Continental scale and dense, hyper-specific cities.
Across the 3 cities we track in North America, mid-range travellers spend about $642 per day on the ground, with Toronto anchoring the affordable end at $471/day and San Francisco at the top at $728/day.
Common currencies include USD, CAD. Daily totals here cover accommodation, food, local transport, activities, and miscellaneous costs — flights and visas are not included. Numbers reflect shoulder season; low season trims about 15%, peak adds about 25%.
North America groups 3 cities across 2 countries that share enough on logistics, weather pattern and currency exposure to budget as one block. The top-to-bottom ratio inside the region is 1.5× — San Francisco runs about 1.5× the daily cost of Toronto at the same mid-range tier — which is a usefully concrete way to think about where in the region to anchor a multi-stop itinerary.
North America runs on a small set of currencies (USD, CAD). Two FX events per trip is the realistic baseline; a no-foreign-transaction-fee card and a small float in each currency handles it without surprises.
A typical 10–14 day trip across North America works well as two or three anchors — e.g., Toronto for slower, longer days and San Francisco for one denser city stop — connected by the cheapest regional links you can find. Daily totals shift between anchors by up to 257 USD, so where you sleep matters more than how many activities you book. The single most common North America budgeting mistake is averaging the cities together: a 50/50 split between Toronto and San Francisco doesn't cost the average — it costs whatever you actually spend in each, weighted by nights. Build the budget per-anchor, then sum.
| Window | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Low season | ~15% below the shoulder figure. Best for Toronto-style cities where weather is acceptable year-round; worst for cities where peak weather is the entire draw. |
| Shoulder | The numbers shown on this page. The default plan in North America for cost-vs-experience balance. |
| Peak | ~25% above shoulder, sometimes more for San Francisco-class cities where peak is festival- or summer-driven. Book accommodation 8+ weeks ahead. |