The travel budget is often the crux of the matter. Whether you’re a broke student wanting to travel for as long as possible or simply a bargain hunter, Everyone wants to get their money’s worth when they go traveling. And for that, there’s no magic formula. You have to prepare well and estimate your travel budget as accurately as possible.
You might already know how much you can allocate to your trip before you even leave, or perhaps it’s still vague, but the destination is already chosen! Whichever category you fall into, the budget remains a key issueAnd through my travels, I learned to better estimate how much I would spend while traveling. Whether my budget was tight or more generous, the rule is the same in my opinion: respect your budget, and above all, don’t feel frustrated!
Why estimate your travel budget?
For me, organizing my trip starts with organizing and estimating my budget. It’s essential to spend time estimating your travel budget before you even leave.m ay counterproductive all, you haven’t even arrived at your destination yet. So you only have a vague idea of the cost of living there. What’s more, you might be afraid of getting discouraged when you realize your budget won’t allow you to do all the activities you had planned, or to travel for very long! However, it is precisely for these reasons that I advise everyone to consider the budget. And this should be done even before finishing packing their backpack or suitcase! The reasons are multiple: your budget is quite tight, which will give you enough time to look for good deals and free activities that will allow you to enjoy yourself at a lower cost. If you have no idea how much you’ll have to spend there, this will give you a more precise idea. This wallow younity to find out about certain activities(and perhaps book them in advance due to their popularity), you might realize that your budget is more generous than you thought, and that’s always a pleasant surprise! Therefore, in my opinion, you shouldn’t see estimating your travel budget as a punishment or a bburdenOn the contrary, it’s an essential step in preparing for your trip. Thanks to this, you’ll leave with greater peace of mind! And as a bonus, you won’t have to worry about checking your bank account balance when you get back from your trip.
How to estimate your travel budget?
To estimate your travel budget, I recommend using a Google Sheets spreadsheet or a spreadsheet created in Notion RegardForss
For your choice, I suggest you create three columns, corresponding to three types of expenses:
- pre-departure expenses,
- expenses incurred on-site,
- emergency, or last-minute expenses.
By listing these three categories, you will be able to accurately estimate each category of expenses separatelyTherefore, you will quickly be able to see where you can potentially save money or reduce expenses.
Pre-departure expenses
Pre-departure expenses correspond to all the expenses you’ll settle before leaving could include plane tickets, car rental, your visa, passport renewal, or even accommodation for the first few days. I also include travel insurance, or vaccinations if any are recommended for your destination. If you haven’t booked anything for your trip yet, this can help you estimate the cost of round-trip transportation. You will also be able to assess the “mandatory” expensessuch as visas or accommodation. If you’re not sure where to look to estimate these pre-departure expenses, here are a few websites that might be helpful.
On-site expenses
local expenses, and estimating your travel budget.t On-site expenses may be more difficult to estimate before ddepartureyou’ve never been to your future destination, you might indeed wonder how much you’ll spend there! What’s more, this category is very subjective: it all depends on your travel style. Furthermore, a person will not spend the same amount during a trip to Canada if they travel in hostels and use local transportation, as if they stay in nice hotels and travel by plane.
To learn more, check out other travel blogs. ogs
Don’t hesitate to also check out budgets shared by other people on blogs or YouTube videos. It will be easier to find people who travel in the same way a you. They will give you a budget that corresponds to what you can expect. Here are some other travel blogs that regularly share their budgets for different destinations. This will help you estimate your own travel budget more easily!
It is also in this category that can include the price of certain activities that you absolutely want to do during your tripYou can also search online for the prices of these activities. This will be quite useful if you absolutely want to do a somewhat expensive activity and therefore need to factor the cost into your travel budget.
My tips for spending money while you’re there
To estimate expenses on site as accurately as possible, my advice is to calculate an average of the different budgets you can find online for the different expense categories listed: transportation, accommodation, activities, food and drinks, miscellaneous expenses, etc.
From this average, you can then:
Either add 20% if you like to treat yourself while traveling, for example, like me, in terms of food, or by not necessarily choosing the cheapest hostels,
Or, on the contrary, remove 20%: if your budget is really limited and you’re traveling cheaply.
Of course, make sure that this remains realistic based on the prices of accommodation and activities that you can find online.
Emergency expenses
Finally, to accurately estimate your travel budget, it is essential to think about No matter what situation you don’t want to face, you need to be prepared. Here are a few scenarios that could (or might not) happen to you during your trip:
- You want to go home earlier,
You change your travel plans,
You need to change your accommodation urgently.
You need to go to the hospital.
Your mobile phone gets stolen.
Your backpack was lost by the airline.
As you can see, it is important to set aside a certain amount of money in case of an emergency. In my case, I’ve already had to change accommodation urgently because I didn’t feel comfortable in my dorm. I’ve also had to buy a new plane ticket to change my itinerary. Finally, more recently, I spent a small amount on medication and bandages after a scooter accident in Indonesia. Obviously, I would have preferred not to encounter these situations while traveling; nevertheless, I had planned to cover these unexpected expenses if needed.
My method
To calculate the amount to allocate to emergency expenses, here’s the method I use. I calculate my travel budget by adding my estimated pre-departure expenses to my estimated expenses on-site. Finally, I calculated 20% this amount. You then obtain what corresponds to what you should have set aside to cover emergency expenses.
For example, if your travel budget (pre-departure expenses + expenses on-site) is €1000, then you should set aside 20% of this amount (i.e., an additional €200) for emergency expenses. Obviously, this amount remains approximate and obviously cannot cover every eventuality. However, it’s a safety net that you’ll be very glad to have if you ever have to spend more than necessary in an unforeseen situation.
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