Travel

Trip Budget Calculator

Trips overrun when small daily costs are not counted. Enter your travellers, days and expected spending to get a total, a per-person figure and a daily average.

What this calculator does

Builds a trip total from travellers, days, transport, nightly accommodation, per-person daily food, activities, shopping and an emergency buffer, then divides it into a per-person and average daily figure.

How to interpret the result

The total is what the trip will likely cost; the per-person and daily figures are the sanity checks. If the daily number looks uncomfortable, shortening the trip by a day or two is usually less painful than downgrading every part of it.

Assumptions

• Accommodation is one room at the nightly rate for the whole trip.
• Food is a flat per-person daily amount across all days.
• Transport is entered as the total for everyone, since it is usually booked together.

Limitations

• Currency conversion and card fees add a few percent to foreign spending and are not included.
• Multiple cities or varying nightly rates need averaging or separate runs.
• Forgotten items — transfers, luggage fees, local transport — are the most common cause of overrun.

How it works

Accommodation is the nightly rate multiplied by days. Food is the per-person daily amount multiplied by days and travellers. Transport, activities, shopping and the emergency buffer are added as entered. The total is then divided by travellers and by days.

Worked example

Two travellers for seven days with 900 transport, 110 a night, 35 per person per day for food, plus 300 activities, 200 shopping and a 250 buffer totals about 2,910 — roughly 1,455 each or 416 a day.

How to use it

1. Enter transport as the total for everyone, since flights are usually priced per booking.
2. Use the nightly room rate, not a per-person rate, unless you are booking separate rooms.
3. Check food prices for your destination; the gap between cities is large.
4. Keep the emergency budget at roughly 10% of everything else.

Factors to consider

• Airport transfers, luggage fees and local transport are commonly forgotten.
• Shoulder season can cut accommodation sharply for the same experience.
• Currency conversion and card fees quietly add a few percent to foreign spending.

Useful for

• Setting a realistic trip budget before booking anything non-refundable.
• Comparing two destinations by running the calculator for each.
• Deciding whether to shorten the trip or lower the daily spend to hit a target total.

Frequently asked questions