Travel Expenses: One Month In Ecuador

As our trip through South America moves along, we continue to pay close attention to our travel expenses. Sticking to a budget while traveling is vital to ensuring you have enough money to see and experience all that you can along the way (here is a helpful post on budget travel by Nomadic Matt). Below we will take a look at travel expenses accrued for two people during one month in Ecuador.

It was an expensive month in Ecuador, mostly because of a 10 day/9 night trip to the Galapagos Islands. Also, Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar as its national currency so there was no taking advantage of the strong dollar this month! We spent more in Ecuador than we did in Colombia (here is a breakdown of our Colombia expenses) and accounting for health insurance, were just above budget. Take a look below.

Notable Travel Expenses

Galapagos Islands

The decision to go to the Galapagos was a difficult one. We knew beforehand that it would be a budget busting trip. With that being said, we are so happy we decided to go! Passing up the opportunity to visit this remarkable place while being in such close proximity is something we would have regretted for years to come.

Now, back to the finances.

We spent $1285/person for a 10 day/9 night trip to the Galapagos. Although seemingly expensive, we spent far less than most. Most 5 day/4 night cruises start at $1500/person (take a look here for more on how to visit the Galapagos on a budget).

These 10 days in the Galapagos accounted for 65% of our total monthly expenses!

As you can see, accommodation was our most costly expense, followed by transport, entertainment and finally food.

Accommodation averaged out to $44.98/night in the Galapagos and we stayed in hostels each night. Average accommodation in South America thus far has ranged from $25-35/night mostly in private Airbnbs so this was significantly above average.

Transport was higher this month due the $341.23/person spent for round trip flights to the islands (flying is the only way to get to the Galapagos). In addition, we visited three islands and one way boat tickets cost $25-30/person to get from island to island.

Entertainment expenses were also higher than normal due to island entrance fees ($100 to enter the islands, $10 to enter Isabella Island) and island tours (2 tours at $120/person).

Food expenses were less than normal given that we had breakfast included in the majority of our accommodation, we made our own lunches most days and had cheap local seafood for dinner nearly every night.

Putting It All Together

We are budgeting $2000/person/month or $4000/two people/month and came in $62.19 under budget after one month in Ecuador. However, accounting for health insurance (which was paid in full prior to the start of the trip) which costs $97.77/person/month or $195.55/two people/month, we spent $4,133.36 for two people during one month in Ecuador.

$3,937.81 (Ecuador expenses) + $195.55 (health insurance for two people) = $4,133.36

$4,133.36 (monthly total including health insurance) – $4,000 (allotted monthly budget for two people) = $133.36 over budget

In Summary

After two months in South America (one month in Colombia and one month in Ecuador), we are under budget by $1,360.44.

We will spend the next month in Peru where we will visit Manchu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, which are also costly but are also once in a lifetime opportunities. Finding the balance between spending on high priority items while saving in other areas (such as food this month) continues to be a work in progress. It will be interesting to see how things play out in November. I will keep you posted!