Travel Budgets
How Much Does It Cost?
Real budget estimates for 51 destinations across every continent — from budget backpackers to luxury travellers.
Traveller Type Profiles
Your daily budget depends more on your travel style than your destination.
Budget Backpacker
€25–55 / day
Maximising experiences per euro. Flexible on comfort, rigid on cost.
Mid-Range Explorer
€80–160 / day
Comfortable travel without splurging. The sweet spot for most independent travellers.
Workcationer
€100–200 / day
Staying 2–4 weeks. Prioritises Wi-Fi, desk space, and neighbourhood livability.
Luxury Traveller
€250+ / day
Service, comfort, and exclusivity. Budget is secondary to experience.
Europe
London
England
£80–300 / night
£8–30 per meal
£2.80–5 per journey (Oyster)
💡 Stay Zone 2–3 and save 30–40% on accommodation vs. central London.
Manchester
England
£50–150 / night
£7–22 per meal
£2.50–4.50 per Metrolink/bus journey
💡 Roughly half London's accommodation cost with comparable food and culture. Northern Quarter has the best value cafés and coworking spots.
Paris
France
€80–350 / night
€12–35 per meal
€1.73 per Metro ride (carnet cheaper)
💡 Picnic along the Seine for a fraction of café prices. Markets beat restaurants for lunch.
Saint-Tropez
France
€150–600+ / night
€20–60 per meal
€8–15 per local bus; taxis €15–30 for short hops
💡 Visit in June or September — same beaches and old town, a third of peak-July prices, and restaurants without the yacht-crowd markup.
Barcelona
Spain
€60–200 / night
€10–25 per meal
€1.50–2.40 per Metro ride (T-Casual card)
💡 Menú del día (fixed lunch menu) gives you 3 courses for €10–14 — the best value in the city.
Tenerife
Spain
€50–180 / night
€8–20 per meal
€1.45–3 per bus ride (TITSA)
💡 Santa Cruz has the best value accommodation. Avoid all-inclusive resort zones — overpriced and Wi-Fi is often throttled.
Stockholm
Sweden
SEK 900–3,500 / night (€80–320)
SEK 150–350 per meal (€14–32)
SEK 39 per trip or daily pass SEK 165
💡 Offset high hotel costs with Stockholm's free museum evenings and self-catering from Hemköp or ICA.
Bucharest
Romania
€30–90 / night
€6–15 per meal
€0.50 per Metro ride
💡 Europe's best value capital. Excellent coffee under €2, fast internet, and a thriving food scene.
Oradea
Romania
€25–70 / night
€5–13 per meal
€0.45 per local bus ride
💡 Even cheaper than Bucharest with the same Art Nouveau charm as Budapest at a fraction of the price. A relaxed, low-cost base near the Hungarian border.
Edinburgh
Scotland
£60–250 / night (spikes in August)
£10–25 per meal
Lothian Bus single £1.80; Ridacard for weekly travel
💡 Book months ahead for August (Fringe). May–June offers mild weather at off-peak prices.
Rome
Italy
€70–250 / night
€10–30 per meal
€1.50 per Metro ride; 48h pass €7
💡 Eat at trattorie away from tourist piazzas. A €1.50 espresso at the bar versus €5 seated is a Roman rule.
Vienna
Austria
€70–250 / night
€12–28 per meal
€2.40 per ride; weekly pass €17.10
💡 Vienna's coffeehouse culture is UNESCO-listed — spend hours in a Kaffeehaus for the price of one coffee.
Dublin
Ireland
€90–300 / night
€13–30 per meal
€2.15–3.30 per bus/Luas trip (Leap Card cheaper)
💡 Pub food and lunch specials offer the best value. Airbnb in suburbs cuts accommodation costs significantly.
Venice
Italy
€90–280 / night
€12–30 per meal
€9.50 single vaporetto; 24h pass €25
💡 Walk into Cannaregio or Dorsoduro to halve restaurant prices vs. the tourist piazzas. A bar espresso is still €1.50 even in Venice — only sit-down service inflates costs.
Madrid
Spain
€60–180 / night
€10–25 per meal
€1.50 per Metro ride; 10-trip card €12.20
💡 Menú del día (3-course lunch €12–14) is Madrid's best daily saving. Malasaña and Lavapiés are cheaper bases than the Sol / Retiro tourist belt.
Stuttgart
Germany
€70–200 / night
€10–25 per meal
€3.20 single VVS; day card €7.80
💡 The Stuttgart Card covers transit and museum entry — excellent value for 2–3 day stays. Surrounding Württemberg wine taverns (Besenwirtschaften) serve food and wine at local prices.
Tirana
Albania
€25–80 / night
€5–15 per meal
Under €0.35 per city bus; taxis €2–5 per ride
💡 One of Europe's most affordable capitals and a rising digital nomad hub. Excellent coffee culture, growing coworking scene, and fast internet at a fraction of Western European prices.
Zurich
Switzerland
CHF 150–450 / night (€160–490)
CHF 25–60 per meal (€27–65)
CHF 4.40 per tram; day pass CHF 8.80
💡 Zurich is one of the world's most expensive cities. Serviced apartments for 2–4 week stays cut daily costs significantly. Free lakeside swimming in summer is the city's best budget activity.
Rijeka
Croatia
€40–120 / night
€8–20 per meal
~€0.80 per city bus; car rental €30–50/day for coast
💡 Far cheaper than Dubrovnik or Split with genuine local atmosphere. The Kvarner Bay makes it a coastal base with urban infrastructure — excellent value for workcationers.
Belgrade
Serbia
€30–90 / night
€5–15 per meal
RSD 100 per bus/tram (~€0.85)
💡 Belgrade competes with Bucharest as Europe's best-value city for workcationers. Excellent food scene, fast internet, and a growing remote-work community at Eastern European prices.
Cluj-Napoca
Romania
€25–70 / night
€5–12 per meal
RON 3 per bus (~€0.60)
💡 Romania's tech hub is even cheaper than Bucharest with a more international student energy. Excellent broadband, growing coworking infrastructure, and Electric Castle Festival in July.
Moscow
Russia
₽3,000–12,000 / night (€30–120)
₽400–1,500 per meal (€4–15)
₽65 per Metro ride (Troika card)
💡 The Metro is cheap, fast, and arguably the most beautiful in the world. Cafeteria-style stolovayas serve full meals for €3–4 — far cheaper than tourist-area restaurants.
Valletta
Malta
Boutique guesthouses over big hotels — book direct, not the hostel apps, to save ~€10/night on the identical room
Pastizzi under €1 from a hole-in-the-wall; walk two streets back from the harbour to eat well for half the price
Cross-harbour ferries and buses are cheap; the Barrakka Lift is €1 and you won't need a taxi inside the walls
💡 Your money goes to stays and sights, not getting around — the walled city is walkable. Skip the inflated harbour-view restaurants, and use app taxis (Bolt, eCabs) over street cabs that overcharge tourists.
Lisbon
Portugal
Affordable by Western European standards, but the nomad wave has pushed rents hard — staying weeks rather than nights, ask coliving spaces about monthly rates, which beat the nightly price significantly
A bifana from a hole-in-the-wall or pastéis de nata from a neighbourhood pastelaria costs a fraction of the tourist-centre equivalent; the tascas locals guard are where the real meals are
Get a rechargeable Viva Viagem card and stop buying single Metro tickets; Uber and Bolt are plentiful and cheap
💡 Skip the Time Out Market unless you enjoy paying double in a crowded food hall. The rule that saves the most money is also the one that shows you the best city: walk uphill, away from the obvious, and prices drop with every street.
Munich
Germany
One of the most expensive cities in Germany and it does not apologise for it — aparthotels with kitchenettes out in Theresienhöhe or Schwabing trade old-town atmosphere for real savings
Central restaurants and hotel drinks are brutal; a neighbourhood Wirtshaus fifteen minutes out is cheaper, calmer and far more real than the Hofbräuhaus
An MVV day pass covers U-Bahn, S-Bahn, tram and bus — buy one rather than single tickets, and never fare-dodge (plain-clothes inspectors, hefty fine)
💡 The single best money-saver is legal and traditional: at a proper beer garden you may sit at the unclothed wooden tables, buy only the beer, and eat the picnic you carried in. Locals do it constantly. Pack bread, cheese and radishes, and buy your water and soft drinks from a supermarket, never the hotel.
Ankara
Turkey
A fraction of Western European prices — and if you are staying weeks rather than nights, ask hotels directly about weekly or monthly rates, which undercut the nightly price significantly
Eat where the students eat around Kızılay: cheap, packed and delicious. Ankara tava, Iskender kebab and simit from a cart cost a fraction of anything aimed at visitors
Get an EGO Ankarakart, the rechargeable transit card — it works on the metro, the Ankaray light rail and the buses, and beats paying per journey
💡 Ankara is one of the cheapest capitals in Europe, and the thing that quietly costs you money here is not food or beds — it is traffic. Distances are real, the city sprawls, and taxi fares add up fast. Insist the meter runs or use BiTaksi to dodge the tourist mark-up, but better still, plan around the metro lines and stay near one.
Berlin
Germany
Still cheap by Western European standards but no longer the bargain of legend — rents have surged. An apartment with a kitchen in Friedrichshain or Neukölln beats a Mitte hotel room on price and on atmosphere, and pays for itself over a week
One of the great cheap-eating cities: a proper döner from a Turkish spot where the queue is all locals, a currywurst eaten standing up, cheap beer by the canal. Weekend brunch is the one meal Berliners will happily overspend on
A BVG day pass for zones AB covers U-Bahn, S-Bahn, tram and bus — buy it in the BVG app rather than paying per journey, and add zone C only for the airport
💡 The city is flat and gloriously bike-friendly, so the cheapest way to get around is also the best one: rent a bike for the week and skip transit fares entirely. The one avoidable cost is the stupid one — Berlin runs on trust, so you must validate your ticket in the little stamping machine before boarding. Plain-clothes inspectors do check, and "I did not know" earns a hefty fine and zero sympathy.
Iași
Romania
Cheaper again than Cluj or Bucharest, and the best value is not a hotel — it is an owner-run studio or aparthotel with a kitchenette, fast wired internet and, if you are lucky, a washing machine. Over a working month that combination saves more than the nightly rate ever will
Absurdly affordable, and hearty with it: sarmale, mămăligă, grilled mici and the local poale-n brâu, strong coffee in a student café, Romanian wine from the nearby Cotnari vineyards. The café scene around the university costs a fraction of what the same sitting would in Western Europe
Trams and buses are cheap and cover the city; a Bolt ride across town costs less than a coffee in most of Europe, which is why nobody here bothers haggling with a street taxi
💡 This is a city where the currency is value, not spectacle — the sights are few and quickly seen, so budget for weeks rather than a sightseeing sprint and it becomes one of the cheapest workations in Europe. Self-cater: Lidl and Kaufland sit within walking distance of most central stays, and a fridge and microwave in the room turn family or long-stay food costs into rounding errors. The one thing worth paying for is a local guide, because so little here is set up for visitors and someone who speaks the language unlocks the churches, the history and the food in a way you simply cannot alone.
Birmingham
England
Aparthotels are the sweet spot and there is a glut of them — a studio with a kitchen in Digbeth or on the Jewellery Quarter edge undercuts London by a wide margin, and works out cheaper than a hotel room on any stay past a couple of nights
The curry is the point: a balti in the Balti Triangle feeds you properly for the price of a London starter, and the Bullring market halls and the city food halls handle the rest. If your stay has a kitchen, the supermarket run is what turns a good rate into a cheap week
Tap contactless on the West Midlands Metro tram and the buses and let the daily cap do the work, or use a Swift card if you would rather not put a bank card on the reader. You will not need a car in the centre, and New Street puts London barely 80 minutes away
💡 This is the affordable big-city workation in England, and the maths is simple: comparable food, culture and rail links to London at a fraction of the accommodation cost. Spend on a central aparthotel with a kitchen rather than a cheap room out by the ring road, because the canals, the Jewellery Quarter and Digbeth are all within walking distance of each other and walking beats paying for transport. The canals, the parks and the Library of Birmingham cost nothing.
Sibiu
Romania
One of the cheapest pretty towns in Europe — a central, kitchen-equipped apartment a couple of minutes from the Bridge of Lies costs less than a mid-range hotel room almost anywhere in Western Europe, and the small aparthotels on the edge of the centre sometimes throw in free private parking
Cheap and hearty, and cheaper still if you cook: the Ocnei Street bakeries and the supermarkets do breakfast for pocket change, and even the touristy terraces on the Large Square are inexpensive by Western standards
Tursib buses cover what little of the town you cannot walk, and a Bolt across it costs a couple of euros, which is why nobody bothers with a street taxi. Budget instead for a rental car or a driver for the mountains, and for paid on-street parking in the centre, around 15 lei a day
💡 The town itself is close to free — the squares, the Bridge of Lies, the eyes of Sibiu and the climb up the Council Tower cost nothing or next to it, and you will have seen the postcard centre in a day or two. Put what you save into the surroundings, because they are the real trip: the Carpathians, Bâlea Lake, the Transfăgărășan and the fortified Saxon villages are an hour or so out and awkward without a car. Self-cater and stay a week; this is a place that rewards slowness over a sightseeing sprint.
Asia
Tokyo
Japan
¥5,000–25,000 / night (€30–160)
¥800–3,000 per meal (€5–20)
¥200–500 per Metro ride (Suica)
💡 Tokyo is more affordable than its reputation. Convenience store meals (€3–5) are genuinely excellent.
Dubai
UAE
AED 350–2,000 / night (€90–530)
AED 40–200 per meal (€10–55)
AED 3–10 per Metro ride
💡 Deira and Bur Dubai offer excellent value hotels with easy Metro access to all attractions.
New Delhi
India
₹1,500–8,000 / night (€16–90)
₹200–800 per meal (€2–9)
₹10–60 per Metro ride
💡 Delhi delivers extraordinary value. A full meal at a local dhaba costs under €2. Use Ola or Uber over unmarked taxis.
Guangzhou
China
¥200–800 / night (€25–110)
¥30–150 per meal (€4–20)
¥2–10 per Metro ride
💡 Guangzhou dim sum culture means world-class food for very little. Budget travellers do very well here.
Koh Samui
Thailand
฿1,500–6,000 / night (€40–165)
฿150–600 per meal (€4–16)
Songthaew ฿50–150; scooter rental ฿200–400/day
💡 Bophut (Fisherman's Village) and Maenam offer the best value vs. premium Chaweng. Renting a scooter is the only practical way to explore the full island.
Kolaka
Indonesia
IDR 200,000–700,000 / night (€12–43)
IDR 15,000–60,000 per meal (€0.90–3.70)
Ojek (motorcycle taxi) IDR 10,000–30,000
💡 One of Indonesia's most affordable destinations. Sulawesi is dramatically less touristy than Bali — expect authentic local prices with zero tourist markup across the board.
Maldives
Maldives
$300–2,500+ / night (resort villa)
$30–120 per meal (often half-board)
Seaplane $200–500; speedboat $30–80 between islands
💡 The budget path: stay on local guesthouse islands (Maafushi, Thulusdhoo) rather than resort islands — 5–10× cheaper for a similar Indian Ocean experience. Day trips to snorkel spots fill the gap.
Hanoi
Vietnam
₫400,000–1,500,000 / night (€15–56)
₫30,000–120,000 per meal (€1.10–4.40)
Grab bike ₫15,000–40,000; Metro ₫8,000–15,000 per ride
💡 Old Quarter street food — phở, bún chả, and bia hơi at around €0.25 a glass — keeps daily costs tiny. For rooms, short-lead and walk-in rates in the Old Quarter are often cheaper than booking months ahead; a few days' notice is usually enough.
Americas
Toronto
Canada
CAD 120–400 / night (€80–270)
CAD 15–45 per meal (€10–30)
CAD 3.35 per TTC trip; monthly pass CAD 156
💡 Kensington Market and St Lawrence Market offer affordable, quality food in a city that can otherwise stretch the budget.
Rio de Janeiro
Brazil
BRL 180–900 / night (€30–155)
BRL 30–120 per meal (€5–21)
BRL 4.30 per Metro ride
💡 Prices surge during Carnival (Dec–Mar). April–June offers pleasant weather at significantly lower rates.
Malibu
USA
$250–700+ / night
$20–60 per meal
Car essential — budget $40–80/day for rental
💡 Malibu is one of California's priciest destinations. Airbnb room rentals are meaningfully cheaper than hotels.
Alaska
USA
$150–400 / night
$20–60 per meal
Car essential outside Anchorage; rental $50–90/day
💡 Anchorage is meaningfully cheaper than resort towns like Juneau or Sitka. Book summer accommodation 3–4 months ahead — July demand far exceeds supply and prices spike sharply.
Montreal
Canada
Affordable accommodation is getting harder every year as rents climb — aparthotels with kitchens and the city's long-standing hostel scene both still offer realistic options near Downtown
Restaurant prices rose noticeably in 2026, so self-catering pays; bagels from Fairmount or St-Viateur, a smoked meat sandwich at an old deli, or late-night poutine cost a fraction of a sit-down dinner
STM metro and bus fares are cheap, and a BIXI bike-share membership is the best-value way around between Downtown, the Plateau and the Lachine Canal
💡 Use a kitchen rather than eating out constantly — that single habit absorbs most of the 2026 price rises. Walk toward the Plateau in the mornings for quieter, cheaper cafés and a more local atmosphere away from the tourist zones.
New York
USA
Among the highest prices on earth, and the rooms are small even when they are not cheap — an extended-stay suite with a kitchen and guest laundry beats a nightly hotel rate on any stay past a few days, and Brooklyn or Queens costs meaningfully less than Midtown for one subway stop of inconvenience
A folded slice from a no-frills counter, a bagel with lox, or dumplings in Flushing or Chinatown cost a fraction of anything with a queue outside it — and breakfast for a family in Manhattan is where budgets quietly die, so a free hotel breakfast or a fridge and a nearby supermarket is worth real money
The subway runs 24 hours and is the cheapest thing in the city: tap a contactless card or phone with OMNY, skip the MetroCard entirely, and never rent a car — parking and driving here are their own punishment
💡 The sightseeing checklist is what bankrupts people, not the city itself. The Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty is free, Central Park at dawn is free, the Brooklyn Bridge is free, and the best hours of your trip will cost nothing. Skip the $25 rooftop cocktails and the Times Square restaurants, and get off Manhattan — the outer boroughs are where the food is better, cheaper and not performing for tourists.
Washington D.C.
USA
Expensive, and it swings hard with the political calendar — a big conference or an inauguration prices the city out of reach, while August and weekends are genuinely cheap because the whole town empties. An extended-stay suite with a kitchen and laundry beats a nightly hotel rate on any stay past a few days
The museums are free, so food is where the budget actually goes. Eat on U Street and in Shaw, where the Ethiopian food is some of the best outside Addis and a half-smoke costs next to nothing, and skip the expense-account restaurants around the federal core. Happy hour is a real institution here and worth planning around
Metro on a SmarTrip card or your phone, plus Metrobus and Capital Bikeshare for the flat riverfront stretches. Note that the free DC Circulator tourist bus is gone, so older guidance recommending it no longer applies. Never rent a car — parking is punishing and the car thefts are real. Flying into Reagan National saves a fortune over a cab in from Dulles
💡 This is the rare expensive American city where the best of it is free: every Smithsonian museum, the monuments, the Mall at dawn, the Tidal Basin, the National Zoo. Skip the paid attractions almost entirely, put the money into a kitchen-equipped suite away from the sterile federal core, and eat in the neighbourhoods. Come in August or over a weekend and the same city costs noticeably less.
Africa
Cairo
Egypt
EGP 500–3,000 / night (€10–60)
EGP 80–500 per meal (€2–10)
Metro 8 EGP per ride; Uber widely available
💡 Egypt offers extraordinary value. Tourist sites (Pyramids, museums) have fixed entry fees — budget €15–25 for major attractions.
Tanzania
Tanzania
$80–400 / night (lodge quality varies widely)
$10–40 per meal
Safari transfers included in most packages; Arusha city taxis ~$5–15
💡 Safari costs dominate Tanzania budgets. Base yourself in Arusha for lower daily costs; remote lodges are significantly more expensive.
Nairobi
Kenya
$50–200 / night
$8–30 per meal
Matatu ~KES 50 (€0.35); Uber/Bolt widely available
💡 Westlands, Karen, and Gigiri offer the best base for visitors. Budget carefully for safari add-ons — a Masai Mara fly-in can dwarf all other costs but is genuinely unmissable.
Kampala
Uganda
UGX 90k–370k / night ($25–100)
UGX 5k–40k per meal ($1.50–11)
Boda-boda UGX 3k–10k/ride; SafeBoda, Uber & Bolt apps widely used
💡 Kampala is genuinely cheap. A Rolex — the chapati-and-egg street roll — is the best two-dollar meal you will find, and app-based boda-bodas (SafeBoda, Bolt) keep daily transport almost free. Budget more for weekend trips to Jinja or the national parks than for city life itself.
Oceania
Sydney
Australia
AUD 150–500 / night (€90–310)
AUD 20–55 per meal (€12–34)
AUD 2–5 per Opal journey
💡 Newtown and Surry Hills offer a cooler, more affordable base than the CBD. Many of Sydney's best beaches (Bondi, Manly) are free.
Brisbane
Australia
No longer the bargain its reputation suggests, though still well under Sydney — serviced apartments are the sensible play, and basing yourself in Woolloongabba or South Brisbane rather than the CBD buys more space for less, with a ferry stop and a grocery store on the doorstep
The coffee is excellent and constant, which is a budget line of its own. Eating out is Australian-expensive, so use the apartment kitchen and the supermarkets and save Howard Smith Wharves and Fortitude Valley for the nights you mean to spend money
The cheapest thing about the city by a distance: Queensland runs a flat low fare across buses, trains and ferries, so tap a go card or a bank card and ride freely. The CityCat and CityHopper are the best-value sightseeing in Australia. The airport AirTrain is priced separately and stings by comparison, but still beats a taxi
💡 Live on the river and the parks and Brisbane costs very little: the South Bank parklands, the Streets Beach lagoon, the Mount Coot-tha lookout and the bushland walks are all free or near enough, and the ferries barely count as an expense. Do not drive — inner-city parking is brutally priced and you will not need a car. Budget instead for reliable air conditioning in summer, which here is the difference between a workable week and a miserable one.
Money-Saving Tips
Book accommodation 3–6 weeks ahead
For Europe this window catches the best rate before high demand hits. Asia and long-haul destinations benefit from 4–8 weeks' lead time. Last-minute deals exist but carry real risk in peak season.
Use transit passes over single fares
Almost every city on this list offers a weekly or daily transit card that pays back within 3–4 journeys. Tokyo's Suica, London's Oyster, and Vienna's weekly Jahreskarte all beat per-ride pricing by 30–50%.
Stay one zone out from the centre
London Zone 2–3, Tokyo's outer wards, and Tenerife's Santa Cruz all offer 30–40% savings vs. central areas — with transit links that make the distance irrelevant for most itineraries.
Eat where locals eat at lunch
Fixed-price lunch menus (menú del día in Spain, prix fixe in France, set lunch in Japan) deliver the same quality as dinner for a fraction of the cost. Always your best meal of the day, budget-wise.
Stack a travel credit card with an eSIM
A no-foreign-transaction-fee card (Wise, Revolut, Charles Schwab) eliminates 2–3% FX fees. Pair with an eSIM (Airalo, Yesim) to skip €15–30 airport SIM card rip-offs. Both are trivial to set up before you leave.
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