A 29-year-old American content creator says she spent 55 days traveling across 14 European countries for a total of $4,170 — a sum she says is lower than what she pays in rent for a single month in Los Angeles.
Monae Hendrickson posted a video on TikTok detailing her July and August trip, saying the journey cost roughly $76 per day. By comparison, she said her Los Angeles rent runs about $2,600 a month, or about $86 per day. "The United States that is no longer economical," Hendrickson told The Post, and in her TikTok caption she wrote that travel in "almost every part of the world is less than the cost of living in major US cities."
Hendrickson said she kept costs down by spending the majority of her time in lower-cost Eastern European countries, though she also allowed herself occasional splurges. She described the trip in the video as thrifty but rewarding, and her account has drawn attention for its apparent demonstration that extended travel can, in some cases, be less expensive than living in high-rent U.S. cities.
In the clip and in interviews she emphasized budgeting choices — including selection of destinations, accommodations and daily spending — that stretched her funds over nearly two months abroad. Her total of $4,170 covers travel, lodging, food and activities across 14 countries, according to her breakdown.
The comparison has resonated amid ongoing national conversations about high housing costs in major American cities and divergent experiences of cost of living. Content creators and travelers have increasingly highlighted destinations where day-to-day expenses are much lower than in cities such as Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, prompting debate about the relative affordability of living domestically versus traveling abroad.
Hendrickson’s account does not address long-term financial tradeoffs, such as the logistics of working while traveling, healthcare coverage, or costs associated with maintaining a U.S. residence while abroad. She also acknowledged that her approach relied on choosing lower-cost countries and being mindful of spending, factors that may not apply to all travelers or all itineraries.
The viral video adds to a growing roster of personal stories that illustrate how varied travel economics can be. For some Americans, short-term stays in parts of Europe and other regions can appear to offer a lower daily cost of living than long-term residence in expensive U.S. cities; for others, fixed costs such as rent, insurance and utilities make domestic living more costly despite lower per-day travel spending.
Hendrickson’s post contributes an individual example to a broader discussion about affordability, mobility and lifestyle choices. It underscores how budgeting decisions and destination selection shape the economics of travel and raises questions about how rising housing costs affect decisions about where and how people choose to live and spend their money.