A look at our Travel Expenses in Brunei
Although Brunei is located in Southeast Asia, it is not a backpacker destination as so many of the other neighbouring countries are, and travel expenses in Brunei will vary significantly when compared to the cost of traveling in other countries.
There are not too many things to do in Brunei, but there’s enough to keep you occupied for a few days. We spent three days in the country during which we were based in Gadong Town, the commercial hub.
Brunei is one of the world’s richest countries and although we did not find costs to be prohibitive (and actually lower than we had anticipated), we could see that traveling around the country was a little more expensive when compared to traveling in other countries in Asia. Despite this, we managed to comply with our pre-determined budget during our time there!
Related: Best Things to Do in Brunei
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Travel Expenses in Brunei – 3 days
We have taken a note of all our travel expenses in Brunei and compiled them into this post to give you an idea of what you can expect to spend during a trip to Brunei!
Travel Expenses in Brunei: €50.24/day (for two people)
The fact that we only stayed in Brunei for three days meant that the one-time larger expenses, like airport transfers and sim cards, had more weight on our daily average expenses when compared to longer trips. Still, we feel that the country is worth visiting, even if just for a few days!
Accommodation – €18.80/day (for two people)
Brunei does not have a whole lot of accommodation options for tourists, and budget accommodation is even scarcer, hence the cost of staying at hotels is more than we normally afford.
We stayed at EZ lodging , a simple, very clean little guesthouse with shared facilities and small rooms which we found to be more than adequate for our needs. We booked it through Airbnb; if you never used it, follow this link to have €20 off your first stay above €60! Rooms with private bathroom were too expensive. It is best to book your accommodation beforehand. There isn’t much choice!
Transport – €8.34/day (for two people)
Most Brunei citizens drive their own vehicle so public transport is not very well-developed. Car rental is available, but we found the rental costs (unlike the heavily subsidized fuel costs) to be prohibitive.
There is however, a basic bus system you can use which we found to be pretty efficient. Although all we did was take trips from Gadong Town to downtown Bandar Seri Begawan and back, and from Bandar Seri Begawan to Istana Nurul Iman and back, using the bus network was pretty straightforward! Each trip cost € 0.60 which, we found to be surprisingly cheap for Brunei.
It was not possible to take any form of public transport to and from the airport, so we had to use a taxi for the cost of about €9.50 each time, conveniently booked through our guesthouse. Airport taxis were charging about €15.50 for the same trip.
Related: Malaysia Travel Expenses
Food – €13.74/day (for two people)
We loved the local food in Brunei, which we found to be similar to what we were used to eating in Malaysia. We ate all our breakfasts at a local eatery close to our guesthouse and sampled all the market food at the Pasar Pelbagai Barangan Gadong in the evenings. This resulted in a cost of just under €7 per person, which we found to be very affordable and within our pre-determined budget!
Related: Travel Expenses in Singapore
Connectivity – €9.38/day (for two people)
This was by far the largest expense when compared to connectivity expenses in other countries, mostly due to the fact that we only stayed in the country for three days, and yet bought a sim card loaded with data for our dual-sim phones, since we both needed to work on some updates during our time there.
Turns out that we needed even more data than we initially thought, so we had to spend more money to top up our phones. This expense can be greatly reduced if you rely on free wi-fi to stay connected during your time in Brunei.
As you can see, traveling in Brunei is not prohibitively expensive, particularly if you use local public transport and dine at local eateries or at the market. We definitely feel that the country is worth a few days of your time!
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