“Europe is expensive,” your aunt repeats when she tells you about her escapades on the Old Continent. “Southeast Asia costs a lot of money ”, you read right and left on globetrotting websites. But what is it really? A new ranking could help you see things more clearly and, who knows, find an affordable destination for your next adventures abroad.
The HelloSafe platform — which allows you to compare different financial products, including travel insurance — recently estimated the average daily budget needed (in Canadian dollars) to travel to 136 countries and made a list of them.
We see that Laos (18 dollars per day), Mongolia (32 dollars) or Serbia (49 dollars) are among the most affordable countries. For comparison, Canada is in the top third of the table, at 35e rank ($215 per day).
HelloSafe’s ranking allows you to make interesting finds, notably by offering substitutes for very popular destinations. For example, in Southeast Asia, Laos ($18 per day) is presented as being five times more affordable than its neighbor Thailand ($102).
“Certain countries in a region receive all the tourist attention, while nearby, other much more affordable countries can be very pleasant destinations,” underlines Alexandre Desoutter, spokesperson for HelloSafe.
If it’s Europe that interests you, know that Albania ($101 per day) is one of the most affordable countries on the continent, according to the ranking. “It’s true that the quality-price ratio is good,” confirms Gabrielle Asselin, aka la Vagabondeuse, a blogger who has visited around twenty countries all over the world and who went to Albania last May.
Please note: some of the cheapest destinations in the ranking are considered countries where all travel should be avoided, according to the Government of Canada. For others, it recommends exercising caution and not traveling to certain regions. It is therefore wise to check the travel warnings on the Government of Canada website before purchasing your tickets.
The cheapest countries to travel to according to HelloSafe
(Countries to which the Government of Canada recommends avoiding all travel have been removed from the table.)
| Serbia | 49 $ |
| Inde* | 48 $ |
| Malawi* | 45 $ |
| Georgia | 39 $ |
| Armenia | 36 $ |
| Mongolia | 32 $ |
| Ghana* | 29 $ |
| Rwanda* | 28 $ |
| Kazakhstan | 26 $ |
| Laos* | 18 $ |
The criteria retained
HelloSafe estimates take into account expenses incurred during a stay (accommodation, food, transportation within the country, tours and tourist activities), but do not include the cost of airfare to get to your destination. So it’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth paying top dollar to land in a country with a low cost of living.
For each country evaluated, the platform used both an objective approach (by analyzing price data) and a subjective approach (by choosing the data to analyze according to the habits of a Western tourist). “For accommodation, for example, we did not necessarily use the average of all prices observed on site, but rather the average of prices corresponding to accommodation generally coveted by Western travelers,” explains Alexandre Desoutter.
The study is based on data collected in September 2024 on the Budget Your Trip, KAYAK and Booking.com platforms.
Get informed
“This ranking can reduce research time to find destinations that suit our budget,” says Gabrielle Asselin. That said, I wouldn’t rely on this alone to book a trip. »
The actual cost of a stay in a country depends on the level of comfort you are looking for or the number of activities you plan to do there and the nature of these. So, you could very well visit Switzerland (one of the most expensive countries in the ranking) on a budget by opting for youth hostels and going on free hikes.
It is therefore better to do further research before pulling out your credit card, insists Marie-Chantal Labelle, president of the travel agency Les routes du monde, which specializes in tailor-made and small group tours in Asia. in Africa, South America and the Middle East. The case of Rwanda (one of the three most affordable countries according to the ranking, at $28 per day) is an example of a destination where the budget range can be very wide, underlines Marie-Chantal Labelle. “People visit the country to see volcanoes and gorillas. This expedition costs 1,500 US dollars per person, so it significantly increases the cost of the trip, she says. But if you only go around Kigali, it won’t cost you much. »
If necessary, consult a travel specialist who is familiar with the destination that interests you as well as the range of activities offered there — for example, Marie-Chantal Labelle has visited India 26 times and Vietnam around ten times!
Open your horizons
Traveling to a more affordable country of course has its good and bad sides. Blogger Gabrielle Asselin remembers that in Albania, the level of comfort of accommodation was not the same as elsewhere in Europe and that the infrastructure was sometimes deficient. The capital, Tirana, does not have a train station comparable to those in other major cities, for example. She therefore had difficulty finding her coach among the dozens of vehicles scattered in a large parking lot. “It may require more adaptation,” she notes. It’s not necessarily for everyone. »
On the other hand, these less touristy destinations allow for more authentic experiences. “The feeling of adventure is stronger,” says Gabrielle Asselin. That’s why I travel! »
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