Travel Budgets: How To Make a Travel Budget

One of the hardest things about traveling is trying to plan a budget, especially if you’re headed to one of the worlds most expensive cities like traveling to San Francisco. In an ideal world you would come back from a dream holiday without having dipped into debt. It can be hard to decide how much money to set aside when you don’t know how much things cost in the respective locations that you’re visiting. If you don’t spend any time asking friends and family for estimations of costs, or researching yourself, you’re basically going in blind.

So how can you plan a budget without even visiting the place first? Research! We’re so blessed to live in the information age where it’s both easy and cheap to find out information on a host of topics. You can research the prices of accommodation in the place before you visit, you can find out how much taxis might be or the cost of a week long transport pass in your city of choice. It is a lot easier to start planning how much costs might be.

Another way I like to get an idea of the costs of a new country is by using the infographic below. It’s actually not in my home currency, but I just convert it so I can see the costs of things in countries other than my own. If things are generally more expensive than home, then I estimate traveling in this country is going to be more expensive than traveling my own. The inverse is true – if the costs are cheaper, I can estimate that traveling this country will be cheaper. Using the prices as a guide I like to make a daily budget I plan to stick to. Of course, I add in a little extra room just in case I want to do some shopping or some activities.

The longer your trip, the more important a budget will become. If you spend some time researching you can hopefully create a budget that is going to allow you to comfortably travel where you want to go, to the level of comfort you desire and for the length of time you wish.

Check out the following infographic and get inspired: