How much money should I take for Hajj?
The short answer. This is a different question from what the package costs. Your spending money goes on gifts first, by a long way, then taxis, phone and data, pharmacy items, laundry and anything not included in the package. Decide the gift budget before you leave, carry the money in more than one place, and do not change it at the airport.
We are asked this constantly and the honest answer begins by refusing to give one number. What a family spends depends almost entirely on how many people they are bringing something back for, and that is a decision, not a cost.
What we can do is tell you what the money goes on, in the order it actually goes.
What people actually spend it on
1. Gifts. Not close. Dates, caps, prayer mats, tasbih, abayas, perfume for those at home, zamzam. For most Pakistani families this is larger than everything else put together, and it is the part that is never budgeted.
Decide before you leave: how many people, and roughly how much each. Write the list down. Families who do this spend a fraction of what families who do not spend, and nobody is disappointed.
2. Taxis. Taken because somebody is too tired to walk back, which happens more than anybody plans for, and far more when travelling with an older parent.
3. Phone and data. A roaming bundle from Pakistan or a local SIM.
4. Pharmacy and small items. Usually the unscented things somebody forgot to pack, bought beside the Haram at several times the Karachi price.
5. Food outside the package. Depending on what your package includes, this can be most meals or almost none. Check before you budget.
6. Laundry, which over a long package is not nothing.
7. Extra Ziyarat beyond what is included.
How to carry it
Do not change it all at the airport. It is the worst rate of the whole journey, every time.
Split it. Some on you, some in the hotel safe, some with a travelling companion you trust. People are separated in crowds and bags go missing.
Carry a card as a backup, and tell your bank you are travelling so it is not blocked on the first use.
Keep small notes. Breaking a large note for a short taxi ride is a daily annoyance otherwise.
Give each adult their own money. A family where one person holds everything is one lost bag away from a bad week.
What you do not need to carry
- Anything the package already covers. Read the inclusions again before
deciding the figure. Ours are written out per departure on the
- Money for the Qurbani, if it is in your package. Ask which.
- A large cushion for emergencies in cash. A card and a working phone handle
most emergencies better than notes do.
For an older pilgrim
Budget more for taxis and less for walking, and keep their money separate and small. A pill organiser and a card in their pocket with the hotel name, the group leader's number and your number matters more than the amount.
The question behind the question
Most people asking this are really asking "am I about to be caught out by something". The honest answer is yes, by one thing, and it is gifts. Everything else on the list above is small and predictable.
So the single most useful preparation is the gift list, written at home, with a number beside it.
And what the package should already tell you
If you are not sure what is included, you should not have to guess. Ask for the excluded list in writing; the full set of what tends to be left out is in hidden costs in Hajj packages, and how a package price is put together is in the Hajj package cost breakdown.
Send us your dates and who is travelling and we will tell you what our package covers and what it does not, so your spending money has a job rather than a guess.