How much is reasonable to spend on travel?

[gailrmv]

Of course, everyone has different incomes and other bills and preferences, but generally, what do you think is reasonable to spend on a week's vacation? Not your honeymoon, not a major anniversary, just a nice vacation for you and your sig other? Also, how often do you take a nice vacation?

We were just looking online to price some trips we want to take, and it seems like everything is really expensive now (due to fuel and weak dollar I guess). I'd really like us to take a couple more big trips as a couple before we have children. I don't want to look back and have a lot of regrets about things I didn't do, but it's tough for us to think about spending a lot on something that would only last a week, instead of being more practical and saving our money!

How do you guys prioritize vacations into your overall financial plan?

Thanks!

 

[Skippy123]

We look at it as out gift to each other for bithdays or something else instead and budget for it, I guess. It all depends on where we want to go that year.

 

[Dancing Fire]

i''m taking a backyard vacation. ain''t got the money for any other vacation.

 

[gailrmv]

thanks Skippy and Dancing Fire! Skippy, love the avatar! Maybe we should look at travel as part of our *yearly* budget (more palatable that way). Good plan!

 

[iheartscience]

Hmmm...it so totally depends on where I''m going! I can''t even really throw a number out there off the top of my head! I would say that I think you can take great trips for super cheap...we just went to Costa Rica in March and our plane tickets were only about $260 or $280. Plus everything is pretty cheap there, and we stayed in cheap hostels-I don''t recommend that part, but if you want to go there on the cheap you definitely can!

 

[Skippy123]

Date: 6/23/2008 12:53:23 AM
Author: thing2of2
Hmmm...it so totally depends on where I''m going! I can''t even really throw a number out there off the top of my head! I would say that I think you can take great trips for super cheap...we just went to Costa Rica in March and our plane tickets were only about $260 or $280. Plus everything is pretty cheap there, and we stayed in cheap hostels-I don''t recommend that part, but if you want to go there on the cheap you definitely can!

No way, that is awesome!!! I do think there are deals out there but you have to be willing to search. How did you find that Thing?

 

[iheartscience]

Date: 6/23/2008 12:58:19 AM
Author: Skippy123

Date: 6/23/2008 12:53:23 AM

Author: thing2of2

Hmmm...it so totally depends on where I''m going! I can''t even really throw a number out there off the top of my head! I would say that I think you can take great trips for super cheap...we just went to Costa Rica in March and our plane tickets were only about $260 or $280. Plus everything is pretty cheap there, and we stayed in cheap hostels-I don''t recommend that part, but if you want to go there on the cheap you definitely can!

No way, that is awesome!!! I do think there are deals out there but you have to be willing to search. How did you find that Thing?

Yeah, it was insane! We booked it about 3 or 4 months before we went (So Nov. or Dec. 2007), and we booked it directly through Taca.com, which is the Costa Rican airline. It''s actually going to cost more to fly to Boston on Friday for my cousin''s wedding than it did to go to Costa Rica in March!

 

[iheartscience]

Oh, totally forgot about the prioritizing question, TDM! Um...hmm...I''m not a very good saver, so I would say that my way of saving for a vacation is probably not the best! Really for a few months before I just don''t buy as many clothes or shoes and I''ll also sometimes use a tax return or bonus money or whatever. So no real long term plan here! I just cut back a little for the few months before I go away.

 

[diamondfan]

It is hard for me to judge. We often take three kids and a nanny and my mother in law, and end up needing many rooms or a large suite with multiple bedrooms. I am paying to fly mother in law out and back, and fly 6 of us, often first class (thank you miles) to a resort. Four rooms later, plus food and activities, during high season, I have spent a small fortune, could buy a nice car for what I spent. Hubby likes to go to high end resorts, and prices can get very out of hand.

For just hubby and myself, of course it is less, but we still tend to go to pricey spots. To me, if it is not at least as nice as my home, I want to stay home!!!! All the travel hassles lately just kill me, and it has to be special for me to bother.

I would think, being honest, that a week in a decent resort, presuming it is not the most expensive time but you have not gotten any breaks on rooms, would run anywhere from 250.00 per night and up. Add in air fare, again, you might be lucky and get a great fare, but not so likely with fuel prices so high. I would say all in for room, airfare and food, plus misc. activities, it could be a few thousand dollars. I would absolutely want it to be somewhere I want to go, not somewhere I feel luke warm about. That is not a small amount of change. Traveling is so tough lately, the delays, the crowds, etc, that I would want to be so excited to get to my destination, especially with costs being what they are.

 

[swingirl]

We have a certain amount taken out of the paycheck every month and put into a separate account for our summer vacation. So when vacation time comes, it all goes on VISA and then gets paid off the next month.

For us it was the opposite. We only started taking major vacations when we had kids.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Date: 6/23/2008 1:03:57 AM
Author: diamondfan
It is hard for me to judge. We often take three kids and a nanny and my mother in law, and end up needing many rooms or a large suite with multiple bedrooms. I am paying to fly mother in law out and back, and fly 6 of us, often first class (thank you miles) to a resort. Four rooms later, plus food and activities, during high season, I have spent a small fortune, could buy a nice car for what I spent. Hubby likes to go to high end resorts, and prices can get very out of hand.

For just hubby and myself, of course it is less, but we still tend to go to pricey spots. To me, if it is not at least as nice as my home, I want to stay home!!!! All the travel hassles lately just kill me, and it has to be special for me to bother.

Hmmm

then i could book a getto vacation.

 

[Fancy605]

I usually just set myself a budget (including travel, lodging, meals, activities, and shopping) that I am comfortable with and then plan everything around that. I am VERY detail oriented though, especially when it comes to keeping up with spending. I''ve been doing this for our trips. You''d think it would get exhausting.

 

[Independent Gal]

Lots of research suggests that people get WAY more lasting happiness from experiences than from things. So, it makes sense to spend money on experiences like travel, going to the theater...than buying the latest electronic toy.

Think about it: when you're old, will you look back and smile at your iPhone? or reminisce about the sloths you saw on your trip to Belize?

So I've always spent more on travel than on anything else. In fact, as someone who has been an avid world traveler for 12 years, even when I was a student living on less than $1000/month, I can also tell you that it's VERY possible to travel on the cheap.

Tips for cheap travel:

1) Go somewhere where the cost of living is really cheap. Most people in Viet Nam live on less than a dollar a day, that means that you can get a very pleasant hotel for about $20/night each.
2) Don't buy a package unless you know for a fact it's cheaper... often they are not.
3) Be flexible about your travel dates and use airfarewatchdog.com to get cheap fares
4) DON'T travel in the summer. Everything is literally twice as expensive. And crowded. And miserable. Go somewhere where the weather is nice at other times of year, and travel off season - November, February... cheap cheap months
5) Pay for everything on a credit card that gives you airmiles. Instant free place ticket!
6) Get your hotel on hotwire or similar.
7) Picnic. When I travel, I usually cobble breakfast together - bread, maybe an energy bar, some juice boxes, a cup of whatever is caffeinated locally. Then lunch is a picnic from a market or grocery store, or some streetfood. That way, you're only paying for dinner at restaurant prices. Saves a bundle.

... and following up on 1), a nice dinner in a place like Cuba is, like, $3. Including a beer.

So, be flexible and creative and you can have a WONDERFUL holiday on the cheap.

As a guide, my two weeks in Peru last December cost less than $1000 including EVERYTHING (except the airmiles for the plane ticket). I wasn't staying in 5 star hotels, but I was staying in places that were 'fine'.

 

[LitigatorChick]

To respond to TanDogMom''s post, I generaly figure $10,000 for 2 weeks, all in. Pre-baby, we did that annually. Post-baby, we haven''t taken any significant trips. We don''t budget specifically for trips.

 

[diamondfan]

Df, ...

I am just getting to old and cranky and annoyed with the whole traveling process. Airports, delays, crowds, hassles...I am often happier staying put!

 

[sumbride]

We''ve always traveled very cheaply. Priceline for rental cars and hotels, watching airfare and doing cheap stuff, but now that I think about it, we usually travel because we know somebody there or we got a deal or something like that. Other than the honeymoon, we haven''t picked up for a week somewhere that wasn''t somehow a chance to catch up with someone we know. It helps that we have family all over the place, I suppose. I think we usually spend from $500-$1300 for a full week away, including air and the catsitter for home.

More often we prefer 3 and 4 day trips so that we can always be going somewhere. Those are cheap, $300-$400.

When I was single I did a week in Ireland for $500 including airfare. Of course, it was a cheap ticket. Also did a week in London for about $800 all in. Can''t do that anymore, alas. DH doesn''t like the idea of sleeping in a room with strangers.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Date: 6/23/2008 8:41:06 AM
Author: Independent Gal
Lots of research suggests that people get WAY more lasting happiness from experiences than from things. So, it makes sense to spend money on experiences like travel, going to the theater...than buying the latest electronic toy.

Think about it: when you''re old, will you look back and smile at your iPhone? or reminisce about the sloths you saw on your trip to Belize?

you will forget where you been 30 yrs ago.

 

[pocahontas]

Date: 6/23/2008 1:02:33 AM
Author: thing2of2
Oh, totally forgot about the prioritizing question, TDM! Um...hmm...I'm not a very good saver, so I would say that my way of saving for a vacation is probably not the best! Really for a few months before I just don't buy as many clothes or shoes and I'll also sometimes use a tax return or bonus money or whatever. So no real long term plan here! I just cut back a little for the few months before I go away.

Thing - I can totally relate!

Tagdog - FI and I have been going away for two weeks every year for the last nine years and the costs typically range from $3500 - $5000 for both of us everything included. We normally travel to Latin America. However, every so often we get the opportunity to take shorter, less expensive trips to cities in Canada and the US – on these occasions we usually don’t budget more than $1500.

 

[bee*]

We usually spend about €3000 each on our annual holidays, sometimes more, sometimes less. We normally go on a couple as we''re in Europe and it''s easy to get to places.

 

[shortee78]

Before we were pregnant, DH and I typically spent about $4000-5000 for a week-long vacation, if it required air travel. I think airfare, lodging, and food used up most of the budget. We would take one week-long vacation once a year, with about 3-4 smaller weekend trips (such as a trip to Napa Valley, Vegas, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, etc. We live in So Cal so these are within driving distance).

Oh, we also do our annual trip to Colorado to visit the in-laws. But I don''t count that as a vacation!

Now that we are expecting a baby, I figure that we won''t go on a real vacation for a while... Maybe in 5 years?

 

[Rhea]

I get 6 weeks of holiday. We do spend quite a bit on a weeks holiday compared to our salaries. We usually go backpacking and camping one of those weeks both because we enjoy it and because it's inexpensive. We take two more week long holidays together, then almost two weeks to visit family or have family visit us.

We honestly didn't treat our honeymoon different than any other holiday. No nicer hotel or anything. We tend to stay in places that are around 150/night of whatever currency we're in ($, £, or euro), and eat at normal restaurants. We'd rather be somewhere and just enjoy each other than spend tons of money. Often we try to find an apartment that someone is renting. We did this in Paris recently. The apartment was no more expensive than a hotel, it was nice to have the extra space, and we saved money by shopping at the local markets and making our own breakfast and eating in for dinner a couple of times.

 

[Anna0499]

Date: 6/23/2008 8:41:06 AM
Author: Independent Gal
Lots of research suggests that people get WAY more lasting happiness from experiences than from things. So, it makes sense to spend money on experiences like travel, going to the theater...than buying the latest electronic toy.

Think about it: when you''re old, will you look back and smile at your iPhone? or reminisce about the sloths you saw on your trip to Belize?

So I''ve always spent more on travel than on anything else. In fact, as someone who has been an avid world traveler for 12 years, even when I was a student living on less than $1000/month, I can also tell you that it''s VERY possible to travel on the cheap.

Tips for cheap travel:

1) Go somewhere where the cost of living is really cheap. Most people in Viet Nam live on less than a dollar a day, that means that you can get a very pleasant hotel for about $20/night each.
2) Don''t buy a package unless you know for a fact it''s cheaper... often they are not.
3) Be flexible about your travel dates and use airfarewatchdog.com to get cheap fares
4) DON''T travel in the summer. Everything is literally twice as expensive. And crowded. And miserable. Go somewhere where the weather is nice at other times of year, and travel off season - November, February... cheap cheap months
5) Pay for everything on a credit card that gives you airmiles. Instant free place ticket!
6) Get your hotel on hotwire or similar.
7) Picnic. When I travel, I usually cobble breakfast together - bread, maybe an energy bar, some juice boxes, a cup of whatever is caffeinated locally. Then lunch is a picnic from a market or grocery store, or some streetfood. That way, you''re only paying for dinner at restaurant prices. Saves a bundle.

... and following up on 1), a nice dinner in a place like Cuba is, like, $3. Including a beer.

So, be flexible and creative and you can have a WONDERFUL holiday on the cheap.

As a guide, my two weeks in Peru last December cost less than $1000 including EVERYTHING (except the airmiles for the plane ticket). I wasn''t staying in 5 star hotels, but I was staying in places that were ''fine''.

It definitely depends on where you want to go because regardless of the flight costs (which I know are a hgue expense), the cost you can really control are those once you get to your destination. I agree with IGal...and highly suggest Southeast Asia...the dollar is VERY strong there lately (at least in Vietnam) and you can have a fantastic vacation (they have beaches, mountains, etc.)!

 

[TravelingGal]

It just really depends...

I''ve spent $2500 for a 4 day vacation at a resort. Then last year we went to Maui and spent $629 for 5 nights at an oceanfront resort and car rental (air was paid for by miles). My 4 month Europe trip cost me about $10,000, and I wasn''t even being that frugal.

As IG says, travel can be done for cheap, but it takes a little research and a bit of know-how.

 

[purrfectpear]

I travel so much in my profession that my idea of a vacation is to stay home, sleep in, and watch Turner Classic Movies

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I wish we had more time to travel...I need a job where I can leave for months at a time.

Travelling is a big priority for us before we think about having kids. We both used to be in consulting and travelled often, but we got so sick of it that we both got out of the industry so that we could enjoy travelling and not dread it. Travelling for work vs. leisure is like night and day, even if you go to the same city. I love that feeling of waking up and not even caring what day it is...something only vacations can provide!

I also think how much you spend on vacations is heavily tied into what you like. I''m content with a backpack, a tent, a bottle of water and a clean pair of underwear. I sort of hate spending money on resorts becaue I get no enjoyment out of them (then again I hate spending money on clothes and shoes because I get no enjoyment out of them, either...unless they''re rock climbing shoes or something), so obviously if resorts are what you love, you''re willing to spend a bit more.

We haven''t cut back on the amount we are travelling, but we are cutting back on where. We''re doing many more trips here in the U.S. when the original plan was to go abroad. I am totally with IG about going where the cost of living is cheap.

I have been on the fence about quitting my job and taking a year to travel around the world with DH, who already quit his job to travel more. Yes, it would be expensive, but for me travel is so worth it. I''d rather have those experiences than anything that could be classified as "stuff".

 

[pocahontas]

Date: 6/24/2008 3:15:55 PM
Author: NewEnglandLady
Yes, it would be expensive, but for me travel is so worth it. I''d rather have those experiences than anything that could be classified as ''stuff''.

Well said NewEnglandLady

I totally agree

 

[LostSapphire]

Date: 6/24/2008 3:15:55 PM
Author: NewEnglandLady

I''d rather have those experiences than anything that could be classified as ''stuff''.

*AHEM* CLARIFICATION PLEASE

You mean, like, anything except jewelry, right?

 

[bebe]

I love travel, hubby now hates it. Presents a problem!

For 8yrs. before our 2 kids, I traveled with H all the globe. It was so nice to go to these places, have
it all paid for by his business and often, have a local connection.

Then with the kids, we did the typical, Disney, cruises, islands... Some of it would be paid for, if H had
a business meeting along the way.

Now that the kids are gone, H has sold his partnership in his business, we have to pay!! Ouch!
We had been so used to most of our travel being paid for that now, when we have to fit the bill,
my wander lust has curtailed a lot. I just booked a trip to NYC in Sept. I want to have fun, shop,
see Wicked (got tix) eat some great food. But I don''t want to worry about costs, so I''m telling myself
it''s ok to let loose and enjoy. I mean, spending $600.00 at Daniel for dinner - is that really worth it, LOL !!

 

[zoebartlett]

Date: 6/24/2008 2:53:58 PM
Author: TravelingGal
It just really depends...

I''ve spent $2500 for a 4 day vacation at a resort. Then last year we went to Maui and spent $629 for 5 nights at an oceanfront resort and car rental (air was paid for by miles). My 4 month Europe trip cost me about $10,000, and I wasn''t even being that frugal.

As IG says, travel can be done for cheap, but it takes a little research and a bit of know-how.

Do you mind expanding on that? The internet can be so overwhelming, and I always get lost when I begin searching for good travel deals. My FI and I love to travel and it''s something that is important to us, but we rarely have the money to do so. We went to Ireland 4 years ago and loved it, but we can''t afford a trip that big as much as we''d love to. Any tips?

Somewhat off-topic:

My FI and I never get to travel for work. In the past, at a former company, he''d be able to travel occasionally for training in some type of software. Now, however, he''s getting trained on the job, so he''s not required to travel. Since I''m a teacher, it''s not possible to travel for work. I''ve always wanted to attend an annual reading conference that is held in different cities each year, but it''s not something that I feel comfortable asking "time off" for. I''d most likely need to cover all expenses myself anyway.

 

[Fancy605]

Date: 6/23/2008 8:41:06 AM
Author: Independent Gal


4) DON''T travel in the summer. Everything is literally twice as expensive. And crowded. And miserable. Go somewhere where the weather is nice at other times of year, and travel off season - November, February... cheap cheap months

This is SO true---except in the case of the Caribbean. Summer is considered the off season on many of the islands, so that would actually be a pretty good place to look into for summer. Everywhere else though...