Expense summary
While researching our trip to Laos and Cambodia, we had inquired of a tour company (A World Away Travels) about putting together a trip using our planned itinerary, and gasped at the cost, around 2400 USD per person for 19 days. Then we went ahead and did it on our own and our trip ended up costing about exactly HALF per day what the tour company would have charged. We traveled for 23 days for about $63 per day per person. Clearly we are not budget backpackers! But we are not 5 star travelers either.
Our hotels ranged from $7.50 for a bungalow just across the Lao border in Chiang Kong, Thailand, to $75.50 for a very nice, but too remote hotel in Siem Reap. We also paid $74 for each of two nights in Phnom Penh at a “boutique hotel” with a balcony overlooking the riverfront during the Bon Om Tuk river reversing festival, well worth the expense. Our average hotel cost per night was $41.50, and 7 nights cost less than $25.
We had brought some food items with us: peanut butter & crackers, instant coffee, granola, dried fruit, instant oatmeal, M&Ms and Dove chocolates, tuna packets and canned chicken spread for picnics and emergencies, but we ate all our dinners and some lunches at restaurants, and our breakfasts were often included in the hotel rate. Our daily food expense (not including the stuff we brought from home) was $7.55 per day for the two of us! Dinners ranged from $3.90 to $12.25, including beer! A very inexpensive – and tasty – region for eating. We liked the Lao meals better than the Cambodian meals (which tended to be oilier like Chinese stir fries), and we really enjoyed the many Indian restaurants we came across in Laos. Beerlao comes in big 620 ml bottles for a dollar or less, and tastes great. Angkor Beer wasn’t quite as good, nor as cheap.
Future posts will include itinerary and maybe, a blow by blow account of our excellent adventure.
Tags: Cambodia, hotels, Laos, Travel