Travel Budget Calculator: Plan Your Whole Holiday Budget in Minutes
- UK holiday planner
- 7 min read
Your trip will cost about
£2,237
including a £292 buffer for the unplanned.
- Per person
- £1,118
- Per day
- £320
- Subtotal
- £1,945
Savings plan
Save £280 a month for 8 months.
- Flights (return)£240
- Accommodation£770
- Food & drink£490
- Local transport£105
- Activities£210
- Forgotten costs£130
- Contingency£292
Sanity check: your daily spend is 2.0× your nightly accommodation, within the usual 1.5–3× range.
Use this free travel budget calculator to work out what your next trip will really cost: flights, accommodation, food, getting around, activities, and the long list of costs everyone forgets until they've been paid.
Pick a destination preset or enter your own figures, and the holiday budget planner gives you a total for the trip, the cost per person and per day, and a monthly savings target so the money is actually there when you book.
Every figure is editable. The presets are honest planning defaults to start you off, not a pretend price database; you'll replace them with your own research as your plans firm up, and the structure makes sure nothing gets missed.
How to Budget for a Trip: The 5-Step Method
The travellers who come home without a credit card hangover almost all budget the same way:
- 1
Price the two high fixed costs first.
Flights and accommodation are researchable to the pound before you book; check real prices for your dates rather than guessing. Together they're usually 40–60% of the trip.
- 2
Estimate food from local prices, then add half again.
Look up typical meal prices at your destination and multiply by 1.5, because on holiday you eat out more, snack more, and order the second drink. Budgeting for holiday-you, not home-you, is the single biggest accuracy improvement you can make.
- 3
Add local transport and activities.
Airport transfers at both ends, day-to-day transport, and the two or three paid activities you actually plan to do, priced individually, not as a vague lump.
- 4
Add the forgotten costs.
Insurance, visas, roaming, parking, pet care, and the checklist below. These routinely add £150–£300 to a couple's trip.
- 5
Put a 15% contingency on top.
Not for emergencies, for reality. Prices drift, plans change, and something will look too good to skip. Seasoned travellers budget either a flat 15% or £20–£25 per person per day for the unplanned.
40–60%
flights + accommodation
+15%
contingency on top
Worked Example: A Couple's Week in Spain
Here's the method applied to a mid-range 7-night trip for two:
| Item | Basis | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Flights | £120 return × 2 people | £240 |
| Accommodation | £110 per night × 7 | £770 |
| Food & drink | £70 per day (couple) × 7 | £490 |
| Local transport | £15 per day × 7 | £105 |
| Activities | £30 per day × 7 | £210 |
| Travel insurance | £25 per person | £50 |
| Airport transfers | Both ends | £60 |
| Roaming / eSIM | Two phones | £20 |
| Subtotal | £1,945 | |
| Contingency (15%) | £292 | |
| Total | £2,237 |
Per person
£1,118
Per day, all-in
~£320
A family of four in a self-catering apartment on the same pattern lands around £3,157 with the same 15% buffer. Run your own version in the calculator; change any line, and the totals and per-person and per-day figures update instantly.
The Costs Everyone Forgets
These are the items that turn a “£2,000 holiday” into a £2,400 bank statement. The calculator includes each as a prompt so nothing slips through.
Travel insurance
Never optional; a medical claim abroad without it can cost tens of thousands. See the government's guidance on foreign travel insurance for what a policy must cover.
Visas and entry fees
ETAs, eVisas, and tourist cards apply to more destinations every year. Check the entry requirements for your destination on GOV.UK foreign travel advice before you budget, not after.
Getting to the airport
Airport parking for a week can cost more than a flight; trains and taxis both ways add up.
Roaming or a local eSIM
£2–£6 a day on UK networks once you're outside your plan's included roaming.
Pet boarding or house sitting
Often £15–£30 a day and completely invisible in most trip budgets.
Vaccinations and medication
Needed for some long-haul destinations.
Checked luggage, seats and transfers
On “cheap” fares, the advertised flight price is rarely the paid price.
Spending before you go
New luggage, adapters, clothes. Small, but real.
Daily Budgets by Destination Type
Per person per day, on the ground (excluding flights), these editable planning defaults are what the calculator's presets use:
| Destination type | Backpacker | Mid-range | Comfort+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| South-East Asia / South Asia | £25–£40 | £50–£80 | £120+ |
| Spain, Portugal, Greece | £45–£65 | £90–£140 | £200+ |
| France, Italy, city breaks | £60–£85 | £120–£180 | £250+ |
| USA, Australia, Japan | £80–£120 | £160–£250 | £320+ |
A useful sanity check from experienced travellers: your total daily spend usually lands at 1.5–3× your nightly accommodation cost; around 2× is typical for a mid-range trip. In the Spain example above, £110-a-night accommodation sits alongside £115 a day for food, transport, and activities: almost exactly 2×. If your plan says otherwise, one of the numbers is probably optimistic.
Turning the Total into a Savings Plan
A budget you can't fund is a wish. The calculator's savings view divides your trip total by the months until departure. Seeing the monthly figure next to your pay is what makes a trip real; our take-home pay calculator shows your monthly net, and many people aim to keep annual travel around 5–10% of it.
And if you're travelling as a house share or a group with different incomes, our household bills splitter works for trip costs too; compare an equal split with an income-based one before anyone books.
£2,237 Spain trip
8 months out
£280a month
£3,157 family trip
10 months out
£316a month
Frequently Asked Questions
How much spending money do I need for a week in Spain?
For accommodation, food, transport, and activities (flights excluded), plan £90–£140 per person per day mid-range, roughly £650–£1,000 for the week. Backpacker-style, £45–£65 a day is realistic outside peak season. Add your flights for the full picture.
How much does a week's holiday cost for a family of four?
A self-catering, short-haul mid-range week typically lands £2,800–£3,500 all-in; once transfers, insurance, and contingency are included, our worked example comes to £3,157. Long-haul or school-holiday pricing can double the flight line alone.
What percentage of my income should I spend on holidays?
There's no rule, but 5–10% of annual take-home is a common comfort zone among people who budget deliberately: on a £2,100 monthly take-home, that's £1,260–£2,520 a year. What matters more is funding it monthly in advance rather than borrowing it afterwards.
How much contingency should a travel budget include?
15% of the trip total, or £20–£25 per person per day, whichever you find easier to plan with. Unspent contingency is the start of the next trip's fund.
Is all-inclusive cheaper than self-catering?
Sometimes, but compare honestly. All-inclusive bundles include food and drink you might not consume, while self-catering budgets often forget that you'll still eat out half the time. Price both through the calculator with realistic food lines, and the answer for your family will be obvious.
Does the calculator use live prices?
No, deliberately. Preset figures are editable planning defaults; live “average prices” are stale the moment they're published and vary wildly by season. Your own quick research for your dates, structured by the calculator, beats any database.
Build Your Travel Budget Now
A holiday costs what it costs; the only choice is whether you find out before you book or after you're home.
This travel budget calculator gives you the full picture in a few minutes: every category prompted, the forgotten costs surfaced, a 15% buffer built in, and a monthly savings figure that turns the plan into a booking. Scroll up, pick a preset or enter your own numbers, and see what your trip really costs.