Budget India: how cheap is India?

India is an insanely cheap country. With its rich culture and nature, it is also a great country for the adventurous traveler. Northern India is even slightly cheaper than the south of India. Wondering exactly how cheap India is? In this article, we will answer all your questions about budgeting in India.

What currency is used in India?

In India, payment is made with the Indian rupee. To make it easy, we have already converted everything to euros in this article. In this article, we take you through the budget for India. Costs are broken down into activities, accommodation, transportation, food and beverages and other. This is all based on two people. At the bottom of this article, you’ll find a handy overview of common expenses in India.

The exchange rate is usually between 80 and 92 rupee for €1. This table uses an exchange rate of €1 = 90 rupee.

Cost of accommodation in India

We always try to spend as little money as possible on accommodation. Since this is often just the place where you sleep and barely spend any other time, we don’t mind a bit of simple sleeping. We have only two criteria: it must be clean and it must be near the center. The accommodations in India, compared to other expenses in India, are very expensive. You’re not going to find good quality accomodations for a low price here. Since other expenses in India will be very low, you can compensate for this but don’t expect to find gems at €10 a night like in other backpacking countries.

In India, we slept 15 days in a double room and 15 days in a dorm. On average, we collectively spent €20 per night on accommodations, so €10 per person. This is a good average for a couple in India. Are you a solo traveler? Then you will spend between €5 and €10 for a good hostel.

Activity costs

The cost of activities in India is almost non-existent. You can hike for free in all nature areas. If you want to enter a museum or tea plantation or something like that, you often have to pay between 5 and 20 rupee (€0.06 – 0.22). Very cheap, in other words. The only thing that is a lot more expensive are the safaris but of course that makes sense. At Periyar National Park in Thekkady, we paid 2,500 rupee (€27.75) for a 3-hour jeep safari.

One night’s sleep and daytime sailing on the houseboat in Alleppey costs between 6000 and 10000 rupee. Depending on the quality of the boat and the season. It is advisable to always have a good look around the boat here and try to haggle.

How expensive is food and drink in India?

India has insanely delicious cuisine. You won’t get tired of the Indian curries, naan bread and masala dosa anytime soon. Fresh spices are marinated through every dish and fortunately you can get no-spicy food in lots of places. For us, Indian cuisine is a real favorite. If you order a curry in a simple restaurant, you usually spend 100 rupee (€1.10) for it. In a slightly more luxurious and expensive restaurant, this is often around 300 rupee (€3.30). A naan bread, parrotta or chappatti costs between 10 and 50 rupee (€0.11 – €0.55). In general, a meal will usually cost you between €1 and €2. Really bizarrely cheap and insanely delicious.

In the 30 days we spent in India, we were not sick once. We ate mostly in a restaurant (of sorts) but also a few times on the street. Altogether we spent a total of €15 per day on food and drinks, €7.50 per person that is. This is a very low amount and it can be even a lot less if you never eat at a more “upscale” restaurant.

Cost of transportation

India is also a really cheap country in terms of transportation. For an hour on the local bus, you pay an average of €0.20. The buses there are very oldschool: hard benches, open windows and lots of people crammed in at the same time. The train is a more comfortable mode of transportation but it also goes less frequently each day and, of course, runs on fewer routes. We were only able to take the train once and did everything else by bus.

Everywhere in India you see tuktuks, rickshaws. These cruise through the streets and you can easily hail one as a cab. With 2 people, 2 backpacks and 2 pieces of hand luggage you can just fit in here. With the tuktuks, you often have to bargain. Like most foreign cab drivers, they set a high price and try to get you out somewhere in the middle. However, our experience in India is that it’s already so cheap that we don’t want to negotiate over €0.10 less. You can install the apps Uber, Rapido and Ola to pre-book your tuktuk or car cab in major cities.

On average, we collectively spent €4 per day on transportation. These are the costs of all the buses, trains AND cabs we took in India.

Other costs

In addition to the above expenses, we did some laundry, bought toiletries, tipped and bought day passes for the gym. For laundry, you pay almost everywhere by the piece instead of by the kilo. In total, we spent a combined €2.25 per day on other expenses.

The visa for India costs $10. You can easily request these online and usually have them in your mailbox within 2 days. Make sure you print out the visa and keep it with you properly. It is frequently requested while checking into accommodations in India.

Average daily budget for India

After 30 days in India, we arrive at a daily budget of €25 per person. This, of course, does not include the flight to and from India. €25 is a very low amount for Asia these days. In India and Sri Lanka you can still find these low prices but in other backpacking countries these days this is a bit higher.

It is possible to travel through India even cheaper but then you will also have to sleep less luxurious. This is where most of our budget has gone but it is difficult to save a lot of money on that.

Cost summary budget India

To get your budget right, we have written down below the common costs of your trip through India. This will make it easier to set your budget for India.

Please note that this is an average: in high season, prices are a bit higher everywhere, and in low season, of course, lower.