Papua New Guinea for Budget Travelers: The Real Cost of PNG

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$6,000 

That’s the average per-person price tag of a 7-10 day trip to Papua New Guinea. 

When I first saw this, I was shocked. Papua New Guinea is one of the most impoverished nations in the world. 85% of people rely on subsistence farming to survive. 54% of residents live on less than $1 per day. In what world does that translate to a $6,000 base price tag for travelers, and where does the money even go?? I assumed it was the greed of travel operators, putting a hefty fee on travel to a remote place with a lot of culture to share. I assumed that if I just showed up in Papua New Guinea, I would be able to organize a budget-friendly trip on the fly with locals traveling in the way that they move around the country. 

But they don’t move around the country. 

Time and time again in Papua, I met tour guides and professionals who had never left their home region. They called Wewak home and had never even been to Port Moresby, let alone New Ireland or the Highlands. They traveled on foot, paid a small fee to ride in the back of a transport truck, or by paddle canoe — not with petrol-powered cars and motors. 

Most had never stayed in a hotel. When they visit a city (if they do) they sleep at a friend or family members home utilizing a large network of connections to get by. 

Travel is expensive in Papua New Guinea because the only people who do it are foreigners. Dedicated travelers willing to undergo a lot of challenges to see a culture that few others have.

You’re not getting totally hosed by tour operators (usually, although you absolutely can be); that’s simply the price tag of a place that relies on importing most of its goods, including petroleum. It’s the cost of a hotel room when there are only a few hotels and even fewer tourists. When there’s no market, you can pretty much name your price. PNG residents aren’t reliant on tourism after all.

But travel doesn’t need to be as expensive as it’s made out to be in Papua New Guinea.

This quick guide to the cost of travel in PNG is meant to provide a little clarity and transparency behind the price tag. It will also give you a little insight into how much your trip will cost if you forgo the tours altogether. It’s aimed at people who want to travel to Papua New Guinea, but don’t want to break the bank in doing so, people who started looking into traveling here and were startled by the numbers they were being quoted elsewhere online.

Here’s what you can expect to pay in Papua New Guinea if you want to travel on a budget.

Papua New Guinea Cost Breakdown of Typical Travel Expenses

Let me throw a series of random prices at you. These are the real-life costs of various items in Papua New Guinea as of July 2026. Obviously, if you are reading this three years from now, there could be some economic changes. But it’s still a good ballpark to have.

Keep in mind that the current currency conversion is 4.5 kina to 1 USD at the time of writing this. There is 100 T in a single kina, and you’ll only rarely operate in this currency. I’ll use KINA and USD in my prices.

• Roadside sausage + plantain: 2 kina (for your snacking needs)
• One traditional cigarette: 30 T 
• Pack of cigarettes: 35 kina (about $8). Sorry for all the cigarette information. I don’t smoke, but so many people in PNG do that you will 100% want to buy some for locals and hand them out constantly.
• Local Beer: 15 kina 
• Coke/bottled water/any other cool beverage: 5 kina 
• Meal at a hotel restaurant: 30-50 kina per plate
• Domestic Flight Ticket: $75-$150 per person one way 
• Petrol: 10-40 kina/liter, depending on how much you buy. Also, it’s way cheaper to buy in major towns rather than out in the middle of nowhere. You’ll be buying petrol if you hire a private driver or a boat for Sepik excursions.
• $125 per day for boat driver and guide in Sepik. 
• 300-600 kina for each tribe visit. This is essentially a “performance fee” and is paid the same whether you are a solo traveler or have a group of 10 people.
• Goroka or Mount Hagen Show Tickets: $80 for the two-day access.
• Hotels (regardless of whether it’s a stay at the Hilton in Port Moresby or a local hut in the Highlands): $75-$150 per night for a double room.
• Bus or Private Car Transfer to/from the Airport (your Port Moresby transfer should be free if you read my guide): $15 per person
• Car Rental: $200 per day. This sucks, I know.
• Private Car Hire in Sepik or other Long Transfer in the Highlands: $200-$400 total. This also sucks.
• PMV (aka public transit) Ride: $2-$10 depending on the length of the trip
• Acceptable Daily Rate for Guides: $25 per day
• SIM Card (30 GB): $13
• Traditional Masks for Souvenirs: $5-$30, depending on the size and complexity.

I know that’s throwing a lot of random numbers at you, but when you’re talking about budget travel, it really just comes down to what you prioritize. Do you like to have a cold beer at the end of the day? Are you going to want to visit multiple tribal communities or visit a few different regions? All these will increase your costs wildly.

The main point is that transport is very expensive. Unless you are in a region like the Highlands, which is serviced by an easy-to-use PMV. Hotels, whether it be traditional village huts or a Hilton Residences apartment, are around $140 per night for a double room. Food is not included in that price, so unless you plan to buy and cook your own meals, you’ll also have to spend around $10 a plate. These are just the basic costs of travel in the country. You’ll also need at least one round-trip domestic flight (read my tips on how to book the good ones) unless you plan to spend all your time in Port Moresby, which will set you back at least $200 per person.

But Wait, If I Want to Be an Extreme Budget-Backpacker in PNG, What Does That Look Like?

If you’re looking at the prices above and raising an eyebrow, you could conceivably fly to Port Moresby, book yourself the absolute cheapest hotel you can find by popping around Google Maps options, and just show up to one that doesn’t have online booking. Then from there you’ll still need a domestic flight, but upon arrival you could eat nothing but boiled cassava/sweet potato (this is what the locals mostly eat) or instant noodles you’ve packed yourself, hitch-hike on the main roads (you’ll be asked to contribute money, it’s not for free), and just see what there is to see in Papua New Guinea. Once out of Port Moresby, though, for accommodation, you’ll want to have yourself a tent or something (and no land is unowned in PNG, so you’ll still end up paying someone).

Overall, I would say this is a very unrewarding and pointless place to travel this way in. There are so many other areas of the world where this would be better received, and you would get more out of it.

So, while I understand being on a tight budget, this under-$50-a-day-per-person just isn’t realistically going to happen here. If you do manage it, you aren’t going to see any of the things that make PNG interesting.

Cost Benefits of Joining a Group Tour in Papua New Guinea 

Most travelers who come to PNG do so on a group tour. Here’s why.

Transportation and Petrol are some of the highest costs for travelers in Papua New Guinea. And while in many cases you could opt to take the PMV/bus (not all though), it departs whenever it’s full and can eat up entire days of your trip quite easily, requiring you to spend another night in costly accommodation. A pointless endeavor.

If you join a group, however, your 6 to 10 individuals can now split the petrol and transport price, which allows you to have super affordable, quick, and comfortable ways to get around. This is why group tours are often seen as the most affordable way to travel in Papua New Guinea. Even more affordable than tracking down local PNG guides and booking private tours directly with them.

You also get more for your money. More Sing Sings, more food diversity, and a more packed itinerary than independent travelers. Group tours typically include everything…like 15+ tribe visits, varied meals, and of course, private well-planned transport. If you were to pay for that on your own, it would be ridiculously expensive. This is a case where doing it yourself doesn’t necessarily translate to savings.

But if you’re willing to narrow down your list of things you want to do in PNG (like maybe only visit 3-5 tribes…here’s my list on which ones I would choose *coming soon*) and eat simply, then of course you can save more by traveling independently in PNG. *coming soon*

I wrote a full blog post detailing my favorite group tours to Papua New Guinea, if this seems like the right choice financially for you. You can expect a 10 to 14-day group tour to usually cost around $6,000 per person and cover two regions of Papua New Guinea (most commonly the Sepik River and the Highlands), or a 7-day trip to be around $4,000 per person and stick to one area.

What About The Cost of Private Tours in PNG? 

By private tours, I’m talking about both local guides and foreign operators. Basically, anyone you contact to arrange your itinerary and logistics. 

I reached out to nearly every operator listed on the official PNG tourism website, online blogs, Instagram, and random local guides whom I found on Reddit, just to see the quotes I could get for the same two-week tour of the Sepik River and the Highlands. Doing allllll the dirty work for ya! 

I got quotes ranging from $24,000 (in what world) to $6,000 for two people. Here’s a few things I learned… 

• Don’t contact one single guide for multiple regions. It’s always more expensive that way. Just book your own domestic flights and have local guides lined up at each destination to handle the rest. 
•  Don’t be afraid to tell them exactly what you want. Fewer Sing Sings means less money; tell them the kind of accommodation you want, etc. 
• You can *usually* say you want to pay for everything yourself in cash as you go, and then pay $25 per day as a guide fee to your local guide if you just want someone with you to give you information about the tribes and to help in sticky situations that may arise. 
• Not all guides in Papua New Guinea are trustworthy. 

I actually wrote a whole post detailing the perils of hiring any old guide from Reddit in Papua New Guinea. In fact, I think it’s one of the most dangerous aspects of travel in PNG. 

I would say that private tours are the most common mode of travel in Papua New Guinea, only because group tours have set dates, and sometimes that doesn’t align with travelers’ needs. Keeping in mind that you will not meet anyone else randomly while traveling in PNG, I think joining a group would be more economical and more fun.

If you’re hoping to hike the Kokoda Path or spend a lot of time diving, you should search for a local guide who specializes in these kinds of trips. You most definitely don’t just want any old guide in a place like PNG when you’ll be undertaking a dangerous activity.

Read More: Vital Information You Should Know Before You Go To Papua New Guinea for the First Time.

How Much Should I Budget For Independent Travel? 

I outlined all the costs above, so the rest is really up to you. It depends on the duration of the trip, how many domestic flights you’ll need, how much transport you need to hire, etc. 

Just know that if you plan to visit any of the tribal areas in Papua New Guinea (Highlands, Sepik, etc), you will need to have a local guide for the duration of your stay. So even independent travel isn’t entirely independent.

As you’ll see below, I would ballpark a frugal travel duo could get by on $200 per day in Papua New Guinea.

In the next section, I’ll tell you what we spent on each leg of our trip and an estimate of what I think you could get away with for each region. They do vary in costs because of the amount of transport each requires.  

How Much We Spent on Each Leg of Our Papua New Guinea Trip

We visited three different regions during our one month in Papua New Guinea. If you’re struggling to put together an itinerary, I’ve made 1-week, 2-week, and 3-week routes.

Cost of 11 Days in the Sepik River Region

We visited the Sepik River with David from Tribes of Papua New Guinea. Independent travel here is the most challenging, as you have to travel by boat rather than by road. This is also the most expensive region in PNG. It’s also in my opinion, the only region I would 100% recommend to everyone and would go back to.

Or simply contact him on WhatsApp to arrange a reasonably-priced private setup. +66 86 977 7027

I recommend reading my full guide to visiting the crocodile men of the Sepik River before you go. (*coming soon*) And getting inspired by this photo essay of the coming-of-age scarification process, if you don’t have a queasy stomach.

You need at least 5 days to visit the Sepik River Valley. It takes one full day to reach the river from Wewak (which you fly to from Port Moresby) and another to return to Wewak before you fly out. This gives you, at best, 2.5 days in Sepik, which is just enough time to get a taste of the region.

We spent:

• $1,000 on petrol for the boat
• $500 for transport to and from the river and Wewak city
• $125 per day for a guide, canoe, and driver of said canoe. 8 days of this.
• 1,500 kina ($330) in performances/tribal visit fees.
• We stayed in David’s traditional huts in a local village “for free” since we arranged this tour with him. There are very few places to stay in Sepik, and whoever you arrange to guide you will help handle this. Lodging is actually not the biggest expense in this region.
• We cooked our own food for about $10 per day.
• $250 for the round-trip flight per person into Wewak
• $110 for one night in a Wewak hotel

This brings the total cost for our 11-day trip to be $3,550. $320 per day for the two of us.

Cost of 6 Days in New Ireland 

New Ireland is a lovely tropical island known for its diving and mainland attractions like the Shark Calling tribe and giant freshwater eels. It is even less visited than the other PNG island area of New Britain. In terms of cost, it’s kinda a middle ground.

We have a full guide to visiting New Ireland here. *coming soon*

• $200 per day for a 3-day car rental. We had to do this, but I wouldn’t really recommend it.
• $100 for petrol for said car.
• $215 for a very confusing homestay experience on the mainland (2 nights and all meals included). Read my guide on vital tips for PNG for more info.
• $300 per night for two nights at Lissenung Dive Resort.
• $75 to stay with the Shark Calling Tribe in Kono.
• $11 for tuna to feed the eels.
• $8 for Belifu Canyon entrance.
• $300 per person for a round-trip flight into Kavieng.

Total Cost: ~$2,210 for 6 days or $368 per day for two people. This could have been done much cheaper. The car rental was so expensive, and I think it’s crucial in New Ireland that you hitchhike/take public transport if you’re on a budget. It was nearly half of our expenses.

Cost of 7 Days in the Highlands 

The Highlands are not only the most popular area of Papua New Guinea, but they are also the easiest to navigate for budget travelers for two reasons. First, a well-established PMV system that runs the length of the Highlands Highway. Secondly, there are locally run accommodations within the tribal communities you want to visit that are flexible on price. Here’s what we spent during our weeklong trip.

• 210 kina or $47 in groceries for a week of cooking myself.
• $30 for a ride to the airport from Asaro
• $20 for a shared ride to Asaro from Skeleton Village in Chimbu
• 10 kina per person ($2.50) for a PMV from Waterfall Village to Skeleton Village in Chimbu
• Mount Hagen Airport pick-up $100 (this was before we learned about the bus and PMV system, so I don’t recommend this)
• 300 kina each for three different tribes in Asaro. You pay each tribe for the upcoming costs. The number of people attending doesn’t change the price. 900 kina total.
• 500 kina for the Skeleton tribal performance.
• 300 kina each for two other tribe visits in waterfall region. 600 kina total.
• 300 each for two tribe visits in Skeleton. 600 kina total.
• 6 nights of accommodation in local huts in traditional villages at $75 per night
• $25 per day for our guide in each region.
• $225 for a set of flights into Mount Hagen from Port Moresby and then Goroka to Port Moresby for return. Or reverse.

Total Cost: $1,833 for two people. $262 per day for 7 days. In my Highlands Independent Traveler guide *coming soon*, I have outlined all the other ways you could have saved money and ALSO given you reliable guide information.

Some Quick Tips to Make Travel in Papua New Guinea Less Expensive 

Here are a few ways you can cut costs.

1. Read my guide on how to travel independently in Papua New Guinea and heed my advice. *coming soon*
2. Take the bus/PMV at all costs, no matter the inconvenience. 
3. Book your domestic flights strategically so that if they do get delayed or canceled, they have to put you up for the night (both domestic airlines give you vouchers for food and a free room at a nice hotel). I’ve also written a guide on how to do this.
4. Cook your own food as much as possible. This means you’ll have to bulk buy really boring, easy-to-transport food like instant noodles, unless you bring stuff from home, which I highly recommend.
5. Hire the guides that I have recommended on my How to Travel Independently in Papua New Guinea blog post, which I already linked above. I’ve discussed pricing with them and know they will give you a reasonable rate.
6. Choose the Highlands for the bulk of your trip. This is the easiest region to travel on a budget.
7. Consider traveling with some friends. This can help reduce individual costs hugely.
8. Visit fewer tribes. Each visit is about $75-100, which means serious savings by skipping any you aren’t interested in.
9. Book any domestic flights far in advance and minimize the number of regions that you visit.
10. Don’t be afraid to really specialize your trip. I wish we had focused more on wildlife during our time in PNG. In the end, I think that if we had spent the same amount of money, but on wildlife/treks/and nature, I would have felt a little better about it in the end.
11. Travel to the highlands for a very short amount of time, but during the Goroka or Mount Hagen Show. This is a great way to see all the tribal communities at once for an $80 fee. Hotels will be pricier, but it’s only a 3-day period. Book in advance if you want to do this.

Papua New Guinea now tops the list of most expensive destinations I’ve had the pleasure of visiting. I mean, seriously, you can stay at a Maldivian overwater bungalow for the same price (or less). But if it’s a place that you’ve always been fascinated by, you should read my post on what it’s like to travel in Papua New Guinea and start saving now! Because even on a budget, Papua New Guinea is a trip that will end up costing you thousands of dollars (especially considering the flights required to even reach the remote nation).

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