How Much Does a Family Gap Year Cost?
How Much Does a Family Gap Year Cost?
We traveled 12 countries in 343 days with two kids, ages 5 and 7, and tracked what we spent. Here are our real receipts, and a calculator that turns them into a 2026 budget for your family.
The first question every family asks about a trip like this is simple: what does it actually cost? So we tracked our spending country by country and published the totals. Our trip ran from August 2014 to July 2015, so below you’ll see what we actually paid, plus a 2026 estimate.
What we actually spent, country by country
These are our real totals for a family of four. They cover everything on the ground: lodging, food, groceries, local transport, car rentals, tours and park fees. Long-haul flights are counted separately below.
| Country | Days | Total | Per day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bali, Indonesia | 42 | $5,161 | $122 | |
| Cambodia | 15 | $2,039 | $136 | |
| South Africa | 34 | $5,221 | $154 | |
| New Zealand | 44 | $8,989 | $204 | |
| Australia | 34 | $8,297 | $244 |
Bali includes an $800 fine for overstaying our visa. Learn from us and check the rules before you go: our Bali visa story.
Flights: $11,561 for the whole loop
Six big flights took the four of us from San Francisco to Cape Town, across the Indian Ocean, through Asia and home from Japan, taxes included. We paid cash for everything except the final flight home, which we covered with credit card points. The full routing is in how much it costs to fly around the world with kids.
Your family gap year calculator
Pick your countries and days, tell us about your crew, and see a 2026 budget built on real family spending. Start with our exact route, or build your own.
“Real receipts” countries use our tracked daily average. “Estimate” countries are ones we didn’t log line by line; we pre-fill a number between our Southeast Asia and New Zealand spending, and you can change the days to see the effect. Ground costs scale with family size: a 4-person family equals our numbers. Flights default to our 2015 total adjusted to 2026 prices, scaled to your family size.
Get a family travel insurance quoteFamily stays on Booking.comFamily stays on Agoda
The 8 things that made our budget work
Weekly and monthly rates usually beat nightly rates, and fewer moves means fewer transport costs.
We planned our route around good-weather, lower-price months. Here’s how we timed each country.
Markets, street food and a kitchen cost a fraction of restaurant meals. How we fed a family on a budget.
Triple rooms, rooms with bunk beds and apartments with kitchens were some of our best-value stays.
We used credit card points for our long flight home. Our credit card and money setup.
New Zealand and Australia cost about twice what Southeast Asia did. Balancing them kept our average sane.
Our single most avoidable expense was an $800 overstay fine. Read the visa requirements early.
A motorbike accident turned into a $30,000 claim. Read how insurance saved our trip.
How did we pay for it?
We weren’t wealthy. We had savings and a small online income that kept running from the road. The whole story is in how to pay for around-the-world family travel, and the step-by-step plan is in our Family Gap Year Planning Hub.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a one-year family gap year cost in 2026?
Applying our tracked daily spending to the whole route, our year works out to roughly $64,000 in 2014–15 dollars: about $52,600 on the ground plus $11,561 in flights (we didn’t log every country line by line, so that’s an estimate). In 2026 prices, the calculator’s “our exact route” preset for a family of four comes to about $99,000 traveling like we did, or about $79,000 on a shoestring, both including flights and a 10% buffer. You can do it for much less by spending more time in Southeast Asia and less in Australia and New Zealand.
What was the cheapest country for our family?
Bali was our cheapest country per day at $122 for four of us, even including an $800 visa fine. Cambodia was close behind at $136 per day.
What was the most expensive?
Australia, at $244 per day. Food and lodging there cost far more than in Asia. New Zealand was second at $204 per day, and worth every cent.
Do kids make travel much more expensive?
Less than you’d think. Kids share rooms, eat smaller portions and often get discounted entry. The biggest kid-related cost is flights, since most international fares charge children nearly full price.
Do we need travel insurance for a gap year?
Yes. Our claim after a motorbike accident ran to about $30,000, including an airlift to a hospital in Bangkok. Look for a policy that covers long trips, medical evacuation and the activities your family will do.
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