Our mission
About InstantTripCost
Help travelers know what a trip really costs before they go - without opening fifteen tabs.
Why InstantTripCost exists
Most comparison tools show you a flight price and stop there. But flights are only 25 to 35 % of total trip cost on average. The rest plays out across lodging, food, local transport, and activities, none of which anyone aggregates for you. InstantTripCost answers one simple question: how much will I actually spend if I go to Lisbon for 5 nights from Paris in September? Free, no signup, in under ten seconds.
Anatomy of a budget
Where does your travel money go?
For a standard 7-night mid-range trip, the total typically breaks down as follows. The percentages move with destination and season, but the order of categories stays stable.
- Flight30%
- Hotel35%
- Food17%
- Local transport8%
- Activities7%
- Misc3%
How we compute estimates
Each estimate combines four independent data layers. We publish the method here so anyone can judge its limits.
- 01
Live-ish flight data
Flight prices come from specialized flight-aggregator APIs. We query monthly fare grids for your travel period, then keep the median round-trip economy price.
- 02
Hotels by budget tier
Hotel rates are aggregated via specialized hotel-pricing APIs (median observed price over the trailing 90 days), split into three tiers: hostel or budget hotel, 3 or 4 star hotel, and premium.
- 03
Food and local transport
Meal and local transport costs are calibrated per city using cost-of-living indices aggregated from public sources and manually adjusted for the 60+ destinations we cover.
- 04
Curated activities
Activity recommendations come from a leading experience platform (minimum 4.3 rating with 100+ reviews). We filter to keep experiences that are characteristic of the destination, not generic tourist traps.
What we own up to
A InstantTripCost estimate is not a guaranteed quote. Real prices vary by booking date, promotions, fare class, and availability. Our target is a margin of error under 15 % on the total trip, regularly checked against real cases that travelers post in the comments.
How InstantTripCost makes money
InstantTripCost is free for users. We earn an affiliate commission when you book through links to Skyscanner, Trip.com, or GetYourGuide, at no extra cost to you. These partnerships do not influence the estimates: median prices are computed independently of the affiliate program.
Get in touch
Question, feedback, or noticed a wrong estimate? Email contact@instanttripcost.com. We answer within two business days.