Vacation outside Lebanon on a budget

Hey everyone, long time lurker on this site but never registered or posted before (huge thanks to all members for all the great advises and info on this forum, been very useful over the years).

This topic is interesting since the only way to keep going in this country is keep having yearly vacations to balance out our lives. This kind of topic is a goldmine in forums and helps big time.
For around 8 years now I take around 2 or 3 yearly vacations (one long trip and 2 short trips) but always plan and execute them on lowest budget I can so that I travel more and more locations, so I would like to give my 2 cents here. My style of travel is backpacking and getting the most out the area I am visiting, I tend to also stay off the tourist trails to fully immerse in a culture.

Regarding Europe, all info provided above are excellent and anyone planning on a euro trip should use the guidelines provided by Johnaudi and rolf to budget and implement their itinerary, it is the way to go for us Lebanese and thanks guys for the info.

For me it’s been mostly Asia for the past 6 years am visiting (got the Asia love bug) and I have already finished all South-east Asia region and some parts of Central and far east. I am posting this since I truly advice anyone who wants to have an extraordinary vacation to check out the SE Asia region (but keep in mind that its preferable to make a trip of 20-30 days to that region so that it’s worth it and you live it to the max). This region lets the dollars you spend to be spent on longer days and enjoy a longer vacation, in each SE Asian country there are the high-end expensive areas and very reasonable priced and low cost areas which are a max 5-15mn distance apart.

Beauty about traveling this area is you can really budget for it and lower all costs so that in 1 trip you can visit upto 3-5 countries and most of them grant Lebanese passports either Visa-On-Arrival or are already Visa-Free so having an open itinerary is easy with on-the-go decisions and bookings (but planning ahead is a must) Main Issue is the flight ticket cost from/to Beirut - 2 years ago to go to that region (flying in to Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur) cost around $650 but now it’s stuck between $800-$1000 these days regardless of high/low season. So this will be the main and huge cost for all the trip that one wants to budget for vacationing in this area.

I mainly fly from Beirut to Kuala Lumpur, since Malaysia has a huge hub for flights to all over Asia and is a beautiful country in itself (becoming a member on AirAsia’s Loyalty program gets you in one year travel with them to be able to book free upgrades+flights+destination packages – they have so many offers) . So anywhere from there ranges between $10-$60 max for Asian international flights (I even purchased flights one time for $7 from one island to another – and flew using 3 planes from an island in Indonesia to an island in Vietnam to the capital Hanoi for free) Keep in mind am a backpacker so my only luggage is a 70L backpack no more than 6Kg so I save on luggage costs a lot (laundry is max $2 hehe). Jakarta is a nice Asian Hub too and you have Singapore but it’s the most expensive.
So for example I will give a breakdown of the latest Asia trip I’ve done in August 2019: 26 days travel (Malaysia-Cambodia-Laos-Indonesia) and this was my 6th time visiting these countries and still all new places and all new things and all new itinerary was done.

Flight tickets:

Beirut-Kuala Lumpur // Jakarta - Beirut: $730 (booked 3 months in advance)
Asia Flights (Malaysia to Cambodia to Laos to Indonesia) total cost was ($25 + $25 + $50) = $100 (booked 1 month in advance)
Internal flights in a country (Cambodia -siem reap to sihanoukville and Indonesia- bali to jakarta) total cost was $80


Accommodation:

Here is where the you can save - I tend to always have between 3-5 days hike/camping in my vacations so for these days I join a group (hike volcano or mountain or camping trip in ancient forests...) and these activities you can find low cost for them and you would save big time on accommodation fees, food and transport this way, also you can do 2 or more such activities in diff regions. In my last trip I did 5 day excursion of hiking 4 volcanoes and total cost for 5 days including everything was $110 (cheap because it was a group of 50 people, very easy to arrange this online or even on whatsapp once you are there) and another activity I did was a 4 day hiking/camping/wandering in a 130million year old rainforest for a total of $130 for everything (camping gear, food, essentials, entrances – tips are upto your gratitude).

Other thing to note is that in this region there are a lot of poverty and community help - so very easy to find online any activity which you can sign up for. In Cambodia I signed up to teach in a school at a floating river village - I went for 2 days there and taught basic English and some Armenian words to lovely enthusiastic kids. In return the school gives you a room (very basic of course, *shared bathroom) and free meals to enjoy with the kids. The experience alone is to die for and doing something like this lowers your costs and gives you a great time and you spend your money on a local community instead for corporations. My friend didn’t want to teach so instead she brought with her some old clothes she had and donated them to the school and in return he also got a bed and free meals. Also, it’s very easy to find online or even arrange for this once there.

Doing this where I saved up on accommodation and food for around 11 days, helped me to book in Indonesia a high-end Villa with private pool and enjoy a high luxurious 2 nights while my whole trip is a cheapo backpackin style. For example, in Indonesia the famous islands of Bali, Lombok, Nusa Lembongan... You can find villas with pools to rent that start from $60 (airbnb has alot and there are dedicated villa-rental websites for those islands)

So main advice is extensive search beforehand to plan a complete itinerary with the locations you want to visit and see. This way you can find really good places at cheap prices since there are literally a ton of places for rent. And my advice is forget agencies and just do it all yourselves (this will save you around $200-$400 from extra fees/commissions) and always sign up for loyalty programs.

I spent in my last trip for 26 days on accommodation fees around $400 (11 days of them no fees since lodging was included in an activity total cost, and even one night I spent sleeping on a 7 hr bus ride so this also saves us on a night’s fee)


Food:

Here it’s more related to the traveler’s eating style, some people can’t try new stuff or street food and tend to just go for the famous junk food places and international meals they know. This type of food is expensive, so going for local breakfasts and lunches/dinners at cheap streetfood places can help you save up so in turn maybe 2-3 times you can go for a fancy restaurant and still not empty out your pocket. In each Asian country and island there are sooo many food streets which sell delicious cheap meals so it can help to save a lot, my daily food average cost in any Asian country is $8-$10 (breakfast/lunch/dinner). You have to be diligent, hygiene-aware and notice the frequency of buyers regarding streetfood. And personally, some of the best meals I’ve had in my life came from an 80-year-old guy with a tiny carry-on food stall on the street where the meal is handed out in a regular plastic grocery bag and you use your hands to eat.

I spent in my last trip for food for 26 days $220


Transportation:

I always rent bikes, everywhere they range between $3-$7 per day depending on bike and fuel is everywhere and cheap. Or I just walk ?
In Renting bikes, my advice is thoroughly check it before taking it to make sure it will not break down in the middle of nowhere. On youtube a lot of videos on what to check on bikes if you’re renting during your travel.

Insurance is important, get a full plan that covers everything for traveling and doing activities. Many insurance companies or travel agents in Lebanon offer comprehensive ones for $20. I myself couple of years ago had an accident and once back in Lebanon I got around 90% of all costs refunded.

All in all I spend between $1900-$2200 for an average of 28 days travel in South-east Asia, (including bringing gifts that your friends and family will cherish and doing so many stuff and activities with visiting dream like places). Traveling lesser days bring down costs for sure but the extra few days gives you a new country in the region to visit for just an extra couple of hundred bucks.

This region has 2 seasons – wet and dry, all year around its hot and each season has its charm and wonder. A type of travel like this is not just visiting the main touristic spots and doing what everyone does and visiting famous places. You have to beforehand learn some of the language’s main words and have your own notes and googlemap prepartions etc. Knowing how to haggle and using local words from their language like "expensive" or "lower" is key and you can save up by shopping for all your gifts from one place and getting a price for bulk of goods instead of one here and there (making a friend with a local is nice and helpful too since they can take to you to the cheaper wholesale shop areas)

A travel like this needs some dedication for research and itinerary decisions, you have to know exactly what you want to do and what is your budget limit in order to plan out where to visit and how to commute. Like why did I come back to Lebanon from Jakarta. At the end of my trip I was on an island that is 40mn public boat ride to Bali and Bali has international airport which I can fly to Beirut back. But it was cheaper to go to Bali and straight fly to Jakarta the capital and spend 2 nights partying there and flying back from there.

It really is all about doing it once and then everything becomes easier in future travels to the region, especially if you do a solo-trip and I advise everyone to do one at least once in their lives. The amount of people you meet and contemplation you make will be a treasure.

Our country is finally trying to fix itself and try to recover from the past so maybe this topic isn't at the exact right time but I believe no matter what we all can make use of it in the future.

If someone is interested to know more how to plan for this region or has questions, I would be happy to help and sorry everyone for the long post but this topic needs details and has a lot to share.

Cheers