any remaining meals to pay for, any additional activities we wanted to take part in and some miscellaneous spending. We had a good idea of what we would spend on these areas thanks to some good info on the G Adventures website, but you never quite know!
Most of this extra spending was paid in cash. We took £1,000 worth of $ with us as dollars can be used widely in East Africa. Anything else was paid for using a Halifax Clarity credit card.
There was also the added cost uncertainty of a stopover in Dubai. We had 12 hours there between flights and wanted to see as much as possible! If you’ve ever been to Dubai you’ll know how expensive that can be……
| Item | Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Flights | £2,169 | |
| G Adventures Trip | £6,414 | |
| Extra Hotel Nights | £200 | |
| Spending Money | Food | £450 |
| Activities | £550 | |
| Credit Card Spending | Food | £90 |
| Activities | £14 | |
| Dubai Trip | £96 | |
| Visas | £257 | |
| Insurance | £106 | |
| Vaccinations | £215 | |
| Misc (toiletries, SD cards etc) | £73 | |
| Total | £10,634 | |
| Per Person | £5,317 | |
We came in slightly below our estimate for a couple of reasons. Firstly, we didn’t do all of the additional activities we had allowed for. We were so busy that we sometimes just wanted the extra downtime instead! Secondly, we managed to find some really cheap meals through TripAdvisor. This is our go-to way of finding restaurants in new places and it never lets us down!
Regrets?!
Wow. That’s a ridiculous amount of money! We’re both incredibly frugal so to see such a staggering total is quite hard to stomach! Think how far that could go if invested in our retirement funds…..
But was it worth it?
ABSOLUTELY!!!
We’ve wanted to travel together for a long time. Having finally done it, it was everything we wanted and more. We saw incredible wildlife, including Mr Way’s lifelong dream of seeing mountain gorillas. We saw a lion walking within inches of our safari vehicle. The same for elephants!
Aside from the wildlife, we had a great cultural experience too. We got to see some very eye-opening conditions but above all, lovely local people. It just shows that even with so little, people can live happy lives. We’re so incredibly privileged to live in the society we do and people should realise that more often!
We met some great friends travelling through G Adventures and the memories will stay with us for a lifetime.
Because of all of this, the cost almost becomes irrelevant. We absolutely think we got value for money, but safe to say we won’t be doing a similar trip until a certain wedding is out of the way!
Offsets
The above cost is a headline cost. However, because we budget for all of our usual spending, there are some items which we can offset this against in our budget.
For example, we didn’t do our weekly food shopping while we were away. All food costs for the trip were thrown in with the total cost.
You can see the impact of this in our monthly spending post for August.
The cost of the trip has already been spread over the 7 months since booking, so the impact of this is thankfully starting to level out!
In addition to this, we also managed to put the majority of the trip costs on our American Express credit cards, which managed to get us £241 in cashback.
Extravagance?!
It’s true, we didn’t need to spend quite this much. There are a variety of ways in which we could have made the trip cheaper.
- Flights – we decided to fly with Emirates. They had the most direct flights so we could have saved ~£500 by taking a longer route on a cheaper airline. Considering we had to spend a lot of time in the air, we decided to pay the extra for the comfort and speed of Emirates service. We got to fly in comfort on an A380 (double decker!) which was a cool experience.
- Tour operator – G Adventures weren’t the cheapest option. We could have gone with a cheaper local company, or in fact organised the whole trip ourselves. But for the convenience of having everything taken for and the quality of itinerary put together by G Adventures, we think this was worth the extra.
- Optional activities – we avoided some of the more expensive activities like white water rafting but still took part in quite a few. In our opinions, you might as well do whatever you want while there as we won’t be going back any time soon!
Reflection
All in all, we had an incredible experience. Yes, it cost a lot. This is uncomfortable when you’re as frugally minded as we are. The trip cost us the same as roughly 5 months of our normal spending….
But how often do you get to come face to face with gorillas, lions, elephants et al?!
We wouldn’t change this experience for anything. We’re still on track to achieve a good savings rate this year and meet our long term goals. We’ve had this trip in mind for a few years now so have been able to cut back in other areas to make up for it.
If you’re considering a similar trip, we would encourage you to go for it. Travel is the one area where we’re happy to blow the budget. We aren’t interested in material ‘things’, but experiences like this will stay with you for a lifetime.
Have you got any questions about our trip? Any tips you can give to reduce costs on future travel? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!