Prince William’s Saudi Trip at £130,106 Was Highest Royal Travel Cost, Slightly Above King and Queen’s Italy Visit

Prince William's three-day trip to Saudi Arabia in February cost £130,106, making it the most expensive royal journey in the 12 months ending March 2026, GB News reported. The visit, undertaken on behalf of the British government, included two preparatory visits by palace staff and a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

It narrowly exceeded the £126,946 spent on the King and Queen's four-day state visit to Italy in April 2025.

Total royal travel spending reached £3,316,024 for the period. Prince William's attendance at the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, in November ranked third at £78,542. The King and Queen's state visit to Vatican City in October 2025, where they prayed with Pope Leo XIV, cost £75,371.

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh's week-long tour of Papua New Guinea and Japan in September cost £70,541. Staff planning for the recent royal visit to the United States and Bermuda added £66,060, with actual tour expenses to appear in next year's accounts. The Duchess of Edinburgh's ten-day tour of Peru, Panama, Guatemala and Belize in November cost £57,643.

The Princess Royal's three-day trip to Ankara, Turkey, in April cost £48,090, while her journey to Kyiv, Ukraine, cost £28,081. Four royal train journeys by the monarch to Lancaster, Staffordshire, Dartmouth and Clitheroe each cost between £34,109 and £48,460. The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester's four-day visit to Denmark in May cost £35,817.

The Duke of Edinburgh's two-day trip to Rome for Pope Leo XIV's inauguration in May cost £23,295. Royal helicopter usage totaled 177 flights at a cost of £733,063. The Princess Royal undertook 10 trips, while the Prince of Wales made four journeys.