2026 Orlando Travel Cost Study
Orlando on a budget: what a trip costs
A mid-range trip of 4 nights in Orlando costs two people about $1,770, with a 4-star hotel, meals out, a Universal day and a Disney day. Flights, hotel tax and resort fees are not included.
Orlando trip cost calculator
Choose how many nights, how many people, a style and a month. The hotel line uses the median price we found in that month for your star class. Meals and cars use prices that guides and comparison sites publish. Google Hotels showed no 5-star class for Orlando, so the comfort style keeps a 4-star night and adds pricier meals. Copy the link to share your budget.
Your trip
$1,770
$885 per person · $221 per person per night
| Hotel | $640 |
|---|---|
| Eating out | $432 |
| Activities | $654 |
| Car hire | $0 |
| LYNX buses | $36 |
| Airport bus (LYNX Link) | $8 |
| Hotel tax (6%) | 0not included |
Short answer
It depends most on how many park days you buy. On our default trip of 4 nights for two, park tickets are the biggest line: $654 for 2 park days, out of $1,770. The hotel comes to $640. That works out to $221 a day for each person.
A budget version with a 3-star hotel is about $1,402, and pricier meals take it to about $2,034. A 3-star night cost a median $91 in November and $132 in March (two nights per month: one Tuesday, one Saturday). Flights and hotel tax are extra.
How to spend less in Orlando
- Look at mid-November dates. In our sample, a 3-star room was cheapest on the mid-November Tuesday and Saturday we read (a median $91 a night), read on 24 October 2026. In March the same class cost $132. Thanksgiving week and other peak dates were not sampled.
- Book a 3-star hotel. The middle 3-star night cost $108, against $160 for 4-star. A quarter of 4-star prices were $471 or more, mostly big resorts. Our prices are for a room with 2 adults, so ask what your family pays before you book.
- Pick a Tuesday over a Saturday. In our 12 date pairs, the Saturday cost a median 23.5% more than the Tuesday before it. The gap ran from 5.9% in February to 70.7% in January. Some pairs sit next to US holiday weekends. We did not read Wednesday to Friday.
- Ride the bus from the airport. The LYNX Link 311 airport bus goes from the airport to International Drive and Disney Springs for $2 per person. A day pass of $4.50 pays off from your third ride. We did not price taxis or ride-share trips.
- Eat quick-service most days. Guides put a quick-service meal at about $17 per person (a rough figure from two guides: $15 or less, and $18). A table-service meal is put at about $27. Both are before tax and tip. Our calculator counts 2 meals out a day, so breakfast in your room keeps a day cheaper.
- Count your park days first. Park tickets are the biggest line of our default trip. Compare tickets for universal studio orlando, the islands of adventure ticket price and tickets for volcano bay before you add a day.
Flights are left out: what you pay for them depends on your home airport and your dates.
What an Orlando trip costs for two
Two people pay about $1,770 for a mid-range trip of 4 nights in Orlando, with the hotel, meals, two park tickets each and buses, but without flights, hotel tax or resort fees. A 3-night stay comes to $1,493 and a 5-night stay to $2,047, or $1,024 for each person. Without the hotel, a mid-range day costs each person about $141 with the park tickets spread over the trip, or $59 for meals and a bus pass alone.
The same 4-night trip in three styles, at any time of year: the hotel, 2 meals out per person a day, 2 park tickets, a LYNX day pass every day and the airport bus both ways. Hotel tax and resort fees are not included.
| Style | Hotel | Eating out | Activities | Buses, airport bus (no tax) | Total | Per person per night |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget 3-star hotel, cheap meals | $432 | $272 | $654 | $44 | $1,402 | $175 |
| Mid-range Our default 4-star hotel, mid-range meals | $640 | $432 | $654 | $44 | $1,770 | $221 |
| Comfort 4-star hotel, one fine dinner a day | $640 | $696 | $654 | $44 | $2,034 | $254 |
By length of stay (mid-range, two people)
Orlando hotel prices by month
Among the 3-star and 4-star hotels in Google's Orlando list (few Disney-property or Kissimmee resorts), a night cost a median $108 at 3-star and $160 at 4-star, per room for 2 adults. For 3-star hotels the cheapest month was November 2026 ($91) and the priciest March 2027 ($132); for 4-star hotels there is no clear cheapest month, because each month rests on too few prices. We read two nights per month.
About these numbers
On 24 October 2026 we read 1,729 prices from 190 listings on Google Hotels. The nights were a Tuesday and a Saturday in each month between October 2026 and September 2027, always for 2 adults sharing a room. Of these listings, 74 were 3-star and 19 were 4-star; the other 97 had another rating or none. Google's list for Orlando holds few resorts on Disney property or in Kissimmee, so treat on-site Disney hotels as extra.
Each figure is the middle price for a room for 2 adults for one night on Google Hotels. Each month is two nights: one Tuesday and one Saturday. So a month's figure depends on which two nights we picked. 4-star prices split between plain hotels and big resorts, so read the 4-star months as a guide only. Prices read months ahead can change closer to the date.
By month and star class
Google shows a different set of hotels for each date. That is why we compare months inside one star class: a 3-star room in November against a 3-star room in March. Only the 11 months without a note count toward the cheapest and priciest month. Across those months, 4-star months range from $134 to $200. Each rests on 24 to 32 prices, so we do not rank them.
| Month | 3-star | 4-star |
|---|---|---|
| October 2026 read 3 days ahead, not ranked | $99 | $131 |
| November 2026 | $91 | $134 |
| December 2026 | $112 | $158 |
| January 2027 | $113 | $188 |
| February 2027 | $125 | $194 |
| March 2027 | $132 | $197 |
| April 2027 | $127 | $170 |
| May 2027 | $105 | $151 |
| June 2027 | $106 | $144 |
| July 2027 | $106 | $200 |
| August 2027 | $99 | $153 |
| September 2027 | $102 | $162 |
Weekends
How we compared weekends
We compared the same listing on a Saturday and on the Tuesday before it (603 pairs). The Saturday cost a median 23.5% more. For 3-star hotels it was 24.4% more, and 84% of 3-star pairs cost more on the Saturday. In February the gap was smallest (5.9%), in January largest (70.7%). Some of our 12 date pairs sit next to US holiday weekends, and we did not read Wednesday to Friday.
Hotels we describe, not price
- International Drive Hyatt Regency Orlando
A large hotel in the middle of International Drive, with two resort pools, about 3.7 km from SeaWorld Orlando.
- Universal Orlando area Universal Helios Grand Hotel, a Loews Hotel
A four-star Universal hotel on South Kirkman Road with an outdoor pool, a restaurant, a bar and room service.
- Lake Buena Vista / Disney Springs Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort
A lakeside resort inside Walt Disney World on 26 acres of gardens, with several pools and an on-site Disney planning center.
- Kissimmee Omni Orlando Resort at Championsgate
A large resort about 12.7 km from Walt Disney World, with a lazy river, a wave pool, a spa and nine restaurants.
We did not price these hotels one by one, so none of the figures on this page belongs to one of them. Each has a guest score of 8 or more on Booking.com. Google Hotels showed no 5-star class for Orlando, so a luxury resort may cost more than any price here. For areas and more hotels, read where to stay in Orlando.
Booking.com ratings and hotel notes as shown on 25 October 2026.
How much eating out costs in Orlando
Guides put a meal out in Orlando at about $17 per person for quick service, about $27 at a table-service restaurant and about $60 for a character or set-menu dinner, before tax and tip.
These are published prices, not our measurement. Most come from Walt Disney World dining guides, quoted word for word; we read them on 24 October 2026. For each tier the calculator takes the middle value, counting every source once. The quick-service figure is rough: it rests on two guides, and one of them lists meals for $15 or less.
| Meal | Used in the calculator | Published figures |
|---|---|---|
| Quick-service meal per person, counter service or a cheap local spot (rough, two sources) | about $17 median of 2 sources |
|
| Table-service meal per person, a sit-down restaurant meal | about $27 median of 3 sources |
|
| Character or set-menu dinner per person, a character meal or a fixed-price dinner | about $60 median of 3 sources |
|
Eat a big breakfast before you go, and bring water and snacks if the park allows it.
What park tickets and tours cost in Orlando
Bought online, a Universal Orlando ticket had a median from-price of $163 and a Walt Disney World ticket $391 per person on GetYourGuide on 24 October 2026. We did not compare these with prices at the park gate, so we cannot say which is cheaper. Disney and Universal set ticket prices by date, so check your exact dates on the park's own site and on GetYourGuide before you go.
Our own measurement: the lowest listed price of the tickets and tours on this site, as GetYourGuide showed them on 24 October 2026. GetYourGuide showed the prices in euro. We converted them to dollars at the ECB rate of 23 October 2026 (1.1193 dollars to the euro). Each figure is the median per person. For more parks side by side, see our Orlando theme park tickets page.
| Type | Median |
|---|---|
| Universal Orlando tickets | $163 $131–$228 |
| Islands of Adventure tickets few tours | $194 $122–$330 |
| LEGOLAND Florida tickets few tours | $54 $34–$74 |
| SeaWorld Orlando tickets few tours | $89 $45–$185 |
| Kennedy Space Center tickets and tours from Orlando | $99 $84–$196 |
| SEA LIFE Orlando Aquarium tickets few tours | $121 $121–$121 |
| Swim with manatees and manatee tours from Orlando | $84 $72–$94 |
| Universal Orlando Express Pass and VIP tickets | $129 $124–$182 |
| Orlando theme park tickets and attraction passes | $133 $82–$166 |
| Airboat tours and alligator parks near Orlando | $41 $36–$53 |
| Walt Disney World tickets | $391 $221–$397 |
| Day trips from Orlando | $109 $97–$183 |
Middle half: the 25th to 75th percentile of from-prices; rows with fewer than 4 tours ("few tours") show a rough spread only. A "from" price is the lowest option a listing offers. Prices and ratings as shown on GetYourGuide on 24 October 2026.
-
from $194 per person Universal Orlando tickets Orlando: Universal Orlando Resort Tickets Check availability -
from $74 per person LEGOLAND Florida tickets LEGOLAND® Florida Resort + SEA LIFE Florida 1-Day Admission Check availability -
from $45 per person SeaWorld Orlando tickets SeaWorld Orlando: Howl-O-Scream Park Entry Ticket Check availability -
from $83 per person Kennedy Space Center Merritt Island: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Ticket Check availability -
from $121 per person SEA LIFE Orlando Orlando: SEA LIFE Orlando Aquarium in ICON Park Check availability -
from $96 per person Swim with manatees Orlando: Kayaking Tour with Manatee Encounter Check availability
Free and cheap things to do in Orlando
You can fill a day in Orlando without a ticket: Lake Eola Park, Disney Springs, Universal CityWalk and Old Town in Kissimmee cost nothing to enter. The cheapest paid trip on this site is an Everglades airboat ride with a wildlife park ticket, from $36 per person.
- Free Lake Eola Park
A lake with a walking loop, swans and a fountain in downtown Orlando. A farmers market runs here on Sundays. The swan boats cost extra.
- Free entry Disney Springs
Disney's shopping and dining area near Lake Buena Vista. You need no park ticket to walk around, watch street shows and window shop. The LYNX airport bus stops here.
- Free entry Universal CityWalk
Universal's restaurant and shop street between its parks. Walking in costs nothing; parking in the garages can cost extra in the daytime.
- Free entry Old Town, Kissimmee
An old-style fair street with shops and food. Entry is free, and you pay only for the rides you choose.
- Free to walk Park Avenue, Winter Park
Shops, cafés and a big shady park in a quiet town north of downtown. The boat tour on the lakes is not free.
- From $36 Everglades airboat ride
Our cheapest paid pick: an airboat ride plus a wildlife park ticket, per person. Airboat tours had a median from-price of $41.
- From $45 SeaWorld Halloween event
An evening event ticket for set dates in autumn, per person. A regular SeaWorld ticket had a median of $89.
- From $83 Kennedy Space Center
The visitor complex ticket, per person, about an hour's drive east. Tours with transport from Orlando cost more.
- Median $54 LEGOLAND Florida
A one-day ticket, per person, from only a few listings. It suits families with younger kids.
Free places are free to enter, not part of our measured data, so check opening times before you go. Paid prices are the GetYourGuide from-prices of 24 October 2026, converted to dollars.
Where to stay in Orlando on a budget
Pick your area by the parks you plan to visit: International Drive for buses and choice, Lake Buena Vista for Disney, the Universal area for Universal, and Kissimmee for big family rooms. Downtown and Winter Park suit a calmer trip with fewer park days.
- International Drive Buses and lots of hotels
A long strip of hotels, restaurants and ICON Park between Universal and SeaWorld. The LYNX airport bus runs here, so you can skip the car.
- Lake Buena Vista and Disney Springs Disney days
Hotels close to Walt Disney World and Disney Springs. It saves travel time on Disney days, and the airport bus reaches Disney Springs.
- Universal area Universal days
Hotels around Universal Orlando, some within walking distance of the parks. Best when most of your park days are at Universal.
- Kissimmee Big rooms for families
Resorts and vacation homes south of Disney, often with kitchens and pools. A car helps here. Google's list held few Kissimmee resorts, so our prices do not cover them well.
- Downtown and Lake Eola City life, free parks
Restaurants, bars and the free Lake Eola Park. It is far from the theme parks, so it suits a trip with few park days.
- Winter Park A quiet base
A calm town with Park Avenue, gardens and museums. Good for a slow day or two, not as a base for daily park visits.
How much a rental car costs in Orlando
A rental car in Orlando costs about $54 a day, going by published averages that range from $50 to $64.
Published prices, not our measurement. None of the sources says which car class it means, or whether insurance, taxes and airport fees are in the price. The calculator uses the low, middle and high value for the three styles.
- $50 a day:
The average car rental cost is $50 in Orlando Intl. Airport
rental24h.com - $51 a day: middle
On average, car rentals in Orlando cost around USD $51 per day
roadgenius.com.au - $56 a day: middle
Medium car rentals in Orlando typically cost around $56 per day
kayak.com - $64 a day:
Average Price $64.00/day
dollar.com
Advertised minimums, not typical prices: from $43 a day (rentcars.com) · from $50 a day (therentalradar.com).
Do you need a car? Not for a trip around International Drive, Universal and Disney Springs, where LYNX buses run. The parks are spread out, though, and a car helps for day trips from Orlando. Park parking is not in this study. Our default trip has no car.
Hotel tax, LYNX buses and the airport bus
Orange County adds a 6% tourist development tax to the room rate. Our hotel prices are as advertised on Google Hotels and may leave it out, so the calculator does not add it. On the default trip, the tax applies to the $640 hotel line. State sales tax and the resort fees of many Orlando resorts can come on top, so check the final price before you book. Fares come from the January edition of the LYNX airport timetable, checked 24 October 2026. More bus routes: getting around Orlando.
Key findings of the 2026 Orlando Travel Cost Study
- $91 a night for a 3-star room in November, the cheapest month, against $132 in March.
For 3-star hotels in Orlando, the median price advertised on Google Hotels on 24 October 2026 ran from $91 per room per night in November 2026 to $132 in March 2027, 45% more (2 adults, one-night stays; among the 11 months we ranked, on one Tuesday and one Saturday each, every night read once, with 67 to 91 prices a month).
- $160 for the middle 4-star night, but a quarter of 4-star prices were $471 or more.
Four-star prices in Orlando split in two: the middle 4-star price was $160 per room per night for 2 adults, but a quarter of the 329 four-star prices in our sample were $471 or more, mostly resort hotels near Universal, so we make no best-month claim for 4-star hotels.
- 23.5% more on a Saturday than on the Tuesday before, for the same hotel.
Over 603 pairs of a Tuesday and the Saturday after it, the same listing cost a median 23.5% more on the Saturday, and 83% of the pairs were pricier on the Saturday (per room per night, 2 adults; 12 date pairs, some next to US holiday weekends); for 4-star hotels the premium was 26.3%.
- $108 for a 3-star night against $160 for 4-star. Google showed no 5-star class.
None of the listings Google Hotels returned for our 'Orlando, Florida' searches on 24 nights carried a 5-star class, and a 5-star filter returned no results either, so the study compares 3- and 4-star hotels only; the 3-star median was $108 per room per night against $160 for 4-star (October 2026 to September 2027).
- About $17 per person for a quick-service meal and $27 at a table-service restaurant.
Published guides, mostly Walt Disney World dining guides, put a quick-service meal in Orlando at about $17 per person, a table-service meal at about $27 and a character or set-menu dinner at about $60 per person, before tax and tip (medians of a small set of cited sources, not our measurement).
- $50 to $64 a day for a rental car, going by published averages.
Daily rental-car prices published by comparison sites for Orlando ranged from $50 to $64 a day across 4 cited sources; none states the car class or whether insurance, taxes and airport fees are included (not our measurement).
- $2 a bus ride; the All-Day pass pays off from the third ride.
A LYNX bus ride in Orlando costs $2 and the All-Day pass $4.50, so the pass pays off from the third ride of the day; the regular fare of $2 one way also applies on LYNX Link 311 from Orlando International Airport to International Drive and Disney Springs (official fares).
- 6% tourist tax, plus sales tax and resort fees, can come on top of hotel prices.
All hotel prices are as advertised for a one-night stay; Orange County's 6% tourist development tax, state sales tax and the resort fees many Orlando resorts charge may be added at booking.
Source: 2026 Orlando Travel Cost Study, things-to-do-in-orlando.com (CC BY 4.0)
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: download the data · embed the chart
Method, data and reuse
What we measured ourselves
- Hotels: 1,729 prices of 190 hotels on Google Hotels, read on 24 October 2026. One Tuesday and one Saturday night per month, October 2026 to September 2027, 2 adults, one room; paid ads, listings without a price and duplicates left out. These are the prices advertised for those dates when we read them, not what guests later paid. Months are compared within a star class because Google shows a different set of hotels for each date. October 2026 was read at short notice; both are shown but not ranked.
- Activities: the "from" prices of the 56 tours and tickets on our 12 activity pages (the table above), as shown on GetYourGuide on 24 October 2026; the calculator offers 11 tours, one per activity page (1 of them from pages with too few per-person prices for the table). A "from" price is the lowest option a listing offers, not a typical price.
What we cite
- Meals, drinks and car hire: figures published by travel guides, food-tour companies and rental platforms, found in Google results in the United States and quoted word for word with their date. A range counts with its midpoint, each source once per group. No figures from forums or social media. None comes from a page that shows a date in 2022 or earlier; many pages show no date at all.
- Hotel tax, fares: the Orange County, LYNX.
How the calculator adds up
- Our default trip: 4 nights, two people in one room, mid-range. It uses the from-price of one Universal ticket (Orlando: Universal Orlando Resort Tickets, $194) and one Disney listing (Orlando: Walt Disney World Tickets – 1 Park per Day, $133), the lowest option of each. Real tickets may cost more: our Disney ticket table shows a median of $391. Any time of year: the hotel uses the median of all Tuesday and Saturday nights we read. Trip length: activities do not change with trip length. Meals and bus passes are counted per night, so a 4-night trip has 4 days of meals. Seasonal tickets, like the Halloween events, are sold for set dates.
- Hotel: nights × rooms (one per two travellers) × the median for the style's star class in that month (or the whole year).
- Eating out: nights × travellers × meals a day at the style's meal price; in comfort, one fine dinner a day and the other meals at mid-range prices.
- Car: days × the style's daily price. Activities: the from-price per person or per group.
- Hotel tax (6%): not included. Orange County's tax is a share of the room rate, and we do not know if the Google Hotels prices include it. State sales tax and resort fees are not counted either.
- Transport: nights × travellers × the LYNX All-Day pass. Airport: two rides per traveller on the LYNX Link 311 airport bus ($2 each, one there and one back), counted on their own, so arrival and departure days may count a ride twice. Fares come from the January edition of the LYNX airport timetable, checked 24 October 2026. The timetable shows one fare table, so the regular $2 fare applies on Link buses too.
Each line is rounded to whole dollars.
Plan your Orlando trip
Next, pick the part of Orlando that fits your plans and your budget.
Orlando travel costs: questions
Is Orlando cheap or expensive?
It depends most on how many park days you buy. We have no other city to compare with, so we show where the money goes. Park tickets are the biggest line of our default trip of 4 nights for two: $654 of $1,770, for 2 park days. The hotel is $640. Work out your own trip.
What's the cheapest month to go to Orlando?
For a 3-star hotel, November 2026 was the cheapest month in our sample, at a median $91 a night; for a 4-star hotel there is no clear cheapest month. March 2027 was the priciest for 3-star, at $132. Each month is two nights we read (one Tuesday, one Saturday), and Thanksgiving week was not sampled. 4-star months range from $134 to $200, but each rests on 24 to 32 prices, so we do not rank them.
Is Orlando expensive to eat out?
Guides put a quick-service meal at about $17 per person and a table-service meal at about $27, before tax and tip. The quick-service figure is rough: it rests on two guides. A character or set-menu dinner is put at about $60 per person.
How much does a meal cost in Orlando?
Guides put it at about $17 per person for quick service, $27 for a table-service meal and $60 for a character or set-menu dinner, before tax and tip. These are middle values of published guide prices, mostly from Walt Disney World dining guides. The quick-service figure rests on two guides only. Sources.
How much spending money do I need per day in Orlando, not counting the hotel?
Not counting the hotel, plan on about $39 per person a day on a budget, $59 at mid-range and $92 in comfort, for meals out and a LYNX bus pass. Park tickets come on top. On our default trip, with two park tickets each, the day without the hotel comes to about $121, $141 and $174 per person. For a longer stay, multiply the daily figure by your days and add each park day. A car adds about $54 a day. Add up your own trip.
How can I visit Orlando on a budget?
Stay in a 3-star hotel (a median $108 a night in Google's Orlando list), look at mid-November dates and pick a Tuesday over a Saturday. Eat quick-service for about $17 per person and take the LYNX bus for $2 a ride. Park tickets are the biggest line, so pick your park days first. On a budget, our default trip costs two people about $1,402. With kids, pack snacks and refillable water bottles where the park allows them, and put a free day, like Lake Eola Park or Disney Springs, between park days. More ways to spend less.
How much is a rental car in Orlando per day?
Published average prices run from $50 to $64 a day, with $54 in the middle. The sources do not say what insurance, taxes and airport fees are included, so compare prices for your own dates. Car hire prices and sources.
Sources
Official sources
All read 24 October 2026
- Tourist tax per night: ocfl.net
- LYNX All-Day pass: golynx.com
Meal and drink prices (cited)
All read 24 October 2026 (the day we read them, not the day they were published; some pages show no date)
Car hire prices (cited)
All read 24 October 2026 (the day we read them, not the day they were published; some pages show no date)