Travel Budget Planner
Plan your total travel budget by category — accommodation, food, transport, activities, and emergency fund.
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How to use this calculator
Each cost category is calculated based on days and/or number of travelers. Accommodation is per night × nights; food is per person per day × travelers × days; local transport is per day × days. Fixed costs (activities, flights, shopping) are entered as totals. An emergency buffer percentage is applied to the subtotal of all categories.
- 1
Enter your trip duration in days and the number of travelers in your group.
- 2
Fill in nightly accommodation cost, daily food budget per person, and local transport cost per day.
- 3
Add totals for activities, flights, and shopping, then set an emergency buffer percentage to see your full planned budget.
Frequently asked questions
How is each category calculated?
Accommodation = nightly price × days; food = daily food per person × travellers × days; local transport = daily transport × days. Activities, flights and shopping are totals you enter. The subtotal is the sum of all six; the buffer is subtotal × buffer %; the total is subtotal plus buffer. With the defaults, 700 + 560 + 140 + 300 + 400 + 200 = 2,300, plus 10% = 2,530.
Does accommodation count days or nights?
It multiplies by the number of days entered, so a 7-day trip is charged for 7 nights. If you sleep 6 nights, reduce the nightly figure proportionally (for example, enter 6 ÷ 7 of the real nightly price) or enter 6 days and add the extra day of food manually.
Is the accommodation figure per room or per person?
It is a total for the whole group per night, as the field label says. Food is per person per day, while local transport is also a total for the group per day. Enter group totals where the label says total, and per-person amounts only for food.
What does the emergency buffer apply to?
The whole subtotal, including flights and shopping, not just the daily costs. At 10%, a 2,300 subtotal adds 230. If your flights are already booked and fixed, you may want a smaller percentage, because flights rarely change.
Why is "per day" higher than my daily costs?
It is the total, including flights, shopping, activities and the buffer, divided by days. For the default trip it is 361.43 per day, against 100 for rooms plus 80 for food plus 20 for transport on a day-to-day basis. Use it for comparing trips, not for setting a daily spending limit.
How does it treat currencies?
It does not. All fields are plain numbers and the results are in whichever currency you used. If your flight is in dollars and your hotel in euros, convert them first.
What is missing from the categories?
Visa fees, travel insurance, vaccinations, phone and data costs, tips, baggage fees and pre-trip purchases are not separate lines. Add them under shopping or flights, or increase the buffer. Minimum values: days and travellers are at least 1, and an emptied box counts as 0, so days and travellers then count as 1.
Travel budget planner: category totals, per-person cost and a contingency
How the plan adds up
The planner uses six cost lines and one percentage. Three are rates multiplied by days: rooms, food and local transport. Three are lump sums you type: activities, flights and shopping. The buffer then adds a percentage of the six-line subtotal. Finally the total is divided by travellers for the per-person figure and by days for the per-day figure. Nothing is converted or adjusted for taxes, so enter amounts that already include them.
| Line | Formula | Default result |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation | Nightly total × days | 700.00 |
| Food | Per person per day × travellers × days | 560.00 |
| Local transport | Daily total × days | 140.00 |
| Activities | As entered | 300.00 |
| Flights | As entered | 400.00 |
| Shopping | As entered | 200.00 |
| Emergency buffer | 10% of the subtotal of 2,300 | 230.00 |
| Total | Subtotal + buffer | 2,530.00 |
Worked examples
The totals below come from running the planner.
| Trip | Total | Per person | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 days, 2 people, default values | 2,530.00 | 1,265.00 | 361.43 |
| 10 days solo, 60 rooms, 30 food, 900 flights, 15% buffer | 2,472.50 | 2,472.50 | 247.25 |
| 4 days, 4 people, 180 rooms, 35 food, no flights, 10% buffer | 1,958.00 | 489.50 | 489.50 |
Reading the shares
In the solo example, flights at 900 are 36% of the 2,472.50 total once the 322.50 buffer is included in the denominator, and rooms are about 24%. For the group trip with no flights, rooms and food together are 1,280 of a 1,958 total. Reviewing the shares shows which line to question first: if one category takes more than a third of the budget, look for a cheaper option there before trimming small items.
Setting the buffer
A larger buffer makes sense when prices are uncertain, when the itinerary is flexible or when several items are not yet booked. A smaller one suits a trip where flights and rooms are already paid. The percentage applies to everything, so a high buffer on a trip that is mostly prepaid overstates the spare cash you need. Consider lowering it, or hold part of the buffer outside the planner for emergencies only.
Where this planner stops
It cannot know local prices, exchange rates or what you will actually spend. Treat your inputs as targets and compare them with real prices before you book. Update the numbers as bookings are confirmed and keep the totals in one currency. For a group where costs are unequal, run the planner for the shared items and add personal spending separately. A useful habit is to run it twice, once with optimistic and once with cautious inputs, and keep the gap between the two totals in mind when you book.
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Results are estimates for informational purposes only and do not constitute professional financial, medical, legal, or technical advice. Read full disclaimer →