Pakistan is inexpensive for most visitors, and the gap between what people expect to
spend and what they actually spend is usually in their favour. The useful thing to
understand is not the headline daily figure but which parts of the trip carry the cost,
because it is not the parts most travellers assume.
Daily budgets
Reported spending clusters into three fairly consistent bands:
- Budget, roughly 10 to 32 US dollars a day, with about 24 as a common
average. Guesthouses and hostels, local food, buses and shared transport. - Mid-range, around 60 dollars a day. Ordinary hotels, restaurant meals,
entry to the main sites, the occasional domestic flight. - Comfortable, around 145 to 150 dollars a day. Good hotels, private
vehicle with a driver, guided arrangements.
Those are per person per day and they exclude international flights. A two week trip at
the mid-range level therefore lands somewhere around 850 dollars on the ground, which for
most visitors is well under what the same fortnight would cost in Europe or Southeast Asia.
Where the money actually goes
Food is very cheap
A meal at a local dhaba frequently stays under 500 rupees, and eating well at street and
neighbourhood level costs very little. Restaurant meals in the business districts of
Islamabad or Karachi cost several times
that, but they are a choice rather than a necessity. Food is rarely what breaks a budget
here.
Accommodation is cheap to moderate
Simple guesthouses start around 500 to 750 rupees a night. Mid-range city hotels are
moderate by international standards. The exception is peak season in the popular northern
valleys, where good rooms in Hunza and
Naran are limited, fill early in
summer, and are priced accordingly.
Transport is the expensive part
This is the item that dominates a Pakistan budget. Domestic flights and, above all, a
hired car with a driver for the mountain sections are where the money goes. A week of
private vehicle in the north can easily exceed everything else combined. Buses and trains
are almost free by comparison, which is why itineraries that stay on the trunk routes cost
so much less than ones that range into the valleys. The options are compared in
our guide to getting around.
Ways to spend less without spending badly
- Share the vehicle. A car with a driver costs the same for one person or
four, so the mountain sections become dramatically cheaper in a small group. - Take buses between cities. On the main corridors they are comfortable
and a fraction of the flight cost. - Travel in the shoulder season. Rooms in the northern valleys are both
cheaper and easier to get outside the summer peak. See
the month by month guide. - Eat where the queue is. The best food in Pakistan is generally the
cheap food, so this costs nothing in quality.
Money in practice
Carry cash. Card acceptance is reliable in city hotels and chain restaurants and patchy
to non-existent elsewhere, and it thins quickly as you go north, so draw what you need
before leaving a major town. ATMs are common in cities and sparse in the valleys. Keep small
notes for rickshaws, local transport and tea, because change is a perennial problem.
Prices are generally fixed in shops and restaurants and negotiable in bazaars and for
transport hired informally. Bargaining is normal in the second category and mildly rude in
the first.
A worked example: two weeks, mid-range
A representative fortnight covering Islamabad, the Karakoram Highway to Hunza, and Lahore,
travelling as a pair and sharing a vehicle, lands roughly here per person:
- Accommodation, 13 nights: mid-range hotels and northern guesthouses,
comfortably the smaller half of the budget. - Food, 14 days: a mix of local restaurants and hotel meals. Rarely the
constraint. - Shared vehicle with driver, about 6 days in the north: normally the
single largest line, and the reason group size matters so much. - One domestic flight and intercity coaches for the rest.
- Entry fees, tips and extras: modest. Site entry in Pakistan is
inexpensive by international standards.
At mid-range level that fortnight sits close to the 60 dollars a day figure, so roughly
850 dollars per person on the ground. The same itinerary alone rather than as a pair costs
noticeably more, because the vehicle is not shared.
What pushes a Pakistan budget up
- Travelling solo. Vehicle hire is priced per journey, so a solo traveller
carries the whole cost. - Peak summer in the north. Rooms in Hunza and Naran are limited and
priced for domestic peak season between June and August. - Flying every leg. Convenient and the fastest way to spend.
- Trekking with a full crew. Guides, porters and permits move a trip into
a different bracket entirely.
Tipping and everyday costs
Tipping is customary but small. Rounding up for a driver, a modest amount for a porter or
a guide at the end of a trip, and a little for hotel staff covers it. There is no fixed
percentage culture in restaurants, though service is appreciated in the smarter places.
Small everyday items, tea, a samosa, a rickshaw across town, a bottle of water, cost very
little, which is what makes the country feel inexpensive day to day even when the transport
line is significant.
Common questions
Is Pakistan cheap to travel in?
Yes, by the standards of most visitors. Budget travellers commonly spend around 24 US dollars a day, mid-range around 60. Food and accommodation are inexpensive; transport is the item that carries real cost.
How much money should you bring per day?
Between 10 and 32 dollars a day covers budget travel, around 60 covers mid-range, and roughly 145 to 150 covers comfortable travel with a private vehicle. Bring more in cash than you expect to need, because card acceptance is limited outside cities.
Can you use credit cards in Pakistan?
In city hotels, chain restaurants and larger shops, usually. Outside those, rarely. Card acceptance thins out sharply as you move north, so draw cash in the larger towns before heading into the valleys.
How much does a hotel cost in Pakistan?
Simple guesthouses start around 500 to 750 rupees a night. Mid-range city hotels are moderate by international standards. The exception is the northern valleys in peak summer, when good rooms are scarce and priced accordingly.
Is it expensive to hire a car and driver?
It is the largest line in most itineraries that leave the trunk routes, and it is usually still worth it. Because the price is per vehicle rather than per person, sharing between three or four travellers changes the economics completely.
Last thoughts on what a trip to Pakistan costs
Budget for movement, not for comfort. Rooms and food will almost certainly cost less than
you planned for, and vehicles will cost more. Get the transport line right, share it where
you can, and the rest of a Pakistan trip is one of the better value journeys available
anywhere. Our planning guide covers the other
practicalities.
