A lot of people ask how much it costs to travel around the world. Today I have a definitive answer — down to the penny — and it’s a sobering figure. Travel ain’t cheap! But for me, it was a no-brainer to save my hard-earned money for a trip of this magnitude.

Over the last year I’ve shared budget reports from each country I’ve visited, because I write down every single purchase I make when I travel. I don’t include international airfare in those repots because it’s an inherent cost in a trip like this and it made more sense to compile those numbers separately. So here is how much I spent on flights between countries in 2013… click through to enlarge:

TOTAL = $4,122

AIRPORT KEY = LAX (Los Angeles, USA), RAR (Rarotonga, Cook Islands), AUK (Aukland, New Zealand), MEL (Melbourne, Australia), PER (Perth, Australia), SIN (Singapore), JAK (Jakarta, Indonesia), LOM (Lombok, Indonesia), KUL (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), MAN (Manila, Philippines), ROR (Koror, Palau), OSK (Osaka, Japan), NRT (Tokyo, Japan), KTM (Kathmandu, Nepal), AMM (Amman, Jordan), TLV (Tel Aviv, Israel), IST (Istanbul, Turkey), CAI (Cairo, Egypt), DXB (Dubai, UAE), JFK (New York, USA)

*My flight home from Dubai was only $40 because my uncle generously let me use his miles to book the trip (the perfect Christmas gift!)

Here’s another question I get often: “Did you buy a round-the-world ticket?” For those who haven’t heard of this concept before, several airlines or alliance companies offer RTW airfare for a set price that’s typically cheaper than buying point-to-point tickets separately. It usually includes a specific number of segments — say, five flights — and the traveler has to go in one direction (i.e. east to west) with no back-tracking. Travelers usually pay for shorter flights themselves and then use the RTW ticket to cover long-haul flights.

A sample itinerary might look like this:

SEGMENT 1 — New York to Sydney (pay for your own cheaper flights within Australia, end in Melbourne)

SEGMENT 2 — Melbourne to Bangkok (take other forms of transportation around SE Asia)

SEGMENT 3 — Bangkok to Istanbul (travel by train around Europe, end back in Istanbul)

SEGMENT 4 — Istanbul to Nairobi (then travel via overland ruck down to South Africa)

SEGMENT 5 — Cape Town to New York

Sounds like a good deal, right? There’s only one downside: you have to lock in all the specific dates and destinations prior to your departure. You can make changes later, but the fees incurred may outweigh the initial savings.

That was a deal breaker for me because I wanted my RTW trip to be flexible. Like when heavy clouds blocked our view of Mt. Bromo in Indonesia, it was an easy decision to extend my stay a few extra days until weather cleared up. Or at the start of my trip in March I hadn’t finalized Thanksgiving travel plans with my uncle and sister, who were meeting me in Israel — it was up in the air if I’d join them for Istanbul, because originally I thought I’d see Turkey in early November. But I had the flexibility to plan that later in the year since my flights weren’t locked in, and by that point in time it made sense to do Jordan first so I could join them in Turkey. Plus if something unexpected happened — like if I met new friends in Japan who were going to Sri Lanka the next week and asked me to join them — I wanted to be able to say yes.

So I nixed a RTW ticket and booked my own flights as I went, often just a few days before traveling to my next destination. For the most part it was easy to find cheap tickets using popular sites like Kayak and SkyScanner. The only time I was unhappy with the price was my flight from Japan to Nepal — granted it’s a long trip, but the initial prices were $800 for the cheapest flights with terrible layovers. I stayed on it, checking prices multiple times a day, until one itinerary dropped down to $566 four days before I hoped to fly (there were still multiple layovers in China but the deal was too good to pass up). If fares hadn’t dropped, I would’ve either had to bite the bullet and shell out $800, or just stay in Japan a few more days until I found a better deal. It pays to be persistent and patient while waiting for the right price. Although in the case of my round-trip flight from Manila to Palau, there was no fluctuation — I scouted out the price for months, and it never budged more than around $20. I paid $633 round-trip. The flight is operated by United and takes off only a few days per week; since they have very little competition, they can keep the price of travel to Palau quite high.

One last note on air travel — I went to a lot of places in the off-season, which was helpful in finding good deals. If I had flown to Europe in the summer, prices would’ve been outrageous. But I was in New Zealand and Australia during their fall and winter, then I was in Turkey and the Middle East during their winter. It was high trekking season when I visited Nepal in October, but other than that I avoided peak travel times.

Without further ado, here are the totals of what I spent on my 2013 RTW trip:

Click through any of these photos to access my in-depth budget report on each country:

Which brings the grand total to… $27,144.

(RE: the above graphic… click through to enlarge)

YIKES, that is indeed a sky-high number.

But there’s a silver lining — if I had not traded blog coverage and photography services, this trip would have cost me $5,682 additional dollars.

If you think I’m nuts for blowing all that money on 9 months of travel instead of investing my savings or purchasing a home, let me explain it like this: $27,000 is far less than one year of college, and this trip was quite an education. The world was my classroom. And since I worked for seven years to save up this money, I didn’t have to take out loans. And because I focused energy on developing my photography and storytelling skills through maintaining this blog, it is essentially an on-line portfolio documenting my work. I suspect that any future job I get will be in part due to this blog, whether it’s in the realm of travel photography or not. Even if I apply for work in another field, it showcases my ambition and drive to a future employer.

Travel is an extremely worthwhile education, and a lot of other cultures have already figured that out. I meet so many Europeans and Australians on the road, young kids enjoying their gap year abroad and really taking advantage of this time when they’re not otherwise tied down by life. I think Americans would benefit by embracing the same attitude towards a gap year, with the understanding that it’s an extended education. Yes, college loans are a heavy burden, but there are cheap ways to do a gap year — like WWOOFING on a farm in Australia or sticking to destinations where your money goes farther, like Southeast Asia. Even if it’s only for a few months — such as backpacking through Europe the summer after graduation — do it.

If you’re a bit older like me (I’m 30), then you’re probably in a more financially stable place. If you’re worried about losing your footing in the professional world by taking time off to travel, try talking it over with your employer. They might work with you to hold your job. And if not, having extensive travel on your resume will set you apart from other candidates at future job opportunities and at the very least will provide good conversation fodder during an interview process. Look at it this way: developing yourself as a person is just as important as honing your professional skills, and in that light travel experience is invaluable.

There are many ways to travel long-term — individuals or couples often travel while working remotely as digital nomads, some families do it with kids, and others do it once they retire. Set an intention to travel however it works for your lifestyle. The rewards are infinite.