Spending a full month in one place is the heart of slow travel, and the first question most people ask is what it will cost. Travel blogs give wildly different answers. A steadier starting point is a set of numbers the federal government publishes every year: the General Services Administration's per diem rates, which set the most a federal employee can be reimbursed for a hotel night and a day of meals in a given city. This guide shows how to use those public rates as an upper benchmark for a month away, with worked examples for five U.S. destinations.
What per diem rates are, and why they help
The General Services Administration (GSA) sets per diem rates for federal travel in the continental United States. Each rate has two parts:
- Lodging: a nightly hotel rate, before taxes, that can change by month to reflect high and low seasons.
- Meals and incidental expenses (M&IE): a daily amount for breakfast, lunch, dinner and small incidentals.
GSA says a standard rate applies to most of the country, and about 300 areas with higher costs get their own rates. The current rates are for fiscal year 2027, which runs from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.
These rates are useful for retirees for three reasons. They are public and free to look up. They are set city by city and month by month, so they show when a destination is expensive. And they are designed for hotel stays and restaurant meals, which means they describe the high end of what a month should cost. If you rent an apartment by the month and cook some of your own meals, you should expect to spend less.
What a day of meals looks like in the rates
GSA publishes a breakdown of each meals tier. For fiscal year 2027, the tiers in the continental U.S. are:
| Daily meals rate | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Incidentals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $68 | $16 | $19 | $28 | $5 |
| $74 | $18 | $20 | $31 | $5 |
| $80 | $20 | $22 | $33 | $5 |
| $86 | $22 | $23 | $36 | $5 |
| $92 | $23 | $26 | $38 | $5 |
This table is a handy reality check on its own. If you plan to make breakfast in your rental and eat one restaurant meal a day, you can build your own daily figure from the pieces.
Five destinations, by season
The table below uses GSA's fiscal year 2027 rates for five places retirees often consider for a longer stay. The monthly benchmark is 30 nights at the lodging rate plus 30 days at the meals rate. Lodging taxes are not included.
| Destination | Lower-rate months | Nightly lodging | Daily meals | 30-day benchmark | Peak months | Peak nightly lodging | Peak 30-day benchmark |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Fe, NM | January to February | $129 | $80 | $6,270 | March to October | $175 | $7,650 |
| Tucson, AZ | April to December | $154 | $80 | $7,020 | January to March | $208 | $8,640 |
| Traverse City, MI | November to June | $134 | $80 | $6,420 | July to August | $235 | $9,450 |
| San Diego, CA | August to May | $208 | $86 | $8,820 | June to July | $249 | $10,050 |
| Charleston, SC | November to February | $218 | $92 | $9,300 | March to May | $288 | $11,400 |
A few things stand out.
- Season matters more than city. Traverse City costs about $3,000 more per month at the benchmark in July and August than it does in spring. Santa Fe in winter is the least expensive month on the table.
- Sun destinations flip the calendar. Tucson is at its most expensive from January through March, when visitors from colder states arrive. April through December is cheaper.
- Coastal cities carry a premium year-round. Charleston and San Diego have higher lodging and higher meals rates in every month.
To look up any other city, use the search tool on GSA's per diem page and choose the current fiscal year.
Turn the benchmark into your own budget
The benchmark assumes 30 hotel nights and 90 restaurant meals. Most slow travelers do neither. Use this worksheet to adjust it.
| Line | How to estimate | Your number |
|---|---|---|
| Lodging | Monthly rate for a furnished rental, including cleaning and service fees. Compare with 30 times the GSA nightly rate. | |
| Groceries | Your usual monthly grocery bill at home | |
| Restaurant meals | Number of meals out times the GSA dinner or lunch figure for that city | |
| Getting there | Flights, train fare or fuel, round trip | |
| Local transport | Rental car, transit passes or rideshares | |
| Activities | Admissions, tours, classes | |
| Costs that continue at home | Utilities, pet or house sitter, mail forwarding | |
| Cushion | 10 percent of the total |
A quick calculator
Enter a nightly lodging figure and a daily meals figure from GSA, or your own estimates, to see a monthly total.
Ways to come in under the benchmark
- Travel in the lower-rate months. The GSA table tells you exactly when those are for each city.
- Rent by the month. Many furnished rentals price a 28-day or 30-day stay well below the nightly rate times 30. Ask the owner directly if a monthly rate is not listed.
- Cook breakfast and one other meal. Using the $80 tier, breakfast and lunch out account for $42 of the day.
- Pick a walkable neighborhood. Skipping a rental car for a month can offset a higher rent.
- Compare with what you would spend at home. Groceries, fuel and entertainment do not disappear when you stay home. The real cost of a month away is the difference.
What the rates do not tell you
Per diem rates are built for business travel. They do not include lodging taxes, transportation to the destination, a rental car, activities or travel insurance. They also apply to hotels, not monthly rentals. Treat them as a consistent yardstick for comparing places and seasons, not as a quote.
Frequently asked questions
Are per diem rates what I will actually pay?
No. They are a ceiling for federal reimbursement, used here as an upper benchmark. Your costs depend on where you stay and how often you eat out.
Do the rates cover international destinations?
GSA sets rates for the continental United States. Rates for foreign locations are set by the State Department.
How often do the rates change?
GSA updates them each federal fiscal year, which begins October 1.
Is a month away cheaper than four separate weeks?
Often, yes. One round trip instead of four, plus a monthly lodging rate, usually lowers the total. That is one of the practical arguments for slow travel in retirement.
Sources
All sources accessed November 13, 2026. Rates shown are for federal fiscal year 2027.
- U.S. General Services Administration, Per Diem Rates
- U.S. General Services Administration, M&IE Breakdowns
- U.S. General Services Administration, per diem lookup results for Santa Fe, NM; Tucson, AZ; Traverse City, MI; San Diego, CA; and Charleston, SC
- slow travel budget
- monthly travel cost
- gsa per diem rates
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