The Average Costs Of Traveling India for a Month

If you’re considering a month-long trip to India, it’s smart to plan your budget ahead of time, although it can be challenging to estimate your costs.

How much does it cost to travel to India for a month? 50.7% of travelers spend less than $20 per day. 43.1% of travelers can spend $20 – $50 a day. 3.9% of travelers spend $50 – $100 a day. 2.2% of travelers spend more than $150 a day.*

Estimated Costs per Day	Number of Travelers	% of total
Less than $20	139	50.70%
$20 – $50	118	43.10%
$50 – $100	8	2.90%
$100 – $150	3	1.10%
More than $150	6	2.20%

*Poll from 274 Respondents in the Backpackers & Travelers in India FB Group

Of course, there are a number of factors to consider when planning your expenses for a trip and they can vary widely.

When will you go?
Where do you want to go?
How comfortable do you want to be… do you just need a bed or do you want to stay in a palace?

Below are specific examples of what a month-long trip to India might cost with actual costs in the 8 destinations. I also considered three types of travelers: Budget, Mid-range, and Luxury.

Then I tracked and shared my own expenses from a recent trip that I took around India.

Want To Estimate Your Own Travel Costs?

Here’s a free travel budget tool you can use to estimate your expenses. It’s a Google Sheets spreadsheet template that you can fill in your total budget and expenses as you go.

Estimated Daily Expenses for a Month-Long Trip in India:

Your Style of Travel	Lodging	Transportation	Food	Entertainment	Total Costs Per Day	Total Expenses
Budget (Hostels in Shared Rooms)	$3.09	$12.78	$7.00	$3.50	$26.37	$791.10
Budget (Private Rooms)	$7.42	$12.78	$7.00	$3.50	$30.70	$921.00
Mid-Range	$14.46	$29.88	$15	$13.50	$72.84	$2,185.20
Luxury	$85.82	$45.43	$50	$23.50	$204.75	$6,142.50

NOTE: These estimates are based on actual prices for a trip to 8 popular tourist destinations:

New Delhi
Jaipur

Agra
Varanasi
Mumbai

Goa
Cochin
Bangalore

Let’s take a look at each type of traveler for more specific price estimates.

Budget Travelers:

India has some of the lowest costs of living in the entire world. The Economist found that Chennai, Bangalore and New Delhi were all among the top 10 cheapest cities in the world, which is GREAT for budget backpackers.

In my online poll, 139 out of 274 travelers in the Backpackers & Travelers in India stated they would spend less than $20 a day to travel India for a month. 118 out of 274 travelers would spend between $20 and $50 a day. But let’s take a look at each major travel expense category to estimate the specific expenses:

Lodging Costs

India has WAY more hostels than they had in the past, and you can now stay in well-kept hostels that have great ratings on hotel booking sites.

A Hostel Bed in a Shared Room

The average cost for the lowest-priced shared accommodation was $3.09 (237 rupees). These hostels had an average of 149 reviews and a score of 8.2 out of 10 (which means GREAT).

City	Name	Price Per Night in USD	Review Score	Reviews	Type of Room
Mumbai	Super Dormitory	$3.64	7.9	41	Bed in 10-Bed Mixed Dormitory
Delhi	The Desire Hostel	$3.00	8.6	551	Bunk Bed in Female Dormitory
Agra	Headquarter Agra	$3.25	8.8	126	Bed in 4-Bed Female Dormitory Room
Jaipur	Moonlight Homestay & Hostel	$2.44	8.9	72	Bed in 10-Bed Mixed Dormitory Room
Goa	Footloose	$2.61	8.8	114	Bed in 6-Bed non-AC Dormitory Room
Cochin	Myown Dormitory A/C	$3.26	7.6	35	Bed in Male Dormitory Room
Varanasi	Lake View Hotel	$2.60	6.9	141	Bed in 6-Bed Dormitory Room
Bangalore	Manana	$3.98	8.4	112	Bed in 6-Bed Mixed Dormitory Room

NOTE: Prices of the lowest priced beds in hostels with at least 25 reviews & scores close to 7.

Private Hotel Rooms

The average cost for the lowest priced private rooms was $7.42 (568 rupees). These hotels had an average of 140 reviews with a score of 7.6 out of 10.

City	Name	Price Per Night	Review Score	Reviews
Mumbai	Hotel Astropods Airport	$13.03	8.3	128
Delhi	Hotel Premium	$9.13	7	143
Agra	Nature Resort	$3.44	7.2	106
Jaipur	Blue King	$4.44	8.2	120
Goa	Aguiar Guest House	$7.83	7.6	101
Cochin	Kay Kay Residency	$6.20	7.4	39
Varanasi	Goldy Guest House	$5.20	7.3	279
Bangalore	Cuckoo Hostel	$10.10	8.3	204

NOTE: Prices of the lowest priced beds in hostels with at least 25 reviews & scores close to 7.

Transportation

Budget travelers can get from city to city very inexpensively using:

Local buses
Third Class (3A) trains

Domestic flights

Budget travelers should use rickshaws and Uber as little as possible.

Budget travelers should NOT take:

Taxis
Private drivers

Transportation Costs

Estimated Costs Between Destinations

	Name	Hours	Cost	Type
Delhi to Jaipur	Ajmer Pooja SF Express	5.5	$8.17	Train – Third Class (3A)
Jaipur to Agra	Khajuraho Express	5.25	$6.80	Train – Third Class (3A)
Agra to Varanasi	Kota Patna Express	13.3	$12.26	Train – Third Class (3A)
Varanasi to Mumbai	Spice Jet	2.25	$57.59	Domestic Flight – Economy
Mumbai to Goa	Spice Jet	1.15	$24.95	Domestic Flight – Economy
Goa to Cochin	Spice Jet	4.75	$46.65	Domestic Flight – Economy
Kochi to Bangalore	Spice Jet	1	$20.61	Domestic Flight – Economy
Bangalore to Delhi	Spice Jet	5.3	$35.51	Domestic Flight – Economy
Total			$212.54

By taking third-class trains and domestic economy flights we can see 8 destinations for $212.54 total or $7.08 a day.

Rickshaws

BUT you will also need to get around the cities you visit. Rickshaws are a popular option and prices vary but in New Delhi the prices start at:

25 rupees for 2 kilometers.
8 rupees for every additional kilometer.

Unfortunately, most places have higher prices and the drivers can be fierce negotiators, who are very skilled at exploiting the fact that you probably don’t know the local prices. Here’s a link to a simple script to get fair rickshaw prices.

Local Buses

Local buses are almost free in New Delhi:

5 rupees for up to 4 kilometers

10 rupees for 4 to 10 kilometers
15 rupees for more than 10 kilometers

Budget traveler tip: Take local buses to save money and get the true local experience. But they are NOT a fast way to travel and can be confusing. You will need to ask the locals where the stations are, when the buses arrive and when to get off.

You should be able to spend 250 rupees or less per day getting around the destinations.

NOTE: This is one area you can save money on if you use more local buses, you can spend WAY less than 250 rupees a day.

Food

Looking at Zomato.com for the lowest-priced dinner restaurants with at least hundreds of reviews… you can find an average of $2.03 for two people at restaurants with an average score of 4.13 (Good) and 704 reviews.

City	Dinner places	Cost for two people (INR)	Cost for two people (USD)	Score	Number of Reviews
Mumbai	Ashok Vada Pav Stall	100	$1.30	4.3	1118
Delhi	Jung Bahadur Kachori	100	$1.30	4.1	905
Agra	Chimmanlal Puri Wale	150	$1.95	4	409
Jaipur	Kota Kachori	150	$1.95	4	1367
Goa	Chi:Noa Kitchen	250	$3.25	3.9	121
Cochin	Mash Resto Cafe	200	$2.60	3.9	530
Varanasi	Kashi Chat Bhandar	150	$1.95	4.9	873
Central Bangalore	Siddappa Hotel	150	$1.95	4	309

If you budget $5 to $7 per day for food, you can eat at delicious and safe restaurants.

NOTE: This is one expense I would NOT spend too little money on. In general, the less money you spend on a meal, the greater your chances of getting sick are.

Entertainment

Budget travelers can save money by doing free things such as:

Celebrating local festivals

Visiting temples
Browsing art galleries
Checking out the architecture

Taking nature walks
Window shopping
Strolling through street markets

You will want to see the monuments, forts, and palaces though, which will require an admission fee. Here are some examples of admission fees for popular places:

Admission Fees for Popular Tourist Sites:

	Foreigners	Domestic Tourists
Taj Mahal, Agra	$16.91	$0.65
Agra Fort, Agra	$7.15	$0.52
Fatehpur Sikri, Agra	$7.15	$0.52
Itimad-Ud-Daula’s Tomb, Agra (Baby Taj)	$2.73	$0.26
Red Fort, Delhi	$6.50	$0.46
Humayan’s Tomb, Delhi	$6.50	$0.39
Amber Fort, Jaipur	$6.50	$1.30
Hawa Mahal, Jaipur	$2.60	$0.65
Elephanta Caves, Mumbai	$3.25	$0.13

The average admission fee to a popular destination is 500 rupees ($7). If you went to 15 monuments on your trip, then you would spend $105 or $3.50 a day.

Mid-Range Travelers

If you have $50 to $100 to spend each day, then you can upgrade your trip in some important ways:

Hotels rooms with double beds, AC & some swimming pools
Second Class (2A) train trips, which are less crowded with better customer service
Food from highly recommended restaurants with very little chance of contamination

Tour guides and private drivers some days

Specific Expenses From My Mid-Range Trip:

My mom and aunt came to visit for a month, and we traveled around India. During that trip, I recorded my expenses for our mid-range budget, which you can use to plan your trip. Let’s look at the major categories of expenses so you can plan your month-long budget:

NOTE: The Total Cost includes flights & preparation costs like visa and travel insurance which aren’t listed above or below

Categories	Spent Per Day (USD)
Total	$65.74
Lodging	$21.94
Transportation	$10.59
Food	$10.00
Entertainment	$6.10
Other	$2.31

We splurged on things like private drivers, tour guides and nice restaurants recommended by Lonely Planet. Other times we would eat inexpensive lunches of just fruit, take third-class trains and we negotiated fiercely with rickshaw drivers and merchants.

Lodging: We split big rooms in 3-star hotels mostly, and one 5-star hotel. A solo traveler would spend more!
Transportation: We took some private drivers who picked us up from airports and train stations (at least $100 a day for SUVs). Yet we also took third-class overnight trains which were less than $15 for 8-12 hour trips.
Food: Most of our nice dinner meals were less than $10. We ate fruit or local thali lunches for $2-3. One night we had a $150 meal at a 5-star hotel/restaurant.

Entertainment: We paid for $150 total for private tour guides for the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Kerala’s Backwaters, Varanasi’s Ganges Boat Tour and Khajuraho’s Erotic Temples.
Shopping: Dhotis or Indian-style shirts you can find for less than $10. You could also spend 10,000 to 50,000 for a nice cashmere pashmina shawl.

Lodging

Mid-range budgets can get you 3-star hotels with AC, double beds, and sometimes even a pool. Do NOT pay extra for tv or cable, because the channels are usually non-English-speaking.

The average cost for the lowest-priced 3-star hotels in these 8 destinations is $15.12 including taxes. These hotels had an average score of 7.5 (Good) with 206 reviews.

City	Name	Price Per Night in Rupees	Price Per Night in USD	Taxes in Rupees	Taxes in USD	Total Price	Review Score	Reviews	Type of Room
Mumbai	FabExpress Orange Suites Santacruz East	1,750	$23.02	210	$2.73	$25.75	7.4	195	Deluxe Room
Delhi	Hotel Premium	600	$7.89	108	$1.40	$9.30	7	142	Deluxe Double Room
Agra	FabHotel Star of Taj Restobar	1249	$16.43	150	$1.95	$18.38	7.6	25	Deluxe Room
Jaipur	Hotel Muskan Palace	1000	$13.15	0	$0.00	$13.15	7.1	38	Deluxe Double Room
Goa	Hotel Swati	1400	$18.42	168	$2.18	$20.60	7.9	260	Double Room
Cochin	Oak Field Inn	900	$11.84	0	$0.00	$11.84	8.4	474	Standard Single Room
Varanasi	Hotel Alka	720	$9.47	0	$0.00	$9.47	7.3	486	Budget Single Room
Bangalore	Ebenezer Suites	949	$12.48	0	$0.00	$12.48	7.1	34	Studio

NOTE: These were the lowest priced 3-star hotels on Booking.com with more than 25 reviews