How Buddy estimates travel costs

Every destination figure assumes a budget-conscious independent traveller — backpacker style. That means dorms or simple private rooms, mostly local food, public transport and a few paid activities each week. If you travel more comfortably (or more frugally), your numbers will sit above or below Buddy's starting estimate, and you can change every figure in the planner.

• 🛏️Accommodation — Dorms, guesthouses and budget private rooms.
• 🍜Food & drink — Mostly local food, markets and self-catering, with the odd night out.
• 🚌Local transport — Buses, metros, tuk-tuks, short local hops.
• 🎒Activities & experiences — A few paid activities or entry tickets each week.
• 🧺Other everyday costs — SIM cards, laundry, water, tips, small extras.

These sit outside the destination daily estimate:

• Outbound travel
• Return travel
• Between-destination travel
• Travel insurance
• Visas
• Vaccinations
• Major equipment purchases (backpack, boots, camera…)
• Emergency expenditure

Outbound travel, return travel and between-destination travel have their own boxes in the planner, so they're counted once and never mixed into a country's daily spending.

• City or region — Capitals and islands cost far more than smaller towns.
• Season — Peak, festival and school-holiday periods push beds and flights up.
• Accommodation standard — One tier up on beds can double a daily figure.
• Booking timing — Last-minute and same-day beds usually cost more.
• Travel style — Fast-moving trips spend more on transport and less on rest days.
• Exchange rates — Rates move, so local prices convert differently over time.
• Activities — Diving, trekking or tours can add more than everything else combined.

We want to be straight with you about this. Each destination has one set of daily figures — accommodation, food & drink, local transport, activities and other everyday costs — that we researched by hand and wrote into the site. They are typical mid-range backpacker amounts for that country as a whole, drawn from publicly available traveller cost reporting, hostel and guesthouse listing prices, and our own travel experience, then rounded to sensible round numbers.

They are not a live price feed. Nothing on this site queries hostel, flight or booking systems in real time, and there is no automatic data update. The figures change only when we review and update them.

The spending levels in the Cost Guides (dorm, private room, hotel and so on) are worked out from the same country figures by scaling them up or down, rather than being separately sourced prices.

Costs last reviewed: September 2026

All destination estimates are researched and stored in pounds sterling (GBP). Choosing euros or dollars in the planner changes how the amounts are displayed — it does not convert them. No exchange rate, live or fixed, is applied to your figures, so if you plan in another currency please convert the amounts yourself using a rate you're happy with.

Wherever Buddy fills in an amount for you, treat it as Buddy's starting estimate. Every night count, daily category and travel cost is editable, and nothing is locked. Buddy gives you a researched starting point; your trip is still yours.

These estimates are for planning and guidance only. They are not financial or travel advice — always check current prices before booking or committing money.