Trip Planner

Total trip budget —

Per traveller: —
Per day: —
Days of spending: —
Lodging total: —

Where the budget goes

The chart appears with your result

A trip budget is lodging (nights × rooms × nightly rate) plus daily costs for nights + 1 days, plus fares, plus a safety margin. Four people in two $120 rooms for 7 nights, eating $40 a day each, with $350 fares, $30 a day transport and $15 a day activities, need $5,080, or $5,588 with a 10% margin.

About this tool

Most trip budgets go wrong in the same two places: lodging counted per person when it is billed per room, and daily spending counted for the nights rather than the days. This planner keeps those apart. Enter the nights, the travellers and how many rooms you book, then the nightly rate, daily food and activities per person, the group's daily transport and each traveller's return fare. It returns the total, the cost per traveller and per day, a table of each cost line with its share, and a donut chart of where the money goes, which you can download as PNG, SVG or CSV. A contingency slider adds a margin for the things nobody lists. The figures are in one currency of your choice; it does not look up prices, taxes or exchange rates for you.

How to use it

Set the trip size
Use the steppers for nights away, travellers and rooms booked. Rooms cannot exceed travellers.
Enter the costs
Give the nightly rate per room, food and activities per traveller per day, transport for the whole group per day, and each traveller's return fare.
Add a margin
Move the contingency slider; 10 to 15% covers tips, snacks and a missed connection on most trips.
Apply the travel-day rule if you need it
Tick the checkbox to count food on the first and last day at 75%, as US federal per diem does.

Examples

A 3-night work trip at the GSA standard rate

Nights away: 3
Travellers: 1
Rooms booked: 1
Lodging per room: 110
Food per traveller: 68
Local transport for the group: 0
Activities per traveller: 0
Return fare per traveller: 0
Contingency: 0
Count food on the first and last day at 75%: Yes

Result Total trip budget: $568.00
Per traveller: $568.00
Per day: $142.00
Days of spending: 4
Lodging total: $330.00

Days of spending = 3 nights + 1 = 4
Lodging = 3 × 1 room(s) × $110.00 = $330.00
Food = 3.5 meal days × 1 × $68.00 = $238.00 (first and last day at 75%)
Local transport = 4 × $0.00 = $0.00
Activities = 4 × 1 × $0.00 = $0.00
Fares = 1 × $0.00 = $0.00

Three nights at $110 plus meals for four days, the first and last at 75%, give the same $568 a federal traveller could claim.

Four people, two rooms, one week

Nights away: 7
Travellers: 4
Rooms booked: 2
Lodging per room: 120
Food per traveller: 40
Local transport for the group: 30
Activities per traveller: 15
Return fare per traveller: 350
Contingency: 10
Count food on the first and last day at 75%: No

Result Total trip budget: $5,588.00
Per traveller: $1,397.00
Per day: $698.50
Days of spending: 8
Lodging total: $1,680.00

Days of spending = 7 nights + 1 = 8
Lodging = 7 × 2 room(s) × $120.00 = $1,680.00
Food = 8 meal days × 4 × $40.00 = $1,280.00
Local transport = 8 × $30.00 = $240.00
Activities = 8 × 4 × $15.00 = $480.00
Fares = 4 × $350.00 = $1,400.00

Lodging is $1,680 and fares $1,400; with food, transport and activities the costs reach $5,080, and a 10% margin brings the budget to $5,588.

How it is calculated

Total = (N × R × L + D × P × F + D × T + D × P × A + P × E) × (1 + C ÷ 100), with D = N + 1

N: nights away
R: rooms booked
L: lodging rate per room per night
D: days of spending
P: travellers
F, A: food and activities per traveller per day
T: local transport for the group per day
E: return fare per traveller
C: contingency percentage

A trip of N nights touches N + 1 calendar days, so daily costs run one day longer than lodging. Lodging is billed per room, so sharing a room lowers the per-person figure. With the travel-day option on, the food days become D − 2 + 2 × 0.75, the rule the US General Services Administration applies to per diem meals on departure and return days. The contingency is applied to the sum of every cost line.

When not to use it

For package holidays where flights, rooms and meals are sold as one price.
For trips mixing several currencies, unless you convert every amount first.
For claiming a federal per diem, where the official GSA rate for the city applies.

Common mistakes

Entering a per-person room price as the room rate, which multiplies lodging by the group size twice.
Budgeting food for the nights only and missing the final day.
Leaving the contingency at zero for a long trip abroad.
Entering a one-way fare in the return fare field.

Frequently asked questions

Why are there more days than nights?

You arrive on day one and leave on the last day, so a 7-night stay spans 8 calendar days. Meals, transport and activities happen on each of those days, while the hotel charges only for the 7 nights.

How much contingency is sensible?

Many planners use 10% for a domestic trip and 15 to 20% for travel abroad, where card fees, tips and price surprises are larger. The slider goes to 50% for trips with very uncertain costs.

What does the 75% travel-day option do?

It counts the daily food amount at three quarters on the day you leave and the day you come home, the way the US GSA per diem treats meals and incidentals on travel days. On a 3-night trip at $68 a day that saves $34.

How do I split the cost between travellers who share rooms?

The per-traveller figure divides the whole total evenly. If two people share a room while others have their own, the even split is only an average; adjust by hand for an exact share.

Where do car rental and fuel go?

Put them in local transport for the group per day. A $45 daily car hire plus $15 of fuel is $60 a day, which the planner multiplies by the days of spending.

Does the table show which cost is largest?

Yes. Each line has its amount and its share of the total, and the donut chart draws the same split, so a lodging share above half is easy to spot when deciding where to save.

Cite this tool

Using this tool in an assignment, article or report? Copy a citation, or a link for your website.

APA

Tools Directory Editorial Team. (2026, October 8). Trip Planner. Tools Directory. Retrieved October 26, 2026, from https://tools.milunir.com/travel/accommodation-and-packing/trip-planner/

MLA

Tools Directory Editorial Team. “Trip Planner.” Tools Directory, 8 Oct. 2026, https://tools.milunir.com/travel/accommodation-and-packing/trip-planner/. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Tools Directory Editorial Team. “Trip Planner.” Tools Directory. Last modified October 8, 2026. Accessed October 26, 2026. https://tools.milunir.com/travel/accommodation-and-packing/trip-planner/.

Link<a href="https://tools.milunir.com/travel/accommodation-and-packing/trip-planner/">Trip Planner – Tools Directory</a>