free travel budget spreadsheet

Travel Budget Worksheet

Are you planning a major trip? Will you be able to stay within your budget? Rather than just spending without a plan and then dealing with the debt for the next few years, use our travel budget template to list your travel expenses. It will help you estimate your total travel costs and see if you will be able to take your trip without going over budget.

License : Private Use (not for distribution or resale)

Authors: Jon Wittwer and Jim Wittwer

Description

This travel budget template makes it easy to enter your travel expenses for your next trip. The top section allows you to set a total budget, and as you enter your travel costs you can quickly see where the money is going, how much extra you'll have, or how much you'll need to add to your budget.

The worksheet is set up to let you enter a quantity and unit cost for each item. For example, for lodging you can enter the number of nights you will be staying and the cost per night. If you will be driving rather than flying, you can enter the total miles and the cost per mile. Remember to include both fuel and wear as part of the cost (see the link below for what the IRS uses as the standard mileage rate - $0.56/mile in 2014).

Additional Resources

• Be sure to check out our Travel Itinerary and Packing List templates.
• IRS Publication showing Standard Mileage Rates at irs.gov - You might consider using the standard mileage rate if you are estimating the cost of driving.
• Tips for Creating a Budget for Travel at wikihow.com - This article is actually a really good resource to help you remember what to consider when budgeting for a trip.

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Traveling is always fun and interesting. However, travel is always associated with various kinds of expenses, which are best foreseen in advance. If you want to always be sure that you have chosen the right budget for your trip, then we recommend using any travel budgeting template from TheGoodocs . Our amazing Google Sheets templates are always the best option to save time and money.

Just imagine that you won't need to understand spreadsheet functionalities and built-in instruments, but you'll still get a professional, well-structured, and well-designed budget plan. We have a traveling budget template for any personal or business need. It does not matter if you work in a travel agency or just going on vacation and want to calculate its cost in advance. You will definitely find the right option only with us.

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How to Make a Travel Budget in 2023 [Free Template]

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Table of Contents

Can you afford to travel, the 2 approaches to travel budgets, travel budget template worksheet, travel budget considerations, websites to help research travel costs, the best apps for travel budgets and expense tracking, saving for your vacation, final thoughts.

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Creating a travel budget isn’t all about boring spreadsheets and searching for low budget bargains — a finely-crafted budget it is designed to maximize your total travel experience.

Let’s start out easy here. You may have dreams of globetrotting and living your best life in distant lands, but can you actually afford it?

The amount you have to spend on your trip will need to be proportionate to the place you are visiting. By that, we mean that some destinations can be done on the cheap, while others will be a bit more of an investment.

Where you want to stay, what you intend to do when you get there, and physically how far away you will be from home can all have a considerable bearing on how deep your pockets will need to be.

Before you book yourself silly, really break down the potential costs of your dream trip and tally it up with the amount of money you will realistically have to fund it.

Bottom Line: Sometimes, it may be better to put your plans on hold until you have saved up enough cash to really experience a place, rather than rushing to get there and missing out on some of the best bits.

Whether you are a plan-well-in-advance sort of traveler or more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of person, there are different ways to approach setting out your budget based on what works best for you.

Plan Your Adventure Well in Advance

The most traditional way to book a vacation is to think of somewhere you want to go, plan your vacation dates, and decide how long you want to stay. This kind of advanced planning is the usual go-to for most travelers, as it allows you to book time off of work or plan trips around school semesters, and gives you the opportunity to firm up plans before you leave.

Knowing when and where you are going also has another key advantage — it gives you plenty of time to save up all the cash you will need to really enjoy your time there. Booking in advance also means you get your choice of cheaper accommodation at better rates.

Book months in advance and you can research your planned itinerary and potential expenditure, and maybe even save enough extra for upgrades of luxuries to make your adventure truly special. This kind of planning is a great incentive for saving hard.

Travel Based on Your Bank Balance

If, on the other hand, you want to take your cash and get the hell out of dodge, you can work backward to identify the most amount of fun you can have for your money. If you are feeling lucky, and you know how much you are willing to spend, the world really is your oyster.

The awesome power of the internet has made impulse traveling even easier, as you can simply hit up any number of booking sites to find an exciting destination, as well as suitable flights, accommodation, and excursions in just a few clicks.

Another great way to make your budget go further is to think outside the box. Visiting popular destinations out of season, taking shorter vacation times, or even looking at places away from the main tourist trail can all make your money go further.

A trip to the legendary Yosemite National Park during April or May, for example, is a great way to experience some of the most iconic open spaces in America before the schools let out, or hit the beaches of Miami or the Florida Keys during September and October when tourists shy away from the increased risk of stormy weather.

You can also look at alternatives to the more traditional resort destinations to get more bang for your buck. Consider a trip to Reno instead of Las Vegas, hit the slopes in Winter Park instead of the sky-high prices in Vail, or take in the history of Williamsburg and avoid the price tags of New York or Los Angeles on your next city break.

To help you plan and keep track of your travel budget we have created a free, handy Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

📋  Click to Download Our Travel Budget Template >  📋

When planning your travel budget, there are lots of different things to consider. Break down your budget into subsections to make it easier to plan and stick to:

Passport and Visas

One of the most essential elements of your travel plan will revolve around the legal and local requirements for travel to and from your destination. You must research any visa requirements and restrictions before you fly, and be sure to have all the documentation you need before you leave.

Most countries will have their own individual and very specific entry requirements, and there may be restrictions on how much local currency you can bring with you, as well as how long you can stay.

As a very rough guide, some examples of the requirements for U.S. citizens could include:

• Travel to Europe — If you are traveling to or through any of the main 26 European countries, you must know the requirements of the Schengen Agreement, which eliminates borders and assumes that travelers will be able to enjoy up to 3-months of visa-free travel. This will change in January 2021 with the introduction of the ETIAS .
• Travel to Australia — You must have a valid U.S. passport and an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) to enjoy up to 90 days of travel in Australia.
• Travel to Central America — You will not need a visa to visit most Central American countries, but you may need a tourist card for some destinations (~$10) to allow stays of up to 90 days visa-free.
• Travel To South Africa — You must have a valid U.S. passport, but do not need a visa for stays of 30 days or less.

Check out our guide to tourist visa information on over 100 countries.

Travel Insurance

There are many great reasons why you should always buy travel insurance coverage for your trips overseas, and only 1 reason not to. Trust us. If the worst should happen while you are away, you will wish you hadn’t tried to save money by skipping on the insurance, so make sure you always make space for travel insurance in your travel budget .

The best travel insurance policy does not necessarily have to be the most expensive one you find, but it probably won’t be the cheapest either. With this in mind, shop around and speak to a variety of providers before committing to any 1 product.

There will be different levels of coverage available to suit the requirements of every type of traveler, from lone backpackers to family vacations, but at the very least you should try to include:

• Emergency medical expenses
• Repatriation expenses
• Cancellation or curtailment coverage
• Lost baggage coverage
• Travel delay/missed departure coverage
• Journey disruption coverage
• Personal liability coverage
• Legal expenses coverage
• Electronics loss/theft and damage coverage

Depending on where you go, what you’ll be doing, and the nature of your trip, you may want to also consider dedicated financial protection that could include specific coverage for:

• Winter sports coverage
• Terrorism disruption coverage
• Cruise coverage
• Business coverage
• Sports equipment coverage

It is important to remember that the domestic health insurance that you use at home will not necessarily cover you if you get into medical trouble overseas . Don’t leave it to chance — invest wisely in your travel insurance and never skimp on the coverage just to save yourself a few bucks before you go.

You should also look into insurance coverage for your prized electrical items and personal belongings, too . While we would recommend leaving the diamonds at home, unless you are going somewhere exceptionally glamorous, many of us will take expensive electronics with us everywhere we go.

Find coverage that offers repairs or replacement for damaged, broken, lost, or stolen items before you go.

Hot Tip: There are some credit cards with travel insurance , so you might already have some coverage without knowing it!

Vaccinations

Some parts of the world pose more of a risk to our health than others. By ensuring that you have all the travel vaccinations you need before you go, you can reduce the risk of developing serious diseases that your immune system may not be used to.

You can pretty much be vaccinated against all of the world’s most common communicable diseases at your local doctor’s office, health care center, or health department, and there will be medical professionals who will be able to provide you with useful information for your trip.

You will need to do your own research before you travel and speak to healthcare providers about the risks. But, as a rough guide to keep in mind when planning your travel budget, here are some of the most common travel vaccinations and their approximate costs:

• Cholera — A single-dose oral vaccine costs around $45.
• Hepatitis A — A single-dose vaccine costs around $115.
• Japanese Encephalitis — 2 doses given 4 weeks apart costs around $290 per injection.
• Meningococcal Disease — This single-dose vaccine is recommended from pre-teenage years and costs around $135.
• Rabies — A series of 3 or 4 injections into the muscles over the course of 4 weeks costs around $3000 for the entire course.
• Typhoid Fever — A single oral dose for anyone over 6 years old costs around $60.
• Yellow Fever — This vaccine is not stocked everywhere, but if you can find a clinic that offers it, you will need a single shot costing as much as $350.
• Malaria — There is no single vaccine, but antimalarial tablets can be taken to reduce the risk of contracting the disease by 90%. These may need to be taken as far as 3 months in advance and can cost anything from $20 a pack up to $260 per pack.

Clothes, Gear, and Toiletries

What you need to take with you will depend very much on where you headed. Whether you choose to travel light or max out your luggage allowance is up to you, but there are plenty of ways to help keep costs down when it comes to packing for your next adventure.

Compile a Capsule Wardrobe

Travel guides always bang on about the legendary “capsule wardrobe” — but it literally is a real thing. By taking 7 or 8 items of clothing with you that can be worn in a variety of ways you can dress for days at a time without worrying about overfilling your luggage or maxing out your travel budget.

Choose 2 pants, skirts or jeans, 3 tops, 1 sweater, 1 dress or a smart shirt and a coat or jacket, and you should be pretty much good to go. Throw in beachwear, sports gear, or thermals as-needed and some socks and underwear to see yourself sorted for the duration of your stay.

Another way to keep costs down is to avoid buying new stuff for every vacation . Your favorite bikini, flip flops, party dress, or even hoodie should be shown off time and time again, so never feel the need to replace your vacation clothing unless you really need to.

Here are some destination-specific packing lists:

• Beach Vacation Packing List
• Cruise Vacation Packing List
• Disney Vacation Packing List

If you want to take your travel camera with you, your GoPro for awesome live video, your phone, tablet, laptop, headphones , or any other bits of kit — think carefully about whether or not you really need it.

Taking more expensive gear with you increases the risk of stuff getting lost, broken, or stolen, as well as weighing your luggage down and tying you to charging ports and electrical sockets.

Keeping Clean

Most people like to have their favorite toiletries with them, but save money and space in your luggage by not taking full-size products.

You needn’t even worry about wasting money on cute little travel size products either. Simply decant your full-size bottles and pots into smaller travel containers instead . This is super easy to do, meets with TSA regulations, and saves you a few dollars here and there.

Alternatively, buy what you need when you arrive. Most destinations and airports will have plenty of shops to choose from. One area where you shouldn’t cut costs, however, is sunscreen. Buy the best you can, ideally from a trusted brand, before you leave.

Finally, check if the airline you are using charges extra for checked baggage and if so, see if you can get away with just a carry-on case instead.

The amount you pay for your flights will vary widely depending on a wide number of variants, including:

• Your destination
• Who you choose to fly with
• Whether you fly direct
• Whether you fly return or one-way
• The day of the week and time of day that you fly, and even the time of year
• Where you fly from
• When you book

There are many different ways to fly around the skies, but here are some ways to bag cheaper flights :

• Use Points and Miles — If you aren’t accumulating points to fly, read this beginner’s guide to get started.
• Book as Early as You Can — Flights often significantly increase in price within 3 weeks of the departure date.
• Stay Flexible — Flights leaving on different days or at times of day can be cheaper than others.
• Don’t Dismiss Discount Airlines — Short journeys, internal flights, and even some international journeys can be way cheaper on discount, no-frills airlines.
• Sign Up and Shop Around — Sign up with airlines direct to be notified of discounts and flash sales, and be sure to check in on all airlines that fly to your preferred destination.
• Use Aggregation Sites — Sometimes this is a winner, sometimes it isn’t — but don’t be afraid to try. Sites like Kayak or Skyscanner can be good, but don’t just accept the first price they give you.
• Buy Connecting Flights — It can be cheaper to buy 2 separate connecting flights than a direct 1. Check your destination and see who stops where along the route.

Accommodation

Again, how much you spend on where you stay is entirely up to you. Keeping costs down can be harder in large cities or expensive beach resorts, but there are ways to rest your head without losing your mind over the cost of it all.

Whether you are going for an all-out 5-star luxury or a family-friendly motel room, there are always deals to be had. Book direct through the hotel, include weeknights or a Sunday night in your stay, and be flexible on location.

Hot Tip: A hotel just outside of town, for example, will offer more attractive nightly rates and free parking and will usually represent better value for money than a downtown hotel will.

Renting a private home or vacation apartment on a short term basis can be much more affordable than a hotel. You can also find some superb properties for rent, complete with everything you need to enjoy your stay.

Fully-equipped kitchens, parking, TVs, and even pools often come standard and depending on your destination, there are lots of great Airbnbs and other holiday rental websites available.

If you are heading to the coast, the backcountry, or just getting out into the great outdoors, camping can completely transform your experience. Many campsites come complete with showers and cooking facilities and even pools, sports facilities, and fitness centers. You can take your own tent or rent one.

Another great way to save money on accommodation is to look at hostels in the area. A far cry from old fashioned student accommodation, many modern hostels are clean, bright, and modern and offer a combination of dorm-style bedrooms and private double or family rooms with en-suite facilities.

Hot Tip: Hostels are a great way to stay right in the middle of some of the most expensive cities in the world.

Rent a Recreational Vehicle

Another great choice if you are heading out on the open road, RVs can save you a fortune as you literally take your accommodation with you. RV trips are fun, family-friendly, and provided you aren’t always in a gas station, a great way to save money on where you stay.

RVshare and Outdoorsy are 2 companies that rent out campers and RVs.

You can pretty much rent any kind of vehicle , anywhere in the world. Although if you are staying in a city, public transport is a much more useful and affordable proposition.

The same rules also apply to some intercontinental trips, as well. For example, it can be easier and cheaper to travel through Europe using trains and buses than worrying about having to take care of a car when you get there.

If you want to explore out of the way destinations, hard to reach beaches, or just like the idea of being free to come and go as you please, car hire is readily available in most corners of the world.

Before you commit to it, think about the rental fees, fuel costs, and other potential expenditures and compare the costs of using public transport in your chosen destination.

Car hire here in the U.S. will vary depending on the type of car you choose and how long you intend to hire it. Small city cars are the most cost-effective, and big SUVs, 4x4s and luxury cars can also be hired if you have deep pockets.

When it comes to car rental, keep your costs down by:

• Booking your vehicle in advance
• Looking outside the airport as you may get a better deal in town
• Choosing a practical vehicle to suit your needs, not your dream supercar
• Being aware of mileage limits and one-way fees
• Use a credit card with car rental insurance , so you can be ready to turn down unnecessary add-ons and cross-sells that you don’t need
• Making sure the vehicle is checked for damage before you take the keys
• Only hiring it for as long as you need it
• Keeping your eyes out for deals on particular types of car, and better prices for longer-term rentals

Local Transportation

Most tourist hotspots, big towns, cities, and even some iconic landmarks will offer a wide range of public transport options to get you around. There will be more choice and more frequent services in highly populated areas, while services may become more restricted further out in the countryside or suburbs.

If you are clever, you could save yourself a small fortune by grabbing good deals on public transport, leaving you with more cash to spend on the fun things in life.

Try these to tips for traveling around town on the cheap:

• Buy daily, weekly or even monthly travel passes in advance
• Bulk buy tickets online or via an app
• Take advantage of student passes or discounted fares for families, seniors, or children
• Avoid traveling during peak commuter times
• Services like Greyhound offer cheaper fares for mid-week journeys
• Sign up for early notification of flash sales and other promotional codes and discounts

Attractions and Activities

Wherever you are headed, there will no doubt be plenty of things to do and places to see when you get there. The key to not missing a single thing is researching everything before you leave.

Have a plan in place of all the activities you want to take part in and the attractions you want to see and integrate the potential entrance costs, additional fees, and other expenses into your initial budget.

With a bit of luck, you will be able to find plenty of local discounts, city passes, and money-saving ways to see all of the very best attractions at rock bottom prices.

Pick up a copy of the local listings magazine or newspaper and check out free events , as well as using the coupons and discount codes they supply for all kinds of attractions. You can also subscribe to online discount sites like Groupon to find discounted ticket prices.

Historical landmarks, museums , art galleries, theme parks , sporting events, concerts, and many more attractions often offer reduced entrance prices at off-peak times or group discounts to entice visitors in. Some even have a free entrance day once a month.

Big cities often have lots of free entertainment on offer, too. Check out the artsy districts of major cities for street entertainers and free shows. If you are heading to the beach, research costs such as sunbed rental, locker rental, and even the menus at local restaurants to gauge an idea of how much a day on the beach could potentially cost you.

If you want to try your hand at surfing, sailing, or other kinds of water sports, you may want to get back on the internet and find reduced price lessons or discounts for group bookings.

Walk-Around Money

While you may have budgeted every dollar down to the last cent, you should also keep a contingency plan for some pocket money . Days out in the town, lazy afternoons on the beach, or even a trip on a planned excursion can present you with lots of little unknown expenses.

Whether you need to buy an extra bottle of water, some sunscreen for your face, or entrance to additional attractions, keeping a little cash on you is a good way to be prepared.

Large amounts of cash should never be carried about your person while you are out exploring, but a couple of dollars stashed into your pocket or travel wallet and can be incredibly useful.

In order to keep your money safe, you should:

• Never flash wads of cash
• Keep your notes and loose change somewhere safe like your inside pocket or in a money belt
• Carry small denomination notes and coins
• Understand the local currency you are carrying, so you known how much to give over when paying

Walk-around money is simply a little buffer to keep you going, but set yourself a daily budget and stick to it.

Gifts and Souvenirs

These days, almost everyone travels at some point. This means that those unusual and unique products that we used to buy as souvenirs are no longer as sought after as they once were.

Nearly every tourist destination on earth will be able to sell you tacky bits and pieces for you to take home, but savvy travelers bypass these and look for more personalized and unique mementos to take home with them instead.

Bottom Line: A t-shirt here, a guide book there, and lots of little bits and pieces in between can soon add up. Spend wisely, and if you must buy gifts and souvenirs, choose ones that have a special meaning to you, that you can treasure forever.

To help make your research easier, some clever folks who have traveled before you have made websites that can help you to research and plan every single aspect of your next big adventure and what the costs involved may be.

Budget Your Trip

Budget Your Trip is a huge repository of travel costs that have been hand-gathered from thousands of travelers, and now provides an incredibly comprehensive guide to how much your trip will really cost you.

You can create and personalize your very own travel budget once you register with the website. You can also pick up tons of top travel tips and advice for both new and experienced travelers alike.

Nomad List offers a heap of resources and information for remote workers, digital nomads, and travelers, Nomad List is designed to help users navigate the world. Find information on thousands of destinations, places to work, neighborhoods to stay, and even make new friends before you go.

A great site for anyone who wants to work and travel for longer-term adventures, you can ask questions and arrange meet-ups to touch base with other like-minded wanderers.

This clever little website has 1 goal in mind — to let you know exactly how much money you really need to stay at your dream destination. Expatistan offers direct comparisons between different locations and the website is essentially a giant cost-of-living database that is updated and improved on a regular basis.

Using collaborative information garnered from expats from all over the world, this website really will give you the lowdown of where you can, and can’t, afford to be.

Keeping track of your expenses using your bank balance alone can be a real pain. A dedicated travel money app will help you to keep control of your finances, even when you can’t check the internet. Here are some of the best:

Trail Wallet

This easy to use expense tracker is a great way to keep an accurate record of your finances on the go. Designed to be incredibly intuitive and easy to use, you can make a note of all your expenses in a way that makes the best sense to you. Set up daily spending limits, view records of your recent outgoings, and upload images of receipts for multiple trips with custom start and end dates.

Perfect for use both at home and away, this clever little app will even let you input amounts in local currencies from over 200 countries , and you can update the app with the current exchange rate.

Trail Wallet can be used on both iPhone and iPad and is free for up to 25 items, or unlock unlimited amounts for continuous travel with the $4.99 upgrade.

Trabee Pocket

Trabee Pocket is available on both iOS and Android, and you can choose between the free version or additional services in the paid-for version. Even with the basic version, you can add the details of as many expenses as you like, covering various trips and destinations. You can choose your currency, and there are 8 basic categories to file your virtual expenses under.

You can add images of the physical receipt and produce an expense report and breakdown of expenditure using the data from each category . The upgrade costs around $2.49, and you can add multiple currencies and additional customized categories.

All in all, Trabee Pocket is sleek and an easy to use app that helps you to see how much you are spending and where you are spending it.

TripCoin is a concise and easy to use app that is available on iOS only. It is free to download , and there are no upgrade options at the present time. This smart app allows you to keep tabs on your spending at the touch of a button while making is super easy to add new entries when you need to.

Summary reports can quickly be compiled to let you see progress reports and spreadsheets, and you can even export the data to Excel, Numbers, Open Office, or Google to keep your inner accountant happy anywhere in the world.

Wally was designed to help anyone to manage their finances, anywhere in the world easily. It promises to offer a simple, seamless tool that works in an intuitive way, making it super easy to keep track of your money on the move.

The basic version allows you to add details of all of your regular incoming and outgoings as well as inputting your day to day expenditure, creating groups to manage joint accounts, and splitting payments with your friends when you need to.

It can be set to your local currency and lets you divide your outgoings into easy to find pre-set categories. Available on both iOs and Android, you can upgrade to the paid-for version for $24.99 a year to enjoy unlimited trips and categories.

This is a brilliant invention for anyone traveling with friends. Available on both iOS and Android, you can download it for free, but an in-app upgrade is available to Splitwise Pro. No more scrambling around with a pen and paper to split the bill, this app allows you and your buddies to keep track of your shared expenses and balances at the touch of a button.

You can add a bill, and choose how to split it, or send text or email requests to remind your friends and family that payments are now due. You can also categorize your expenses, calculate amounts in over 100 different currencies, and even sync all of your expenditures with the Cloud.

If you want to keep a more detailed record of your accounts, this little app will also export the data into easy to read CSV reports.

Before you worry about how to manage your finances while you are away, you will need to devise a plan that gives you the funds to get you there in the first place. Unless you have been blessed with a sudden windfall or a lottery win, you will need to save your cents to achieve your goals.

Set a Savings Timeline

If you receive a regular wage, or you are able to forecast your earnings accurately, you can start to set a timeline on how long it will take you to save up for your vacation . If you put aside just $100 a month, for example, you will be able to have $1200 to play with in just a year. This amount may not pay for a new life abroad, but it could you buy a week by the ocean.

Bottom Line: Think of where you want to go to, find out how much it will cost, and then set a monthly savings goal and stick to it. Some months you may have to sacrifice on your social life or shopping habits, but it will all be worth it in the end.

Multiple Savings Accounts

Once you know how much you need to save each month, be sure to physically remove that money from your day to day bank account. Set up at least 1 separate savings account and electronically move it , or set up an automated payment to leave your regular account on payday.

Visualization

Re-train your brain to save instead of spend, and you will be able to tally up every cent you save with something amazing . Your first $150 saved, for example, could mean that you have those tickets for that boat party in Miami in the bag, or that you are on your way to paying for a 4-star hotel instead of a mid-range one.

Whether you are dreaming of trekking up the Himalayas, backpacking around Asia, Interailing through Europe , or a long-awaited family vacation, seeing what your savings can afford will super motivate you to save more.

Wherever you are planning on traveling to, being in control of your finances will make your experience even more amazing. Worrying about getting into debt on your credit cards or not having the cash in your pocket to really explore the region will ruin your adventures.

Save hard, spend well, and look for ways to save money across every aspect of your trip. Plan your spending before you go and keep track of your expenditure while you travel. There are deals to be had on flights, accommodation, food, attractions, and almost every area of your next vacation. Plan in advance and enjoy knowing that you are having the best time for less.

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Home » Google Sheets » 9 Best Free☝️ Google Sheets Travel Budget Templates for 2023

• Updated: April 17, 2023

9 Best Free☝️ Google Sheets Travel Budget Templates for 2023

Planning for a vacation is undoubtedly one of the more exciting budgeting exercises you can do. Even a business trip can be an occasion to look forward to. 

However, a lack of proper planning can result in a flop of a holiday or a business trip rather than a fabulous or productive one. 

But that doesn’t have to be you. In this article, we review some of the best Google Sheets travel budget templates to help you prepare for your long-awaited break or business trip!

1. Free Downloadable Travel Budget Template

Designed by Vertex42

If your itinerary is going to be jam-packed with lots of stopovers and plenty of travel activities to see and do, the Free Downloadable Travel Budget Template by Vertex42 is an excellent option.

It is so user-friendly and ideally suited to travel planning, with a graph that depicts the sum totals of your budget categories so that you can view how these costs are going without necessarily having to go back to the drawing board to establish where you overspend.

2.Daily Travel Budget Template

Designed by Charlie Marchant

The Daily Travel Budget Template by Charlie Marchant is an excellent step-by-step guide to use if you have a jam-packed travel trip coming up that requires you to track daily expenses more carefully. 

What’s unique about this travel budget template is that you have a local currency column and a home currency column you can use for comparison purposes. 

And then there’s also a total budget row that you can compare to the sum of your daily totals to see if you are edging towards going over budget or keeping to the plan .

3. Artist Tour Budget Template

Designed by The Crafty Musician

The Artist Tour Budget Template by The Crafty Musician is a great touring budget if you plan on going from place to place and want to enjoy yourself in the process while not being too preoccupied by expenses that go with the territory. 

This budget template also has a special column for venue prices depending on the town you’re in, so you can pick the most profitable venue for you depending on your tour goals and the spend you have available – which, of course, relies on how your trip pans out while you’re visiting each destination.

4. Business Travel Budget Template

Designed by Spreadsheet Daddy

The Business Travel Budget by Spreadsheet Daddy is designed nicely for business trip expenses. This spreadsheet should help you monitor and account for expenses on a business trip for record-keeping purposes. 

Category expenses that this budget template include are airfare, hotel, car rental, gas, entertainment, food, and other miscellaneous costs.

5. Corporate Travel Budget Template

Since a corporate travel budget needs to be a little more finessed than the norm, this spreadsheet template by Spreadsheet Daddy is the one to use to accurately record typical corporate travel costs in a neat and corporate-looking document for future company reference.

6. Family Travel Template

The Family Travel Template by Spreadsheet is perfect for your next family vacation. It has a place for listing itineraries and transportation details. 

If you need a helpful reminder on what to pack, this template has a section for that, too, so you won’t forget the essentials when you and your family depart on a long journey.

7. Study Abroad Travel Budget Template

Studying and living abroad can be costly. Take control over your new lifestyle expenses with The Study Abroad Travel Budget Template by Spreadsheet Daddy and jot down the main category expenses to avoid being caught unawares regarding unanticipated expenses in a new country.

8. Sales Travel Budget

The Sales Travel Budget Template is ideal for recording all the sales you make while on your travels. You can even use filters to establish what you sold more of and when this occurred to validate your trip.

9. Year-Long Travel Budget Template

The Year-Long Travel Budget Template by Spreadsheet Daddy is a good example to use if you are a perpetual traveler and require a suitable budget for year-round travel.

You can even record miles traveled, how much time you spent traveling during daylight hours and during the night, and additional expenses incurred. You can gain insights and reflect on how your travels were spent and if the trip was optimized as much as possible.

Does Google Sheets have a travel budget template?

Google Sheets does not have a travel budget template that you can download within its standard templates. However, there are plenty of free travel budget templates available for download that you can access simply by clicking on the links shown above. Perhaps best of all is the fact you can customize these spreadsheet templates to personify your travel trip best.

How do I create a travel budget in Google Sheets?

Travel budgets are one of these things where you might not think it necessary to list certain expenses. Or you may think it’s necessary to list everything – but this can get a little messy and difficult to track if you don’t have the main travel categories to follow.

The Spreadsheet Daddy add-on rebrands to Synterrix. Click here to learn more.

Free Travel Budget Template for Google Sheets (2024 Update)

Free google sheets travel budget template.

Grab a copy of this travel budget template in Google Sheets and edit it as you see fit.

Don't request for permission to edit, simply go to File > Make a copy .

How to Use Our Free Travel Budget Template in Google Sheets

Below we have outlined the steps on how to use our travel budget template in Google Sheets: 

Step 1: Planning and Budget Estimation

Begin with researching the costs associated with your destination(s). Look into accommodation prices, transportation fares, daily food expenses, and the cost of activities or attractions you plan to visit.

Step 2: Filling Out Estimated Costs

Open your Google Sheets travel budget template. Navigate to the "Estimated Cost" column (Column B) next to each category (Accommodation, Transportation, Food, etc.).

Based on your research or past experiences, enter the estimated amount you expect to spend for each category. This will serve as your budgeted amount for each part of your trip.

Step 3: Tracking Expenses During the Trip

As you travel, keep all receipts and make quick notes of all your expenses. This can be done in a small notebook, on your phone, or by taking photos of receipts.

Step 4: Updating Actual Costs Regularly

For each expense you incur, find the appropriate category and update the "Actual Cost" column (Column C) with the amount spent. 

Step 5: Reviewing Your Budget in Real-Time

As you update your actual costs, the "Difference" column (Column D) will automatically calculate the variance between your estimated and actual expenses. This column is formulated to subtract the actual cost from the estimated cost, showing you at a glance if you are over or under budget for each category.

Use the information from the "Difference" column to make informed decisions about your spending for the remainder of the trip. If you find yourself over budget in one area, you may decide to cut back on another category to compensate.

We hope that this article has helped you and given you a better understanding of how to use our travel budget template in Google Sheets. If you enjoyed this article, you might also want to check out our free debt payoff template and our event budget template in Google Sheets .

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Free Travel Budget Calculator: Easily Make Your Vacation Budget

Packed for Life contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using one of these links, we may receive compensation at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. See my Disclosure policy for more info.

Ready to take the hassle out of planning and managing your vacation budget? Our online Free Travel Budget Calculator is  simple, and easy to use, and can help you plan and track your vacation expenses in just a few clicks.  

I’ve used these same methods and categories of expenses for every trip I’ve taken over the last 25 years. From multiple  3 month solo adventures through Europe and South America, to weeks long trips to Cuba and Vancouver Island, Canada with my family. 

Now online with automatic calculations, so you don’t have to mess around with spreadsheets or hand write in printables that clutter up your home. 

In this post you’ll get access to this free tool, plus, you’ll get my top tips for planning your budget effectively for your trips and how to save money on travel. All the advice you need for smarter travel planning is right here.

How to Use the Travel Budget Calculator & Try It Out!

Make sure to bookmark this page so you can come back to it anytime you need to track your vacation expenses and make travel plans.

This free vacation budget calculator will give you an estimate of total travel costs for your trip and whether your budget is enough to cover what you want to do.

It can help you identify areas you can potentially save money on trip expenses. Whether it’s choosing more budget-friendly hotels, walking or taking the bus instead of taxis, or prioritizing your top not-to-miss activities.

You can also start with your budget.

Then play around with the length of your trip, how much hotels, flights etc will cost to help you determine your price range for each travel expense as well.

• Enter 0 (zero) if there are certain categories you don’t need . The calculator will output an error ($NaN) if you don’t.
• Instructions for the calculator are below the Travel Budget Calculator, to give you an idea of what you should include under each budget item.

Vacation Budget Calculator

Calculator instructions.

Enter all your estimated expenses you’ve gathered during your vacation research.

Make sure it’s actually a realistic travel budget. For a  family trip with young kids, you’ll also need to factor other things like diapers, baby wipes etc.

• Travel Budget : Enter your overall vacation budget you have for this trip.
• Number of Travellers: Enter the number of people you are paying for on this trip
• Number of Nights: Enter the number of nights you will need accommodations for. This will be used to calculate hotel costs.
• Number of Vacation Days: Enter the number of days you will be on vacation. Include travel days to be safe . This will be used to calculate your overall food & drink, daily transportation and activity costs.
• Total Flight Costs: Enter the estimated total of flight costs for everyone travelling. Be sure to include any baggage fees.
• Transportation Costs: Enter the total transportation costs for the trip. This is for any major transport costs that aren’t flights like trains, city transfers, car or RV rentals.
• Daily Transportation Costs: Enter your anticipated daily transport costs. This is for things like taxis, buses, Ubers, parking costs etc, you might need to get around every day.
• Hotel Costs (Per Night): Enter the amount your accommodations will cost each night. Don’t forget to include any tips for housekeeping staff etc. you may need to pay.
• Total Tour Costs: Enter your overall total budget or cost for tours, including guide tips.
• Activity Costs (Per Day) : Enter the amount you expect to spend on activities daily (do not include tours). These are for things like seeing movies, souvenirs, shopping, trips to a rec centre / pool, bowling, seeing a hockey game or a concert etc.
• Food & Drink Costs (per Day): Enter your overall daily food & drink budget or expected costs for everyone. Don’t forget to include tips.
• Miscellaneous Expenses: Enter an amount of money you will have overall for unexpected expenses or miscellaneous costs that pop up. Be sure to also include extra travel expenses not covered elsewhere.
• Travel Insurance: Enter the overall amount of money you will pay for travel insurance for everyone. This is for things like travel health insurance, trip cancellation insurance etc.

Budget Outputs

Currency Note: While the output is in dollars (uses the $ symbol), you can really use any numerical currency you’d like. Just ignore the $ symbol.

Once you hit the calculate button, you will get 4 pieces of info based on the numbers you provided:

• Total Vacation Costs : This is the estimated cost for your vacation based on the info you provided.
• Over Budget / Under Budget: This is the amount you are either over or under budget. If your expenses are over your vacation budget, it will say Over Budget and the number will be negative. If it says Under Budget, that is the amount you are under your estimated budget.
• Travel Costs Per Day: This is the amount of money your trip will cost you each day.
• Cost Per Person Per Day: This is the amount of money your trip will cost you per person, each day.

Make sure to review your results. If your over budget are there things you can do to bring the costs down? Or is there a way you can save or make more money before your trip?

Why You Need A Travel Budget

Listen, I am all for spending a little extra to do things our family doesn’t get to do at home. 

But there is nothing more anxiety-inducing than running out of money on a trip, or having to pay off huge credit card bills at 28%  interest because you didn’t plan ahead.

This is where a vacation budget can really help. 

It doesn’t mean you can’t have fun or spend money.

Creating a budget will actually help you be able to afford your dreams. Plus be able to relax & have fun on your vacation knowing you won’t be in debt when you get back home.

The trip budget calculator will make financial planning fun, and easy.

How To Set Your Travel Budget & Determine Expenses

1. determine your overall travel budget.

First things first. Decide on your overall vacation budget or the money you are willing to spend on this trip.

When determining your overall vacation budget, you’ll want to consider a few things:

• How much money are you willing to spend on this trip?
• How much have you already saved?
• How long do you plan to go for? (more or less time can impact your budget)
• How many people will be travelling? (some places like Europe limit 4 people to a hotel room, this can significantly impact cost)
• When do you want to travel and how much time do you have to add to your vacation fund?
• How much extra can you afford to put away every week / month on top of your regular bills & household expenses?
• Is there any way you can decrease household expenses, or increase your income to add to your vacation fund faster?

Just make sure it’s a realistic budget. It doesn’t do anybody any good to use too low or too high numbers as a starting point. 

2. Do Your Research

The type of trip you want to take, the length and the type of activities you want to do, will really impact your budget.

For example a week long trip to Thailand will be much different than a week in Japan, or a trip to Disneyworld.

Do some intial research to give you an idea of what your basic travel expenses will costs, so you can have ballpark figures to enter in the travel cost calculator.

You can always google average costs of living / travelling at your destination.

Careful planning is an important part of any travel budget. 

3. Find Ways to Cut Costs

Unless you have a rich benefactor, or suddenly won the lottery, it’s a good idea to consider ways you can cut costs, save money and use your travel budget wisely.

Besides using our holiday budget calculator, our favourite ways to save money on travel expenses.

Transportation & Accommodation

• Find flight deals & error fares : The best way is with Going (Formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights) Flight tickets can be a big expense and make up a good portion of the total cost usually. 
• Consider housesitting: is our go-to site for housesitting around the world.
• Rent a place with a kitchen : Save money on food with a vacation rental . They can also be cheaper than renting multiple hotel rooms if you have a large family or group.
• Compare car rentals: Using Discover Cars can help you save up to 70% by quickly comparing rental cars options.
• Book early: Hotels, flights and trains are generally cheaper booked in advance. You won’t want to risk paying significantly more waiting until last minute.
• Take public transportation: If it’s safe to do so, take the local bus, or walk instead of relying on expensive taxis all the time.

⭐️ Also check out our list of the best ways to save money on flights .

General Money Saving Tips

• Travel off season or peak season: Not only is it usually much cheaper, there’s usually fewer tourists.
• Use a credit card with no foreign transaction fees : Those transaction fees can really add up. Also consider if travel credit cards with points are for you.
• Eat where the locals eat : Avoiding the touristy restuarants, and eating where the locals eat will not only save you lots of money, it will give you a more authentic look into their local cuisine and culture.
• Avoid popular destinations:  The most popular touristy destinations  often cost a lot of money, compared to smaller, lesser known destinations.  
• Consider using travel agents: Sometimes a travel agent can find you a great deal, with much less work on your part. 
• Adjust your travel style: Luxury resorts may be out of your price range. Road trips, camping trips can be just as memorable for for a family vacation.
• Plan free activities : Pick some free activities to do in between your more expensive tours, theme parks, & day trips to ancient ruins. 
• Check out these ways to save on flights

Final Thoughts Using The Vacation Budget Calendar

Creating a vacation budget might seem challenging, but don’t worry! Equipped with the right tools and a bit of strategic planning, your next epic adventure is closer than you think.

Using a vacation budget calculator can help guide you to make smart, affordable choices, allowing you to experience the journey you’ve always dreamed of, without stressing about expenses.

Travel can be exciting and enjoyable at all budget levels. So here’s to making memories with your family, and friends.

Related travel planning resources:

• Ultimate Pre-Travel Checklist
• Family beach vacation tips
• Tips for saving money on road trips
• Easy ways to build a travel fund
• Save money on attractions: Where to buy online tour tickets

Donna Garrison is the founder of Packed for Life, an ever curious traveler with a passion for making memories with her family. With a unique perspective on travelling on a budget gathered over 30 years, 20 countries and 5 continents she gives families the tools & resources they need to experience the joys of travelling more for less through practical solutions. She helps over 20,000 families a month plan & take the family travel, camping and road trip adventures of their dreams in Canada, the USA and around the world. Contact her at: Donna [at] packedforlife.com

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Free Printable Travel Budget Templates [Google Sheets, Excel, PDF]

Stretching your horizons need not always stretch your wallet. Budget travel , once considered an oxymoron, has rapidly transformed into a thrilling, wallet-friendly adventure. Our guide to planning a travel budget sets out to debunk the myth that traveling is exclusive to those with bulging bank accounts.

It’s packed with tips and insights to help you map out an affordable journey, revealing how the joy of discovering new places can harmoniously coexist with savvy financial planning. Prepare to journey through different destinations, explore different cultures, and most importantly, master the art of globe-trotting on a shoestring budget. Buckle up, fellow budget travelers , we’re about to take off!

Table of Contents

What is a travel budget?

A travel budget is a financial plan designed to manage your travel expenses. It takes into account all costs related to a trip, including transportation, accommodation, meals, sightseeing, shopping, entertainment, and any unexpected or incidental expenses.

Constructing a travel budget is a critical step in planning any journey, ensuring that your travel dreams align with your financial reality. It allows travelers to estimate their expenditures and allocate funds appropriately, ultimately promoting a well-organized, stress-free, and financially sustainable travel experience. A well-planned travel budget empowers you to explore new destinations without the burden of financial surprises or post-trip debt.

Travel Budget Templates

Planning trips requires budgeting for expenses like transportation, lodging, activities, food and more. Travel budget templates allow travelers to calculate costs and manage spending. The templates streamline travel budgeting .

The templates contain columns to document expected costs across common categories. Sections are included for pre-trip and during-trip expenditures. Calculators tally spending by type and total. Budgets can be customized for regional or personal travel styles.

Travel budget templates enable easy creation of comprehensive budgets. Travelers input their anticipated or actual outlays to populate the templates. Templates identify the biggest expenses for optimization. They facilitate trip planning and tracking without spreadsheets. With trips requiring major investments, travel budget templates provide helpful structure . They empower travelers to benchmark costs, set budgets, and wisely control spending.

Why should I create a travel budget? 

Creating a travel budget is essential for several reasons:

1. Manage Expenses: The main reason for creating a travel budget is to keep your expenses in check. It helps you understand how much you’re planning to spend and ensure you stick to your financial limit.

2. Prevent Overspending: Traveling can be expensive, and it’s easy to get carried away with impromptu decisions, leading to overspending. A travel budget helps you prevent this by allocating specific amounts to different areas of your travel experience.

3. Avoid Debt: With a well-planned budget, you can avoid falling into debt or emptying your savings. It ensures you only spend what you can afford.

4. Prioritize Your Needs: A budget helps you prioritize your spending . For instance, if you’re more interested in local cuisines, you may allocate a larger portion of your budget to dining out rather than on souvenirs.

5. Plan Better: When you have a clear idea of your expenses, you can plan your trip more effectively. You can figure out which activities you can afford, which areas you can visit, where you can stay, etc.

6. Peace of Mind: Knowing you have enough money to cover all your planned activities and emergencies brings peace of mind. You can enjoy your trip without constantly worrying about your finances.

7. Save Money: Finally, creating a travel budget can help you save money. By comparing costs while planning, you may find cheaper travel or accommodation options, or you might realize that you can travel during the off-season to save on costs. A budget can also encourage you to set savings goals and develop good savings habits.

How to create your travel budget? 

Creating an effective travel budget can be a daunting task, but using tools like Excel and Word can greatly simplify the process. An Excel spreadsheet can act as a flexible and customizable travel budget template, allowing you to categorize, calculate, and adjust your expenses quickly.

Similarly, Word’s table function lets you organize all the various aspects of your trip, providing a visually pleasing and easy-to-understand layout of your budget. As you begin your journey towards a well-planned travel budget, keep in mind the following tips to ensure your cost estimator is comprehensive and aligned with your travel needs.

Here’s an in-depth, step-by-step guide on how to create a detailed travel budget :

Step 1: Define Your Total Budget

The first step in creating a travel budget is to define your overall budget. This is how much you’re willing to spend on your trip. This amount should be an amount you’re comfortable with and won’t cause you financial distress.

Step 2: Research Your Destination

Research your destination thoroughly. Look into the cost of living, the currency exchange rate (if applicable), the typical costs of meals, transportation, and the prices for attractions you’d like to visit. This will give you a rough estimate of the daily costs you will incur.

Step 3: Calculate Travel Costs

Investigate and calculate the costs related to your travel to and from your destination. This would include airfare, train tickets, car rental, gas (if driving), or even a taxi to and from the airport. Always be on the lookout for deals or discounts when booking.

Step 4: Determine Accommodation Costs

Figure out where you’ll be staying and for how many nights, then calculate the cost. Look at different accommodation options, such as hotels, hostels, or vacation rentals like Airbnb. Remember, the location of your accommodation will impact transportation costs as well.

Step 5: Estimate Food and Beverage Costs

Think about your eating habits . Do you plan on dining out for every meal, cooking in your accommodation, or a mix of both? Research the average cost of meals in your destination and calculate an estimated daily food cost.

Step 6: Plan for Transportation Expenses at the Destination

How will you get around once you reach your destination? Will you use public transportation, rent a car, use ride-sharing services, or walk? Consider both intercity and intra-city transportation costs.

Step 7: Factor in Activity/Entertainment Costs

List out the attractions you want to see and the activities you want to do, then determine their costs. This could include entrance fees for museums, parks, guided tours, concerts, or sporting events.

Step 8: Plan for Incidentals

Incidentals are expenses that you don’t plan for but that can add up. These might include tips, souvenirs, extra snacks, or a spur-of-the-moment activity. A good rule of thumb is to set aside 10-15% of your total budget for these unexpected costs.

Step 9: Consider Travel Insurance

Depending on the nature of your trip and your own health considerations, you might need travel insurance. This can protect against unforeseen circumstances such as trip cancellation, lost luggage, or medical emergencies.

Step 10: Save for Emergencies

Apart from the incidental budget, you should also set aside a separate emergency fund. This could cover serious situations like a sudden flight change, medical emergencies, or other unexpected expenses.

Step 11: Add Up All Your Costs

Now that you’ve estimated all your expenses, add them all together. This should include your travel, accommodation, food, activities, incidentals, insurance, and emergency fund. Compare this to your total budget defined in Step 1.

Step 12: Adjust as Necessary

If your estimated budget exceeds your total budget, you’ll need to make adjustments . This might mean choosing a cheaper accommodation, limiting your activities, or finding ways to save on food and drink.

Step 13: Track Your Spending

Once you’re on your trip, keep track of what you’re spending. There are many apps available that can help with this. Tracking your expenses will help you stay within your budget and could also be useful when planning future trips.

Travel Budgeting Tips

Embarking on the journey of planning a trip can be as thrilling as it is demanding. With a myriad of factors to take into account, it’s all too easy to overlook critical elements. However, one aspect you should place at the forefront of your planning process is the establishment of a robust travel budget.

By utilizing tools such as a travel budget template or a vacation budget planner, you can effectively manage your estimated expenses and avoid the pitfall of overspending. As you embark on the journey of building your trip cost planner, exploring avenues to economize your trip can be tremendously beneficial. The following budget tips will provide invaluable guidance as you navigate through the task of assembling your travel budget :

1. Accommodation:

• Compare prices on different booking platforms before making a reservation. Also, don’t forget to check the hotel’s or property’s website as they sometimes offer deals.
• Consider alternative accommodation options like hostels, vacation rentals, or even home exchanges.
• Opt for accommodations that offer freebies, such as complimentary breakfast, free Wi-Fi, airport shuttle, etc.

2. Food and Drinks:

• Opt for local eateries instead of high-end restaurants. Not only are they cheaper, but they often offer a more authentic taste of the locale.
• If you’re staying somewhere with kitchen facilities, consider cooking some of your meals.
• Take advantage of hotel freebies like complimentary breakfast or happy hour specials.

3. Clothes:

• Check the weather forecast and pack accordingly to avoid having to purchase clothes while traveling.
• Invest in good quality, versatile pieces that can be mixed and matched.

4. Tours and Attractions:

• Research in advance about free or discounted days for museums and attractions.
• Consider investing in a city tourism card if you’re planning to visit many attractions. These cards often provide entry to multiple attractions for one flat fee.
• Walking tours are often cheaper and provide a great way to explore the city.

5. Public Transport:

• Familiarize yourself with the local public transportation system. It’s usually cheaper than taxis or ride-sharing services.
• Look into transportation passes if you plan to use public transportation frequently.
• Walking or cycling is a great free alternative and can often be a more intimate way to explore.

6. Insurances:

• Check if any of your existing policies (like homeowner’s insurance or health insurance) already cover you when traveling.
• Comparison shop to get the best rates and ensure the policy covers everything you need, such as trip cancellations, medical emergencies, or lost luggage.

7. Flights:

• Be flexible with your travel dates and times. Flying mid-week or at less popular times of the day can often be cheaper.
• Use flight comparison websites to find the best deals and consider booking well in advance.
• If you’re a frequent flyer, take advantage of airline loyalty programs.

8. Travel Essentials:

• Make a list of what you need to avoid last-minute purchases, which tend to be more expensive.
• If possible, borrow items like travel guides, backpacks, or camping gear instead of buying them.
• Check what your accommodation provides (like a hairdryer or beach towels) so you don’t pack unnecessary items.

9. Toiletries:

• Pack travel-sized toiletries to avoid having to buy them at your destination.
• Check if your accommodation provides toiletries as many hotels do.
• Opt for multi-use products (like a shampoo and body wash in one) to save space and money.

10. Miscellaneous:

• Always factor in additional costs like tips, taxes, and fees.
• Have a daily budget for discretionary spending to help you manage your money.
• Keep track of your expenses throughout your trip to make sure you’re staying on budget.

11. Connectivity and Communication:

• Consider the costs of staying connected, like data roaming charges, Wi-Fi costs, or the price of a local SIM card at your destination. It might be cheaper to buy a local SIM card if you plan to make a lot of calls or use the internet frequently.
• Many places offer free Wi-Fi, so take advantage of these whenever possible to reduce your data usage.

12. Currency Exchange:

• Be aware of the current exchange rates and consider them while budgeting for a trip abroad. Keep in mind these rates fluctuate and could impact your budget.
• Currency exchange services at airports or in touristy areas usually have higher rates. Using local ATMs or a credit card with no foreign transaction fees can be more cost-effective.

13. Souvenirs and Shopping:

• Allocate a specific amount for souvenirs or shopping to avoid impulse buying. Try to buy meaningful, practical souvenirs instead of knick-knacks that you won’t use.
• Opt for local markets instead of touristy shops for a more authentic and often less expensive shopping experience.

14. Visas and Travel Documents:

• Some countries require a visa or other travel documents, which can come with a fee. Make sure to research these costs and add them to your budget.
• Don’t forget to budget for any costs related to renewing your passport or getting international driver’s licenses if necessary.

15. Health and Safety:

• Depending on your destination, you may need specific vaccinations or medications, which should be included in your budget.
• Also, consider budgeting for items that can improve your health and safety during the trip, like quality travel insurance, a first aid kit, water purification tablets, or sunblock.

16. Equipment or Gear:

• If your trip involves specific activities like hiking, snorkeling, or photography, there could be costs for renting or purchasing necessary equipment.
• Always check if it’s cheaper to rent gear at your destination or if you’re better off bringing your own.

17. Pet or Childcare:

• If you have pets or children who won’t be joining you, don’t forget to account for any necessary childcare or pet sitting costs while you’re away.

Creating a detailed and comprehensive travel budget might seem overwhelming at first, but it will undoubtedly pay off during your trip. It allows you to enjoy your travel experience without the constant worry about finances, and it can also help you identify areas where you can save. Happy budgeting and safe travels!

Saving Money on Travel

Saving money on travel is an art, a skill that can transform your wanderlust into a reality while keeping your wallet happy. Whether you’re dreaming of exploring exotic destinations, embarking on thrilling adventures, or simply seeking a peaceful getaway, this guide is your passport to unlocking the secrets of budget-friendly travel. From insider tips on finding the best deals to clever strategies for maximizing your savings, we’ll navigate the vast landscape of travel expenses, empowering you to create unforgettable experiences without breaking the bank. Here are some point you should be careful about:

1. Using Travel Rewards Programs and Credit Cards:

• Loyalty Programs: Many airlines, hotels, and rental car companies have loyalty programs that reward you with points for each booking. These points can be redeemed for free flights, upgrades, free hotel stays, and more. Enroll in these programs, especially if you tend to favor certain companies.
• Travel Credit Cards: Travel credit cards can earn you points or miles for each dollar spent, which can be redeemed for travel-related purchases. Some cards also offer lucrative sign-up bonuses. Look for a card that aligns with your spending habits and travel preferences. Remember to pay off your balance in full each month to avoid interest charges that could negate your rewards.
• Points and Miles Strategies: Learn how to maximize your points and miles. This might mean booking travel through your credit card’s travel portal or transferring points to partner airlines or hotels for better redemption rates. Websites like The Points Guy offer comprehensive guides and tips on how to do this.

2. Finding Deals and Discounts:

• Booking Platforms: Websites like Skyscanner, Kayak, or Expedia can help you find the best deals on flights, accommodations, and car rentals. These platforms allow you to compare prices from different providers easily.
• Deal Alerts: Sign up for deal alerts from websites like Scott’s Cheap Flights, Secret Flying, or Airfarewatchdog. They’ll send you notifications when there are significant price drops or error fares.
• Off-Peak Travel: Traveling during the shoulder season (the period between peak and off-peak seasons) can often mean fewer crowds and lower prices.
• Group Discounts: Traveling in a group can sometimes secure you discounts on accommodation and activities.
• Student, Senior, or Military Discounts: Always check if these apply to you, as many companies offer discounts for students, seniors, or military personnel.

3. Strategies for Cost-Effective Travel Planning:

• Flexible Planning: If you have flexibility in your travel dates and destinations, you can plan your trips around when and where it’s cheapest to travel. Use tools like Skyscanner’s “Everywhere” and “Cheapest Month” search functions.
• Budget Airlines: Consider flying with budget airlines. Just be sure to check for any hidden fees, like luggage or seat selection charges.
• Pack Light: Avoid checked baggage fees by packing light and only taking carry-on luggage.
• Public Transportation: Using public transportation over taxis or rental cars can significantly cut down on your transportation costs.
• Eating In: Choosing accommodation with kitchen facilities can save you a lot of money on food as you can cook your own meals.
• Free Activities: Look for free or low-cost activities in your destination. Many cities offer free walking tours, public parks, or museums with free admission days.

These strategies can help you save money on travel, allowing you to stretch your budget further and perhaps even travel more often. Keep in mind that the cheapest option isn’t always the best option. Consider the trade-offs and choose what makes the most sense for your travel style and preferences.

Conclusion 

Crafting a comprehensive travel budget is a fundamental step in any travel plan. It paves the way for financial mindfulness during your adventures, ensuring that you experience the thrill of exploration without the burden of unexpected expenses. With the various components of travel – accommodation, food, transport, attractions, and more – meticulously accounted for, you’ll be better prepared to face any financial hurdles that come your way.

Furthermore, incorporating saving strategies, such as utilizing rewards programs and seeking out discounts, can significantly stretch your budget, allowing for richer experiences and potentially more frequent travels. Remember, a well-structured travel budget is more than a mere financial tool – it’s your passport to peace of mind, letting you fully immerse yourself in the joy of your journey.

How do I make a travel budget plan?

To make a travel budget, research anticipated costs of transportation, lodging, food, activities per destination, add up totals per category and build in buffer room under each one. Categorize between essentials and discretionary items. Track expenses against the allocations using a daily expense log and spreadsheet to stay on track.

How do I make a travel expense sheet?

Open a spreadsheet and create columns for date, description, transaction category like “Lodging”, “Food”, amount spent foreign currency, amount converted to home currency, payment method details and notes. Use a separate expenses sheet per trip adding rows of what money goes out daily to monitor spend pacing.

How do I determine my budget for a trip?

Ways to determine trip budget are: Outline must-have experiences like tours or shows, research average hotel & dining costs at the destination, estimate basic needs costs per day, call quoted rates from rental companies and flight aggregators, add expected local transportation amounts, build in 20% extra per category.

What is a good budget for travel?

Reasonable travel budgets can vary dramatically by destination but a sound guideline per person per day for comfortable domestic trips is:

• Frugal -$100 covering basics
• Moderate – $150 including some splurges
• Generous – $250+ enabling luxury experiences

International trips often tally higher accounting for longer stays, higher costs abroad, and more ground covered.

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How to Create a Trip Planning Spreadsheet [5 Free Templates]

• Last updated April 25, 2023

Travel planning can get exhausting, especially when you have no clear starting point. You can make this (at least) tolerable by creating a trip planning spreadsheet. Here, you can keep your itinerary, transportation details, budget allocation, and similar aspects.

In this article, we’ll discuss how you can create a trip planning spreadsheet using Google Sheets and why it’s so useful. We’ll also provide five different templates you can readily use for your travel planning.

Table of Contents

How to Create a Trip Planning Spreadsheet on Google Sheets

Step 1: make multiple tabs on your spreadsheet.

To keep your travel planner tidy, you should first create several tabs inside your spreadsheet. This allows you to categorize the kinds of information you’re going to deal with. For example, you can separate your flight details from your budget planning.

Follow the instructions below to do this.

• Launch your browser, then go to https://sheets.google.com/ .
• Click “ Blank ” under the “ Start a new spreadsheet ” section.

• Hover over the name of the current worksheet (usually named “ Sheet1 ”), click on the drop-down arrow, then select “Rename.”

• Type your preferred worksheet name, then press  “Enter”  or “Return”  on your keyboard.
• To add another worksheet, click on the  “Add Sheet”  icon (plus + symbol) at the bottom-left corner of your screen.

• Repeat steps 1 to 4 to rename the worksheet.

Common Tabs to Add

You can create many kinds of worksheets depending on your specific requirements. Here are some common tabs you’d typically see in a trip planning spreadsheet:

• Itinerary: Include the basic details of the places you plan to be in, like dinner reservations, conferences you need to attend, tourist attractions, etc.
• Transportation: Keep your flight schedule, the routes you plan to take, your commute options (car rental, bus, etc.), and similar information.
• Accommodation: List the names and locations of your lodgings. You can also include whether or not you’ve made a reservation already, the room prices, and more.
• Food: Plan where you can get your meals, the restaurants you want to visit, and the average costs of eating out.
• Budget: Track your day-to-day expenses and see how much money you’re left with.
• Packing List: Don’t leave anything essential at home before embarking on your trip — passports, IDs, cash, and similar things.
• Activities:  List the things that you can do at your destination, like bar hopping, nightlife activities, concerts, and so on.

Step 2: Add Column Headers

After creating multiple tabs, you can further categorize your details using column headers. These are found at the top of your worksheet, describing what kind of values are present in a column’s cells.

To add column headers, simply follow these steps.

• Click on the first cell (cell A1) in the upper-left corner of your worksheet.
• Enter your preferred column header, such as “Location”  (as used in our example).
• Repeat the previous step for other cells in the same row. (We used the headers “Date,” “Time,” “Transportation,” “Costs,”  and  “Status”  in our example below).

• Once done, select all the column headers you’ve added, then click “Bold”  in the toolbar.

• Alternatively, you can make them bold by pressing “Ctrl” + “B” (or “Cmd” + “B”  for Mac) on your keyboard.

Common Column Headers

The column headers we’ve used in the demonstration above are applicable to the Itinerary tab. Keep in mind that you can virtually use any word or phrase for your column headers, though. Below are some options you can consider.

For the Accommodation tab

• Nearby shops and attractions
• Room prices

For the Transportation tab

• Travel date and times
• Flight details, such as flight schedule and flight number
• Car rental company, including name, address, and contact number

For the Budget tab

• Daily budget
• Total budget
• Total amount spent
• Amount remaining
• Expense description

After adding your column headers, you can start filling out the fields with your information.

Step 3: Personalize Your Travel Planning Spreadsheet

All that’s left for you to do is add a touch of creativity to your vacation spreadsheet. Here are some ways you can do this.

Use Conditional Formatting

The term “conditional formatting” simply refers to a change in a cell’s appearance when certain requirements are met. Below is an example where we change a cell’s color to green when it contains the word  “Done.”

• Right-click on a cell, then select “View more cell actions” > “Conditional formatting.”

• On the side panel that appears, click the drop-down list under the “Format cells if…”  menu.

• Select  “Text is exactly”  from the options.

• Type  “Done”  in the “Value or formula”  field.
• Click on the “Done”  button to save your changes.

• Drag the cell’s contents to copy the conditional formatting rules to other cells.

Use Alternating Colors

If you’re dealing with a lot of details, you can also use alternating colors, making it easier for you to read. Here’s how to enable different cell colors on your spreadsheet.

• Select the cells you want to display in alternating colors.
• On the menu bar, select “Format” > “Alternating colors.”

• Choose your preferred color, then click the  “Done”  button to save your changes.

When to Use a Trip Planner Template

You can use spreadsheets every time you’re planning a trip — there’s no reason you shouldn’t! They are handy regardless of whether you’re traveling to a nearby town or going on an overseas vacation.

How about trip planner templates? Well, if you don’t have the time to create a spreadsheet from scratch, using a template would be excellent. These are some helpful pre-made planners that are ready for you to fill out.

Free Google Sheets Trip Planner Templates

1. daily itinerary planner spreadsheet.

Especially when traveling to faraway places, going into detail about the activities you plan to do daily is a good practice. You can share this daily itinerary with the people you went on a trip with, letting them know where to find you in case of grave situations.

Template Features

• Categorize your itinerary into multiple days (which are color-coded for organization)
• Describe your activities in a separate section and indicate the time and location where you’ll do them
• List the diners or restaurants where you can eat near the location of your activity
• Schedule your day properly by indicating the end time for each activity

Access Template

2. Travel Budget Template

Allocating your travel budget ahead of time lets you set boundaries when it comes to spending. This lets you know what costs you need to put first, too. Such money allocation is rarely followed, though (with impulsive purchases and unplanned expenses), making it important to have an expense planner and tracker throughout your trip.

• Categorize your expenses per location according to the transportation you used, your accommodation, food you ate, and activities you did
• Pick from a drop-down list of common transportation methods (e.g., bus, car rental, ferry, etc.)
• Enter your total and daily budget allocation, as well as their converted counterparts in your destination’s local currency
• Automatically calculate your daily expenses, including the total amount spent and your remaining budget for the day
• Calculate your total expenses throughout the trip, as well as the amount remaining from your budget

3. Travel Checklist Template

Successful and non-stressful trips can’t go without good preparation. For example, you’d want to ensure that your passport hasn’t expired yet before strutting over to your flight. A travel checklist spreadsheet would be handy in this case.

• Set a completion status for each of your to-dos
• Categorize your to-do list into  “Travel prep,” “Home prep,” “Transportation,”  and “Money/documents”
• Add notes to each item on the list
• Set a due date for your to-dos
• Determine the number of days remaining for you to accomplish the things listed with an automatic counter included
• Automatically count the number of tasks that are not yet done and those already finished

4. Destination Planner Spreadsheet

Researching your destination should always be part of your planning. For example, you want to know the available hotels and accommodations that you can opt for in your target location. This lets you find the ones with the lowest prices, the most convenient in terms of route, and more.

Knowing the current climate and the community there would be essential too. This allows you to anticipate what things to bring, what activities you can possibly do, and similar aspects.

• Enter your destination’s information, such as its current season, whether it’s rural or urban, and more
• List the tourist spots that you can visit in your destination, including their name, specific location, and transportation route
• Detail the activities that you want to do, together with their category, description, duration, and estimated expenses
• Find and compile a list of all available accommodations in your target location, as well as their name, address, price range, and pros/cons

5. Packing List Template

Before your trip, it is helpful to make a packing list of everything you’ll need — bathing essentials, clothing, money, documents, and more. Then, right before leaving your home, you can do a quick check to see if you’ve already placed every item on your list inside your luggage. You can do both with a packing list spreadsheet.

• Enter the details of your target destination, such as its usual weather, temperature, clothing restrictions, and more
• Add notes about your packing list
• Categorize your items by location, like the beach, conference, office, and other places
• Classify your things by type, such as clothing, money, documents, electronics, etc.
• Mark the items “Ready” once you have prepared them inside your luggage

Why Use Our Templates?

Below are some reasons you’d want to use the travel spreadsheet templates we have here at Spreadsheet Point :

Formulas and Drop-down Lists

We added several drop-down lists for common topics to make things easier for you. For instance, we included a drop-down where you can select common transportation types like buses, ferries, airplanes, car rentals, and more.

Easy Sharing and Collaboration

All of our templates are built on Google Sheets — you can easily collaborate with your friends in planning your trip with the  “Share”  button.

Color-Coded Categories

We displayed each category in unique colors and shades to keep them tidy.

Other Trips on Planning Your Travel

In addition to the travel planning templates we’ve discussed, here are a few bonus tips you can apply to prepare for your trip:

• Pick a location that your current finances can accommodate.
• Don’t bring things that won’t fit inside your backpack to avoid paying for extra luggage costs.
• When selecting a hotel or apartment, choose one that’s near major transportation lines.
• Weigh whether taking a bus would be more cost-effective than taking a flight.
• Always get travel insurance before embarking on your trip — it won’t shield you from accidents, but it will keep you from having an empty bank account.

Enjoy Your Trip with Everything Prepared

A lot of unknowns await you at your destination — unexpected expenses, spontaneous activities, booking problems, and more. With a trip planning spreadsheet, you can minimize these by anticipating the things on your journey. Feel free to use the templates we’ve included here to plan a successful trip today.

You can also access more of these useful templates on our Gumroad  profile. Don’t forget to use the code “ SSP ” to get 50% off all templates!

• 4 Free Google Sheets Itinerary Templates To Plan Your Trip
• Build a Schedule Template in Google Sheets [Free Downloads]
• The 9 Best Google Sheets Templates to Streamline Your Life
• Google Sheets Expense Tracker: Free Template & How to Use
• Ultimate Guide to Making a Google Sheets Timeline

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30+ Free Simple Travel Budget Templates (PDF, XLS)

A Travel Budget Template is a budget plan that contains a general layout that will help the traveller keep track of the amount of money spent on the journey. These areas are usually grouped into subcategories such as transport, lodging, meals , entertainment, and contingency money.

This way, it helps travellers effectively distribute their money because the cost of food, accommodation, and other basic amenities is well catered for without having to break the bank. Travellers will find budgeting for their travel useful when they employ this travel budget template; it will be easier for them to experience their travel without having to worry about expenses.

Download Free Simple Travel Budget Templates

What is a Travel Budget?

Travel budgeting is the technique used in determining organizational expenses that may occur during a particular trip or journey, such as transport, meals, lodging, and other incidental expenses believed to be expected. It is a guide to tourists’ spending demands and enjoyable activities in that they don’t have to worry so much about expenditures.

When people differentiate and freeze massive amounts of money in checking accounts for peculiar sections of the travel agenda, they get an insight into the ways and means of practical spending and how to control it effectively while at the same time preserving their capacity for enjoyment of travel.

Elements of a Travel Budget

Next, we discuss some of the most important areas to include when developing a realistic travel budget.

The main elements to consider are:

• Transportation: This involves all travel expenses up to your destination and within that region, such as flying, railway, buses, self-driving cars, and local transport means.
• Accommodation:  Depending on the kind of trip you are going on, accommodation expenses may include hotel bills, hostel fees and prices, renting a holiday house, and renting a caravan, house, or tent.
• Food and Drink: Predict the amount of money spent on foods, non-alcoholic drinks, and total food and beverages consumed per day. This may not be consistent when eating out or cooking. Rather, it will greatly depend on the type of food you plan to prepare.
• Activities and Entry Fees: Do not forget to factor in the expenses of entry fees for the attractions or the tours, museums, parks or events that you intend to go to.
• Shopping and Souvenirs: Set a specific amount of money aside for vain clothing, gifts, and souvenirs that you can buy when you get tired of travelling.
• Emergency Fund:  Savings is another important thing in financial management because you must have some money to cover any unpredictable expenses.

Just note that managing your travel budget smartly is a sure way of making the journey fun and less stressful.

Importance of Travel Budget

It has nonetheless been appreciated that constructing a travel budget is important for several reasons. First, it helps to avoid overspending during a trip and to have a contingency plan in case anything goes wrong, the trip takes longer than expected, or the trip costs more than expected.

An organized financial plan also enables tourists to make the right choices about their preferences for accommodation, travel, and other potential spending actions, knowing fully well the next move they have to make without getting stuck in debt during the trip.

Furthermore, having a budget compels tourists to look for reasonable costs, which in turn exposes them to better, unique, and positive experiences since they are now driven away from scams and other overpriced products.

Common Budgeting Mistakes to Avoid

Budgeting is a crucial tool for successfully implementing the principles of apportionment of available funds. In fact, the process of budgeting is not easy for many individuals and tends to involve mistakes. I will summarize the key points of this section by stating that the reader should avoid certain errors when creating the budget plan.

1. Not Setting Clear Financial Goals

Not setting concrete goals leads to aimless spending and saving habits needed for effective financial management. This suggests that it may be hard to assess the extent of success, especially given that goal setting provides direction, especially when it comes to budgeting.

2. Underestimating Expenses

One of the biggest blunders that most people make is failing to allocate every expense that a business will incur, whether it is fixed or variable. This can lead to cases where there is excess spending and a lack of adequate amounts set aside to cater for emergencies and other things like savings.

3. Overlooking the Importance of an Emergency Fund

Failing to put up an emergency fund or even having one but not being a regular contributor to it leaves one in a relatively appalling position that is a calamity for unplanned incidents. It is recommended to have an emergency fund that should be enough money to cover 3-6 months of expenditures.

4. Failing to Adjust the Budget

Many people consider a budget to be an immovable plan, but that is not the case at all. This must be updated periodically in order to accommodate new needs every year in terms of income, expense, and financial objectives. The same may result in overspending or failure to reach maximum utilization of possible savings if one fails to update her or his budget.

5. Ignoring Small Expenses

Little exposures have a nasty habit of compounding that can quickly put the venter off balance. They should be planned for so as to control them and to be able to have an overall understanding of your expenditure.

Benefits of Using a Travel Budget

Following some guidelines and tips on budgeting could have several advantages, helping you avoid unnecessary tension and enjoy travelling.

Here are a few to consider:

• Financial Control:  A travel budget is important as it enables you to have control over finances and have an idea of how the amount of money you can spend on your tour. This mitigates the probability for one to spend more than their amount allows and subsequently, leads to someone facing financial pressures.
• Better Planning: Budgeting a certain amount for certain sections of your trip, like room, food, and other activities, forces you to consider the options and make your decision at one point. This can result in a more streamlined and efficient experience for the travellers and the airline.
• More Travel Opportunities: Although rational schedules must be created to minimize transport costs, it is equally wise to note that by sparing cash on one trip, one may have extra coins that one can use to travel in the future. Another key advantage related to efficient commercial resource use is the ability to extend one’s travel budget.
• Prioritize Spending: A travel budget is useful in enabling one to consider areas of priority. It is also possible to decide beforehand that you wish to blow your cash on some special event or on a visit to a candlelight dinner. Then, one can easily save money on anything else but have the money to spend on the things that one wants.
• Unexpected Expenses: A good travel budget will have room for unexpected expenses that cannot be predicted. This can make you comfortable in the knowledge that you are protected from the inevitable mishaps that affect everyone without leaving you out of pocket.

Tips for Saving Money While Traveling

People consider travelling one of the pleasures of life, but unfortunately, it is a costly affair. However, with some necessary aspects of your life prioritized and proper choices made throughout life, you can easily cut down your costs and get the most out of life in one way or another.

Here are some effective tips for saving money while on the go:

Book in Advance

Whether it be for airline tickets, the hotel you plan to stay in, or the activities you plan to do while in a particular destination, it is highly recommended that you pre-book these as they can greatly help you save a significant amount of money. Travelling agents and popular tourist attractants such as airlines and hotels have discounted charges that are considerably cheaper than those within the stipulated travelling period.

Travel During Off-Peak Seasons

Travelling and visiting during the off-peak seasons is cheaper since the cost of accommodation, and fares are likely to be lower than during peak seasons. Few people are around, which can make the vacation more enjoyable. This commonly refers to periods other than the holidays and summer off-seasons for school-going children.

Use Public Transportation

The use of public transport is not only a better option due to its impact on the environment but also on the pocket as compared to investing in a taxi or renting a car. In most cities, there are travel cards where tourists can travel through the city without limitations within a stipulated period of time, and it is economical.

Choose Hotels with Kitchenette Availability

It is something like food. If you can find hotels or other rental places that have kitchen services , you will save a lot of cash on the foods you will be taking. Eating out, even simple meals, will cost you a lot of money, and, therefore, it can be easily minimized by preparing your meals at your temporary home away from expensive restaurants.

Seek Out Free Activities

As you know, many places still boast a plethora of free things, including city walks, museum visits, and natural sights. A little research beforehand can reveal some great value-for-money attractions in many countries.

Promoting the Use Of discount Cards and Coupons

Visit local tourist offices, which may provide you with coupons that will save you a considerable sum of money on cat attractions, restaurants, and sometimes even transportation. Coupons and promo codes can also be available for an activity or a restaurant.

How to Make a Travel Budget Template

Having a template of how to budget your travel is crucial to enable you to be financially free to enjoy your trip especially in those extraordinary spending aspects that were not anticipated.

Follow these steps to make a comprehensive and user-friendly template:

• Airfare or transportation costs
• Accommodation expenses
• Amount spent strictly on foods and beverages consumed in a day
• While transportation (rental car or public transport, taxis, etc. )
• Activities and excursion fees
• Grocery (7), Clothing (6), Other (5), Entertainment (3), Transportation (1), Miscellaneous (shopping, souvenirs, emergency funds)
• Transportation
• Miscellaneous
• Allocate Funds: Determine the proportion of the budget total that you will assign to each of the categories by subjecting the categories to a relative significance to the envisaged travel experience.
• Track Spending: You need to add a block to your template that enables you to record expenditures throughout the trip conveniently. This may assist you in maintaining costs within control and only correcting the strategy if needed.
• Include a Buffer: These estimates should always be accompanied by a contingency or allowance of about 10% to 20% of the total estimated amount.
• Review and Adjust: When planning for the next holiday, consider reviewing the expenses incurred and identifying possible areas for cost-cutting in the future.

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The Travel Quandary

The Ultimate Trip Planner Template – Easy To Use Excel Format!

You’re about to embark on your next adventure – hooray! 

Travel planning comes naturally to some who thrive on the challenge to find the best deal on a tour, stay at the coolest hotel or dine at the hottest new restaurant. These travellers are always at the airport on time, check opening hours of attractions before leaving home and have packing down to a fine art form. On the other end of the scale, there are travellers who prefer to go with the flow, do things spontaneously and are happy to rock up to a new destination and “wing it”.

According to the World Tourism Organization (UNTWO), 1.4 billion people travelled internationally in 2018. And apparently, there are over 750 million users of Microsoft Excel worldwide. There’s a high chance that you’ll fall into both of these categories (we don’t know the exact number but it would make for a pretty neat Venn diagram). And if you also classify yourself as an “unprepared” and/or “unorganised” traveller, our trip planner template is designed to help YOU.

Microsoft Excel is not only used by accountants and finance people. Microsoft Excel has become the ultimate planning and analysis tool, recognised and used worldwide which is why we’ve chosen it to create our trip planner template. We hope you find it useful and welcome your feedback and recommendations!

FREE TRIP PLANNER TEMPLATE! MICROSOFT EXCEL & GOOGLE DOCS

Why use a spreadsheet to plan your trip.

• Identify gaps in your itinerary (closures, public holidays, mandatory reservations)
• Save money (better budget decisions, better choices on trip)
• To get you excited! You’re going on a holiday! Hooray!

Download your free trip planner template here

Note: For Google Docs template, download the .zip file and upload the spreadsheet to your Google Drive. Once uploaded, open with Google Sheets.

Using this spreadsheet

The Ultimate Trip Planner Template is built into a spreadsheet which is divided into six sections. We’ve built this trip planner to include 16 days of travel but you can adjust the length of the trip by adding or removing columns in the spreadsheet.

Once you’ve confirmed your travel plans, add them here. This is where you can record all your reservations – flight details, accommodation, car rental, equipment rental, tour reservations etc. Listing them on one tab means you can quickly jump in and find those important details when you need them.

2. Planning

Researching airlines, hotels, Airbnbs, car hire, tour operators and travel insurance policies can be exhausting. You’ll probably go through a phase where you’ll have so many tabs open on your browser, it’ll make you want to pull your hair out! If you also need to compare prices and dates with your travel companions, it can become downright overwhelming.

When you find a potential option you like, add it to the “Planning” tab. When your research is condensed into a neat summary, it will be a simple exercise of reviewing all possible suppliers, key dates and prices and then after a process of elimination, you will be left with the most suitable option.

A budget is by no means set in stone. Our budget tab is designed to help with your travel planning decisions. We feel that it is important to understand the costs of a holiday before making any hasty decisions. And we consider it even more important that you don’t spend beyond your means!

We don’t want to sound like party-poopers but the last thing you want is to get ripped off and/or find yourself stuck abroad without any money. By understanding where you plan to spend the bulk of your hard-earned money on your holiday, you can plan where you’ll allow yourself to splurge and other areas where you may need to tighten the purse strings.

For example, we give ourselves extra budget for food and coffee experiences as this is an aspect we love about travelling. We tend to book budget/basic accommodation on the road depending on the destination and available options, as all we need is a bed, access to a (preferably) hot shower in a secure room.

A good chunk of your budget will already be paid or known in advance before you’ve even left home (i.e. flights, some ground transport, accommodation, tours (if applicable) etc), so this should also help when allocating your budget to food, shopping and extras. There will also be times where you need to be strict and say “no” if your gut feeling and bank account tell you that you cannot afford a certain something. Be conservative but also be kind to yourself – you are treating yourself to a holiday after all and you’ll have to spend money to fully enjoy the experience!

4. Itinerary

We spend a lot of time planning our travel itineraries on a day by day basis and even breaking it down to each hour of each day. Some people call us crazy but when we are short on time and have an extensive list of things to see/do/eat/shop etc, we prefer to be organised.

Laying out our trip day by day also helps us to block out periods of time for travel or to take note of when restaurants and attractions are closed. Of course, plans can and will change. Rain may force you indoors (museums, galleries, shopping) or an unknown public holiday may disrupt your planned travel day.

We recommend using this tab to roughly outline your plans and drop in the activities and places you simply cannot miss. You can move activities to different days if your original plan doesn’t work out. If you want, record your daily expenses at the bottom and you can track how your actual spending goes against your budget.

5. Packing List

For those who begrudge packing, it tends to be the case that you will end up wearing 20% of your packed belongings during 80% of your trip. Or if you’ve left packing until the last minute and thrown items higgledy-piggledy into your suitcase, you’ll arrive at your accommodation to realise you’ve forgotten your favourite undies or packed the wrong shoes.

Packing lists work. Once you’ve considered the weather and climate at your destination, your baggage allowance plus the duration of your trip, you can plan what you need and limit unnecessary purchases on the other side.

We’ve compiled a pretty epic packing list covering practically every type of adventure and possibly everything that you may need. Feel free to adjust accordingly to your requirements.

6. Checklist

This is the final step before you walk out your front door to embark on a brand new adventure. Before you go, use this tab to ensure you’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s. And then you’re off!

Bon voyage!

WHERE WILL YOU TRAVEL NEXT?

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Give us your feedback of the Trip Planner Template below!

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CONTINUE PLANNING YOUR TRAVELS

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Accommodation Review | The Keep – Goulds Country, Tasmania

28 thoughts on “the ultimate trip planner template – easy to use excel format”.

HOLY COW I cannot believe I found EVERYTHING I needed all in one for FREE. I feel like I have ROBBED someone! My partner and I never grew up in households where family vacations were had, so we have no idea what were doing. Thank you kindly to The Travel Quandary. If I can donate, share your page, volunteer, etc. let me know how I can repay <3

SO HELPFUL ! THANK YOU SO MUCH !

How you extend the dates! I am going for a month

This template is so great! Planning a trip to New Zealand and will be traveling around a lot – this is super helpful!

NICE!! MUCHAS GRACIAS VERY COOL!!! Alina

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and your files!

Thanks so much for the template. This is a very good start for a traveller like me. Easy to use!

Amazing template! Exactly what I needed. Thank you!

Thank you for the great tool! I was wondering if theres a way to enter an end date as well to the itenerary?

Hi there! I was wrapped to see that the template is created by some Aussies! and local ones as well. I’m from Melbourne! Template is a charm! Just what I’ve been looking for ages! Planning our Europe trip for 2023 that got cancelled in 2020! (We all know why!!) Will let you know how it goes and will definitely check out your website! Thanks,

Hi Rosanna, we’re so glad to hear that you’ve found this template useful! Very jealous that you’re planning an escapade to Europe. No doubt it will be amazing! Safe travels 🙂

Thankyou for your post on THE ULTIMATE TRIP PLANNER TEMPLATE on excel. It is very usefull. I have been using this template to plan my trips for a while now and it has saved me a lot of time. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a travel planner.

Didn’t work. At least, not on my version of excel.

something about “delimited” something or another.

Hi Piotr, We’re sorry to hear this. What version of excel are you using? Are you on a Mac or PC? If you wish, we can email you an Excel copy of the template.

So so sooo helpful! I’m happy to find this great itinerary template! Thank you so much.

Thanks Tahira! We’re so glad that you found it helpful. Enjoy your travels! 🙂

Hi Tahira, we’re thrilled you found this template helpful. Enjoy your travels!

I needed this so much, easy and simply. Thank you for a great spreadsheet.

Thanks Nga! Happy travel planning!

Hi Nga, we’re so glad you loved this spreadsheet. Hope you had an amazing travel adventure!

Thank you , soooo much ! I appreciate you putting this together and sharing it

Hi Priscilla! So glad that you found this planning template useful! We hope you enjoy your trip!

I am so excited to find this. (Thank you, Pinterest!) I will be leaving in a month on an eight day train trip and this is exactly what I needed to get all my ducks in a row. Thank you so much!

HiTeresa! We’re so glad to hear this and so exciting for you. Enjoy your trip!

This is great! Found this as i was looking for a newer travel planner and this is very helpful and user friendly!

We’re so glad to hear this! Happy travel planning!

great tool. never used a planner before and it has most every item to consider… add a route sheet for those who driving to, during and back from their vacations…

Glad you like it and thanks for the feedback. We’ll look into adding a new tab for routes.

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Travel Budget Calculator

Share it with your family and friends, your ultimate guide to smart travel planning.

Planning a trip can be exhilarating, but it often comes with the stress of managing finances. Fear not! With the Travel Budget Calculator, you can embark on your dream journey with confidence. In this guide, we’ll delve deep into the intricacies of budgeting for travel, empowering you to make informed decisions and maximize your experiences.

Understanding the Travel Budget Calculator

Embarking on a journey starts with meticulous planning, and the Travel Budget Calculator serves as your trusty companion. This tool revolutionizes the way you approach travel expenses, offering a comprehensive overview of your financial landscape. By inputting essential details such as number of nights, duration, accommodation preferences, and activity interests, the calculator generates a personalized budget tailored to your preferences and constraints.

Vacation Budget Planner is the ultimate tool for travel budgeting! Easily estimate your trip expenses and budget your journey with precision using our user-friendly Travel Budget Calculator. Whether you’re planning a weekend getaway or a month-long adventure, our tool helps you plan every aspect of your trip, from accommodation to transportation and meals.

Simply input your desired budget and our calculator will provide you with a detailed breakdown of estimated expenses, including flights, hotels, meals, and activities. Planning a trip for 4 days with a budget of $2000? No problem! Our tool helps you allocate your budget efficiently to make the most out of your travel experience.

With features like the Trip Expense Calculator and Vacation Budget Estimator, you can plan your itinerary with confidence, knowing exactly how much you’ll spend. Plus, our tool caters to every budget, whether you’re a backpacker on a shoestring budget or a luxury traveler looking for premium experiences.

Say goodbye to guesswork and hello to stress-free travel planning! Try our Travel Budget Planner today and make your dream trip a reality.

Benefits of Using the Travel Budget Calculator

Planning your itinerary can be overwhelming, but the Travel Budget Calculator simplifies the process. Here’s why incorporating this tool into your travel planning arsenal is a game-changer:

• Efficiency in Planning: Say goodbye to tedious spreadsheets and guesswork. The Travel Budget Calculator streamlines the planning process, providing instant insights into your projected expenses. With a few clicks, you can fine-tune your budget and allocate resources efficiently, ensuring a hassle-free travel experience.
• Financial Transparency: Transparency is key to effective budgeting, and the Travel Budget Calculator offers just that. By breaking down expenses across various categories such as transportation, accommodation, dining, and activities, you gain a clear understanding of where your money is allocated. This transparency empowers you to make informed decisions and prioritize experiences that matter most to you.
• Flexibility and Customization : No two travelers are alike, and the Travel Budget Calculator recognizes that. Whether you’re a budget-conscious backpacker or a luxury seeker, this tool adapts to your preferences and constraints. Adjust parameters such as accommodation standards, dining preferences, and activity intensity to tailor your budget to your unique travel style.

Travel Budget Calculator: Your Key to Financial Freedom

In conclusion, the Travel Budget Calculator empowers you to embark on unforgettable journeys without compromising your financial stability. By leveraging its capabilities and implementing savvy budgeting strategies, you’ll unlock a world of possibilities and create cherished memories that last a lifetime. So, what are you waiting for? Start planning your next adventure today and let the Travel Budget Calculator be your guiding light.

FAQs About Travel Budget Calculator

Below are some basic questions that arise while using a travel budget calculator.

Q. How does the Travel Budget Calculator work?

A. Calculating a travel budget isn’t rocket science; it’s just simple math. As we know, if we have exact numbers in front of us, decision-making becomes much easier. A Travel Budget Calculator simply provides us with all the expense numbers.

Q. Is the Travel Budget Calculator suitable for all types of travelers?

A. Absolutely! Whether you’re a budget-conscious backpacker, a luxury seeker, or somewhere in between, the Travel Budget Calculator adapts to your preferences and constraints. Simply adjust the parameters to align with your unique travel style and embark on your adventure with confidence.

Q. Can I trust the accuracy of the Travel Budget Calculator?

A. Yes, the Travel Budget Calculator is designed to provide accurate and reliable estimates based on the information provided. However, it’s essential to factor in unforeseen expenses and fluctuations in prices to ensure comprehensive budget planning.

Q. Can I save my budgeting preferences for future use?

A. Unfortunately, the Travel Budget Calculator does not currently offer a save feature but you can download it. However, you can easily recreate your budgeting preferences each time you plan a trip by inputting the relevant details into the calculator.

Q. How frequently should I update my travel budget?

A. It’s advisable to review and update your travel budget regularly, especially as your trip approaches and circumstances change. Factors such as fluctuating exchange rates, last-minute bookings, and unexpected expenses can impact your budget, so staying proactive is key to financial planning success.

How to Make a Travel Budget in 5 Easy Steps (Free Planner)

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Creating a travel budget may seem like a hassle, but it’ll actually make your vacation more enjoyable. Knowing that you’ve already planned out how you’re going to pay for everything will help you relax and have a good time.

• Money Management

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Many people enjoy traveling the world, exploring new places, or just relaxing in a tranquil environment.

Taking a vacation is a great way to reduce stress and improve productivity, but traveling can be costly. Making a travel budget will make a big difference while planning your next getaway.

Those who love to travel should incorporate it as a line item in their monthly budgets. Each month, set aside a certain amount for travel in its own separate account.

Earmark that money specifically as a vacation budget so that it can be spent guilt-free. Money that is put toward trip expenses can simply be reimbursed from the travel account.

With that said, if there is outstanding debt that is difficult to pay off, planning an immediate vacation may not be a good idea. In this case, the priority should be to set up an emergency fund that includes three-to-six months’ worth of living expenses.

Why Is Budgeting for a Vacation Important?

While it is good to get into the habit of setting aside vacation funds every month, it is also important to create a budget for each individual trip. This will help determine how long it will take to build up enough money in the vacation account to pay for that trip. It will also allow for logistics to be planned out, while staying on budget.

Scheduling and budgeting for vacations can be very enjoyable. Researching hotel accommodations, restaurants, and free things to do helps to build up anticipation. It can be fun for the whole family to spend time together, figuring out the different parts of an upcoming trip.

How to Budget for A Vacation in 5 Simple Steps

When it comes time to map out those vacation expenses, a few key steps will help lead to success and worry-free traveling. Begin by drafting a well-rounded vacation budget, focusing on expenses in the following five main categories. Once these are figured out, the rest of the details will fall into place.

1. Choose a destination and preferred date

Start by picking a destination and nailing down travel dates. Remember that some locations are more expensive to visit than others. The time of year can also make a difference in pricing. Traveling done at peak tourist times usually costs more than off-season trips.

Be flexible

Being flexible is one of the easiest ways to save when budgeting for a vacation. Check out multiple travel destinations and compare prices before settling on options for lodging and airfare. Since these are two of the largest expenses in any travel budget, keeping them in check will go a long way toward helping to keep the overall cost down.

Be willing to look at alternative accommodations or stay at a place that is a little farther away from the tourist areas. Remember that most vacation time is spent outside the hotel room – so there is no reason to put a large chunk of the budget toward nice accommodations that will be used only for sleep.

Also, be flexible when choosing a travel date. Many travel search engines have a “flexible dates” option that can be used to research the lowest prices for airfare and lodging. Plan around these dates for added savings in the travel budget.

Consider the season

The time of year can really impact a travel budget. A lot of people have begun to plan weddings around their honeymoons, and not vise versa. For example, if the goal is to travel to Italy without spending a fortune or facing large crowds of tourists – while still enjoying nice weather – get married in early autumn, which is known as the shoulder season. It’s a great time of year to travel, because the weather is still nice, but the crowds have thinned out. Most people with children travel during the summer. Once the kids are back in school, prices for airfare and accommodations tend to drop, allowing people with more flexibility to travel cheaper.

Related: Make Money Renting Your Home with Airbnb While You’re on Vacation

2. Make a list of your major expenses (use a travel budget worksheet)

When drafting a travel budget worksheet, plan for the biggest expenses, including transportation, accommodations, and food, first. Getting those out of the way will greatly aid in putting together the overall vacation budget.

Research cheap travel deals (transportation)

Transportation costs for trips that are taken close to home will not be very high. But when airfare comes into the picture, the transportation line item will increase dramatically. Research multiple airlines for cheap travel deals, and consider taking connecting flights to cut down on the cost. If it’s feasible, check out the price of flights leaving from airports in nearby cities.

Flights on airlines to and from major airport hubs are usually lower in cost. For example, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines are both headquartered in Dallas. Flights on those airlines tend to be the cheapest travel to and from that area.

Research accommodations

Another large expense in any travel budget is lodging. There is a wide range of options to consider when it comes to picking out a place to stay, including hostels, hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, or apartments. Or, if a trip includes camping, those accommodations can include cabins and tents.

Rather than being brand-loyal to a particular hotel, utilize travel sites like Hotels.com to compare costs at different chains. After all, most travel time is spent sightseeing and exploring, not inside the room.

The closer accommodations are to major attractions, the more expensive they will be. Consider staying somewhere off the beaten path to save money.

When traveling with a group of people, split the cost of accommodations. For example, rent a house or condo with multiple rooms and divide the costs. If your destination is more remote, consider renting an RV. For as low as $175 per night, you can comfortably sleep 10 adults and still come in under $20 per person per day.

Budget for food

One of the trickiest line items in a vacation budget is food. To save some money in this area, choose a place to stay that has a kitchen – or at least a refrigerator and microwave. Eat some meals there, and then splurge a few times by going out to eat at local restaurants.

Another great way to save money on food is to stay in a bed and breakfast or a hotel that includes breakfast. Some chains like Homewood Suites or DoubleTree offer both a kitchen area and a hot breakfast, which helps in saving money . Drinks bought while eating out can quickly add to a bill, so buy wine or beer for the room to keep that travel budget in check.

When budgeting for meals, try going out for lunch instead of dinner. Lunch is usually cheaper than dinner, and many of the same options are offered for less. It is also usually not as tempting to order pricey alcoholic beverages during lunch.

Related: How to Find Cheap Gas Nearby (When You’re On the Go)

3. Make a list of smaller expenses

Once the larger expenses are planned out, figure out the extras, like sightseeing, entertainment, and gifts.

Research potential vacation activities and local places to visit. Go online to get an idea of the associated costs, and budget accordingly.

Don’t forget to plan for any necessary vaccines if traveling abroad, as well as gifts to take back home. Build a buffer into the budget to account for any surprise expenses. It’s always best to plan for more, and then spend less.

4. Determine the monthly savings

Once a rough vacation budget has been established, it’s time to figure out how to pay for it. Take the total amount and divide it by the number of months left until the trip. For example, if the vacation date is in nine months and the cost of the trip is approximately $2,700, $300 must be set aside every month.

If that amount seems too large, there are two options: adjust the timeline or make some extra money.

If necessary, push the trip out by a few months until enough money can be saved, or figure out how to bring in some extra income. There are many different ways to make money on the side, and help to reach that savings goal.

5. Vacation budgeting doesn’t end there

Those travel budgets won’t do much good if they aren’t followed. It is important to track costs and stay on top of spending while on vacation. Don’t stress out over every penny, but don’t go overboard, either. It wouldn’t be fun to see some nasty surprises on the bank or credit card statement later.

One of the easiest ways to track expenditures while traveling is with a budgeting tool like Personal Capital. Alternatively, keep on top of spending with an Excel spreadsheet or even with a pen and paper. Whatever the method, keep it updated and check it regularly.

Bonus Tip: Draft an itinerary

While it’s not necessary to create an itinerary when budgeting for a vacation, it really helps stay on track. The best way to do this is by using an Excel spreadsheet. Make a rough outline with a separate entry for each day of the vacation. Fill in all of the travel information and any scheduled activities like sightseeing tours.

Make a separate column to the side and list out all potential vacation activities. Group together any events that are in the same area of town and write down approximately how long each one would take. Now slot them in under the different day headers for either the morning or afternoon.

Try to group together activities or sightseeing that will occur in the same part of town. Food and restaurant options can be added in after the schedule is roughed out.

Itineraries are meant to be flexible, not restrictive. Move things around to find the right balance. Note the associated cost of each entry on the list.

Add all of the expenses together at the bottom of the spreadsheet to estimate the total travel budget. Remember that it’s not necessary to follow the itinerary word for word. Use it as a planning tool and focus on enjoying the trip.

Creating a Travel Budget Is Well Worth the Time

Even though it may seem like creating a travel budget can be a hassle, in the long run, it will make vacations far more enjoyable.

Having a vacation budget means not stressing about money after the trip. It allows for advanced planning and time to save up enough money. Budgeting for a vacation means that it will be easy to relax and have a good time, knowing that everything is in the budget and ready to be paid for.

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How to Create a Travel Budget that Works (Free Spreadsheet Template)

Are you desperate to travel the world but don’t think you can afford it? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Let’s create the perfect travel budget to make sure you don’t overspend and can keep on travelling. Travelling on a budget doesn’t have to be difficult.

Off to Get Lost  is reader-supported. Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you, I will receive an affiliate commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Who needs a travel budget?

Almost everyone will benefit from having a travel budget, but they’re ideal for someone travelling on a low budget. Travelling is great, but it’s also expensive. You can easily burn through a lot of money very quickly without even realising it. I know I have!

By having a travel budget, you can make the most of your money. In this guide, you’ll be given a free budget planner spreadsheet so you can easily see what money you have, how much you’ll need, and where your money is going. With this all at hand, you can then make your money last. 

I also like to use my travel budget to plan my vacations. It’s a great way to keep all my research in one place. If I know there’s a tour I want to do or a museum to visit, it goes into the budget. This way, when I am away, I can easily check my phone and have all the reminders there. 

Top Tip: Download Google Sheets onto your phone so you can access your budget spreadsheet wherever you are!

Why is a travel budget important?

Making a budget will help you find out whether or not you can afford a trip. You can quickly see if you currently have enough funds, or need to save more in order to do everything you want to do.

I find this a huge incentive to keep saving. If you’re like me, saving money is difficult. But with a goal in mind, it becomes so much easier to say no to a new dress. That’s why having the goal to save money for travel is a great starting point for any budget. sa

It can also see what kind of holiday you can afford. Maybe you don’t want to save any more and are impatient to get on the road. With this travel budget, you can find a trip that fits your savings and start having fun straight away.

Whilst travelling, a travel budget will help make your money last. By tracking your spending, you can see where you’re overdoing it. Perhaps you notice you’ve overspent on eating out so it might be time to cook for yourself.

Or maybe you’ve been really good with spending and have some money left over. Now you can have that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and take the scuba lesson you’ve always wanted!

How to a Travel Budget that Actually Works

What do you need to consider when creating a travel budget.

It’s actually pretty easy to create a travel budget. Really, there are just two things to consider: the essentials, and the desires. In other words, what you have to buy and what you want to buy. Essential items tend to be fixed, so are super easy to put into your budget, whereas what you want is more subjective and changes more often depending on the trip you’re going to.

Below I have a few things to consider when creating your budget. If you follow this list, hopefully, there will be very few surprise expenses on your trip. 

To help you even more, I’ve created this easy-to-use budget planner to bring all your research together.

Start Budgeting like a Pro

This free Travel Budget Spreedsheet will help you predict vacation expensise, set saving goals, and keep track of your spending.

Subscribe to get your Travel Budget Spreedsheet and begin acheiving your travel goals today.

Use this planner to find out how much a trip will really cost you. You can see how much you need to save, as well as track your spending whilst on your travels. I find it so useful to see how I’ve divided my budget and adjust it accordingly as I go along.

Let’s have a Look at your Travel Budget Necessities

These are the easy things to budget. They’re things you just have to do, and the price rarely changes no matter when you buy them.

If you’re travelling outside of your home country, make sure to check the travel restrictions and whether or not you’ll need a visa. 

For example, UK residents will need: 

When travelling to Australia , you must have a valid UK passport and an ETA visa, which costs between $150-$300. This allows you to travel in Australia for 90 days within a 365-day period. 

When travelling to Europe , it is currently free for UK citizens. However, this is expected to change in November 2024. 

When travelling to Thailand, your passport must have at least 6 months of validity remaining from your date of entry into Thailand, and you can stay in Thailand visa-free for 30 days. If you wish to stay for more than 30 days or want to work in Thailand, you need a valid visa. This must be obtained before you travel.

2: Passport

Whilst it might be obvious that you need a passport to travel internationally, it’s always worth double-checking your passport’s expiry date. Some countries (see above for some examples) require your passport to have a certain amount of validity left on your passport when you enter the country. 

You might think your passport is in date, but it would be terrible to arrive and not be allowed to travel because it expires in 3 months’ time. I’ve known people who’ve had to cancel last minute because of this exact reason! It’s not fun, that’s for sure.

3: Travel Insurance 

It’s always good to travel with insurance. It’s not expensive, so why take the risk? Check out Visitors Coverage . They are an American brand but provide coverage for people outside of the states. They have different options depending on your trip.

4: Vaccinations

In the post-pandemic world, we live in, there are even more vaccination requirements than usual when it comes to travelling. Whilst most countries have relaxed the rules on testing negative PCR tests etc. before flying, it’s always worth double-checking before you fly. 

Those tests aren’t cheap, and it’s an annoying expense to have to pay last minute. 

Of course, there are other vaccinations you will need to get depending on where you’re travelling to. Make sure you do some research and protect yourself from any potential illnesses you could get. If you’re unsure what vaccinations you need, make an appointment with your local GP to get all the information.

Now, onto the fun part! Where do you want to spend your money?

You’ve now created solid foundations for your travel budget. Next, you need to work out where you want to spend your money. I like to find the cheapest transport and save money on food so I can spend it on activities and the occasional eating out instead.

But that usually means I have to make sacrifices like travelling with just a carry-on and travelling at bad times which is usually the best way to find cheap flights.

If this doesn’t appeal to you, that’s fine. All you have to do is adjust your budget to have a larger fund for transport.

Make your way through the list and see where you want to put your money. You might have to do a bit of research at this point. You don’t want to allocate just £20 to food per day only to get to your destination and realise you grossly underestimate how expensive food is.

5: Food whilst travelling 

I love food. It’s something I am more than happy to spend money on but that also means I can get a bit carried away. Despite allocating more funds to it, I still have to be strict with my budget. I’ve created this post to help you save money on food whilst travelling abroad.  

The best way to save money is to cook all your own food. When you do eat out, eat the local cuisine. If you do this, your budget should be ok. It’s worth doing some research into the area you’re going to. Search on different Europe travel blogs and read articles like Nomadic Matt’s budget guides. He breaks down a lot of the costs you need to make your own budget from food to accommodation.

6: Drink 

A big part of backpacking is the social side of it. Going out and meeting new people is one of the best things about travelling. And whilst it doesn’t have to include drinking, it often does. Spending your evenings sitting outside in a warm country sipping on a cool drink is a pretty nice way to end your day. These drinks don’t have to be alcoholic, but make sure to budget some money towards this.

This is another hard one to stick to as these plans are often spontaneous, but really try your best to stick to them. You might decide to drink alcohol just one night a week and drink soft drinks the rest. Or maybe you’d prefer to spread it out and have one beer a night to keep yourself on track. 

7: Accommodation

The biggest thing with accommodation is to check out multiple sights. Don’t stick to the first place you see. I like to use both booking.com and Hostelworld . Y ou often see the same hostels on both but at different prices.

When thinking about accommodation, try to be aware of the facilities available to you and what’s included. If you’re going to be cooking your own food, you’ll want a kitchen available to you. A lot of hostels will have a shared kitchen available, but it’s not a guarantee. 

You might also find somewhere with breakfast included in the price. This is a great bonus as it means you don’t have to budget for a whole meal. Be wary of hotels that have it as an add-on option. Usually, it’s at least 10 euros extra per day, which is more than I would budget for breakfast.

My favourite way to find places to go for cheap flights is Skyscanner . They give me the most constantly cheap flights and give you a lot of options. You can search anywhere to find a super cheap destination and shows you cheaper dates on either side of your search.

Flight prices fluctuate a lot, and it can be a bit of a game to find the best deals. If you need some ideas, check out this guide on how to find the cheapest flights .

9: Transportation

It’s vital to work out how much you’re going to spend on transport whilst away. This will depend a lot on the type of holiday you’re going on. This encompasses quite a lot, so check out what things to think about below.  

If you’re planning an interrail trip, buying an interrail ticket will have your main trains sorted. But don’t forget about potential day trips and any smaller, in-country trains you might want to take. I like to use Trainline to book my trains whilst travelling in Europe. They are consistent with finding the cheapest deals and make it really easy to find train timetables.

If you’re looking at renting a ca r, check out Discover Cars . They are an award-winning company and compare over 500 suppliers to find you the best deal wherever you’re travelling.

Other things you need to consider when it comes to transport:

What public transport is available to you and how much does local transport cost? Do they have a multi-ticket deal?

Is public transport reliable?

Will you even need to use public transport? If it’s a smaller city or all the places you want to see are within walking distance, you might not need to budget anything for this at all.

How much is transport to and from the airport? I always forget to budget for the return journey and have had to spend a sad amount on last-minute taxis when the buses have failed.

10: Activities

This is where you can have some fun with your research. Get to know what’s happening at your destination, and begin adding things to your list of what you want to do. If it’s a city holiday, see if there are museums you want to go to and look at what free activities are available to you. Most cities will have free walking tours that are great ways to see the city whilst saving your budget. 

Or maybe you’re travelling to the coast and want to finally learn to surf? Perhaps there’s a boat trip that looks unmissable. The important thing with any budget is to balance making your money last and spending it on what you really want to experience.  

I like to use Get Your Guide to browse my options. They often have bundle tickets with added queue jump which is great if you’re travelling with less time.

Also, think about what you will be buying. Are you one for getting presents for others? Or maybe you like to collect postcards from everywhere you go? These might not be big expenditures, but they can add up so it’s good to include them. 

11: Emergency Fund

The final thing you need to create is an emergency fund.

The reality of travel is that things can go wrong. Whether you simply forgot to budget for something, or you miss a flight, you need to be able to financially cover these. 

More often than not, you won’t have to dip into these savings, at least not for anything major. But I almost always end up taking a little for small things here and there. Just knowing I have it is also a great stress reliever and makes me more confident whilst travelling.

If you’re worried about travelling solo, check out these tips on how to stay safe when travelling . They’re easy to implement but can make a huge difference in feeling confident when venturing out on your own.

How to use your travel budget when you’re away

Whilst you’re away on your travels, your budget will help make your money last. Without a budget, it can be difficult to know where you can spend your money, and where your money’s suddenly disappeared to.

By tracking what you’ve spent, even if loosely, you can see exactly where you might be overspending and can act accordingly. Travel can be very spur of the moment, and you don’t want to miss an opportunity because you’re not sure if you can afford it. With your tracker, you’ll easily be able to see how much money you have and where you can spare it, and never miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity again. 

Budget saving tips 

• Work whilst away through companies such as Worldpackers
• Use these tips to get the cheapest flights every time.
• Travel light with a compact carry on
• Save money on food whilst travelling with these tips

Taking the time to create a travel budget is a great way to discover where you’re going. Find incredible things to do, even if they’re free activities, and pop them into your budget. It’ll help you save money whilst way, as once you’ve created your budget, you can use it to keep track of your spending, and also see where you have overbudgeted. Maybe you don’t need that much money for food, so can afford to spend more on activities. 

If you’ve filled out the budget planner and discovered your dream vacation is out of your budget, you can now make a plan to save. Check out these easy and actionable tips on how to save money and travel more . Soon, your dream vacation will be well within reach.

Kizzi is a travel blogger and photographer who loves sharing her passion for exploring the world. is the creator of Off to Get Lost. Her love for travel began in 2017 when she went on her first solo adventure to Sri Lanka. Recently, Kizzi has been exploring the hidden depths of Europe and sharing her findings on Off To Get Lost. Through Off to Get Lost, Kizzi aims to empower fellow adventurers, teaching how to maximize their time, budget, and grow confidence while uncovering Europe's finest treasures.

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Hi, I'm Kizzi and welcome to Off to Get Lost where the aim is to do exactly that! So let's get lost across the world, dicover new expereinces, and have the adventure of a lifetime. Here on Off to Get Lost, you'll find budget saving tips, perfectly planned itineraries and helpful advice on how to do it all solo.

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The Ultimate Travel Planner Spreadsheets on Google Sheets

Last updated on July 15th, 2024 at 02:32 pm

I don’t know about you, but after a year of quarantining and diligently following all of the rules, I am so ready for an epic adventure. As the vaccine rolls out and cases begin to decrease I’m starting to feel the first dash of hope which spurred me to open up my Google Sheets travel planner spreadsheet.

I started dreaming about traveling again. Not even to far off destinations, but to local spots for more than a quick day trip. I figured now was the perfect time to introduce to you how I plan my trips using my Google Sheets itinerary template.

I started using this type of travel planning when I quit my job and got to plan a multi-month, multi-destination adventure. It was a fairly overwhelming process, but the way I stayed organized and on budget was by using Google Sheets.

I created spreadsheet upon spreadsheet to track all of my confirmation numbers, bucket list activities, and other important travel information. I also learned which ones made sense, what information was necessary, and which ones I could delete. Leaving only the best and most useful travel itinerary template to share with you so you can plan a stress-free getaway!

This post contains affiliate links, which means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a tiny bit of income if you decide to make a purchase or booking. For more, check out my disclosure .

solo female Travel Resources

• Book your flight to San Francisco with Skyscanner
• Get reliable travel insurance with World Nomads
• Find awesome accommodation with booking.com or Hostelworld
• Book your rental car with Discover Cars
• All of my favorite travel and photography gear
• Read the ultimate guide to solo female travel

Why Do I Use Google Sheets Instead of Excel?

I love using Google Sheets for just about everything in my life. I have my budget there, keep track of my blogging stats, and my client work.

Here are a few reasons why I prefer using Google Sheets over an Excel spreadsheet for my travel plans:

• Google Sheets is more Mobile . I have the Google Sheets app on my phone and the spreadsheets are editable offline. This means that if I end up without WiFi or data, which happens all of the time on the road, I can still access any important information or make updates.
• I can easily share it with my friends and family . They will be able to see as I make changes to it in real time, compared to having to email them a new Excel document each time. In terms of my safety when I travel solo , if they ever need to get a hold of me, they will have all of the necessary and up to date information.
• I am an Apple person through and through and simply prefer Google Sheets over Excel.

Now, Google Sheets and Excel are basically the same thing, so if you are an Excel person you can take the travel planner templates I share here and apply the idea to Excel.

When to Use a Travel Itinerary Templates?

I suggest using a trip planner template anytime you’re planning a trip with a lot of moving parts. Is it necessary for short trips or a weekend getaway? No, probably not.

But if you’re planning anything more than a week and you want to ensure you stay on budget and get to see, do, and eat what you want then using a spreadsheet to track everything is incredibly helpful.

I also find them really helpful for planning road trips, so I created (and included for you) a road trip template.While I primarily use them for planning my travel itineraries you could also use them to help you plan a business travel itinerary .

How to Use a Travel Itinerary Template in Google Sheets?

I’m going to walk you through my tried and tested method for using Google Sheets as your travel planner. My travel spreadsheet template has 12 individual spreadsheets. 

You can definitely make these yourself, but if you want them already done for you, you can purchase the customizable templates here .

Quick tip : Add links whenever possible. If you find a cool tour you want to do, save the link to the spreadsheet so you can easily find it when it comes time to book

I’ll show you a screenshot of each of them and a short video, but here’s the overview. 

Travel Planner Spreadsheet Template Sheets

Travel dashboard.

• Travel Budget
• Travel Expenses

Reservations Tracker

Daily travel itinerary, travel itinerary calendar view.

• Flight Planner
• Accommodation Planner
• Bucket List Planner

Pre-Travel Shopping List

Packing list, road trip planner.

The Travel Dashboard is your home base for trip planning. On this sheet, you’ll input your destination country and travel dates. The sheet will automatically populate the number of days of your trip and the currency of the destination.

From this sheet your travel dates will also be inserted into the travel expense spreadsheet, daily travel itinerary, travel itinerary calendar view, accommodation research. 

There is even a fun countdown of how many days left until your trip!

The sheet will also provide you with popular destinations in that country!

You’ll also see two boxes, an initial budget that pulls details from your travel budget spreadsheet and a comparison to your budget vs actual expenses. This will help you stay on track during the trip!

The travel dashboard also links to the most used sheets in the template to limit scrolling across the bottom!

All of the individual sheets also link back to the dashboard for easy navigation!

Travel Budget Spreadsheet

Your travel budget planner is broken out into locations, because many trips include more than one destination! 

If you’re staying in more than three locations, feel free to add more columns to the right. Copy and paste one of the location sections. Just be sure to add the cell number to the approximate cost of your trip so it remains accurate. 

You can enter the number of nights you’ll be in each location too so you can budget accurately.

Then move through the categories. 

Make sure to factor in the number of nights staying for an accurate accommodation and food budget. 

Other items will likely be one off purchases like a train ticket or a tour.

At the bottom of the sheet you’ll see a total for each destination. At the top of the sheet you’ll see a budget for the trip overall!

The travel budget spreadsheet is intended to provide you with an approximate cost of your trip. Once you have this information you can adjust as needed.

If the trip is too far out of your budget, don’t give up! 

Can you find cheaper accommodations? Can you DIY some of your bucket list activities? Can you cook food instead of eating out?

One of my biggest travel tips to stay on budget is to prioritize the activities and experiences that you know will fill you up and bring you joy. Forget the rest.

See where that leaves your budget.

This sheet also provides a link directly to your expenses as these two are linked in real life!

Travel Expense Spreadsheet

The travel expense spreadsheet is where you’ll put any travel related purchases leading up to and during your trip. You can change or add the categories to reflect what works best for your situation.

Let’s say you’re planning a Hawaii getaway ! Leading up to the trip, you decide you want to buy a new swimsuit. You’ll add that to this spreadsheet and put it under shopping or create a new category for clothing. As you book your accommodation for the trip, you’ll add that here as well. Then as you are exploring the gorgeous Hawaiian islands, you’ll track your expenses for food, activities, gifts, etc. 

Then at the end of the month, you’ll know exactly amount of your trip expenses, both before the actual trip and during. 

This is broken out by months, then at the very top, you’ll have a yearly total for travel expenses.

The reservations tracker provides a place to put all of your important details like bookings and confirmation numbers.

Once you make a decision on where you’re staying, your method of transportation, and activities, input that information here.

Include the confirmation number, the costs, and any other information that you find valuable for your trip.

The Daily Travel Itinerary is where you’ll get into all of your trip details. This sheet is perfect for detail oriented planners who want to make sure they do and see all of the things.

The daily schedules include the start and end time of your activity and the type of activity you’re doing. You can add in where you’ll be eating as well! 

However, one of my top travel tips is to only schedule ONE main activity per day. This allows time for a little bit of spontaneity on the road, while still ensuring you do what you went there to do. 

This Travel Itinerary Calendar View provides a birds eye view of your itinerary. It helps keep track of what days of the week your trip falls on and you can see how your trip fits into the rest of your year.

The date will automatically start on the first day of your trip that you imputed on the travel dashboard. The blank box allows you to put whatever information you deem necessary. 

I recommend keeping this as a high level overview. Putting the location you’ll be in on each day, or marking it as a travel day. I also recommend including public holidays as that may impact your trip.

Leave the details for the daily itinerary.

Flight Planner Spreadsheet

As you research your flights, use the Flight Planner Spreadsheet to track the entire cost of the flight. This will include a checked bag (maybe), food on board etc. Those cheap flights are super tempting, but since you have to pay for everything else, it really adds up. So use this sheet to be sure you know how much that $35 flight will actually cost you.

The final total will automatically calculate.

Accommodation Planner Spreadsheet

Accommodation can be overwhelming to book. There are so many options, which should you choose? First, check out my guide to booking hostels . If you’re not a fan of hostels don’t worry, the tips in there are applicable across all accommodation types.

As you research your accommodation, add the information to the Accommodation Planner Spreadsheet. 

You can include the link, the ranking (based on reviews or your preference), and any other important information.

This will help you ensure that you get the biggest bang for your buck out of where you lay your head. 

There are multiple destination options in this sheet, as you might be moving about the country!

Bucket List Planner Spreadsheet

The Bucket List Planner is where the fun stuff lives! Start with your destination and determine your can’t miss, bucket list activities and places to eat!

Have you ever been planning a trip, read a blog post that mentions an epic activity or amazing restaurant, and you think, I want to do that or eat there. But then you don’t save the information? 

Well, add the booking link or restaurant website to this sheet along with other important information (cost, tour operator etc). 

Then when you’re ready to book, you have all of the travel inspiration you found in one place!

Sometimes, you need some gear before a trip. This could be anything from a new swimsuit for your beach vacation to luggage to vaccinations! Also – don’t forget travel insurance!

Keep track of those costs here and factor it into the overall budget of your trip.

I am a big fan of NOT spending too much in this phase of the travel planning. Try to use what you have, borrow what you can, and only buy something when absolutely necessary.

I’m sure a friend or family member has a piece of carry-on luggage you can use and no you don’t need a brand new wardrobe for your trip.

The packing list is a simple spreadsheet that you can modify to suit your needs. 

You can get super detailed if you’d like saying the number of shirts you want to bring or not. 

That’s up to you!

There are some items on here you may not need. 

But always, no matter the weather, always pack a swimsuit. You just never know when you might encounter a hot spring, hot tub, or lake for a dip!

For all of the details and packing tips, read this detailed packing list for women .

Last but not least, you’ll find a road trip planner ! This road trip itinerary planner gives you space to note your starting location, your ultimate destination, the number of miles you’ll drive, cost of gas and things you’d like to see along the way!

There is also a section at the top for your rental car information if you need to rent one for your road trip.

In the first column, you can put the day of the week, the actual date or leave it numbered as is.

At the bottom of the spreadsheet, it will total up the number of miles driven and the total cost of gas for the trip.

Purchase the Travel Planner Spreadsheets

If you don’t want to go through the hassle of creating your own spreadsheets, you can purchase these! The link to these will come in a PDF file that provides quick tips for how to use the sheets.

You can purchase them here!

Please note : These travel planner spreadsheets are for personal use only. There is only a Google Sheets version, there is not an Excel file. 

Due to the digital nature of the travel planner, please make sure you make a copy of the link in the PDF so it preserves the functionality of the planner!

I know that planning a trip, no matter the length, can be really fun, but also a bit overwhelming. Especially when you’re trying to stay on budget! These travel planner spreadsheets will help you plan the trip of your dreams (which we all need right about now) while staying on budget and leaving the overwhelm behind.

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The Tex-Mex Mom

April 24, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Vacation Budget Planner Worksheet (Free Printable)

Frugal Living

Planning your next summer vacation or family trip? Learn why and how to budget for your vacation and grab my free budgeting for vacation worksheets to make it easy!

I don’t know how it happened but somehow Easter is over and we’re already through almost four months of 2022. With the end of school and summer in sight, now is a great time to start planning ahead and budgeting for any vacation or traveling that you may be planning this summer.

I’ve put together some PDF printables – some vacation budget planner worksheets and a vacation savings tracker – to help you as you budget and save towards your vacation.

In this blog post I will go through why budgeting for vacation is important and how to do it. Then,  you can grab your free vacation budget planner worksheets and vacation saving tracker down at the bottom of this post!

Why You Should Use a Vacation Budget Worksheet

Whether it’s some grand 3-week trip to Europe, a summer vacation at the beach, a road trip with the family, or just a weekend getaway, thinking through your finances ahead of time and budgeting for your time away is always a good idea.

Filling out your vacation budget worksheet and having a solid plan in place will help you in several ways:

• Helps you to start saving ahead so you’re not stressed and scrambling for a lot of money last minute.
• Keeps you from decimating your savings account on your vacation (and/or maxing out your credit card!)
• Sets expectations so that you and your spouse don’t have disagreements about money on your family vacation because you’ve already agreed on what you’re planning to spend.

How to Use a Budget Planner Worksheet to Plan Ahead for Your Vacation

I’ve included five different categories on my travel budget planner. Let’s take a look at each category and talk through the different things you’ll want to keep in mind as you plan.

I would suggest starting out by figuring out your maximum budget for your trip and then organizing the various vacation expenses into each of the five categories.

1. Transportation

Transportation is a big category and there are lots of different scenarios to think through as you budget for your travel costs.

Are you driving? You’ll want to consider fuel expenses and possibly even the cost of getting your car checked by the mechanic first if you’re taking a long road trip. If you’re using a rental car instead of driving your own that’s obviously another expense to stick in your budget.

Flying? Make sure to include not only the price of your airline tickets but the total airfare that includes your luggage, carry-ons, and any extra fees that the airline is throwing in. (Keep in mind that the cheapest flight at first glance isn’t always the cheapest once you read the fine print.)

You may also have additional things to budget for like travel insurance, train tickets or other public transportation, etc.

You may also be interested in: My Tips for a Successful Family Trip With Little Kids

Where are you planning to stay on vacation? Unless you have your own vacation home or are staying with family, you’ll most likely have to budget for your lodging.

If you’ll be staying at several different places you’ll obviously want to think through the number of days and number of nights you’ll be staying in each place and budget accordingly.

Budgeting for travel expenses and accommodations is a no brainer, but another category that’s just as important is food. You can blow your whole budget if you forget to budget well for your vacation food!

A few things to keep in mind as you budget for food:

• Is the cost of food different where you’re going? (Grocery expenses can vary a good bit from place to place.)
• How many family members/friends will you be feeding? (And if you’re vacationing with a lot of people, how will you be dividing up the food expenses?)
• Does your hotel include free breakfast? (This can be a great deal and a great way to save money!)
• Are there particular restaurants you plan to visit? What is the total dinner cost per person at those restaurants? Even ballpark figures are better than nothing.

Some of these questions may seem like overkill to you, but thinking through all the little details and including them on your vacation budget worksheets will help you to budget accurately.

4. Activities

Unless you’re vacationing at the beach and plan to just chill there all day, you likely have some leisure activities that you should budget for.

Will you be visiting any theme parks? Museums? Local attractions? Make sure to budget for admission fees as well as any parking fees. You can usually find all the information you need on each attraction’s website, or better yet use a travel agent to help with all that (often at no extra cost to you!)

5. Miscellaneous

It’s always good to have a miscellaneous category in your budget so that you have enough money for those things that don’t necessarily fit into the other categories as well as any incidental expenses you may incur.

You may want to include extra money in this category for things like a small souvenir budget, vacation/travel-specific clothing, gifts, or even extra fees that you didn’t expect.

Ultimately, once you leave for vacation you’ll probably find a few things that you forgot to plan for. However, the more you prepare, the less likely you are overspend and feel stressed and the more likely you are to be able to focus on the important things that you want to focus on – relaxing and enjoying quality time with your family.

Free Vacation Budget Worksheet and Savings Tracker

I hope that using these free printable travel budget worksheets will help you as you plan and prepare for your next vacation!

Planning Your Vacation?

Subscribe here to receive your free vacation budget printables!

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Have you ever used budgeting worksheets for a trip or vacation? Did it help? Let me know in the comments!

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Home » Budget Templates » Free Vacation Budget Templates (Excel / PDF)

Budget Templates

Free vacation budget templates (excel / pdf).

A vacation budget template is a helpful tool that helps you in reaching your dream destinations. Vacations are an effective way to break your routine. It provides a chance to have great moments and achieve new things. They can assist you in unwinding, resetting broken parent-child relationships. They also strength family bonds.

Moreover, vacations are quite expensive whether you are planning a vacation on small budget. You still have to get the most with your money. Planning can be complicated but there are various ways in which you can save some amount. You may also like Cash Flow Budget Template .

Table of Contents

How do you budget for your vacation?

Set a maximum budget.

You may think that according to your location, you will plan your budget. Some places are quite expenses to stay than others. Narrowing down to the list of destinations that are much affordable is the best way to set your maximum budget. According to your monthly budget, you can get this number. On monthly basis, identify how much you can set aside to save for your vacation. After that, between your first saving and when you want to go for the vacation, multiply this figure by the number of months.

Select a destination

You can be tempted to sign up for cheap airfare sites and this is the common mistake with the travelers. You may pay cheap fares and then reach in more expensive destinations. It is recommended to do your homework and check for the best destinations according to your budget.

Plan for the major expenses

After deciding your destination, search for the types of transportation and the prices of accommodation you will expect. This will assist you in knowing what you want from your vacation. In addition, you will also know how much you will expect to spend on lodging transportation and flights.

Plan for the minor things

It is important to pay attention on the little things that you can spend your money on after planning on your major vacation expenses. These may contain but not limited to;

• Entertainment
• Public transport

Emergency expenses

When you are on vacation, uncertainties may arise. Therefore, it is important to set aside a certain amount for these costs. You should also check Budget Proposal Templates .

Free Vacation Budget Template

Proposed Holiday Pay Budget Template

Vacation Bible School Budget Worksheet

Family Vacation Budget Planner Template

Printable Vacation Budget Template

Vacation Budget Activity Template

Vacation Budget Template Excel

Disney World Vacation Budget Template

Tips for more savings:

Here are vacation tips that will assist you stick on your budget;

Watch for deals

It would be good to keep an eye for airline ticket deals as it would be good to keep an eye for airline ticket deals.

Look for hotel alternatives

By avoiding paying high hotel costs, you can save some amount. You can get this by looking for alternative accommodations like hostels, vacation rentals, or stay with friends.

Book last minute deals

For flights hotels and other destinations, you can look for last-minute deals. This may need flexibility but it will save you an important amount of money.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, when planning a vacation budget template you should try to save a certain amount of money. We have discussed above different ways and options which you can use for a vacation budget.

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I am Ryan Duffy and legal writer. I received a bachelor of business administration (BBA) degree from London Business School. I have 8+ years of writing experience in the different template fields and working with ExcelTMP.com for 7 years. I work with a team of writers and business and legal professionals to provide you with the best templates.

Finance Microsoft Excel

11 minute read

How to Use Excel to Manage Your Travel Budget

Eliza Medley

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Ask a question or join the conversation for all things Excel on our Slack channel.

Crafting the perfect travel spreadsheet transforms trip planning into a seamless experience. It tailors your itinerary to match your travel whims while effortlessly adapting to changing plans. Let's discuss how to use Excel to manage a travel budget.

How to create the ultimate travel spreadsheet

Here is a simple guide to creating a travel spreadsheet.

Set up your Excel spreadsheet

Follow these steps to create a new spreadsheet:

• Launch Microsoft Excel on your computer. You can typically find it in the Microsoft Office suite or as a standalone application.
• Create a new spreadsheet. Once Excel is open, click on "File" in the top-left corner. Select "New" and then choose "Blank Workbook" to start with a fresh spreadsheet.
• Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the Excel interface . You'll see a grid of cells arranged in rows and columns.
• Create sections for clarity. Label the first few rows for specific sections. For example, use the first row for titles like "Date," "Expense Category," "Description," "Amount," and "Balance."
• Format for readability. Adjust the column widths to accommodate your labels and make the spreadsheet visually appealing. Consider using bold fonts or shading for headers to distinguish different sections.
• Reserve space for totals. Dedicate a section at the bottom for total expenses, income, and the remaining budget. Excel will do the math for you later.

You've now set up the foundation for managing your travel budget in Excel.

Track expenses

Now that you've established the groundwork for your travel budget spreadsheet, it's time to delve into the crucial task of tracking your expenses efficiently.

• Create a column for expense categories. In the "Expense Category" column you created earlier, list the categories that align with your travel plans. For instance, if your trip involves flights, include a category for "Transportation".
• Customize categories to suit your trip. Tailor the categories based on your unique itinerary. If you plan to indulge in specific activities, create categories accordingly.
• Enter each expense. With your expense categories established, it's time to start logging individual expenses.
• Fill in the details for each expense. In the rows beneath your category labels, start entering the details of each expense. Include the date, a brief description, and the amount spent in their respective columns.
• Be detailed and accurate. The more detailed your entries, the better you can analyze your spending later. Instead of a generic "Food", specify if it was a restaurant meal or grocery.
• Utilize the SUM function for totals. Click on the cell where you want the total to appear (e.g., the cell beneath the "Amount" column for each category). Use the formula =SUM(range) to add up all the expenses within a specific category. Replace "range" with the cells containing your expense amounts.

By following these steps, you've successfully set up your Excel spreadsheet to track expenses for your upcoming trip.

Budgeting for your trip

Now that you've diligently tracked your expenses , it's time to take control of your travel finances by setting a realistic budget for your trip and allocating funds strategically.

• Establish your total budget. Decide on the maximum amount you're comfortable spending during your trip. This includes all anticipated expenses, from accommodation and transportation to meals and activities.
• Enter the total budget in your spreadsheet. Designate a cell in your spreadsheet, perhaps at the top, to enter your total budget. This serves as your financial anchor throughout the trip-planning process.
• Distribute the budget among categories. Allocate a portion of your total budget to each expense category. For example, if you've budgeted $1,000 for your trip and plan to spend more on activities than accommodation, adjust the allocation accordingly.
• Monitor category budgets. Regularly check your category budgets as you enter expenses. This will help you stay on track and make adjustments if necessary.
• Be realistic and flexible. While setting a budget is essential, it's equally crucial to be realistic and flexible. Unexpected expenses may arise, so allow some flexibility in your allocations.
• Consider contingency. Include a contingency or buffer in your budget to account for unforeseen expenses. This ensures you're prepared for unexpected costs without derailing your entire budget.

By setting a total budget and strategically allocating funds to different categories, you've taken a significant step toward financial planning for your trip.

Tips and tricks for managing your travel budget in Excel

Now that you've set up your Excel spreadsheet to manage your travel budget, let's explore additional tips and tricks to maximize Excel's features.

Tip 1: Use conditional formatting

Conditional formatting is a powerful tool in Excel that allows you to visually highlight specific cells based on their values. How to apply conditional formatting to expense totals:

• Select the cell containing the total expense for each category.
• Navigate to the "Home" tab, click on "Conditional Formatting," and choose a relevant option, such as color scales or data bars.
• This visual representation makes it easy to identify categories where you may need to reconsider your spending.

This can help you quickly identify budget exceedances or areas where you may overspend.

Tip 2: Regularly update your spreadsheet

Consistency is key to effective budget management. Make it a habit to update your spreadsheet regularly to ensure accurate and up-to-date financial information. You should:

• Set a schedule for updates. Establish a routine for updating your budget, whether it's daily, weekly, or bi-weekly. Consistent updates help you stay on top of your financial situation.
• Document expenses promptly. Record your expenses as soon as possible to avoid forgetting or misplacing receipts. This practice ensures that your spreadsheet reflects the most accurate information.

Tip 3: Include contingency in your budget

Unforeseen expenses are a part of travel. Including a contingency in your budget helps you account for unexpected costs without jeopardizing your overall financial plan.

You should allocate a contingency fund. This can act as a safety net for emergencies or unexpected opportunities that may arise during your trip. If you dip into your contingency fund, be sure to update your spreadsheet accordingly. This adjustment ensures that your remaining budget accurately reflects your financial situation.

Tip 4: Leverage Excel's graphs and charts

Excel offers various tools for visual representation, such as graphs and charts . Utilize these features to gain a more insightful overview of your budget trends:

• Select relevant data in your spreadsheet.
• Navigate to the "Insert" tab and choose the type of graph or chart that best represents your data (e.g., a pie chart for expense categories).

Visualizations can provide a quick and easy way to understand your budget distribution.

Make use of Excel templates

Here is how you can use Excel templates to manage your your trips like a pro.

⭐ Organize a meal plan

To keep track of your nutrition on the trip, you can create a table or download a ready-made one. Click the File - New tab and choose from one of Meal Planner templates.

Excel spreadsheets make it easy to plan your daily trip menu and count calories, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Search for " Food " within the templates and you will find not only templates for managing your grocery budget, but also the immensely popular calorie-counting logs.

These spreadsheets are designed so that if you exceed the norm, you'll immediately see the deviation. They use basic yet popular Excel functions , including IF and SUM to summarize the details entered. For convenience, there are drop-down lists and visual chart effects.

⭐ Check your car costs

To find out the cost of a car for the trip, you need basic skills in MS Excel to create your own budget or expense tracker. Skills like creating dropdown lists , using the SUBTOTAL function, and working with Excel Tables will come in handy.

Download this template

We've done most of the work for you. Just customize this free template to suit your needs.

Enter the data with detailed descriptions. As a result, you will understand what the most expensive items of car usage consist of and will be able to optimize your expenses. Statistics throughout the trip will help you plan your budget.

Suppose you go for a trip for a month with your own car. In that case, you can expand the template. You can include the cost of insurance, spare parts, technical inspections, tire fitting, and other minor expenses.

This way, you can find out how much the full cost of car maintenance costs you on your trip.

⭐ Calculate your travel budget

Buying cheap airline tickets is half the battle. Include all expenses in your travel plan to avoid flying off into the unknown.

If you search for " Trip planner ", you will find several templates for entering trip details and all expenses.

Take charge of your journey

Mastering your travel budget with Excel can be a game-changer in ensuring a financially stress-free and enjoyable trip. The step-by-step guides provided in this article empower you to take control of your finances and personal life, allowing for informed decisions and flexible adjustments as needed.

Looking for  free Excel templates for business ? We have templates for project management, finance, invoicing, and more. Get skilled-up with our  Excel courses  no matter where you are on your Excel journey.

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Eliza Medley is an experienced writer and psychologist. She is actively interested in management, new technologies, and writing motivational articles. She also loves catching up on modern trends. She inspires people to learn new things and reach new heights with her work. In case of any inquiries or suggestions kindly reach out to her at [email protected].

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