travelbudget
Methodology

Numbers you can argue with.

TravelBudget exists because most trip-cost advice is anecdotal. We translate public market data into daily numbers you can plan against — and we show our work.

01

Inputs are public

We pull from accommodation rate aggregators, restaurant price indexes, public transit fares, and attraction pricing — all sources you could cross-check.

02

Five line items, every city

Each daily figure is the sum of five categories: accommodation, food, local transport, activities, and miscellaneous (fees, tips, small purchases). Same five everywhere — no hidden buckets.

03

Three styles, one model

Each city has a budget, mid-range, and luxury daily figure. The multipliers between them are roughly 1×, 2.5×, and 6× — calibrated against thousands of real itineraries.

04

Seasonally adjusted

Low, shoulder, and peak multipliers (roughly 0.85×, 1×, 1.25×) reflect actual rate variation by destination. Lisbon's swing is wider than Tokyo's; the model accounts for that.

05

On-the-ground only

Flights, visas, vaccinations, and gear are fixed costs that swing by origin city and booking window. We deliberately exclude them from the daily figure so the per-day number stays comparable across 68 cities — add fixed costs separately at the trip level.

06

Built to be challenged

Disagree with our Paris number? Good. The model is transparent: five line items, three styles, three seasons. Replace any input with your own and the answer updates.

Scope

What the daily number covers

Every per-day figure on TravelBudget is built from the same five line items, so cities stay comparable. Anything that swings wildly by origin city or booking window is deliberately excluded from the daily total and handled as a fixed trip-level cost.

Included in daily
  • Accommodation (hostel, hotel, design hotel by tier)
  • Food (street, sit-down, fine dining by tier)
  • Local transport (transit, taxi, occasional rideshare)
  • Activities (museums, tours, attractions, day trips)
  • Miscellaneous (fees, tips, SIM card, small purchases)
Excluded (added separately)
  • International flights
  • Visa and entry fees
  • Travel insurance
  • Vaccinations and pre-trip medical
  • Gear purchased specifically for the trip
Honest about limits

Where the model doesn't help

A planning tool is only useful if it's honest about its blind spots. TravelBudget does not model fast currency swings (a 20% FX move in two months will not be in last year's calibration), one-off festival and event peaks (Cannes during the film festival is not a normal Cannes), or hyper-local micro-markets (a beachfront resort costs nothing like the city centre two streets back).

We don't model long-stay discounts, group rates, or loyalty redemptions either — these can shift your real number significantly, but they apply unevenly and would muddy the comparison between destinations. The daily figure is a defensible starting point. Your actual itinerary is what tightens it.

Sources

Where the inputs come from

Every input category is public and cross-checkable. We deliberately avoid self-reported "what I spent" anecdotes from forums — they're high-noise, low-signal, and skew toward the loudest spenders.

  • Accommodation — major hotel and short-let listing aggregators, sampled by tier and neighbourhood.
  • Food — published menu prices, restaurant indexes, and grocery-basket data per city.
  • Transport — official transit-authority fare tables and rideshare benchmark routes.
  • Activities — published attraction, museum and tour pricing from operators and tourism boards.
  • Currency — interbank FX references, refreshed at each recalibration cycle.
  • Seasonality — official tourism arrival data and accommodation occupancy curves.

What we are not.

Not a booking engine. Not affiliate-monetised hotel rankings. Not "average traveller spend" self-reports from internet forums. Just a clean cost model, run consistently across 68 cities.

FAQ

Common questions about the model

Where does the cost data come from?
Public market sources: accommodation rate aggregators (hotel and short-let listings), restaurant price indexes, published transit fares, and posted attraction pricing. Everything is cross-checkable.
How often is the data updated?
The model is recalibrated annually, with spot-updates when a destination sees a material price shift (currency moves, post-pandemic resets, fuel-driven transit hikes).
Why are all prices in USD?
USD is the most widely-recognized reference currency for international planning. The dollar number is what makes 68 cities comparable on one screen.
Why don't you include flight prices?
Flights vary by origin and booking window by an order of magnitude more than ground costs. We model the daily on-the-ground number — the part of your trip that is reasonably predictable — and let you add flights as a fixed cost on top.
How accurate are the numbers?
Within roughly ±15% for a typical traveller staying in the named style tier during the named season. The model is a planning tool, not an invoice — it gives you a defensible starting number, then you tighten it against your actual itinerary.