Prince William's £130,000 Saudi Arabia visit revealed as most expensive royal trip of the year

The Prince of Wales's first-ever trip to Saudi Arabia was the most expensive royal visit of the past 12 months, it has been revealed.

William's three-day diplomatic mission to the Gulf in February, undertaken on behalf of the British Government, cost a total of £130,106, which included two preparatory visits by palace staff.

During his lavish visit, the heir to the throne met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in an attempt to strengthen ties between Britain and Saudi Arabia.

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

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The newly released financial report reveals that total royal travel expenditure reached £3,316,024 across the 12 months ending March 2026.

The Prince of Wales also attended the Cop30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, in November, which ranked as the third costliest journey at £78,542 for the two-day engagement.

Fourth place went to the King and Queen's historic state visit to the Vatican City in October 2025, where the monarch and Pope Leo XIV prayed together, costing £75,371.

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh's week-long tour of Papua New Guinea and Japan in September came fifth at £70,541.

Domestic travel by the monarch featured prominently, with four royal train journeys to Lancaster, Staffordshire, Dartmouth and Clitheroe costing between £34,109 and £48,460 each.

Buckingham Palace confirmed last year that the royal train would cease operations by 2027 as a cost-saving measure.

The Princess Royal undertook official visits to both Turkey and Ukraine, with her three-day April trip to Ankara costing £48,090 and her autumn journey to Kyiv totalling £28,081.

The Duchess of Edinburgh also proved particularly active on the international stage, completing a ten-day tour across Peru, Panama, Guatemala and Belize in November at a cost of £57,643.

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She travelled to Sarajevo in July for engagements including meetings with survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and a memorial service marking the thirtieth anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, spending £25,776.

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester represented the Crown in Denmark during May, with their four-day visit costing £35,817.

The Duke of Edinburgh attended Pope Leo XIV's inauguration in Rome in May, a two-day trip totalling £23,295.

A total of 37 individual journeys exceeded the £20,000 reporting threshold during the financial year, though the minimum figure was raised from £17,000.

Royal helicopter usage amounted to 177 flights, generating costs of £733,063.

Of the listed journeys, 13 involved the King, with 11 of those being domestic engagements.

The Princess Royal proved the most frequent traveller with 10 trips, while the Prince of Wales undertook four journeys, including one alongside the Princess of Wales.

Neither the Queen nor the Princess of Wales appeared on the list for solo visits.

Staff planning trips for the recent royal visit to the United States and Bermuda cost £66,060, with expenses for the actual tour to appear in next year's accounts.

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