The All-In Trip Cost Index
What a guided tour actually costs once the flight is in the price — computed per US airport, not quoted.
Every tour operator quotes a land-only price and leaves the flight in another tab. So we put them together. Across 8 destinations and all eight major US gateways, we computed the real all-in total — a genuine, bookable October 2026 departure from the TourRadar catalogue plus the cheapest sensible return flight from that airport, priced live on Kiwi.com. Nothing here is estimated; every figure was computed on the collection date and carries it.
The headline finding is how much of the bill is the flight you were never shown. On a guided India tour, the return flight is about 64% of the total — you pay more to get there than to be there. On an Italy trip it is roughly 25%. That single number decides whether the airport you fly from matters at all.
The whole trip, cheapest gateway first
| Destination | Cheapest all-in | Median all-in | Flight = % of bill | Gateway spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| India | €847 (≈$921)from Los Angeles | €1,209 (≈$1,314)–€1,485 (≈$1,614) | 64% | €350 (≈$380) |
| Egypt | €1,075 (≈$1,168)from Los Angeles | €1,623 (≈$1,764)–€1,847 (≈$2,008) | 44% | €318 (≈$346) |
| Thailand | €1,133 (≈$1,232)from Los Angeles | €1,967 (≈$2,138)–€2,167 (≈$2,355) | 43% | €498 (≈$541) |
| Vietnam | €1,133 (≈$1,232)from San Francisco | €1,672 (≈$1,817)–€1,989 (≈$2,162) | 46% | €223 (≈$242) |
| Turkey | €1,267 (≈$1,377)from Dallas–Fort Worth | €1,883 (≈$2,047)–€2,132 (≈$2,317) | 40% | €165 (≈$179) |
| Italy | €1,417 (≈$1,540)from New York | €2,584 (≈$2,809)–€2,837 (≈$3,084) | 25% | €216 (≈$235) |
| Japan | €1,496 (≈$1,626)from San Francisco | €3,124 (≈$3,396)–€3,479 (≈$3,782) | 32% | €572 (≈$622) |
| South Africa | €1,902 (≈$2,067)from New York | €2,728 (≈$2,965)–€3,083 (≈$3,351) | 49% | €319 (≈$347) |
Three things the numbers say
There is no single cheapest US airport. The bargain gateway changes with the destination: Los Angeles is cheapest for India, but the winner shuffles trip by trip, because a departure city's advantage depends entirely on which long-haul corridors its carriers fight over. The lesson isn't “always fly from X” — it's “price your own airport against the tour, together.”
For some trips, geography is nearly free; for others it decides the budget. Turkey barely moves with your airport — just €165 (≈$179) between the cheapest and dearest gateway — because the flight is only about 40% of the bill. Japan swings €572 (≈$622) across the eight cities. The more the flight dominates the total, the more your home airport is worth pricing carefully.
The floor is lower than the brochures suggest. The cheapest complete, bookable guided trip anywhere in this index was €847 (≈$921) all-in — 5 days in India flying from Los Angeles, flights included. A real trip, computed, not a teaser rate.
How this was built. Every total is a real October 2026 tour departure plus the cheapest return flights from that airport on matching dates, priced live. Prices were collected 2026-07-06 to 2026-09-06 for one adult on 5–14 day tours; fares move constantly, so treat this as a map of the terrain, not a quote. The full recipe is on our methodology page. Multiday.tours is a TourRadar-owned tool that surfaces all-in pricing TourRadar itself does not show.
Want your own airport and dates priced against a specific tour? Run a live search, or browse the per-destination breakdowns on the data hub.