Amid growing fears of an economic recession, you might be looking for ways to tighten your travel budget.
One fairly obvious way to do that: Pick a destination where your costs on the ground will be low compared to places where prices are high for hotels, food, and other expenses.
To help you out with those calculations, the online platform HelloSafe, which provides price comparisons of insurance policies and other financial products, has analyzed the average daily budget required for one person in 131 countries around the world, and ranked them from most to least expensive for travelers.
Note that the research (current as of March 2025, per HelloSafe) covers “expenses incurred by the traveller on site in the destination country,” including average prices for accommodations, food, and ground transportation.
Crucially, HelloSafe’s affordability rankings do not include airfare to the country—and plane tickets will of course take up a huge chunk of your travel budget. But airfare costs can be significantly offset by how little you’ll pay for stuff in countries with especially low prices.
To come up with a daily budget for the 131 countries surveyed, HelloSafe researchers took into account average prices for a “hotel or Airbnb-type reservation” there as well as food expenses (based on consumer price indices and restaurant costs), transportation costs within the country (trains, buses, taxis, intra-country flights), and other expenses.
The Cheapest Countries to Travel To
Based on that criteria, HelloSafe found that the cheapest country for travelers is the Southeast Asian nation of Laos, where you can get by with a budget of just $15.40 per day.
For that low, low price, you can experience the scenic Laotian landscape of rivers, mountains, and waterfalls; feast your senses on lively markets; and visit Buddhist temples along with French colonial buildings in the capital city of Vientiane (that city’s Patuxai war monument is pictured at the top of this page).
Asian and African countries dominate HelloSafe’s list of the best options for a low-cost trip. After Laos, the most affordable destinations are Kazakhstan (requiring a budget of $19 per day) and Rwanda ($20.80), with Ghana ($22) and Mongolia ($23.80) rounding out the top five.
The only European country to crack the cheap list is Moldova in 12th place with a daily budget of $35.60.
The 15 Cheapest Countries to Travel to, According to HelloSafe
- Laos: daily budget $15.40
- Kazakhstan: $19
- Rwanda: $20.80
- Ghana: $22
- Mongolia: $23.80
- Armenia: $25.70
- Burkina Faso: $26.50
- Georgia: $27.70
- Mali: $28.60
- Burma: $34.40
- Cuba: $35.40
- Moldova: $35.60
- India: $35.70
- Malawi: $36
- Nepal: $36.10
The Most Expensive Countries to Travel To
At the other end of the price spectrum, the three most expensive countries for travelers, according to HelloSafe, are all Caribbean nations known for having luxury resorts and, as on most islands, higher food prices because so much has to be flown in from elsewhere.
The most expensive of all, analysts found, is Barbados, where, by HelloSafe’s calculations, the average visitor can expect to spend $331 per day. Next comes Antigua and Barbuda ($311) followed by St. Kitts and Nevis ($272).
Other notable destinations where your wallet will take a hit include perennially pricey Switzerland (in sixth place with a daily budget of $251), trending-in-2025 Greenland (9th place; $222), and the United Arab Emirates (10th place; $220), home of ritzy Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The United States came in seventh on the most-expensive list, requiring an average daily travel budget of $249, according to HelloSafe. Now that you mention it, living here isn’t too cheap these days, either.
The 15 Most Expensive Countries to Travel to, According to HelloSafe
- Barbados: daily budget $331
- Antigua and Barbuda: $311
- St. Kitts and Nevis: $272
- Maldives: $268
- Grenada: $259
- Switzerland: $251
- United States: $249
- Micronesia: $249
- Greenland: $222
- United Arab Emirates: $220
- Bahamas: $217
- Oman: $214
- Sâo Tomé and Príncipe: $12
- Puerto Rico: $190
- Qatar: $189
To see the full ranking of 131 countries and learn more about the methodology, go to HelloSafe.com.