How to Calculate a Travel Transport Budget
Add every transport layer—airport transfers, intercity tickets and daily local travel—then compare individual fares with day passes, contactless caps and the routes you can realistically walk.
What should a travel transport budget include?
Count the journey to your departure airport or station, long-distance tickets, arrival transfer, buses, trains, trams, ferries, occasional taxis, reservation fees and the return journey. Then multiply single fares by the trips you expect to take and compare that figure with the relevant day or multi-day pass.
Simple check: if the pass costs less than your expected eligible journeys—and actually covers the routes and time period you need—it is likely worthwhile.
We do not automatically buy a transport pass in every city. We first look at how spread out our itinerary is and how much of the city we realistically plan to walk.
When we buy a pass
A pass makes sense when we know we will use public transport repeatedly in a short period, especially on arrival days when we are moving between stations, accommodation and several distant sights.
When we walk instead
On Day 2 in Paris we walked to the Eiffel Tower and around local streets rather than buying more transport. In London we used the Tube for longer journeys and walked heavily between sights.
Airport transfers are usually separate
A city pass does not automatically cover a distant airport. We keep airport transfers as a separate budget line unless the transport authority explicitly includes them.
Our rule
Buy a pass because the itinerary needs it, not because it feels convenient.
Paris in 2 Days for About £120
London in 3 Days Under £200