- Shoulder season
- The 4–8 weeks immediately before and after a destination's peak tourism season. Weather is usually close to peak; prices and crowds are materially lower. Our default for cost comparisons.
- Peak season
- The busiest, most expensive window for a destination. Driven by weather, school holidays, festivals or all three. Accommodation typically 25%+ above shoulder rates.
- Low season
- The cheapest window of the year for a destination. Often coincides with off-weather or rainy months. Daily costs ~15% below shoulder.
- Dynamic currency conversion (DCC)
- When a foreign merchant or ATM offers to bill you in your home currency. Always decline — the exchange rate is typically 3–7% worse than your card's network rate.
- Per diem
- A daily allowance budgeted for travel expenses, expressed as a single $/day number. The unit we use across the entire TravelBudget index.
- TravelBudget Index (TBI)
- A 0–100 score per city, derived from mid-range shoulder-season daily cost vs the global cheapest and priciest cities we track. 0 is the cheapest, 100 the priciest.
- Affordability tier
- A 5-band label (Very cheap / Cheap / Moderate / Pricey / Very pricey) derived from a city's TBI score. Gives a consistent vocabulary across listings and comparisons.
- Mid-range (style)
- A traveller style: 3-star or boutique hotel, mix of casual restaurants and one nicer meal per day, public transit plus occasional taxi, paid attractions. Our default tier.
- Budget (style)
- Hostel dorm or guesthouse, local food and self-catering, public transit only, free or low-cost activities. Roughly 1× the city baseline cost.
- Luxury (style)
- 4- or 5-star hotel, fine-dining meals, private transfers when needed, curated activities. Roughly 6× the city baseline cost.
- Daily total
- Sum of five categories per person per day: accommodation, food, local transport, activities, miscellaneous. Flights, visas and insurance are excluded.
- Fixed costs
- One-off costs added at the trip level rather than per day: flights, long-haul ground transport, visas, vaccinations, insurance, gear.
- Long-stay rent equivalent
- An estimate of what 30 nights of accommodation cost if booked monthly rather than nightly. We use ~60% of the nightly mid-range accommodation rate × 30.
- Cost of living (for travellers)
- Long-stay rent + 30 × (food + local transport + misc) at the mid-range baseline. Excludes tourist activities. Used for digital-nomad and long-stay comparisons.
- Schengen 90/180
- EU border rule allowing non-EU travellers up to 90 days inside the Schengen Area within any rolling 180-day window. Material constraint for long-stay European trips.
- Hostel dorm
- A shared room with 4–12 beds in a hostel. Typically 30–50% cheaper than a private room and the cheapest accommodation option in most cities.
- Ryokan
- A traditional Japanese inn, usually with tatami rooms, futon bedding and multi-course dinner. Mid-tier ryokans run $200–400/night; premium ones can exceed $600.
- Couchsurfing
- Free hosted accommodation arranged through community platforms. Eliminates the largest line item in a daily budget but adds time and social cost.
- Third-class rail
- The lowest paid tier on most national rail networks. Often 50–70% cheaper than first class with the same arrival time. Standard for budget travel in Europe and Asia.
- ATM network fee
- A flat fee a foreign ATM operator charges on top of your bank's withdrawal fee. Withdraw larger amounts, less often, from bank-owned ATMs to minimise it.
- Card FX rate
- The exchange rate your credit or debit card uses for foreign transactions. Typically close to the mid-market rate; always better than airport currency exchange.
- Tourist tax
- A per-night fee charged on accommodation in many European cities, typically €1–7/night/person. Almost always paid at check-in, not pre-booked.
- City pass
- A bundle of museum, attraction and transit access for a fixed price. Worth it when planning 4+ attractions in 3 days; otherwise individual tickets beat the pass.
- Buffer
- An explicit overage added to the trip-level budget to cover unknowns. We recommend 15% on top of the daily total × trip length.
- The shoulder rule
- If your dates are flexible by two weeks, shifting into shoulder season usually saves more than any in-trip optimisation. The cheapest fix is almost always the calendar.
- Per-memory cost
- Trip cost divided by the number of distinct, lasting experiences. Slower trips usually beat faster ones on this metric even when their daily cost is higher.