The Royal Family spent more than £3 million on travel in the year to March 2026, with Prince William's three-day official visit to Saudi Arabia in February 2026 costing £130,106 – the most expensive single trip since King Charles became monarch. The figures were published in the Royal Family's annual financial report, which details spending on official engagements.
Prince William's Costly Overseas Tour
William's trip to Saudi Arabia, undertaken on behalf of the UK government, included two additional planning trips by staff, bringing the total to £130,106. This narrowly exceeded the £126,946 spent on King Charles and Queen Camilla's four-day state visit to Italy in April 2025. William's official tour to Brazil for his Earthshot Awards and the COP summit cost £79,000.
Royal Train and Other Travel
The report lists 37 separate journeys costing at least £20,000 each. Four journeys on the Royal Train cost £160,733 in total: Lancaster in June 2025 (£48,460), Staffordshire in October (£34,109), Dartmouth in December (£37,466), and Clitheroe in February 2026 (£40,738). Buckingham Palace previously announced the Royal Train would be taken out of service by 2027 to save money.
King Charles undertook 13 of the listed journeys, 11 within the UK. His two overseas trips were both with the Queen: the state visit to Italy and a state visit to the Vatican City in October 2025, costing £75,371. During the Vatican visit, the King and Pope Leo XIV prayed together in a historic moment of unity for Anglicans and Roman Catholics.
Other Notable Royal Travel
The fourth most expensive trip was the Prince of Wales' two-day visit to Belem, Brazil, in November 2025 for the COP30 climate summit (£78,542). The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh's seven-day official visit to Papua New Guinea and Japan in September 2025 cost £70,541. A planning visit by staff to the United States and Bermuda in February-March 2026, preparing for a royal visit, cost £66,060. The King and Queen's actual visit to the US and Bermuda will appear in the 2026/27 report.
Other overseas trips include: the Princess Royal's three-day official visit to Turkey in April 2025 (£48,090); the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester's four-day visit to Denmark in May 2025 (£35,817); the Duke of Edinburgh's two-day trip to Rome in May 2025 for Pope Leo XIV's inauguration (£23,295); the Duchess of Edinburgh's three-day trip to Sarajevo in July 2025 (£25,776); the Princess Royal's three-day visit to Ukraine in September-October 2025 (£28,081); and the Duchess of Edinburgh's 10-day visit to Peru, Panama, Guatemala, and Belize in November 2025 (£57,643).
Breakdown by Royal Family Member
Of the 37 listed journeys, 13 involved the King (including with the Queen), 10 were undertaken by the Princess Royal, four by the Prince of Wales (one with the Princess of Wales), three by the Duke of Edinburgh, two by the Duchess of Edinburgh, one by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh together, one by the Duke of Gloucester, one by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and one by the Duke of Kent. No solo visits by the Queen or the Princess of Wales appear on the list.
Helicopter journeys by royal family members totalled 177 in 2025/26, costing £733,063. Overall travel spending for the period was £3,316,024.
Sovereign Grant Increase
The report also reveals that the core funding for the monarchy will jump to £100 million a year, nearly doubling within three years. Under a new formula for the Sovereign Grant, the Royal Household will receive £99.9 million as a core grant in 2027-28, up from £51.8 million in 2024-25. The change was decided by Royal Trustees – outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and the King's Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer James Chalmers.
The increase will fund a backlog of maintenance at occupied royal palaces, strengthen cybersecurity at royal residences, and install energy-efficient heating systems, with £11 million set aside to replace boilers nearing the end of their life at Windsor Castle.
