Budget

A careful week in Bali comes to about IDR 6,400,000 a head. Here is every line of it, the IDR 650,000 you pay before you eat, and the four false economies.

School holidays are the whole problem and there are four ways round them. The self-catering maths, the destinations that work, and what never to cut.

Cheap is easy; cheap and worth the flight is not. Eight cities that are both, what a day costs in each local currency, and three that are cheap for a reason.

Where you go matters more than how you travel. The east-west price gap, the tourist taxes nobody quotes, and the rail pass that usually is not worth it.

Japan is cheaper than people expect once you stop buying the rail pass. A 12,000 yen day, where it goes, and the four costs that break a budget.

The Riviera Maya and the rest of Mexico are priced like different countries. The daily number for each, the four decisions, and where the money leaks.

Portugal is western Europe's best value and the cities have caught up. The real daily number, the four decisions that set it, and where the money leaks.

A 1,200 baht day is genuinely liveable and the islands break it. Three daily budgets, why the coast costs double, and the four costs nobody warns you about.

Vietnam is the cheapest good country in Southeast Asia until the internal flights. Three daily budgets in dong, and how to shape a route that avoids them.