9 Top Tips for Planning a Trip to California on a Budget
If you’re trying to plan a trip to California (and are hoping to do California on a budget), you need to know these budgeting tips so you’re not caught out when you get there.
The first time I visited California, I spent around two to three weeks in the cities San Francisco, Los Angeles and Palo Alto.
These are some of the most expensive cities in America, and I quickly realised just how easy it is to go way over budget on a trip to California.
I had a rough travel budget in mind before I went, but I massively underestimated just how quickly costs would add up, especially when it came to food, accommodation and hidden extras like tax and tipping.
Although I was willing to be flexible with my budget to make the most of the experience (it’s a long way to fly!), I still wanted to keep costs as low as possible.
I still had an incredible trip, but looking back, there are so many simple things I could’ve done differently to save money.
I didn’t track an exact total for this trip, but accommodation and eating out were by far the biggest expenses, and both were significantly higher than I expected.
So if you’re planning a trip to California on a budget, these are the things I wish I’d known before I went – and where I personally overspent.
TL;DR: Budget tips for California
If you only remember a few things before your trip:
- use a debit/credit card with no FX fees
- budget an extra 20–30% for tax and tipping
- book attraction tickets well in advance
- consider skipping Airbnb in major cities
- share meals where possible (portions are huge)
Book flights in advance
If you’re travelling from Europe, flights will likely be one of your biggest expenses, but this was actually one area where I managed to save money.
We were planning to visit California in September, and after a bit of date jiggling, we managed to get tickets for £275.
Tickets from London to California for £275!
This wasn’t via any special service either – we found these tickets on Trip.
This price didn’t include baggage, though, so once we had added that, it was around £350. Still much cheaper than I had envisaged for an 11+ hour flight.
But if you want to maximise your chances of getting cheap flights, sign up to mailing lists from Jack’s Flight Club and TravelScoop.
They send out daily bulletins outlining the cheapest flights available at the moment.
Factor in tax AND tip for all food and services
This is the biggie.
I was shocked to find that both a meal tax and a large service tip are expected when you eat out in California.
That means that the price shown is often very different from the final price owed.
In California, we were usually taxed around 9% on meals out and then asked to pay a tip of 15-25% in addition to that, which often turned a “cheap” meal into something much more expensive than expected.
Let’s say you have a meal for $20, then you’re actually looking at spending around $26.80 for your meal instead.
As this happens at every establishment you eat at, the cost of eating out can quickly add up.
The service tip is even expected when you’re buying something in, say, Starbucks, where your interaction with the staff has been minimal.
As someone from the UK, this surprised me quite a bit.
We also have a service charge here that is typically added to the bill for a meal, but it is usually fixed at 12.5% and is almost always discretionary.
There’s also no expectation that you add service when you go to a takeaway coffee shop like Starbucks.
It’s just a very different way of tipping, so it’s worth knowing about if you’ve never been to the USA before!
Remember portion sizes are huge…
Portion sizes in America are often huge compared to those in Europe, so always consider sharing.
When we first got to California, my friends and I often wasted a lot of food unintentionally because we had underestimated the portion sizes.
Now I’m the kind of person who hates to waste food. But even I was defeated by some of the meals we ordered.
Fast food, for example, I found to be quite cheap compared to the same type of food in London, and the portions were way bigger.
If in doubt, ask the waiter for a size reference or check out pictures in online reviews.
There were lots of instances where we could’ve just ordered one portion, shared between all of us, and had a very cheap meal!
Don’t assume Airbnb will be cheaper
According to Condé Nast, both San Francisco and LA are considered two of the most expensive cities for Airbnbs in the world.
My own experience certainly supported this when I discovered that the average price of an Airbnb for my time in San Francisco was $300 per night.
This was significantly more expensive than hotels in the same area, so it’s worth comparing carefully rather than assuming Airbnb will be cheaper.
Book accommodation early (and factor in tax again!)
Accommodation was where I underestimated costs the most, and where I probably overspent the most overall.
I didn’t book my accommodation in LA until the day before we flew there, and we ended up paying £50 per person, per night for a really dingy hotel in downtown LA with shared bathrooms and sketchy WiFi.
This was the cheapest thing we could find, which really put into perspective how expensive accommodation in LA can be if you leave it too late.
The average cost of a double hotel room in LA, California is said to be $276.
And that probably doesn’t include the city tax, so the actual cost could be a lot higher. Before booking, make sure you check all of these costs and see whether they are included in the price displayed or not.
You don’t want to get caught out upon arrival at your accommodation!
Make sure you have CASH for petrol
If you’re renting a car and going to need petrol, bear in mind that there are often different prices depending on whether you are paying with cash or credit.
The difference can be 10 cents per gallon or more, so you definitely want to be carrying enough cash for your petrol bill if you’re driving around California.
The reason there’s such a big price difference is that gas station owners find their profits squeezed too hard by the credit card companies they use, and therefore those paying with credit need to pay more.
Buy attraction tickets in advance
One of my most expensive mistakes was not booking Alcatraz tickets early enough.
The result was that I had to get a much more expensive package that I would not otherwise have booked.
A normal Alcatraz night tour ticket was $56 at that time (now around $68), and the package I got was $150. So it can be three times more expensive if you don’t plan ahead!
These packaged tour tickets may include entrance to other attractions or include transportation costs such as bus passes.
Whilst these can be useful, if it’s an unexpected cost or you didn’t need that bus tour ticket, then it’s a massive waste of money.
By the way, the official place to buy Alcatraz tickets is AlcatrazIslandTickets.com. There are lots of other resale websites, but I’d recommend getting your tickets straight from this website.
RELATED: Tips To Know Before Visiting Alcatraz (avoid my mistake!)
Look for bundle deals for major attractions
Following on from the above, if you are going to major attractions such as Universal Studios, you can get cheaper bundle tickets from websites like GetYourGuide.
Take advantage of free things that often get thrown on top of these.
For example, my Alcatraz ticket included a big bus pass for three days. This was the only option available.
Whilst I would never have thought to buy a big bus pass (they seemed really touristy!), since it was included with my ticket, I used these buses to get around the city.
They’re not normal buses, they are tour buses, so they are likely to go between lots of top attractions on your California bucket list.
As interesting as San Francisco’s history is, I didn’t need to re-listen to it every time I boarded a Big Bus bus.
But it saved me a lot on transport fees around the city, and I got to go to some places that I wouldn’t have added to my itinerary myself, for example, Sausalito, which is a little out of the city.
Get a card with no fees abroad
Online banks like Monzo are all the rage right now, and most young people will have one or the other. I have tried pretty much all the online banks now, including Revolut, Monzo and Transferwise, but my current favourite is Yonder. This is a credit card with no foreign exchange fees, travel insurance included and lots of different perks to redeem your points against.
These are absolutely essential for travel to any destination, as you will save so much money on handling fees and exchange rates.
What’s great about these cards is that you don’t even need to convert the currency on the card before you spend it – it will convert it automatically.
Plus, these cards come with accompanying apps that break down your spending into different categories so you can see if you’re sticking to your budget.
They also have really easy functions to transfer money to friends you have saved as contacts, and you can set up shared tabs for your trip to split costs.
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California is incredible, but it’s one of the easiest places I’ve travelled to accidentally overspend. Second only to the theme parks in Florida.
With a bit of planning (and knowing where the hidden costs are), you can save a significant amount without missing out on the experience.
If I went again, I’d approach my budget completely differently, and hopefully, these tips help you do exactly that.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably still overspend a little, but at least it won’t come as a surprise.
If you liked this post, check out these other posts about US travel:
Things to Do in San Francisco For First Timers
23 Things to Do at Night in San Francisco
14 Surprising Things I Learned About San Francisco
Things To Know Before Booking Alcatraz Tickets
12 Things to Know Before Visiting Warner Bros Studio LA
Magical Things to Do at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter LA
