Daily Travel Budget Calculator
A daily spending limit for a trip, split between food, transport and everything else.
A daily budget is the number that decides whether a trip feels relaxed or anxious. It is also the number nobody sets before they go, which is why the card statement at the end is a surprise.
Enter your total spending money and the length of the trip, then the shares you want for food, local transport, activities and shopping, and this calculator gives a daily limit and a per-person one.
At a glance
- What you enter
- Spending money for the trip, Days, Travellers, Share for food and drink, Share for local transport, Share for activities and entries, Share for shopping and souvenirs, Minimum you need for food per person per day
- What you get
- Spending per day, Food per day, Local transport per day, Activities per day, Shopping per day, Unallocated money
- Formula shown
- Yes - every step, right below your results.
- Cost and privacy
- Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.
See worked examples ↓ Read the FAQ ↓ Share this calculator ↓
Results are estimates for general information only - always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.
How to use the Daily Travel Budget Calculator
- 1 Enter Spending money for the trip - Money for the trip itself, not the flights or the accommodation.
- 2 Enter Days (days)
- 3 Enter Travellers (people)
- 4 Enter Share for food and drink
- 5 Enter Share for local transport
- 6 Enter Share for activities and entries
- 7 Enter Share for shopping and souvenirs
- 8 Enter Minimum you need for food per person per day - What a day of ordinary meals costs where you are going.
- 9 Press Calculate. You get Spending per day, Food per day, Local transport per day, Activities per day, Shopping per day, Unallocated money, and every intermediate step stays visible under “How is this calculated?”
- 10 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result - that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.
Worked examples
Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.
$1,500 of spending money over ten days for two people
Food at 40%, transport at 15%, activities at 25% and shopping at 10%, with a $28 food target.
You enter
- Spending money for the trip
- $1,500.00
- Days
- 10 days
- Travellers
- 2 people
- Share for food and drink
- 40%
- Share for local transport
- 15%
- Share for activities and entries
- 25%
- Share for shopping and souvenirs
- 10%
- Minimum you need for food per person per day
- $28.00
You get
- Spending per day
- $150.00
- Food per day
- $60.00
- Local transport per day
- $22.50
- Activities per day
- $37.50
- Shopping per day
- $15.00
- Unallocated money
- $150.00
You can spend $150 a day between you, which is $75 each. Food gets $60 a day, local transport $22.50, activities $37.50 and shopping $15. The four shares add to 90%, so $150 of the budget is unallocated and stays as a float for anything you have not planned. Across the trip that is $600 on food, $225 on transport, $375 on activities and $150 on shopping. The food allocation is $30 per person per day, which is $2 above your minimum.
$2,600 over two weeks for four people with a shortfall on food
A family trip where the food share does not reach the local cost of ordinary meals.
You enter
- Spending money for the trip
- $2,600.00
- Days
- 14 days
- Travellers
- 4 people
- Share for food and drink
- 35%
- Share for local transport
- 20%
- Share for activities and entries
- 25%
- Share for shopping and souvenirs
- 15%
- Minimum you need for food per person per day
- $30.00
You get
- Spending per day
- $185.71
- Food per day
- $65.00
- Local transport per day
- $37.14
- Activities per day
- $46.43
- Shopping per day
- $27.86
- Unallocated money
- $130.00
The daily budget is $185.71 for the party, or $46.43 for each of the four. Food gets $65 a day, transport $37.14, activities $46.43 and shopping $27.86. The shares add to 95%, so $130 is left unallocated. The food allocation works out at $16.25 per person per day, which is $13.75 below the $30 you said ordinary meals cost, so either the food share has to rise, the total has to rise, or some meals have to be cooked. Across the trip the food line is $910.
Guides that go with it
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Frequently asked questions
Should the flights and the hotel be in the total budget?
No. This is spending money for the trip, the money you use once you are there. Flights and accommodation are normally paid before you travel, so they belong in the Vacation Cost Calculator, which totals the whole trip. Putting them here would produce a daily limit that is far too generous.
A daily limit that includes the hotel is a trip budget rather than a spending limit, and it cannot tell you whether you can afford the second restaurant. Keep the two separate and this page answers the question it is built for.
Do the category percentages have to add up to 100?
They do not have to, and the buffer line shows what is left when they do not. Four shares of 40, 15, 25 and 10 add to 90, so 10% of the budget is unallocated and stays as a float for the things you did not plan. That is usually a good thing to leave, because a trip always produces a cost nobody predicted.
What you should avoid is the four shares adding to more than 100. The buffer then turns negative, which means the categories promise more money than the trip has, and every daily figure built on it is too high.
Why is the per-person figure so much lower than the daily budget?
Because the daily budget is for the whole party and the per-person figure divides it again by the number of travellers. A $1,500 budget over ten days for two people is $150 a day for both of you, which is $75 each. Both figures are useful: the daily one is what leaves your account on a normal day, and the per-person one is what each of you can spend.
The category figures work the same way. The food per day figure is for the party, so with a $60 food allocation for two people each of you has $30 for the day. Check which convention you are reading before you decide a budget is too tight.
What does the food gap per person tell me?
It compares the food allocation per person per day with the minimum you said a day of ordinary meals costs where you are going. A positive figure means the budget covers everyday eating with something to spare. A negative figure means the food share alone will not cover three ordinary meals.
When it is negative, the choices are to raise the food share, raise the total budget, or lower the cost of eating by cooking some meals. Changing the other shares does not help, because every point given to food has to come from another category that also matters.