🇺🇸Cost of Travel in United States (2026): Daily Budgets for 6 Cities

Skyscraper canyons, Hollywood dreams, and desert neon — three completely different Americas, each one a classic first trip in its own right.

Daily budgets in United States

The cheapest city in United States is Miami, at $100–200 a day mid-range per person; the priciest is New York City, at $130–260 — about 31% more for the same style of trip.

Daily cost per person in each United States city, sorted by mid-range budget
City	Budget / day	Mid-range / day	Comfort / day	Cheap meal	Mid-range hotel
Miami	$60–120	$100–200	$180–360	$8–14	$160–280
Seattle	$65–130	$110–210	$200–380	$8–14	$180–300
Los Angeles	$65–130	$110–220	$200–400	$6–14	$180–320
Las Vegas	$60–150	$100–250	$180–450	$8–15	$90–220
San Francisco	$80–150	$130–250	$230–450	$8–15	$220–350
New York City	$80–160	$130–260	$230–470	$5–12	$220–400

Per person in US dollars, flights not included. Mid-range is each guide's researched figure and includes a mid-range room; budget and comfort scale it by 0.6 and 1.8, so treat those as rough. How we work these out.

Cities

Neon, casinos, and round-the-clock spectacle in the middle of the Mojave Desert — a city built entirely to make time disappear, for better or worse.

Palm trees, freeways, and the Hollywood dream factory — a sprawling patchwork of beach towns and neighborhoods that only really makes sense once you have a car (or a lot of patience).

Art Deco pastels, Latin American energy, and a beach that's a subway ride from downtown — Miami runs on Spanish as much as English and never really slows down.

The city that never sleeps — Broadway marquees, a skyline you already know by heart, and a subway that gets you anywhere at 3am if you're patient.

Steep hills, fog rolling through the Golden Gate, and a compact grid of neighborhoods that swing from Victorian postcard to tech-boom glass in a few blocks.