I have said this so many times before, but budgeting for a holiday can be so hard. everyone spends money very differently. some people will spend more money on food because they love food, others will spend more money on shopping. Your budget will also vary so much depending on where you sleep at night. Hotels can be on the pricier side compared to hostels or crashing on a friends couch. another aspect to think about is the exchange rate if your travelling internationally, I, however, live in Australia so I don’t have to worry about an exchange rate. All of these things make everyone’s budget so differently, so please only use this as a guide and adjust according to your needs.
I like to break my budget into two parts. The first part is anything that I pay before I leave for my holiday, such as flights or any big travel (long-distance trains or buses, boat rides, car hire, etc), accommodation, insurance, visas, major attractions (helicopter rides, attraction passes that are cheaper online, etc) and anything else. The second half of my budget is for things while I’m away like, food, shopping money, attractions, small travel (uber’s, trains, buses, ferries, etc) bonds and anything else.
I am basing this budget on a 10 day trip to Queensland.
Flights- I flew from Melbourne to Coolangatta airport and back to Melbourne. For a return flight, I paid $90aud. These prices range from $40aud on sale to $200aud in peak travel times. International prices will also vary based on where you’re flying from and what time of the year.
Other big travel- I rented a car for 3 days to drive to Brisbane. I went with Jucy rentals, who rent to people under 21. I paid $147aud including insurance.
Visa and Insurance- As I live in Melbourne, Australia, I didn’t need insurance and I don’t need a visa to travel. If your and international traveller, Insurance is definitely needed and an ETA is required to enter the country to travel for up to 90 days.
Accommodation- I like to stay in 4-star hotels in surfers paradise. For 6 nights I paid $600aud. While I’m in Brisbane I stay in 3-star hotels. I paid $213aud. In total, I paid $813aud. Hostels are quite cheap in Australia, you would pay around $20-40aud a night.
Major attractions- The only attractions I paid for before I left is a multipass to sea world, wet n wild and movie world which cost $139aud and a multi-pass to dreamworld and white water world, which was $84aud. In total, I paid $223aud.
The first half of my budget came to a total of $1273aud.
Food- I tried to stick to a max of $30aud a day. I don’t eat breakfast so it meant I spent less on food. Some days I only spent $20aud, other days if I ordered uber eats it cost me $20aud for one meal. It all averaged out and I spent a total of $300aud in 10 days.
Shopping- I don’t buy any souvenirs while in Australia, but I do like to do 2-3 shopping trips and buy some clothes for myself. I put aside $200aud for shopping. Which I stuck too.
Bonds- Most hotels in Australia will hold a bond of $200-$300aud. They will realise the money when you have left and nothing is broken. Technically I don’t pay anything but between the two hotels they held a total of $400aud, which I got back in full.
Travel- While in Surfers paradise, everything is pretty much in walking distances so I don’t need any uber’s, I do catch the tram and trains to get to the theme parks. I paid $15aud for public transport. From Coolangatta airport to surfers and back I paid $65aud in uber’s. In Brisbane, I had a hire car so I didn’t pay for any other transport. The total travel while in Queensland was $80aud.
Attractions- While in surfers paradise I didn’t do many attractions. I went to the theme parks, which took up four days. On my way back to the airport on my last day, I went to Currumbin sanctuary. While in Brisbane I went to Australia zoo, I also spent a lot of time just exploring the city, I did things that were free and I didn’t really spend much on attractions while in Brisbane. In total, I spent $120aud on attractions.
The second half of my budget came to a total of $700aud (not including bonds).
Overall I roughly spent a total of $2000aud.
Again please remember this is how much I spent and your budget will be very different from mine. Do your research about what things you want to do and see, how you will get around and get a rough idea of how much food will cost in a certain area. Be generous with your money and always over save for a holiday.
