9 Months. The Budget. India.

How did we do money wise in India? We spent close to 3 months here and we found the country to be a great deal for the budget traveler. The unexpected bonus was that it felt like we visited a whole bunch of countries instead of only one! India is unbelievably diverse, its people speaks 122 official languages but studies claim that there are more than 780. The variety of food, cultures and  landscapes is unmatched by any of the countries we traveled to so far. Take a look at this sample of landscapes and cityscapes, just a few of the places on our itinerary ~

Photos above: Jaipur Rajastan; Pushkar Rajastan; Jaisalmer Rajastan; Thar Desert; Srinegar Kashmir; Markha Valley; Munnar Kerala; Alleppey Kerala; Manali Himachal Pradesh; Backwaters Kerala; Hampy Karnataka, Leh Ladakh 

It amazes me now that we thought of skipping India because we heard from other travelers that it is a difficult country to visit with kids and that INDIA stands for I’ll Never Do It Again.

How wrong. With two days left I wish we had a 6 months visa. It is not only that the country is absolutely fascinating and it kept us engaged every second of the way, but it is also amazingly affordable. So much so that I never worried about money. We didn’t splurge on accommodations and transport but we did splurge on the variety of activities and experiences. Flipping through the thousands of photos of India I am amazed at how much we did and how many different regions we had to energy and the passion to visit.

The practical Info: Average price for accommodations was $10. $20 would get us a really nice room with air-conditioning (we needed that badly in June). Now, if you really want to splurge and experience true luxury India is the place to do so. Seems like the sky is the limit. We saw amazing havelis (old historic houses) and castles in Rajastan, renovated and turned into hotels, beautiful houseboats in Kerala and boutique hotels pretty much everywhere. The price – no more than a regular hotel back home. Keeping with our tiny budget we stayed in modest, but special places. Sometimes we didn’t have hot water and the electricity was on and off but this didn’t matter much to us. Because it wasn’t the high season we got deals everywhere. The thing about India that set it apart from all other countries we visited so far in terms of accommodations was that we experienced true home stays here, not just commercial home stay versions like in Vietnam and Cambodia. We loved every home stay so I do recommend trying to stay with a local family! It is a great way to get to know the culture of the region one is visiting. Our best memories are from cooking on the floor with the families we stayed while hiking in Ladakh or learning about Nitu and her family in Orccha. Now we have home away from home in Kerala, a few in Leh and one in Hampi, Karnataka.

The food is very cheap. For $10 we would have amazing meals for four. Street food/modest restaurant meals are practically a fraction of that. The cost of public transport is negligible. The last bus journey we took was 180 km and the tickets came to $5 for the four of us, kids are always half price. The rail system in India is fantastic!!! Can’t recommend it highly enough. It offers many levels of comfort and is a great way to get to know the local people as you are to spend many hours facing your travel companions, sharing food and chatting. In terms of comfort: we always chose the cheapest class – sleeper. It didn’t have AC and sheets but the breeze through the open windows was enough even in the heat of the summer. The views in this class are the best as there are no dirty glass windows obstructing them.

In India our daily average was $76 that comes to $19/person. This number includes the $265 we spent on 3 month visa costs.

Additional Expenses: $6,584 on airplane tickets: (Asheville – San Francisco; San Francisco – Tokyo, Osaka – Phuket, Thailand; Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Denpasar, Bali – Kathmandu, Nepal; Madurai, India – Colombo, Sri Lanka; Colombo, Sri Lanka – Istanbul, Turkey). $1,291 on travel insurance for a year.

I am happy to report that with India we have reached our goal of $100/day all costs included. Budget wise, we are doing so much better than I thought we will. Yay!

~M.