Item #10


“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states,

other lives, other souls.”

-Anais Nin

In my very first post on this passion blog, I discussed the importance of my bucket list and what it means to me personally. I also went into great detail the emotional significance many of the items have. However, with this specific item that is not the case. Although item ten does hold some importance to me and my personal goals, there is no symbolic reasoning or elaborate backstory behind it. The only reason I included it within my list is because it just seemed necessary. Item ten on my bucket list is to travel to all seven continents in my lifetime.

The most difficult aspect in estimating the cost for this particular item is how much airfare will cost. Usually, I am aware or have some general idea of what country or city I am traveling to in these posts, however, not with item ten. I have not given any prior thought to what country or city I will be traveling to when traveling to these continents. Although it is less than ideal to not know where I am traveling to, since I can be a bit of a perfectionist, it does make the trip more adventurous and spontaneous. Nonetheless, I will still try to give some rough estimate of the cost for the sake of this blog (and my sanity).

The easiest and, fortunately, the least expensive continent to travel to is North America. And although I have already traveled North America, more specifically the United States, I still find it a necessary part of the item to complete and check off. So, if I had to choose anywhere in North America I haven’t been yet, it would probably be Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. Particularly the Canadian side, because from what I have heard the Canadian side is more picturesque than the American. A typical bus trip from Philadelphia to Canada is estimated to be about $45 dollars.

Much like North America, I have already traveled the continent of Europe. The first time I traveled to Europe was the summer before my senior year of highschool, where I had the amazing opportunity of traveling to Scotland and England for two weeks with my school. Fortunately this May, I am getting to return to Europe for a second time and travel Italy with my family. Even though the flight and all the airfare costs have already been accounted for, I am still going to include the amount into the overall estimate just as a reference. So, the average flight from Philadelphia to Venice, Italy is around $868 dollars.

Thankfully, many of my items on my bucket list overlap so estimating the cost for some of the other continents isn’t that difficult! So for Asia, Africa, and Australia, three out of the seven continents, I have already estimated the cost of traveling there in previous posts. For Asia, the cost of airfare is estimated to be about $950 dollars. For Africa, it is $1,167 dollars and for Australia airfare costs around $1,400 dollars.

The final two continents, Antarctica and South America, are a little bit more difficult in estimating cost. As previously mentioned, I have given little thought about where I would be traveling to within these continents. Therefore, as a result, the estimate might be a little off. From some very quick research, the cheapest flight to South America appears to be to Santa Cruz for only about $300 dollars. The cheapest flight to Antarctica is not a flight at all but a cruise. The cheapest cruise I could find was around $6,000 dollars, which in my opinion is outrageous, especially since flight costs were almost twice as much. As a result, this brings the total cost to a whopping $10,730 dollars! Granted that I won’t be paying this all at once and will instead be spread across my lifetime, it is still extremely shocking to see that to travel to all seven continents it costs that much.

One thought on “Item #10

  1. This sounds like a really interesting thing to have on your bucket list. Though I do not have a bucket list, if I did, I would have item #10 on mine as well. I think it is important to travel and see other cultures. In my North Philadelphia neighborhood, most people have never even left the city. I think an important part of life is being exposed to all life has to offer. Our every day lives in America may be so different from someone in Africa or Antartica. In my life I haven’t traveled many places other than to Puerto Rico where I am from. When I went to LA last year I was amazed at the difference in the people even still in my country. It seemed like everyone was so much happier and nicer. It may just be the weather but seeing that slight cultural difference across the country really inspired me to want to travel way more in my life all over. I hope I can cross item #10 off my bucket list one day as well.

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