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World taxi prices: What a 3-kilometer ride costs in 72 big cities
The cost of a short taxi ride can be incredibly cheap in some places and amazingly expensive in others. Check out our global list to see how things compare.
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107 World cities by price: Backpacker Index for 2011
Compare typical prices in every major tourist city in the world on our global master list for the Backpacker Index for 2011.
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The 11 best-value cities in Europe for budget travelers
Some European cities are very cheap, but still not really worth going to. Here are 11 you should definitely visit.
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12 best-value cities in Asia for budget travelers
Here's our list of the best of Asia's cheapest cities.
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107 World cities by latitude: Things line up in surprising ways
Compare all the popular cities around the world from north to south to see which ones line up.
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116 World cities by price: Backpacker Index for 2012
Being able to compare cities by price within a region can be helpful for those who are figuring out where to visit on an upcoming trip, but for people in the earliest stages of planning it might be even more interesting to see the whole world on the same list. Having been completely updated for 2012, the World Backpacker Index now includes 116 cities and destinations, ranked below from cheapest to most expensive.
Through most of the world prices went up only modestly during 2011, though currency shifts did scramble the order from last year in some cases as well. Unsurprisingly, the world’s cheapest destinations tend to be in Asia and Latin America, but some fantastic bargains can be found in the former-East zone in Europe as well.
Seven new (mostly very cheap) cities added to the European Backpacker Index
In early January I published the newly-updated cheapest European cities list, also known as the European Backpacker Index for 2012. As with the previous year, the list contained the 40 (more or less) most popular tourist cities in Europe, from cheapest to most expensive. By request, I’ve just added 7 new European cities to the site in general, and also to the Backpacker Index.
Choosing the cities to cover is a bit tricky because the idea is to list cities in as many different countries and regions as possible, without getting too granular. This site is a trip-planning resource, not a complete travel guide, so I leave out cities like Seville in Spain and Marseilles in France because the prices there are quite similar to nearby cities that I do include.
4 Australia and New Zealand cities by price: Backpacker Index for 2012
Our second-year update to the four major tourist destinations in Australia and New Zealand sees things basically the same as the past year or two. New Zealand is cheaper than Australia by a noticeable amount, but both are more expensive than they have been for most of the past decade due to abnormally strong currencies compared to the USD, Euro, and GBP.
The good news is that both countries have a robust infrastructure for budget travelers, with more hostels (called ‘backpackers’ usually) than almost anywhere else in the world. Self-catering will cut costs in both countries since even fast-food restaurants tend to be quite expensive. Camping or going with a group in a campervan is another good way of seeing a lot while spending less money.
9 Africa and Middle East cities by price: Backpacker Index for 2012
Ignored by the vast majority of travelers, the Middle East and Africa itself is known more for problems than for quality tourism, but adventurous souls continue to explore everywhere possible. We’ve updated our modest set of cities for the region in 2012, and the rankings are mostly the same.
Fortunately, most of the developed cities in the Middle East and Africa are relatively cheap, excluding Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Many budget travelers are shocked to find the prices in sub-Saharan Africa are quite high, at least for international-standard hotels and such. A good and recent guidebook can be a big help in this area, even while they become less necessary elsewhere.
12 North American cities by price: Backpacker Index for 2012
All-new for 2012 we present the North America Backpacker Index for 2012, including the most popular cultural tourist cities in the United States and Canada. Since both countries are very similar and prices don’t range too much in general, it’s not surprising that most cities on the list below are fairly bunched together in the end.
This year we included Mexico City on the South and Central America Index for 2012, and we put Cancun on the cheapest Caribbean destinations list because they fit those categories better.
15 South and Central American cities by price: Backpacker Index for 2012
Many of the world’s best travel bargains can be found in Latin America, and this full 2012 update of our Backpacker Index shows which cities are the cheapest. In previous installments we checked the cheapest European cities and cheapest Asian cities, so now we arrive in an area that is often ignored by many due to its remoteness.
Much of Latin America is heavily influenced by Europe, but of course the past centuries have given each destination its own unique flavor and spin. The cheapest cities in the region can only be matched in south Asia for value, while the most expensive are still quite cheap compared to Europe and North America. Most prices have been fairly stable since the 2011 list, except for the more expensive ones, which have crept up quite a bit.
26 Asian cities by price: Backpacker Index for 2012
Many people find it surprising just how cheap most Asian destinations are for Western travelers, and our second Asia Backpacker Index below should help make the point. The entire top half of the list costs less per day than the cheapest cities in Europe ranked in the same way.
While the cities below are ranked from cheapest to most expensive, it’s worth noting the Index price for each (converted into US dollars) so you realize that the differences between most of them are minor. In at least a few cases you can actually share a hotel room between two people for less than a hostel bed, so the optimum strategy can vary from city to city as well.
47 European cities by price: European Backpacker Index for 2012
Now in its second full year, the European Backpacker Index has been totally updated for 2012. With the entire continent struggling financially price rises have mostly been modest, but exchange-rate shifts (which will continue to shift) have caused some changes in ranking from the 2011 list.
There’s good news for Americans in that (at least early in 2012) the US Dollar is up either a little or a lot versus the European currencies, so many cities will actually feel slightly cheaper this year. You’ll always find the up-to-date Index number on each city’s own page, which also has detailed price information in addition to weather averages and other helpful features.
Best of 2011 that you might have missed
It’s been a great 2011 and we are very pleased with how many people have visited Price of Travel to help plan their trips. The site only launched in late 2010, and the numbers have been steadily increasing since then.
With hundreds of pages and different features spread all over the site, we thought we’d highlight 14 articles from 2011 that many people found interesting but that you might have missed. In almost all cases they are based on research that no one has done before so you wouldn’t know to look for them until you saw the title.
17 Cheap destinations with great weather in February
Those with time for a holiday in February are very much in luck if they are looking for affordable destinations. This is the warm and dry season in most of the world’s cheapest tropical hot spots, and also toward the end of the busy season so prices are already starting to come down after the holidays and finding bargains is simple for those who book in advance.
The one complication for many people is that the flight itself might be quite long and fairly expensive to get to Southeast Asia or Latin America, but you’ll see fare sales and low prices popping up in December and January so don’t give up if they look too expensive at first glance.