AI-modeled data study
Trip Cost Index 2026
What 140 AI-generated itineraries across 56 countries say about the cost of travel in 2026.
Read this before you quote anything below.
These figures are estimates, not booked prices. Every number comes from itineraries generated by our planner, which prices each item in a trip: hotel nights, meals, getting around, entry tickets and travel between cities. They are directional: useful for comparing destinations and trip lengths, not for booking decisions. We have not verified them against actual traveler spending.
Updated October 3, 2026: method changed.
The first edition (August 7, 2026, 238 itineraries) priced each trip as the midpoint of a modeled budget range. That put the median trip at $1,250 and the median day at $207. This edition adds up each trip's priced items instead, which puts the median trip at $2,156 and the median day at $365, across 140 itineraries. Figures quoted from the first edition do not compare with the ones below. Posts on this site written from the first edition still quote its figures until they are refreshed.
All figures are on-the-ground costs: stays, food, activities, getting around and travel between cities. Flights to and from home are excluded.
Daily cost drops once a trip reaches a week
Trips of 3 to 5 days run a median $414 to $427 a day. From 7 days on, the figure settles at $322 to $328, so past a week more days add to the total but barely move the daily rate. The index does not separate trip length from destination; read this as a pattern in the corpus, not a rule.
| Trip length | Itineraries | Median per day | Median trip total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 days | 22 | $414 | $1,241 |
| 4 days | 11 | $427 | $1,709 |
| 5 days | 17 | $420 | $2,102 |
| 7 days | 43 | $328 | $2,296 |
| 10 days | 34 | $324 | $3,242 |
| 14 days | 9 | $322 | $4,514 |
A 5.8× gap between the cheapest and priciest countries
Switzerland runs a median $854/day, 5.8× Thailand's $147/day, with Iceland close behind at $801/day.
| Country | Itineraries | Median per day |
|---|---|---|
| Thailand | 4 | $147 |
| Portugal | 5 | $260 |
| Spain | 7 | $273 |
| Italy | 11 | $288 |
| Greece | 4 | $310 |
| Japan | 4 | $388 |
| United States | 27 | $397 |
| France | 3 | $404 |
| Ireland | 4 | $420 |
| United Kingdom | 5 | $448 |
| Austria | 4 | $461 |
| Iceland | 5 | $801 |
| Switzerland | 3 | $854 |
Single-country trips only, countries with at least 3 itineraries. Multi-country routes are excluded from country medians.
Swaps that make the gap concrete
Every pair below links to a real itinerary on this site, with its trip cost.
| The cheap option | Costs about as much as… |
|---|---|
| A full week in Bali ($893) | three days in Tokyo ($1,237) Seven days in Bali costs less than a Tokyo long weekend. |
| A week in Laos ($745) | the same week in Switzerland ($5,516) Identical length, about seven times the price. |
| A week in Egypt ($1,022) | five days in Paris ($2,656) Two extra days, and still $1,634 cheaper. |
| Five days in Palawan ($762) | five days in London ($2,554) An island itinerary at under a third of the London bill. |
What a museum ticket costs
Museum prices are no longer modeled here. They have their own study, read from each museum's own website rather than from itineraries. See what 1,086 museums charge tourists.
What local dishes cost
The food guides price 1,054 local dishes across 33 countries. A typical dish in Morocco runs $1.80; in Faroe Islands it's $21.50.
| Iconic dish | Country | Typical price |
|---|---|---|
| Bánh Mì | Vietnam | $1.50 |
| Pastel de Nata | Portugal | $2.00 |
| Pad Thai | Thailand | $3.00 |
| Gyros | Greece | $4.50 |
| Tonkotsu Ramen | Japan | $12.50 |
| Pizza Napoletana | Italy | $12.50 |
| Wiener Schnitzel | Austria | $25.00 |
| Lobster Roll | United States | $28.50 |
Median dish price, all 33 countries
| Country | Dishes priced | Median price |
|---|---|---|
| Morocco | 10 | $1.80 |
| Vietnam | 10 | $2.00 |
| Tanzania | 10 | $2.50 |
| China | 24 | $3.20 |
| Thailand | 32 | $3.50 |
| Ecuador | 10 | $3.80 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 10 | $4.20 |
| Laos | 10 | $4.50 |
| Maldives | 10 | $4.50 |
| Netherlands | 14 | $5.20 |
| Peru | 10 | $5.50 |
| Puerto Rico | 15 | $6.00 |
| Russia | 10 | $6.20 |
| Spain | 60 | $6.50 |
| Austria | 33 | $7.00 |
| Argentina | 25 | $7.50 |
| Costa Rica | 17 | $7.50 |
| United Kingdom | 34 | $8.80 |
| New Zealand | 16 | $9.00 |
| Greece | 42 | $9.20 |
| Chile | 11 | $9.50 |
| France | 22 | $10.50 |
| Portugal | 45 | $11.00 |
| Italy | 99 | $11.00 |
| Croatia | 20 | $11.50 |
| Iceland | 36 | $11.50 |
| Japan | 29 | $11.50 |
| Canada | 12 | $11.80 |
| United States | 206 | $12.00 |
| Ireland | 30 | $13.00 |
| Norway | 20 | $14.50 |
| Switzerland | 30 | $20.00 |
| Faroe Islands | 10 | $21.50 |
Dishes from single-country trips only, countries with at least 10 priced dishes.
Where the money goes
Across all 140 trips, accommodation and food take the largest shares of the on-the-ground cost, at 31% and 31% of the median trip. Local transport takes the smallest, 10%.
| Category | Median share of trip cost |
|---|---|
| Accommodation | 31% |
| Food | 31% |
| Activities | 25% |
| Local transport | 10% |
Median share of each category across all trips. Travel between cities counts as local transport. Medians are computed per category, so the four numbers do not sum to exactly 100.
Methodology
- Corpus: 140 itineraries generated by MonkeyEatingMango's planner (of 141 total; 1 lacked a trip cost), covering 56 countries. Snapshot date: 2026-10-03.
- Trip cost = each itinerary's priced cost total in USD, from its itemised trip cost: accommodation at the comfortable hotel midpoint, food and getting around at a mid-range rate, entry tickets priced from official sources where available, and travel between cities. Flights to and from home are excluded. Cost per day = trip cost divided by trip length. Medians throughout; no averages.
- The trip cost covers the itinerary's traveler count. 136 of 140 itineraries are for two travelers, so headline numbers describe a trip for two.
- Country medians use single-country trips with at least 3 itineraries. Duration rows need at least 5.
- Dish prices: every priced dish in the food guides of single-country trips (1,054 dishes), using the midpoint of each dish's price range. Countries need at least 10 priced dishes.
- Category shares: each trip's cost by category (accommodation, food, activities, local transport) as a share of the four categories' sum, with travel between places counted as local transport; medians per category.
- These are estimates. They are not booked prices, not surveyed spending, and not independently verified.
How to cite
“According to AI travel planner MonkeyEatingMango's Trip Cost Index, an analysis of 140 AI-generated itineraries…” with a link to monkeyeatingmango.com/research/travel-cost-index/. Please keep the “AI-generated estimates” framing: these are not traveler surveys. Data and charts are licensed CC BY 4.0: free to republish with attribution.
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