travelbudget
The travel cost index · 2026 edition

The travel cost
index for 2026.

One TravelBudget Index score from 0 to 100 for each city, based on daily costs by travel style and season. Compare destinations, estimate your trip costs and cite the data.

Explore the index→Or estimate a specific trip
68
Cities
16
Regions
3
Budget styles
10
Long-form guides
01 · Snapshot

Travel costs at a glance.

TravelBudget is a working cost model for independent travellers, not a deal site, not a booking engine, and not a generated content farm. Every number on this site comes from the same underlying breakdown: accommodation, food, local transport, activities and miscellaneous, modelled per city, multiplied by a style coefficient (budget / mid-range / luxury) and a season coefficient (low / shoulder / peak). The estimates are a starting point for planning, not a guarantee of what you will spend.

Today the index covers 68 cities across 58 countries and 16 regions. The global mid-range shoulder-season median lands at $279/day, with Kathmandu the cheapest anchor at $94/day and Zurich the most expensive at $728/day. At the regional level, South Asia averages $115/day mid-range while North America averages $642/day, a 6× spread that's the single most useful number for choosing a region before a city.

How to read this site: start with a region if you're flexible (region pages rank cities cheapest → priciest on one scale), drop into a city page for the daily model, then jump to the cost-of-living page if you're staying a month or more. The calculator on this page is the same model exposed as a form: useful when you already know the destination, dates and style and want the trip total in one click.

What the daily number includes and what it doesn't: every figure is per-person, on the ground. Flights, visas and travel insurance are deliberately excluded; they vary too much by origin and passport to belong in a city number. Currency conversions use a documented FX snapshot, refreshed quarterly. Source notes, weights and the full methodology live on the about page; the glossary explains every term used across the site in plain English.

Amman◦Amsterdam◦Athens◦Auckland◦Bali◦Bangkok◦Barcelona◦Berlin◦Bogotá◦Brussels◦Bucharest◦Budapest◦Buenos Aires◦Cairo◦Cancún◦Cape Town◦Chiang Mai◦Colombo◦Copenhagen◦Delhi◦Dubai◦Dublin◦Dubrovnik◦Florence◦Amman◦Amsterdam◦Athens◦Auckland◦Bali◦Bangkok◦Barcelona◦Berlin◦Bogotá◦Brussels◦Bucharest◦Budapest◦Buenos Aires◦Cairo◦Cancún◦Cape Town◦Chiang Mai◦Colombo◦Copenhagen◦Delhi◦Dubai◦Dublin◦Dubrovnik◦Florence◦