Cost of 16 days traveling around India: just under $400 (and that's for everything)

So for 16 days and nights of travel I spent $390. Here's a breakdown of my top expenses.

ACCOMMODATION: Ranged from 200 rupees ($4) in Jaisalmer to 700 rupees ($14) in Jaipur. The higher price was an anomaly, though. Absent that, my accommodation averaged $5.67, mostly for a single.

FOOD: Ranged from 5 rupees (10 cents) for a street snack like a samosa to 300+ rupees for a fancier meal that included overpriced Kingfisher beer. Really, they burned us on the beer.

SOUVENIRS: I spent a total of $31 on items so far (and my trip isn’t over yet): $6 on shoes, $5 on a hand-painted vase in Jaipur, and $2 for five kitchen cutting utensils, all in Jaipur (these things are amazing. You can easily cut potatoes into chips, or carrots and onions into thin slices. At 40 cents each I bought one for the whole family!). In Delhi I spent $18 on four scarves. 

TRANSPORTATION: Ranged from 85 rupees for a train ticket from Agra to Sawai Madhopur (about a 6-hour ride) to 430 rupees for a sleeper on a 14-hour overnight bus from Udaipur to Jaisalmer. Other sample prices: 403 for a deluxe bus ticket from Jaipur to Delhi (Note: deluxe buses, unlike government buses, don’t stop at every town), 163 rupees for a sleeper train seat from Delhi to Agra, 270 rupees for the 11-hour government bus from Sawai Madhopur to Udaipur. Bus tickets can easily be purchased on the day of travel from travel agents or the bus station. Trains should be booked at least one day ahead of time, but sooner is better. Use www.cleartrip.com to check for availability (in theory you can book at cleartrip too, but only the first time worked for me. The second time it simply didn’t go through, and I got a message telling me not to try again.).

ACTIVITIES: This is where most of the big spending took place. As the trip wore on I found myself doing the whole, “you’re only here once” thing and dropping ever-larger amounts of cash. 

• AGRA: Taj Mahal entrance fee: 750 rupees ($15)
• SAWAI MADHOPUR: Ranthambhore National Park safari (3 hours): 795 rupees ($16)
• UDAIPUR: Horseback riding (3 hours, included lunch): 1,100 rupees ($22)
• JAISALMER: Camel safari (1.5 days, including four basic meals and water): 1,700 rupees ($34)
• JODHPUR: Flying fox zip line (1 hour): 1,350 rupees ($27)