Travel Budget Calculator: What Your Trip Will Really Cost

The number that matters: cost per day

Comparing two destinations by their flight price is misleading. A cheap flight to an expensive city loses to an expensive flight to a cheap one as soon as you stay more than a few days.

The cost per day is what lets you compare honestly — and what tells you whether one more night is worth it, or whether cutting two nights pays for a better hotel.

Nights and days are not the same thing

Seven nights means eight days of eating, moving around and visiting things. That single off-by-one is the most common mistake in trip budgets, and on a two-week trip for a family it can hide several hundred in meals alone.

The calculator handles it for you: enter your nights, it counts the days.

What people forget

• Getting to the airport and back — parking, train, or a taxi at an hour when nothing else runs.
• Travel insurance, visas and baggage fees, which are booked separately and therefore forgotten.
• The first and last day: you still eat, and usually out.
• Tips, fees and city taxes, small on their own and heavy over two weeks.
• Currency conversion, roughly 2 to 3% on card payments abroad unless your bank says otherwise.

Put them in the last line. A trip budget that ignores them is short by about a tenth.

From a total to a savings plan

Add your departure date and what you have already saved: you get the amount to set aside each month to leave with the trip paid for.

It is also the honest test of the trip. If the monthly figure does not fit your budget, it is better to know now — fewer nights, a closer destination, or a later date — than to come home to a balance that costs you interest for a year.

Which currency does it use?

The one set on this site. Enter every cost in that currency, converting foreign prices as you go, so the total stays coherent.

Should I budget per person or per group?

The calculator handles both: flights, food and activities are entered per traveller, accommodation and local transport for the whole group. It is how prices are usually quoted, and it avoids multiplying a hotel room by the number of people in it.

How much should I plan per day?

There is no universal figure — it depends entirely on the destination and on how you travel. Look up a few real prices for your destination (a meal, a night, a museum ticket), put those in, and you will have an estimate worth more than any average.

Is my data saved anywhere?

No. Everything is calculated in your browser, and your figures stay on your device so you find them again on your next visit. Nothing is sent to us.