You Thought It Was Over?
You've found a great flight deal, booked a reasonably priced hotel, and even budgeted for meals and activities. The trip feels financially manageable… until you start actually traveling and realize there are dozens of small charges you never accounted for. A five-dollar airport water bottle here, a fifteen-dollar baggage fee there, and suddenly you're two hundred dollars over budget before you've even left the airport. The most frustrating part is that many of these costs are predictable and avoidable if you know how to look for them ahead of time. Here are 20 fees that routinely catch travelers off guard.
1. Checked Bags
Airlines like Spirit and Frontier advertise insanely cheap fares, which they are, once you add the baggage fees that can run forty to sixty dollars each way per bag. Even carry-on bags cost money on some airlines, with fees ranging from thirty-five to fifty-five dollars, depending on when you pay.
2. Resort Fees
Hotels have perfected the art of advertising one nightly rate while charging another, with resort fees adding anywhere from twenty to fifty dollars per night to your bill. These mandatory fees supposedly cover amenities like pool access and WiFi, which most guests reasonably assumed were included in the room rate.
3. Foreign Transaction Fees On Credit Cards
Most credit cards charge a foreign transaction fee of around three percent on every purchase made outside the United States, which adds up faster than you'd expect when you're buying meals and souvenirs.
4. ATM Withdrawal Fees Abroad
Pulling cash from an ATM in a foreign country often triggers two separate fees: one from the foreign bank operating the ATM and another from your home bank for using an out-of-network machine.
5. Airport Parking
Driving to the airport and leaving your car in the lot seems convenient until you return to an expensive parking bill. Off-site parking lots offer slightly cheaper rates but still run around ten to fifteen dollars daily, and the shuttle service adds time and hassle to both ends of your journey. Ride-sharing or asking a friend for a ride often costs less than half of what airport parking costs.
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6. Rental Car Insurance
The counter agent will absolutely pressure you into buying rental car insurance for twenty to thirty dollars per day, insisting that your personal auto policy won't cover damages in exotic locations like Orlando. However, most personal car insurance policies and many credit cards already provide rental coverage.
7. Extra Driver Fees For Rental Cars
Adding a second authorized driver to a rental agreement costs around ten to fifteen dollars per day at most major companies. Some rental companies do waive this fee for spouses, though the rules vary by location and company. The alternative is having one person do all the driving for the entire trip, which has its own costs in terms of fatigue and flexibility.
8. Toll Roads
Many cities have replaced toll booths with automated systems that photograph license plates and bill the registered owner later, often at inflated rates if you don't have an electronic toll pass.
9. Seat Selection On Flights
Airlines now charge for choosing your seat in advance. Of course, the free seats are typically middle seats in the back of the plane, and if you're traveling with family or friends who want to sit together, you're essentially forced to pay the selection fee.
10. Airport Shuttle Or Taxi
Hotels advertise free airport shuttles in their amenities, though many only run at specific times or require reservations. The taxi or ride-share from the airport to your hotel can run you a good chunk of change, around ten to fifteen dollars per person each way.
11. City Tourist Taxes On Accommodations
Many cities levy tourist taxes on hotel stays, adding anywhere from two to fifteen percent to your nightly rate on top of regular sales tax. These taxes appear as separate line items on your final bill and aren't always included in the room rate you see when booking.
12. Check-In & Checkout Fees
Hotels will charge you to check in a few hours early or stay past the standard 11 a.m. checkout time. This becomes especially painful when your flight lands at 8 a.m. or departs at 8 p.m., and the timing just doesn't align with standard hotel schedules.
13. Mini Bar
Some hotels charge a restocking fee if you move items around in the minibar, even if you don't consume anything, because the sensors register that something was disturbed. The fees are typically around ten to twenty-five dollars and appear on your bill at checkout when you're rushing to catch a flight and not in the mood to argue.
14. Beach Chair And Umbrella Rentals
Public beaches charge for chair and umbrella rentals at rates that can reach thirty to fifty dollars per day in popular tourist destinations. Some resort towns have regulations limiting the amount of free beach space available, essentially forcing visitors to rent chairs if they want to spend more than an hour on the beach.
15. Museums & Attractions
The Louvre, the Colosseum, and countless other major sites have moved to timed entry systems that charge you extra for the convenience of guaranteeing your admission. This isn’t the price of the ticket; this is an extra few bucks just to make sure you can actually get into the location.
16. Baggage Storage At Train Stations
European train stations charge four to eight euros per bag for daily storage. The fees are reasonable enough for a couple of hours, though they multiply quickly if you're storing bags for most of a day. Some stations have different pricing tiers based on bag size, with oversized luggage costing nearly double the standard rate.
17. Power Adapter And Converter Purchases
International travel requires power adapters for different outlet configurations, and buying one at the airport or your destination costs way more than what you’d pay for ordering online in advance. Universal adapters run around twenty-five to thirty-five dollars at airport electronics stores, while the same adapter costs twelve dollars on Amazon.
18. Airline Phone Booking Fees
Calling an airline to book or change a flight instead of doing it online triggers a phone booking fee of twenty-five to forty dollars per ticket, which the airline justifies by claiming phone agents cost more than automated systems. The fee applies even when the website isn't working properly or when you need to book a complex itinerary that the online system can't handle.
19. Travel Insurance Pitched At Checkout
Travel booking sites present insurance options at checkout with prices ranging from forty to two hundred dollars, depending on trip length and cost. Again, credit cards often include some travel insurance automatically, though the coverage limits are usually lower than those of standalone policies.
20. Pet Care While You're Away
Boarding a dog costs thirty to seventy-five dollars per night, depending on the facility and services, which means a week-long vacation can easily require spending three hundred to five hundred dollars on pet care. Friends and family might help for free, though relying on unpaid favors for a week of pet care twice a year starts to feel presumptuous after a while.
