US road trip and national park tools

Travel Budget Calculator

Enter your trip's days, travelers and costs to get the budget you need, per person and per day, with a cushion for surprises.

The travel budget calculator adds up the costs of a trip, adds a contingency on top, and compares the total with a budget you set. You enter the number of days, travelers, and nights in lodging. Then you enter amounts for transportation, lodging, food, activities, and other costs. The results show the total budget needed, the cost per person, and the cost per person per day, along with a breakdown by category.

It works as a trip budget calculator, a vacation budget calculator, or a travel budget planner for a weekend in one city or a longer road trip. All amounts are in US dollars.

The tool runs in your browser. It is free and needs no sign-up. You type every amount yourself, because the tool does not store or look up prices.

Travel budget calculator example

How to use the Travel budget calculator

  1. Pick a preset, such as “National park week, 4 people,” “City weekend, 2 people,” or “Family road trip, 5 days.” Or keep the starting values and change them.
  2. Set Days, Travelers, and Nights in lodging. A warning appears if nights are more than days.
  3. Enter Transportation ($). Then choose how it applies in Transportation is: Whole group, whole trip; Whole group, per day; Per person, whole trip; or Per person, per day.
  4. Enter Lodging per night, all rooms ($). This is one nightly figure for every room.
  5. Enter Food per person per day ($).
  6. Enter Activities and tickets ($), and choose a basis in Activities are.
  7. Enter Other costs ($), and choose a basis in Other costs are.
  8. Set Contingency (%).
  9. Optional: enter Your total budget, optional ($) to compare your plan with what you can spend.
  10. Read the results: Total budget needed, Per person, Per person per day, Per day, whole group, Subtotal before contingency, Contingency amount, and Compared with your budget. The table “Budget by category” shows the amount, per person, and share for each category. The steps panel explains each calculation.

Use the presets to start fast. To keep a record, use Print / save as PDF to save the plan as a file.

How do I make a travel budget?

List every cost of the trip in five groups: transportation, lodging, food, activities, and other costs. Multiply each group by the right number, add the results, then add a cushion and divide by the number of travelers.

Lodging is the nightly rate times the nights. Food is the daily rate times the travelers times the days. Transportation, activities, and other costs are multiplied by 1, by days, by travelers, or by travelers times days, depending on the basis you choose. The default trip shows how this adds up: $450 transportation, $900 lodging, $1,540 food, $120 activities, and $210 other costs make a subtotal of $3,220.

How do I find the cost per person per day?

Divide the total by the number of travelers, then divide by the number of days. The tool shows this as Per person per day.

For the default trip, $3,542 ÷ 4 travelers ÷ 7 days is $126.50 per person per day. The tool also shows Per person ($885.50 for the default trip), which is the total divided by travelers.

How much contingency should I add?

The tool starts at 10%, which is a planning choice and not a rule. A contingency is a cushion on top of the subtotal for costs you did not expect, such as a price increase or a delay.

The contingency is the subtotal times the percentage, and the total is the subtotal plus the contingency. For example, a $1,000 subtotal with 15% gives $1,150. The tool shows a warning if you enter more than 50% or 0%.

Can I compare with my budget?

Yes. Enter a number in Your total budget, optional ($), and the tool shows Compared with your budget as “$X left of $Y” or “$X over $Y.” The comparison is your budget minus the total.

In one example, a 4-day trip for 3 people with a 0% contingency totals $1,900. With a 10% contingency it totals $2,090. Against a $2,000 budget, the 10% version is $90 over.

Worked examples

InputResult
7 days, 4 travelers, 6 nights, 10% contingency$3,542.00 total, $885.50 per person
3 days, 2 travelers, 2 nights, 10% contingency$1,320.00 total, $660.00 per person
5 days, 4 travelers, 4 nights, 15% contingency$3,616.75 total, $904.19 per person — $883.25 left of $4,500.00
10 days, 1 traveler, 9 nights, 5% contingency$2,220.75 total, $2,220.75 per person — $220.75 over $2,000.00

Calculated by the tool above; open it with the same values to see each step.

Frequently asked questions

Does it convert currencies?

No. The tool works only in US dollars and does not use exchange rates. Convert your costs to dollars before you enter them.

Is it for road trips?

Yes. Use Transportation ($) for gas and other travel costs. For more detail on fuel, use the road trip cost calculator.

Can I print the plan?

Yes. Use Print / save as PDF to print the results or save them as a PDF file.

Does the tool know current prices?

No. It has no stored prices, so you type every amount. Check current rates on official or booking sites. For park fees, the National Park Service (NPS) and Recreation.gov publish the figures. The amounts shown on the page are placeholders and are not current prices.

Can I share my budget?

Yes. Use “Copy link”: the link keeps every amount and setting, so the people you travel with open the same budget.

What does “per person per day” include?

Everything: transportation, lodging, food, activities, other costs and the contingency, divided by travelers and by days. Use it to compare trips of different lengths, or to check a daily allowance for each traveler. A trip with a higher total can still cost less per person per day if it is longer or shared by more people.