Travel travel travel !!!
I consider travel one of my many love languages. 😛 Because if anybody wanted to get to me easily, they would surprise me with a trip somewhere. Often, anywhere… but it helps if it’s to some amazing place!
Thankfully, I’ve got the chance to go to a few places… and one day, before I turn 50, I’m hoping to have visited every single country… so help me God!
One of the biggest myths is that you need to be extremely rich to travel. You. Really. Don’t! There are different budgets for travels, and more often than not, every budget has a chance too.
I’ll start this with a trip I did with five of my friends. This was in July of 2018. I started planning December of 2017! So Med School was difficult for me. Lol! Like… I really almost dropped out! So to celebrate finishing… Well, finishing with dignity and no re-writes, I planned a trip for myself. To Kenya. I’d been to Kenya about 2 times, but it was usually for just two days or so. I had a few friends express interest, so I opened it up. If you’re as excited as I am about graduating med school, join us on a two-week trip to Kenya!
Initially, I had about twenty people asking and thinking about going! Things were looking good! Only about twelve confirmed they would go…. Still not bad. However, when it came down to it, we were only 7! (Keep in mind when planning a group trip… not everyone you’re planning with will end up showing up!) Traveling in a group is usually fun, and often a lot cheaper, since you get to split bills. So just before the final exam got intense, I drew out a plan, and bought my ticket. (Lol… Yes, because I knew ticket prices would go up, and whether or not everyone in the group made it, I was still going to go… even if it was solo)
So this was our planned budget and itinerary and Expenditure for Kenya [July 10-24]
- Travel insurance - GHC 80 [$13]
- Airfare - $500
Possible Activities for 5 nights in Nairobi [July 10-16]
- Ziplining - GHC50 ($8)
- Nairobi National park with a student ID -GHC70
- Masai Mara? ($350 for 2 nights)
- Night life- Depends on where we wanted to go.
- Night life- Depends on where we wanted to go.
Mombasa (Diani Beach) – 5 nights [July 16- July 22]
- Nyali Beach
- Swimming in the Indian Ocean- Free
- Haller park - GHC40 ($7)
- Fort Jesus - Ghc55 ($9)
- Wild Waters Waterpark- Ghc80 ($13)
- Snorkeling in the local boats- $20
- Skydiving- $350
July 23rd – return to Nairobi
July 24th- Home!
What actually happened
- Ticket - $450 (Ethiopian Airlines, bought about 4 months ahead of our trip).
- Accommodation - Nairobi $55 per person. We used Airbnb for this and got a good 2 bedroom apartment on the third floor in a gated community in Nairobi. (for 7 nights because we were 7 people and the apartment cost $55 a night). Mombasa (Diani) - $75 per person for one week, using booking.com.
- Food - ~$50-70 In total (we bought groceries and cooked in Nairobi but ate out mostly in Mombasa – because the accommodation didn’t allow us to cook.)
- Transportation- ~$150 in total. (Uber, Taxify, ‘Matatus’ and ‘Tuk Tuks’, plus the interstate train to and from Mombasa. And a Van from Mombasa Train Station to Diani)
Activities
Souvenirs (From the Masai Market)- Depends on how many things we got. We used about $50-$100 each.
Our Total Cost – ~$981 per person!
For more comfortable living though, I think about $1,500 would be a good budget. And if it was a solo trip, I might have had to use about that amount ($1,500)
I have multiple other trips I planned, and I’ll share the photos also.
PS. For a few travel tips and tricks, some tips and tricks