India Trip Cost Calculator
A trip to India runs roughly $30/day backpacking, $70/day mid-range, or $180+/day for luxury, plus $600–1400 round-trip flights per person from a major hub. Use the calculator below to get a number matched to your exact trip length and group size.
Every travel-cost article on the internet gives you one number, as if a backpacker and a honeymooner spend the same amount. They don't. Below is a real calculator that adjusts for your actual trip length, group size, and travel style, plus the static numbers behind it so you can sanity-check the math yourself.
India Trip Cost Calculator
Drag the sliders to match your trip — this uses real, current price levels, not a generic global average.
Estimates only — actual costs vary by season, exact route, and how you book. Flight range assumes round-trip economy from a major hub; your specific origin may differ.
India trip cost at a glance
| Style | Per day (per person) | 7 days, 2 people | 14 days, 2 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backpacker | $30 | $420 | $840 |
| Mid-range | $70 | $980 | $1960 |
| Luxury | $180 | $2520 | $5040 |
Add round-trip flights: roughly $600–1400 per person from major hubs, on top of the ground-cost figures above.
What's included at each budget level
- Backpacker (~$30/day): hostels or basic guesthouses ($8-15/night), street food ($1-3 a dish), sleeper trains and metro/auto-rickshaws.
- Mid-range (~$70/day): 3-star hotels, a mix of street food and sit-down restaurants ($3-15/meal), a hired driver for Golden Triangle day trips, entry fees like Amber Fort or the Taj Mahal.
- Luxury (~$180/day): heritage hotels and boutique riad-style stays, a private driver for the whole Golden Triangle route, fine dining.
How to spend less without a worse trip
- The Delhi Metro is genuinely excellent — clean, air-conditioned, fares typically under $0.50 — use it instead of taxis for nearly every cross-city trip; it also skips Delhi's notoriously bad traffic entirely.
- Eat street food for most meals ($1-3 a dish) rather than tourist-menu restaurants — pick a stall with a visible queue of locals and high turnover, and you'll eat some of the best food in the country for a fraction of restaurant prices.
The single biggest lever is almost always accommodation and food choices, not flights — flying a day earlier or later rarely saves much, but swapping one hotel category or eating like a local for half your meals usually saves more than any flight-timing trick.