Rough answer to the question "how much will it cost?"

Not long after announcing "let's take off for 8 months and go half-way around the developing world by train" should one expect to ask or be asked: "OK, how much money will that cost / what would be a reasonable budget?".

My first answer tries to be as simple and straightforward about it as possible: for a 200-day trip, is it fair to say US$100-200/day is modest to conservative for a family of three, on average, given most of the countries on the itinerary?  If so, that would put an overall budget for the 200-day trip somewhere between twenty and fifty thousand US dollars, including a fudge factor for random one-time expenses like travel insurance, a possible hot-air balloon ride or wreck dive, or the unforeseen change in plans (but not including the cost of a sailboat to get around Indonesia).  It seems possible on paper to keep the daily expenses at the lower end of the range, especially given the use of overnight trains for a significant amount of travel over those days, but then other excursions and days in very expensive cities like Moscow would make it difficult to tighten or lower the range.

So far, we have a one-way ticket to India for just over $1,000 for all three of us, and another one-way flight ticket from India to Istanbul for just over $800 for the three of us, including all taxes and fees.  Visas for the first countries on the itinerary through Russia (and especially Russia) seem to be totaling up to right around $1,000.

OK, so it might be about as much if not a little bit more expensive than living in Manhattan, which was my benchmark for expenses / comparable cost of doing something else like staying here in NYC.  Of course, the biggest cost may or may not be the opportunity cost of not working this year, and whether this trips eventually pays off as well as a year in graduate school is a reflection for another blog post on ROI...