What we spent: Turkey

This exercise is starting to feel a little silly. How — how? — did we stay a month in a country in the middle of a historic currency crisis and yet our daily spending barely budged? Apparently it doesn’t matter where we are! I’m thinking we could move to Singapore or Guatemala and still spend about $200 per day. (Except California. We spend way more in California.)

Digging into the numbers, our lodging costs were somewhat higher than they might have been because we chose to rent an entire house in Istanbul; there were certainly less expensive options available. Also, we accomplished some routine personal care (haircuts, dental cleanings) this month and got our skin scrubbed off at a fancy Turkish bath.

30 days in Turkey

Airfare to Istanbul (from Athens) was $278 and tickets from Istanbul to Kigali were covered by points.

Now we’re in Rwanda and so far, this leg of our trip is looking spendy. Rwanda has made the decision to keep prices for activities in the spectacular national parks quite expensive in order to support conservation. Even though we won’t be going gorilla trekking ($1500 per person for an hour with a mountain gorilla family; an incredible experience I’m sure but only available to those 16 and up), other activities in the national parks can still add up. Two days ago we spent $340 hiking and doing a canopy walk in Nyungwe Forest National Park. So I expect my spending report from Rwanda will be somewhat spicier.

WORTH IT