budget travel: ZenKimchi versus Kevin on a long walk

Interesting article over at ZenKimchi.com about budget travel in Korea, from backpacker to "luxury." Go read the article, but here's the chart:

Click to enlarge.

I'm most interested in comparing my own budget to that of the backpacker. The suggestion is that a backpacker can get by on W40,000 to W80,000 per day. That actually seems fair to me as someone who, while walking across the peninsula, camps less and less while motelling more and more. I stay in places that have a wide range in terms of quality and cost—anywhere from a W30,000/night fleabag yeogwan (or Jangsu Pension!) to a W60,000/night decent motel—with the exception of whatever semi-luxurious lodging I get on the final night after the journey is done, and it's time to go back to Seoul. Last year, I didn't even stay overnight: I took the bus from Andong City back to Seoul after finishing.

The math doesn't quite add up on the ZenKimchi chart. According to the "backpacker" column, the minimum one might spend for a day is actually W30,000, not W40,000 (column head). The maximum, according to the list items (not the column heading), is W55,000. So the real range is W30,000 to W55,000, which to me is indeed budget travel.

By comparison, my own needs are more meager in some ways and more expansive in others, especially  when it comes to food. Per the chart's categories, then:

A Typical Cross-country Hike for Kevin (using averages):

Meals/Food (for the day): W15,000

Accommodation (for the night): W40,000

Transit (for the day): W00,000

Attractions: W00,000

The "attractions" I see along my walk are whatever's there along the way: dams, woods, long and glorious straightaways, random insects and animals, weather, etc.—all of it free. So all in all, at W55,000 per day, I seem to fall into the backpacker's budget range, whether it's reckoned as W40,000 to W80,000 or W30,000 to W55,000. Maybe if I ate less, I could bring my budget down further. Big if, that.