Colombia Backpacking: Financial Summary


How Much $$$ Did We Spend in Colombia?

Colombia Backpacking: Financial Summary

Here’s a little summary of our time in Colombia to help you see how much $ we spent on our extremely budget style of travel.

Days in Colombia: 21

Total Money Spent: $629

So we spent an average of $14.98 per person per day, pretty much exactly on target with our overall budget for the trip!

Here’s a pretty pie chart breakdown for you!

Sorry that some of the slices are the same color…we´re not very good at Excel but we´re working on it!

And some more details for the curious:

Transportation:  This is by far the biggest since we moved around a lot and buses are on the more expensive side in Colombia.  (Average about $2-3 per hour of travel.)  You can bargain for long-distance bus tickets, so never settle for the original quoted price!  This is mostly for long-distance buses, although we did take taxis frequently, especially to get to our accomodations when we were just arriving in a place and loaded down with luggage.

Food: What can I say, you gotta eat!  We mostly stuck to cheaper local food though, and only splurged a handful of times.  We were also generously fed by Couchsurfing hosts and at the farm where we stayed.

Lodging:  I’m really proud of how little we spent on lodging.  We only stayed in 3 hostels for a total of 6 nights in our entire time in Colombia.  We Couchsurfed twice and WWOOFed for an entire week, which saved us a lot!

Activities:  We saved a lot here by being picky about what touristy things we did.  Most of our fun comes from cheaper things like hiking, walking around a new city, and just chatting with locals.  We can’t do very many expensive tourist activities on our budget, but that’s okay!

Shopping:  We didn’t buy anything, basically.  We’re waiting for cheaper countries like Peru and Bolivia to pick up souvenirs.

Hygeine/Medical:  You have to pay for most public bathrooms in Colombia.  It´s usually less that $.50, but I have a really small bladder.  When you gotta go, you gotta go!

1 USD=approximately 1850 COP (Colombian pesos).  Just in case you cared.