How much a trip actually costs

Travel budgets are generally built from the large obvious items and blown by the small ones. Building them the other way round works better.

The categories

Getting there, which people budget carefully.

Accommodation, which people budget reasonably.

Everything else, which is where budgets fail.

That third category — food, local transport, admissions, activities, tips, incidental purchases — routinely exceeds expectation because it is composed of many small amounts that are individually unremarkable.

Building it from the daily rate

The method that works.

Estimate a realistic daily figure for food, transport and activities at the destination, then multiply by days, then add the fixed costs.

The daily figure is best estimated by looking at actual prices — a restaurant menu, a transport fare, a museum admission — rather than by using a general figure for the country.

Costs within a country vary enormously between the capital and elsewhere, and between tourist areas and ordinary neighbourhoods.

The items people forget

A list assembled from the same complaints repeated.

Transport to and from airports at both ends, which can be substantial.

Baggage fees on budget airlines, which frequently exceed the fare.

Visa fees and any entry requirements.

Travel insurance.

Vaccinations and travel health appointments, which are not always free.

Tourist taxes charged per night, which several cities levy and which are frequently not included in the booking price.

Currency conversion costs, discussed elsewhere on this site.

Data roaming or a local SIM.

Laundry.

Tips, where expected.

And the cost of the first day, which is always higher than the average because everything is unfamiliar and taxis are taken.

Where the savings actually are

The levers with the largest effect.

Timing. Shoulder season pricing on flights and accommodation is substantially below peak, and the weather is frequently better.

Length. The fixed cost of getting there is amortised across the trip, so a longer trip is cheaper per day.

Accommodation with a kitchen, which changes the food budget entirely for stays over a few days.

Eating the main meal at lunch, which in many countries is substantially cheaper for the same food.

Local transport passes, which are almost always better value than individual tickets in cities.

Free admission periods, which many museums offer on specific days or evenings.

Walking, which is free and is generally the best way to see a city anyway.

Where saving is a false economy

Worth stating.

Accommodation far from where you want to be, once transport time and cost are counted.

The cheapest flight with a long layover and an overnight arrival, which costs a day and a night's sleep.

Skipping travel insurance.

Skipping the one or two things that were the reason for the trip.

And under-eating, which is a genuine pattern among budget travellers and which affects everything else.

The contingency

A specific recommendation.

Add fifteen to twenty per cent to whatever the budget comes to.

Something will go wrong — a missed connection, an illness, a change of plan, a closure — and having the capacity to respond without distress is worth more than the money.

The alternative is a trip in which every unexpected cost is a problem, which is a different experience.

Tracking it

A brief note each day in local currency takes a minute and makes the pattern visible.

Most people find that the actual distribution surprises them — generally more on food and incidental transport than expected, and less on the things they planned carefully.

Which is useful information for the next trip, and is the main argument for keeping the record.

The categories worth tracking separately

A refinement that makes the next trip's budget more accurate.

Separate the fixed costs — transport there and back, insurance, visas — from the daily rate.

Separate accommodation from everything else.

And record activities as a single line rather than daily, since they cluster on particular days and distort the average.

Three categories tracked roughly produces a genuinely useful figure for planning, where a single total does not.

General information about travel, not financial advice. Prices and fees vary — check current information for your destination.