How much money does a trip need? Points Frog's travel budget calculator adds up flights, lodging and daily costs, then adds a buffer for the unexpected. It shows the total, the cost per person and the cost per day, in dollars and in the local currency.
The page's example is a 7-night trip to Europe for two people. Flights are $750 round trip each, lodging is $200 a night, and each person spends $105 a day on food, local transport and activities. That comes to $4,580, or $5,038 with a 10% buffer. At the European Central Bank's reference rate for October 16, 2026, it is €4,477. The prices are example figures, not averages for any city.
The trip, line by line
| Cost | How it adds up | USD |
|---|---|---|
| Flights | $750 × 2 travelers | $1,500 |
| Lodging | $200 × 7 nights | $1,400 |
| Food | $60 × 2 × 8 days | $960 |
| Local transport | $15 × 2 × 8 days | $240 |
| Activities | $30 × 2 × 8 days | $480 |
| Buffer | 10% of $4,580 | $458 |
| Total | $2,519 per person | $5,038 |
That works out to $2,519 per person and about $630 a day for the pair.
Two rules shape the math. Daily costs count one day more than the number of nights, for the days you arrive and leave, so a 7-night trip has 8 days of spending. Lodging is a cost per night for the whole group, so it does not grow with the number of travelers.
What moves the total
Trip length changes the daily cost as well as the total. Flights cost the same however long you stay, so a longer trip spreads them over more days. Here is the same trip for two at different lengths, each with a 10% buffer.
| Nights | Total | Per day | In euros |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | $3,234 | $809 | €2,874 |
| 5 | $4,136 | $689 | €3,675 |
| 7 | $5,038 | $630 | €4,477 |
| 10 | $6,391 | $581 | €5,679 |
| 14 | $8,195 | $546 | €7,282 |
The buffer covers what is easy to forget: tips, bag fees, a taxi when the train is late, a price that went up. The calculator starts it at 10%, which adds $458 to the example. The page suggests more for a long trip, a place where prices are hard to predict, or a budget you can't go over.
Points can cover part of the cost. At Points Frog's estimate of 2.1 cents per American Express Membership Rewards point, the example's $1,500 of flights would take about 71,429 points. That would leave $3,538, or €3,144, to pay in cash. Award prices vary by date and route, so the page says to check the real price in points before you book.
Exchange rates and card fees
You can type prices in dollars or in the local currency, from a list of 25 currencies. Prices in the local currency are divided by the rate to get dollars, and totals are multiplied by it to show the local amount. On October 16, 2026, one dollar bought 0.8887 euros, 0.7499 British pounds, 158.02 Japanese yen and 18.3835 Mexican pesos. At those rates the example trip is £3,778 or ¥796,105.
The calculator leaves out card fees and exchange spreads. The ECB says its reference rates are for information only. Your bank or card network sets the rate you pay, and many cards add a foreign transaction fee, typically 1% to 3% of each purchase. A 3% fee on the $5,038 trip would be about $151.
When a card terminal or ATM offers to charge you in dollars, the shop's or ATM's provider does the conversion at a rate it sets. The page says the local currency is usually the better choice. In the EU, Regulation 2021/1230 requires that offer to show its markup over the ECB reference rate before you pay.
Where the figures come from
Exchange rates are the ECB's euro reference rates, which it publishes around 16:00 CET every working day. The calculator gets them through Frankfurter, an open-source API that restates them against the dollar, and checks them once a day. The card-fee range is from Capital One, dated March 12, 2026. The point value is from Points Frog's point value catalog, dated October 13, 2026. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Use it on your own site
The calculator is free to embed on a blog or site with copy-and-paste code, with no ads or tracking. Here is how to embed it.
Source: European Central Bank, euro reference exchange rates, October 16, 2026, via Frankfurter; Capital One, foreign transaction fees, March 12, 2026; EU Regulation 2021/1230; checked October 18, 2026. Figures are educational estimates, not financial advice.