As I am sure you have heard, the cost of visiting/living in Australia is high, as Australia is one of the most expensive countries in the world. Of course, people's expectations of how 'much' things cost is relative to the individual, but I thought it would be interesting to total up how much money was spent on my two week trip to Australia. I knew this trip was going to be expensive to begin with, but as an accountant, I would have loved to see an estimated figure haha. So here is that! This can also be used as an estimated budget for how much a couple would need to budget for a trip to Australia. :)
• I went for 2 weeks.
• I visited three cities.
• I got an amazing flight deal from my hometown in Toronto, Canada.
• I stayed in hotels - albeit not luxury hotels, but I didn't stay in Airbnbs or hostels.
• I opted for 3 organized day tours.
• I drink and eat a lot haha.
• I'm low key scared to total up how much we spent.
- - -
Flights:- $905 - Round trip flight from Toronto to Sydney ($1,810 for 2 people)
This was a sweeeeeeet deal, as a typical flight is usually double this cost!! - $518 - 3 domestic flights between the 3 cities I visited in Australia ($1,036 for 2 people)
Sydney to Cairns, Cairns to Melbourne, & Melbourne back to Sydney
- $605 - Hotel in Sydney for 4 nights
- $345 - Hotel in Cairns for 3 nights
- $452 - Apartment Hotel in Melbourne for 4 nights
- $101 - Hotel in Sydney for the last night
Food & Drinks:
- ~$2,000 - This total is an approximate amount that we both spent on food and drinks during our time in Australia. This only includes anything we purchased on our credit cards and included the $200 of cash we took out from an ATM. This looks like a lot, but it actually works out to be around $70 per day per person. That's actually pretty reasonable, now that I think about it, considering we ate out every single meal & drank a lot lol! The happy hour drink specials helped us big time, I tell ya!!!
- But something to note about this total is that this amount does include our fancy dinner cruise with wine pairings with Captain Cook Cruises. However, it also does not include an amazing steak dinner we had at the Butcher's Block while we were in Sydney as we were luckily hosted there by them!
- $60 per person - Taronga Zoo in Sydney
- $230 per person - Great Barrier Reef Tour in Cairns (not incl. any addln activities on board)
- $175 per person - Kuranda Day Trip (+ Cuddle with a Koala) in Cairns
- $90 per person - Rugby Game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne (incl. 3 beers)
- $190 per person - Penguin Parade (w/ Premium Seating) in Melbourne
- $180 - Cabs (for two)
We walked a lotttttt, like a lot. But because Sydney and Melbourne are large cities, it's hard to walk literally everywhere. Also, the cab ride between the downtown core and the airport was around $40 each way (for Sydney) and $30 for Melbourne. - $60 - Public Transit (for two)
We actually didn't spend too much on public transit here in Australia, and opted for cabs, mainly because of the fact that it was difficult to. You had to purchase these transit cards for a fixed cost and load a minimum amount on it (vs just paying like $2 per trip).
*drum roll please*
Around $5,000 per person, if you get an amazing flight deal.
All in all, a trip to Australia is NOT cheap. Was it worth it? Yes. Would I do it again? Definitely. Note that a large chunk of the total cost (25% here in my case) was for the flight to just get to Australia. I cannot stress enough how important it is to look out for flight deals! They can honestly make or break a vacation. I have an email subscription to Next Departure & YYZ Deals, which send emails about flight deals or mistakes on flight fares all the time. I highly recommend subscribing to them!
Also, I don't want this to discourage people from booking a trip to Australia due to the price point. I wanted to post this in hopes that this can be educational & help you budget for a trip to a place like Australia. As mentioned above, this total estimated cost included a number of things you don't need to necessarily do (which would obvs make your total trip cost lower). You can check out my travel articles I've published about Australia & decide for yourself what you can or cannot include / do or don't think is worth it! As always, I hope this was helpful :)
- - -
Related Blog Posts:
