Thanks to the last topic we had that had to do with traveling, I decided to do a little research on the cost of traveling these days. This is especially true as we’re now in the ember months and the yuletide season is fast approaching, a lot of us will be doing a lot of traveling, so I decided to do a little bit of research to see just how much it would cost me to move around and boy, what I found was wild. At this rate, traveling as a hobby is strictly a rich folk business.
This is because with the economy getting worse by the day, if you’re not ready for the financial implications of being an avid traveler, you’re in for a lot of spending. The only way this can work is if the traveling also sponsors itself. The money you make from creating content on your travels could help to fund the travel in itself. If not, be ready to spend a whole lot of money.
During my research, I checked for the price of a flight from Owerri to Lagos, and it was slightly over N250. Just the flight ticket ooo! However, by the time taxes and the like were added, it was a solid N300K. Yeah, can you imagine that? Just a few years back one could travel back and forth with as little as N50k-N70k, now the price is just heartbreaking.
Do you want to know the more depressing part? It’s not an immediate flight, I tried to set it to December because booking ahead of time will save you cost. I was wrong, the price remained stubbornly at N300k. Then, I even went on to set the flight in the middle of January 2025, and it still somehow remained at N300k. There was no difference whatsoever.
I don’t know if this was a glitch in the system or something, but when you book ahead, you’re supposed to be given a discount. However, that discount was absent. Or is it because of the state of the country? Traveling by air now is just something one can’t afford to think of because when you think about it too much, the next thing that will cross your mind will be to roll up into a ball and cry.
So, I moved on from flight and tried land transportation. While it’s definitely cheaper than air travel, it’s still not cheap! Traveling to Lagos from Owerri would cost way more than an arm and a leg. And the price keeps increasing day after day, they keep slamming 2k every morning on the price. It’s so crazy. How is it possible that someone will travel to Lagos with almost N50k? That was enough to cover a domestic flight ticket less than five years ago.
And then, when you think of the terrible road, the insecurity, and all the other unpleasantness that filled up the road, you’ll realize that you’ll be paying way more than that N50k just to get to where you need to be. After the journey, your entire body will be aching and you’ll be so hungry you’ll almost eat a horse.
What would have been perfect is to have a railway line running across the country. However, for now, only the Lagos State government seems to be having that idea in mind. The railway would be pretty handy and cheap on so many levels. You’ll be relaxed and where you’re going won’t really matter because you’re sure you’ll get there in one piece. Trains don’t experience hold-ups, do they?
Transportation these days is crazy. Not just interstate, even going from your home to the office is now expensive as hell. How are we supposed to cope? It’s most likely that things will get worse during this period, but where are we even going to start? We can’t lock ourselves indoors, we have to get out there and keep doing things. We have to keep earning because, at this point, we’re basically surviving. And that, my friends, is tiring.
I’m just tired.
