Trip Cost Calculator
Estimate the total cost of a trip covering transport, accommodation, food, activities and a miscellaneous buffer.
Formula last reviewed 4 August 2026 · How we verify our calculators
Total trip cost
- Accommodation
- ₹6,000
- Food
- ₹3,200
- Subtotal
- ₹15,200
- Misc buffer
- ₹1,520
- Average per day
- ₹4,180
Updates live as you type
Frequently asked questions
It covers transport, accommodation (per night × nights), food (per day × days), activities, and a percentage miscellaneous buffer for the small extras that always crop up.
Tips, local transport, souvenirs and unexpected costs typically add up to roughly 10% of a trip. The buffer keeps your budget realistic rather than optimistic.
It turns a big total into a daily spend you can sense-check and control on the trip, and makes comparing destinations easier.
This is the broad budget tool for any trip — flights, hotels, activities. The Vehicle section’s Road Trip Cost calculator is for self-drive journeys focused on fuel and tolls.
Sixteen thousand seven hundred and twenty for four days
A trip with ₹5,000 of transport, 3 nights at ₹2,000, 4 days of food at ₹800, ₹1,000 of activities and a 10% miscellaneous buffer totals ₹16,720 — an average of ₹4,180 a day.
The build-up: accommodation ₹6,000, food ₹3,200, transport ₹5,000, activities ₹1,000, giving a subtotal of ₹15,200, plus a ₹1,520 buffer.
Why nights and days differ
A four-day trip has three nights. This trips up almost every first attempt at a travel budget, and it always errs in the same direction — over-counting accommodation by one night.
The rule: for a trip where you arrive on day one and depart on the last day, nights = days − 1. Food, by contrast, is consumed on all four days. The calculator takes them as separate inputs for exactly this reason.
The buffer is not padding
A 10% miscellaneous allowance covers the costs that are individually small and collectively certain: local transport between places, tips, entry fees you did not research, a SIM card, laundry, a forgotten charger, medicines, and the price differences between what you budgeted and what things actually cost.
Travel budgets without a buffer are exceeded essentially always. For unfamiliar destinations or international travel, 15–20% is more realistic than 10%.
What is easy to leave out
Visa fees and travel insurance for international trips, which can be substantial and are paid weeks in advance.
Airport transfers at both ends, frequently more expensive than the local transport budgeted for the destination itself.
Baggage fees on low-cost carriers, where the checked bag can approach the fare.
Foreign exchange costs — card markups of 2–3.5%, ATM withdrawal fees, and poor rates at airport counters.
Seat selection, meals and cancellation flexibility, which are unbundled on most fares now.
The cost of the days themselves if you are taking unpaid leave.
Where the money actually goes
Across most leisure trips the pattern is consistent: accommodation and transport together are 60–75% of the total, and they are also the two most compressible. Shifting accommodation one tier down or travelling midweek typically saves more than every economy elsewhere combined.
Food is the line most people overestimate their discipline on. Budgeting for the cheap option and eating at the convenient one is the normal outcome, so budget for the convenient one.
Reading the result
The per-day average is the more useful comparison figure, because it normalises across trips of different lengths and makes it obvious whether a destination is expensive for you.
For a group, note that transport and accommodation often scale sub-linearly — a room for two costs little more than a room for one, and a car costs the same regardless of occupancy. Computing per person after splitting shared costs gives a very different number from the headline total.
Common mistakes
Counting nights as days. Four days is three nights.
Omitting the buffer. Unbudgeted small costs are certain.
Forgetting airport transfers. Often the most expensive local transport of the trip.
Ignoring forex markup. Two to three percent on every card transaction abroad.
Budgeting food aspirationally. Plan for how you will actually eat when tired.