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Making a Trinidad Carnival Budget is easy – as long as you know what to expect.
Out of all the Caribbean carnivals around the world, Trinidad carnival tend to be the most expensive. The expensive nature of this carnival is due to the price gouging that party promoters, hotels, and bands partake in.
There are however, carnival bands and service providers that offer discounts, or overall low prices, a few months before the start of carnival season. Planning 8 to 10 months in advance, would keep your Trinidad Carnival budget from getting out of hand.
Planning for Trinidad Carnival at least 8-10 months in advance is truly the key.
FLIGHT
Flights to Port of Spain, Trinidad become available between March and May in the previous year. As the flights to Trinidad start to appear on Caribbean Airlines, Priceline, and Google Flights, you can compare prices. If you’re lucky, you can snag a deal as low as $350 USD from Miami. The lowest price you’ll probably see leaving the New York area is around $500 USD.
As a matter of fact, the lowest price on any flight departing any country to Port of Spain, during Trinidad Carnival, would appear early spring.
As you get closer to Carnival Tuesday, you can expect the price for a flight to double and triple in price – so jump on this early!
HOTEL
Another thing you’ll want to do early, is find a place to stay. In Trinidad, there are 3 options for you to rest your head (but to tell you the truth – you won’t be doing too much sleeping). You can stay at a hotel, a guest house, or in a family home. Clearly, there are advantages and disadvantages to staying at each type of living accommodation.
HOTELS
Ultimately, if you can afford to stay at the Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, or the Radisson, then you would have the most comfortable stay possible. Hotel room prices, during carnival season, are increased to ridiculous amounts, like $600 USD a night, that it can truly break your Trinidad Carnival budget.
GUESTHOUSES
Your second option for room and board, is a guest house. These are current or empty apartments that Trinidadians rent out to visitors – kind of like AirBnB. But not really. Finding these apartments online are extremely difficult, because they sure are not all listed on AirBnB. However, when you do find one, you can negotiate rates as low as $300 a night. This rate is even lower if a group of friends are sharing the guesthouse.
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FAMILY HOMES
If you want the best rate, free of charge, then you should stay with a family member or friend who lives near Port of Spain. The downside of staying in a family home is that, more often than not, you would be late to a fete or miss it entirely due to conflicting schedules with family members.
COSTUME
Another major part of your Trinidad Carnival budget is your carnival costume. Easily, your total costume expenses can run between $700 USD to $1400 USD. Yeah, that seems to be a wide dollar range but there’s a couple ways to keep it on the lower end.
CARNIVAL TUESDAY
To save money, you could register for a costume from a medium-size band like K2K Alliance.
However, if you don’t mind spending $1,000 USD or more, then you should play mas with Yuma, Tribe, Paparazzi, or Harts (to name a few.) The cost of your Carnival Tuesday costume usually includes: the actual costume, but also: add-on headpieces and accessories, meals, unlimited alcohol and beverages, snacks, branded bags and paraphernalia, and road security.
The good news is: You only have to place a deposit on your Carnival Tuesday costume to hold your spot. This deposit can range anywhere from $250 USD to 50% of the costume price. And that deposit would have to be subtracted from your Trinidad Carnival budget somewhere during the summer months of the previous year.
CARNIVAL MONDAY
You may also want to take advantage of the summer months and secure your Monday Wear one time – if you’re still looking for deals. But it’s important to note, that you can totally get your Monday Wear a few weeks before Trinidad Carnival and still be alright.
On Carnival Monday, you can technically wear your Carnival Tuesday Costume, but most women tend to rock a custom-made wired bra or a cute Victoria Secret monokini. Either way, you are looking at adding between $50 and $100 USD to your Trinidad Carnival budget for Monday Wear.
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CARNIVAL MAKEUP
After you secured your costume, the next thing you would want to lock in is your carnival makeup appointment.
MAKEUP ARTIST
If you go with a solopreneur makeup artist, you can definitely find an appointment for less than $80 USD. A major downside to that, is that he or she may not be able to be as flexible with time as a makeup team. A makeup appointment with a makeup team can easily run on average $100 USD.
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DIY MAKEUP
Here’s the thing about doing your own carnival makeup. If you are truly skilled then you should definitely do it. You’ll maintain the minimum Trinidad Carnival budget and still look great on the road. But if you are not a skilled makeup artist, why take the risk of looking subpar in a $1,000 costume?
A foundation from MAC Cosmetics runs about $30 USD. An eyeshadow palette from Juvia’s Place can cost up to $20 USD. After you add lashes and carnival face gems, your total cost for DIY carnival makeup is just as much as getting a professional makeup artist. Crazy, right?
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FETES
Well, the craziest phenomenon behind Trinidad Carnival is the cost of some of these popular themed parties. Prices range from about $60 USD to about $300 USD (and, no, this is not a typo.) These fetes do not even include scheduled performances from soca artists – so choose wisely and pick the ones that fit into your Trinidad Carnival budget.
ALL-INCLUSIVES
An all-inclusive fete is, indeed, the priciest carnival party of all. This is because included in the price of the ticket are unlimited alcohol drinks and food. Two of the most popular all-inclusive fetes are AM Beach by Caesars Army, and Soca Brainwash by DJ Private Ryan. The cost is approximately $160 USD and $240 USD, respectively.
BOATRIDES
Boatrides tend to be more moderately priced at a range between $60 USD and $90 USD. The cost usually covers your entrance onto a rented motor yacht – and that’s it. You still have to put aside money to buy your own drinks.
COOLER FETES
With cooler fetes, however, you are allowed to BYOB (bring your own booze.) This type of fete tends to be the most cost-effective at less than $50 USD per ticket.
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You can expect to dip into your Trinidad Carnival budget to get these tickets somewhere between January and February. Unlike this type of fete, you would need to snag your tickets for the more expensive parties, around November of the previous year.
ACCESSORIES
By December, carnival accessories will consume your mind because you practically used up 90% of your Trinidad Carnival budget – and you are in sitting duck mode. While you’re waiting for your trip to arrive, you think of the many ways to accessorize and make your Trinidad Carnival road experience all worth it.
Whether you choose to reach out to a carnival vendor or not, you are going to want to customize your look in some shape or form.
STOCKINGS
Stockings are a must – And not the black and opaque kind. You want to get the skin-tone, see through, sparkling, fishnet stockings. Why? Well, first of all, stockings cover all sorts of sins, like hyperpigmentation, stretchmarks, and hair stubble (yeah, I said it!) But most of all, carnival stockings make you feel comfortable enough to move and dance without feeling like your woman parts are on display.
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BOOTS
Carnival boots, on the other hand are completely, optional, but they do complete the look.
Usually, they are flat, knee-high velvet boots. But some girls go the extra mile and get their carnival boots customized with sequins, feathers, and other sparkling embellishments.
If you decide to go all out with a customized pair of carnival boots that match your costume, you can expect to pay in the range of $60 to $120 USD.
BAGS
A customized carnival bag could take another $50 USD out of your Trinidad Carnival budget. Is it necessary? Not really. But you definitely are going to need something to hold your money, ID, and cell phone while you play mas on the road. So, why not make it nice?
If you’re lucky, you can actually get a made-to-order carnival bag with your VIP carnival makeup appointment, which gets the long hours of research for the perfect bag out of the way. Plus, you wouldn’t have to worry about any extra costs or yet another carnival vendor to deal with.
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CUPS
Fete Cups are another wide-known accessory. These cups are blinged out in all sorts of designs. Most common are cups designed in the flag of the Caribbean country you want to represent. Other fete cup designs are made to match your costume.
Now, it’s important to note that these fete cups are totally optional, because you receive branded party cups at all your all-inclusive fetes. Plus, you will have a branded party cup that is provided by your Trinidad mas band – for the sole purpose of drinking all day on the road.
But with hundreds of revelers on the road, it’s easy for you to mix your provided cup with someone else’s cup. And that, can be kind of gross. But if it’s worth stretching your Trinidad Carnival budget to get a customized carnival cup, then budget another $30-$40 USD.
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TRANSPORTATION
Transportation is another major part of your Trinidad Carnival budget that cannot be ignored.
If you wait until you are in Trinidad to just wing it, and grab whichever maxi or taxi cab you can find, you’ll end up paying $50 USD a day. And if your event and party schedule is extra packed, then you can end up spending way more than that.
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With fetes starting as early as 6 AM, and some ending at all hours of the night, you need a reliable transportation service that can take you safely back and forth.
UBER
Well, the Uber ridesharing app should be safe and reliable, right? You’ll just open up the app once you’re in Port of Spain and order a driver, right? Nope. Think again.
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Uber was forced to shut down its operations in Trinidad in 2018, following the murder of one of its drivers.
And it doesn’t look like Uber is coming back so you have to consider alternative transportation options.
DROP APP
Drop is a Trinidad and Tobago ride-sharing app that operates just like Uber – with 2 main differences. For one, the transportation fare is quoted in Trinidad and Tobago dollars. Secondly, you have the option to pay cash or credit – which is huge!
With fares around $12-15 per ride (not per person) around Port of Spain, the Drop app is definitely a transportation contender.
While Drop may do wonders to keep your Trinidad Carnival budget intact – you may have to add a little wait time to your party schedule. It may take up to a half-hour or longer for a driver to arrive during Trinidad Carnival Weekend.
HOTEL TAXIS
Hotel taxis are by far, the quickest and safest mode of transportation during Trinidad Carnival – but they are not the cheapest.
A taxi ride anywhere starts at $20 USD. And these drivers give taxi fare quotes in U.S. Dollars. Knowing this, you can already see how much it adds up to get you to and from a fete, a couple times a day.
Now to be clear, these taxis are usually independent taxi companies that work with the hotel – but they are in no shape or form part of the Hilton, per se. You would still need to negotiate and agree on your taxi fare with the driver himself. And unfortunately, once the drivers hear a foreign accent, that is their cue to raise the fare even more by 10-50%.
If negotiating prices every day, and dropping big bills, is not your thing, then hotel taxis are not transportation options for you during Trinidad Carnival.
LOCAL DRIVERS
The best bang for your buck, in regard to transportation, is finding a local driver. This driver could be a friend, or a friend of a friend, who wants to make extra money driving you around for a few days.
Even better, if your friend or the local driver whom you found on Instagram or Facebook, has a maxi (a.k.a. 12-passenger van), then your whole travel group can save tons of money. You can save big by negotiating one flat fee for transportation for the full duration of your carnival stay.
So really, a $400 USD flat rate for example, split amongst 5 travel group members, become $80 per person, over a period of 5 days. You can’t beat that!
With that kind of deal, your Trinidad Carnival budget can remain at a reasonable level.
CAR RENTAL
Car rental, however, is a final transportation option if you are more concerned about safety than deals. While you can control what time you leave and arrive at parties, you are going to have to dip into your Trinidad Carnival budget for a reliable car rental during carnival.
You can expect to pay anywhere between $70 and $100 USD per day for a car rental at Piarco Airport. And this price range is the same for all of the major car rental agencies: Hertz, Enterprise, Sixt, Avis, Europocar, and Alamo.
Plus, keep in mind, these car rental agencies may actually charge the full amount or place a hold on your credit card for the full cost of the car rental before you drive off.
Another thing to keep in mind are the hidden costs of renting a vehicle. For one, you have to budget a few extra dollars to fill up your gas tank. Plus, there are agency-imposed fines for spilling food or leaving food containers in the car.
When it comes to renting a car in Trinidad, read the fine print so you can manage your Trinidad Carnival budget accordingly.
FOOD
Now, at some point during your trip to Trinidad, you have to eat. So, yes, you have to include food in your Trinidad Carnival budget.
If you’re lucky to have a tanty or a granny in Trinidad that can cook, then you’re good. Maybe, you slide her some small change and some kisses to show your gratitude.
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For the rest of you, KFC or doubles will definitely be part of your weekend diet. That is, of course, when you’re not stuffing your face with lunch or soup at an all-inclusive fete.
Based on an average consumption of 2 meals a day, times 7 days of vacation, times $8 USD for an average fast food meal, you’re looking at approximately $112 dollars. This gets considerably higher, if you would be staying at the Hilton or the Hyatt Regency, for example, and ordering room service.
But if we’re being honest here, the typical bacchanalist is eating once at an all-inclusive fete or in an all-inclusive band, and once elsewhere. The main reason for this is because (if you plan your carnival vacation wisely) you literally would have minimal times between fetes to catch a bite. Plus, on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, who’s wasting money on food, when your band provides all of that?
RUM
Another thing your costume band provides (that saves you money) is rum, and plenty of it. From rum drinks to rum shots, dark rum to white rum – they have it all. If you are looking for Trinidadian rum, you are sure to get it free at drinks-inclusive fete or in your band on Monday and Tuesday.
But if you have a high tolerance for alcohol, and want to pre-game every day of your carnival vacation, then you may want to purchase 2 or 3 bottles of rum in Piarco airport. They are duty-free and will save you a few dollars in your Trinidad Carnival budget in the long run.
CURRENCY
One of the most overlooked part of saving for Trinidad Carnival, is having actual cold cash money. While most activities and carnival events may be paid in advanced nowadays, there are many reasons why you may still want to carry some cash on you.
- Cab rides: You need money for the moments when your contracted taxi driver is late or forgets you altogether. Unfortunately, it happens. And if you really need to go, you jump in another taxi and pay to go. Otherwise, you wait, and wait…… and wait.
- Again, cab rides: It’s very easy for your rental car to end up in a ditch or a big pothole. You need cash to fix that flat tire, or to get out that situation altogether.
- Local transportation (a.k.a the maxis): You know what? This is really for the folks who know Trinidad well and is comfortable to move around Trinidad like a local Trinidadian -in a maxi taxi. You can save almost 1000% by doing so and going somewhere (during the day) for $5 versus $50.
- Local food: You remember that doubles diet mentioned earlier? You can literally get that from a street vendor for less than $1 US dollar. Are you really trying to pay that with a credit card? How about, the answer is no. Not only the vendor would probably not accept cards, but foreign credit card transaction fees can be gruesome.
- Drinks: If you go on a boatride, more than likely, you may have to buy drinks at the bar. And more than likely, you may run into a cashbar-only situation. Don’t be that thirsty throat person who forgot to bring cash.
- Grooming: Listen! There is a very-real possibility that you may find yourself in someone’s salon, spa, or barbershop trying to maintain your fresh look. Afterall, you may get caught in a wet fete, powder fete, or some rain. Or maybe you just need to take care of that new unwanted hair growth. The reality is, you don’t want to depend on your plastic money for this. Because it just might not be a viable form of payment. And then you’re screwed.
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- Tip: You may want to tip the people who made your carnival week most convenient and pleasurable like your driver, concierge, maid, makeup artist, bartender, or friends and family. Yeah, this is optional, but highly recommended if you plan on going back to Trinidad – because you can’t just do Trinidad Carnival once and done. Trust. It’s extremely addictive. And, in a couple of years, you just may need those same folks again to make your dream carnival vacation happen all over again.
- Souvenirs: Yes, you can get overpriced souvenirs at the airport where you can comfortably pay with your credit card. But if you are into saving money, you’d want to buy a couple souvenirs with a local merchant at the Savannah with cold hard cash (with TT Currency – a word on this later.)
- Phone: Well, you need to stay connected to your friends somehow in Trinidad. Based on your cellphone plan, you may not be able to freely use your phone without getting charge an exorbitant amount of roaming charges. Therefore, to get around that situation, you may want to purchase a Digicel sim card for your phone, or purchase a phone with loaded minutes.
On second thought, you may not have any extra advantage to purchase a phone with cash as opposed to credit card. Okay, you can probably scratch that one. However, it’s still a real expense that you may have to plan for in your Trinidad Carnival budget.
Now, while everyone’s dollar amount may vary for what they are willing to pay on each of the areas listed above, exchanging American currency to Trinidad currency is strongly suggested. This is because you will always save more with local Trinis if you get prices quoted to you in their currency. Plus, it’s not like if they have US dollars so your change, if any, would be in Trinidad currency. There goes your plan to not have to deal with foreign currency.
But another reason you should have TT instead of USD is simply because it is safer. You don’t want to be on the streets pulling out Yankee dollar. You’d be putting a target on your back at that point.
TRAVEL CONCIERGE
While we’re on the subject of safety, you may want to consider going to Trinidad Carnival with a concierge service. Not only is traveling to foreign countries generally safer in groups, but it can be cost-effective.
For one, travel concierges are sometimes able to get the most coveted party tickets (after the tickets increase in price). Also, they can get group discounts, which are then passed on to you.
For newbies, traveling to Trinidad with a travel concierge is a win-win for you.
CONCLUSION
When it comes to planning Trinidad Carnival like a pro, this is by far the most comprehensive list of all the things you need to include in your Trinidad Carnival budget. If you are traveling into the country for the carnival season, there are some things you just can’t get around. Regardless of whether you are a returning Trinidadian citizen or not, you need to save for necessary items.
- Flight
- Costume
- Fetes (boatrides and cooler fetes)
- Spending Money for tips and bars
And then there’s everything else – the unnecessary things in your budget that would may make your Trinidad Carnival week ten times more enjoyable and comfortable.
- Hotel
- Carnival Monday Wear
- Carnival Makeup
- Carnival Stockings
- Carnival Boots
- Fete Cups
- All-inclusive Fetes
- Driver
- Spending Money for grooming, food, and souvenirs
So, you want a number? Here it goes. Trinidad carnival can easily become on average a $4,500 7-day trip. But if you manage your expectations and pay for things one by one from a year in advance, you wouldn’t feel as if a bomb exploded in your bank account when your trip is complete. Here’s the secret: 90% of your Trinidad Carnival budget has been spent way before you even step foot in Trinidad.
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