How to Create a Travel Budget Template

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Who says you can’t travel while on a budget? If traveling is one of your priorities, incorporating travel into your budget is a necessity! This will ensure you have a plan and can actually afford to travel.

Not only should you include travel in your personal budget, but you should create a separate budget for each one of your trips or vacations. Creating a travel budget will guarantee you know exactly how much you can expect to spend and let you afford to travel.

Lucky for you, I love excel and have created a Travel Budget Template for google sheets that I use every time I’m planning a vacation! Snag your own copy!

Why you should have a travel budget.

The biggest reason to have a travel budget is peace of mind.

The point of a vacation is to relax and have fun. Nothing is going to buzz kill your vacation more than worrying about how you’re going to pay for it. With a travel budget you have a plan.

You know how much you want to spend and how much you can expect to spend. The hope of a travel budget is to prepare you for your travels in advance. Your trip costs are already accounted for because you created a plan for how to pay for them.

It’s time for you to travel on budget!

How to choose a travel destination.

The first step when making a travel budget is where you are planning to go. Your travel budget will change drastically depending on your destination.

Make a list of all the destinations you wish to see!

If you want to be able to travel and stay on budget, your budget should decide where you are traveling. Don’t break the bank to go see London (or somewhere else notoriously expensive). You can always go visit some other time when you’ve saved up more money.

Making a list of all the places you would like to visit will make your decision much simpler. There are plenty of places to travel for cheap and I guarantee you’ll have a few on your list!

So just start by writing out some places you want to travel.

Come up with a number you want to spend TOTAL.

Now this part is key. How much money are you ok spending on this vacation?

Do you want your trip to be less than $1,000? Whatever number you decide will dictate your travel budget.

Research Expected Costs

Once you have your magic number in mind, do some research about the average cost of traveling for all the places on your list.

This should be general research! You don’t need to get too specific yet. You just want a general idea of how much you should expect to pay total if you visited for a week (or however long you want your trip to be).

If you’re having some trouble researching; Numbeo is a great resource that can easily help you compare costs in different cities.

After doing some research and comparing prices, decide where you want to go based on what you can afford.

Let your budget decide the destination.

You can still have amazing vacations while on a budget! Additionally, you can slowly start learning more about how to save money for trips, how to save money while traveling, and how to find cheap hotels and flights!

You will have plenty of time to go back to those more expensive destinations. For now, let’s focus on places to travel for cheap.

Read more about how to save money for travel here.

Step-by-Step Guide to Making your Perfect Vacation Budget Spreadsheet.

Just in case you missed it! Grab my Travel Budget Spreadsheet so you can learn how to travel on budget!.

Step 1: Filling out your budget and understanding its components.

If you are an excel nerd like me, this is the fun part! We’re starting to make the travel budget!

You have to remember this budget is your best ESTIMATE based on the research you’re doing. The point of this is to have a general idea of how much you can expect to spend on your vacation.

This is different from what you have actually spent, make sure you are doing this BEFORE booking anything! You are creating the basic framework that will allow you to stay on budget. You will be able to use the prices you’ve identified here as a guide when making your actual purchases.

First we need to understand all the budget categories involved.

Flights

You want to make sure you are accounting for ALL your flights. Especially If you’re planning on taking more than one.

Browse around to see what a realistic flight price is.

Learn How to get Cheaper Flights. Learning the best way to get cheap flights is going to save you a lot of money when traveling.

Odds are your flight is the most expensive part of your trip. Finding a way to cut down this cost can give you a good amount of wiggle room on your travel budget.

Additionally, don’t shy away from using credit card points!! I just booked a completely FREE round trip flight from SFO to Greece for my boyfriend and I using my Capital One Venture card!

Accommodations

How long are you planning on staying? You want to make sure each day is accounted for. Look to see what kind of accommodations are available and how much they cost.

I’ve also conveniently written How to find Cheap Lodging so you can learn all about how to find cheap hotels.

Transportation

Are you going to need a car? Will you rely on public transit? Is there a bus pass? Dig into your specific city so you know what to expect when you get there.

Activities

The whole reason why we travel right? The activities! Whether that be sitting in a cute cafe and people watching, going to the beach or checking out a museum. Look into what activities you hope to do while abroad.

How much will those activities cost? Are you trying to book an excursion? Ask yourself these questions to make sure you’re not leaving anything out!

Food

What is the plan for food? This is probably one of the most difficult areas to estimate.

Depending on where you are traveling, food costs can vary greatly.

Check out my budget travel tips for How to Save Money When Travelling for more ideas to decrease your food budget while abroad!

Misc.

There is inevitably going to be something we haven’t accounted for. I like to use the miscellaneous budget category as a cushion to make sure we don’t go over budget.

It’s always good to set aside some money in your travel budget for unexpected emergencies!

Step 2: Booking your trip.

Now that you have your budget, it’s time to actually start booking! Your budget will serve as your guide when making purchases. However, remember the important number is the total amount you want to spend.

It’s more than ok to adjust the amounts you are spending per category! If one category is looking to be more expensive than expected, make sure to cut back on another one of the categories to make up for it.

For example, if you’re looking for flights and accomodations and you realize your flight is going to cost you more, book a cheaper accommodation to make up the difference!

At the end of the day, if you only want to spend $1,000 dollars, it doesn’t matter how that is allocated. The budget just serves as a framework so you have a general idea of how much you should be spending for each category. You will also be able to compare and contrast the budget you set for yourself with your actual expenses.

Read more about how to save money for trips and how to save money while planning your trips!

Step 3: Track your expenses!

The only way to check how you did is by tracking your travel expenses while you’re out traveling. You now know roughly how much everything should cost, so make sure to track your travel expenses as you plan your trip and while actually on the trip!

My vacation budget spreadsheet lets you track your expenses and will automatically compare the budget you created to your actual expenses to see if you overspent!

There are also several travel apps that you could use to track your travel expenses if that’s easier for you!

Travel on Budget Tips.

Feel free to change locations.

If you selected a location and after doing more research on it, you think it will be a bit too expensive, change locations! There are so many beautiful, fun places to see, you can always make it back to the original location you wanted to go. The time you spent researching isn’t wasted because you’ll be able to use that information later on.

Save money to travel.

Start saving money for travel in advance. Start saving monthly, before even planning a trip. If you already have money assigned for travel, it doesn’t feel like such a burden when it’s time to purchase flight tickets.

Check out this post discussing how to save money for trips!

Budget for emergencies.

There are always going to be unexpected expenses while traveling. Did it all of a sudden start raining and you need an umbrella? Did you stay out too late so the metro closed and you needed to call a taxi? What if your hostel doesn’t have free towels? Assign some extra emergency money to be prepared.

Additionally, give yourself a little wiggle room in your budget. This means if you think a hostel will cost 100 dollars total for your trip, budget 130. Have a cushion you’re willing to spend. This will ensure your budget is not unrealistic and you’ll be able to stick to it!

Don’t pay ATM fees and foreign transaction fees.

There are so many credit cards that have no foreign transaction fees so there is NO NEED for you to pay these. I personally use the Capital One Venture card and Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card to avoid these fees!

Depending on where you are traveling, odds are you are going to need cash instead of a credit card. However, many debit cards charge 5 dollars for withdrawing from foreign ATMs.

Don’t let this happen to you!! There are many debit cards that waive the foreign transaction fee. You have no excuses here, don’t pay these fees! They’re very easily avoidable!

6 most overlooked travel expenses to include in your budget.

Getting to and from the airport. How are you getting to the airport? Yes you have a transportation budget but does that include the Lyft you need from your apartment to the airport?

Lunch and dinner have different prices. When thinking about food, take a special look at the difference between lunch and dinner menus. You’d be surprised how big of a price difference lunch and dinner may have.

Cell phone service. Are you getting a sim card, relying on wifi or paying your provider for service abroad. There are several options you can go with. Make sure to consider your options before leaving. I specifically switched to T-Mobile because they have 3G coverage included in 210+ countries, so I never have to worry about not having service.

Spontaneous activities. There is always going to be something cool to do that you didn’t know existed. You never want to feel like you missed out because you couldn’t pay for it.

Visas. Depending on where you are traveling and how long you’re staying, you may need a visa. Make sure to research if a visa is necessary and how much it will cost to get one. Several countries allow you to purchase a visa when you arrive but some may have you go to the embassy in your home country.

Tips. Some restaurants add an automatic tipping fee, but, you might want to consider tipping during your activities. It never hurts to show some gratitude to a guide when you’ve loved your excursion.

There may also be some free activities that rely on tips. The reason those activities can be free is because people tip them at the end. Read more about your country’s tipping culture.

Final Thoughts

Travel on budget with my Travel Budget Spreadsheet!

Everyone should be able to see the world regardless of what income they have. Planning ahead and creating a travel budget you can stick to, will help decrease the stress of spending money. There are so many ways to decrease your travel expenses and I’m confident you’ll be able to travel more because of them!

Check out my Hawaii travel cost post to see how I put my travel budget spreadsheet to use!

Need help with your budget? Send me an email!

What is your next travel destination?

How to Create a Travel Budget Template | Travel on Budget