Yearly Vacation Budget

[Jluke]

Travel isn't something that some people are that interested in doing. That's not good or bad. It's just a personal preference. Some people don't enjoy the whole process - packing, driving, flying, staying in a strange place, eating at unfamiliar restaurants, etc. Not everyone shares that "travel gene".

I think my views on travel were shaped at a young age when I watched National Lampoon's European Vacation. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong....

[disneysteve]

I think my views on travel were shaped at a young age when I watched National Lampoon's European Vacation. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong....

I'm more bothered by the fact that you were a "young age" when that came out while I was a senior in college.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Gotcha MM and SCFR. while I consider my trips to see family vacation by far and away we don't spend the way we do when we vacation. When we see family we do a lot of low key casual stuff like walking a mall, costco, hanging out, etc.

So I have to say vacations are a lot more pricier for me. It's just overall more expensive because it usually lacks a hotel and place to cook. But in some ways it's pretty pleasurable.

I have the travel gene, but I've friends who don't. They haven't gone more than 200 miles. But at the same time a friend who used to travel a lot say 3-4 months a year said to another friend it's priorities. He didn't have a car, shared living space, and never ate out so he could afford his trips. So I can definitely see that it's perspective. Just because you spend a lot on travel or don't spend a lot on travel doesn't mean you don't spend a lot on something else!

[scfr]

For 2017 my vacation will be 3 nights / 4 days visiting family. DH worked a cc sign-up bonus to get my flight for fees only. I'll stay with family so no hotel. My total trip budget is $225 for: mileage (2 round trips to the airport at business mileage rate), sporting event ticket & parking (this is the biggest component of this trip's budget), air ticket fee, hostess gift, and a bit for food/drink. $225 includes a small buffer. Hopefully I'll come in under budget.

Blew my budget. Spent $236. Added the expenses of going to a movie, a souvenir treat for my co-workers (I need to remember to include that from now on - at my new job it's expected), and a host gift in addition to the hostess gift. I have no regrets.

[StormRichards]

Blew my budget. Spent $236. Added the expenses of going to a movie, a souvenir treat for my co-workers (I need to remember to include that from now on - at my new job it's expected), and a host gift in addition to the hostess gift. I have no regrets.

I decided to belong anti-social at work so I don't have to participate in stuff like this.

[msomnipotent]

Blew my budget. Spent $236. Added the expenses of going to a movie, a souvenir treat for my co-workers (I need to remember to include that from now on - at my new job it's expected), and a host gift in addition to the hostess gift. I have no regrets.

Souvenirs for coworkers??? That's insane. The very most I would do is buy some cheap eats at a random grocery store near my house. That is if I wasn't busy.

I even had to cut out souvenirs for the family. It got to the point where they were disappointed if I didn't return with a suitcase filled with expensive crap for them. Now I just get unusual candy from a store for the kids if I happen to see some, or maybe a tee shirt if I see one they would like. The adults get nothing!

[disneysteve]

I thought of this thread yesterday when I was working on plans for our summer vacation.

We are going to Arizona for a week. Three nights in Phoenix (well Glendale technically) and then 4 nights at the Grand Canyon.

Not counting incidentals like souvenirs or admission fees for attractions, I expect the week to cost us about $4,250. Add in that stuff, as well as airport parking, tips, etc., and we're looking at right around $5,000 for the week.

That is just one trip we will take in 2017.

We did a 9-day trip to Disney World in January.
My wife and I will do a week approximately in Kentucky in September.
We will also go to Boston for 5 days in December for a religious conference and we will be in Atlantic City for 4 days in April for a medical conference.
That doesn't count any day trips or weekend getaways that I'm sure will happen throughout the year, especially once my work schedule changes and I start having a 3-day weekend every other week.

[msomnipotent]

We are going to Phoenix in March. We are literally driving from one end of the state to the other and all points in between. So far, this vacation is even more expensive than when we went to Disney, and we didn't even get there yet. Stupid Cubs and their stupid spring training, jacking up the price of my car rental and hotel rooms! And I'm really trying to do everything as cheaply as I can.

[disneysteve]

So far, this vacation is even more expensive than when we went to Disney

Disney is a budget vacation in my opinion. We can easily do a week at Disney for $2,500. We will spend twice as much for the week in Phoenix. Of all of the trips we take, Disney is usually the least costly.

[97guns]

were planning a trip next month to los angeles, san diego and las vegas. flying into los angeles then renting a car and driving to san diego and las vegas, looks like itll cost around $1500 for the airfare, car and hotels, maybe around $2K total or less if i can hit it big in vegas

[scfr]

For our 25th anniversary we plan on spending at the high end of the range (already planned and budgeted right at $1,000) for a trip to Hot Springs National Park.

Decided to revisit this thread because we've finalized our trip plans so I sat down this morning and nailed down a more concrete spending plan (budget) for our 2018 vacation.

The trip will be 3 days / 2 nights. We set the trip at a time when I won't have to take any time off of work so there will be no loss of income.

We decided to include Little Rock in our itinerary, not only Hot Springs. This added some cost.

DH has been working on points and figured out how to take advantage of a combination of points and a promotion to cover most of our hotel expense. We set our dates based on this, as it helped us significantly reduce our cost.

I used the good old internet to help me minimize surprises (looked up mileage and sales tax rates and how much you should tip at a spa because I had no idea).

Here's the breakdown for anyone curious what a high spend vacation year looks like for us.

Driving Mileage: $642 (max 1,200 miles at 53.5 cents per mile per IRS ... I had to use 2017 rate because 2018 rate not known yet.)

Hotel (pet fee & tax): $30

Meals & Treat: $105 (hotel provides breakfasts)

Baths (because it's Hot Springs) & Admissions: $102

Total: $879

I'm going to go with a $900 final budget to give us some wiggle room. When we were in the general planning stages, we budgeted $1000 so it's looking good.

Has anyone else worked out their 2018 vacation budget yet, or will you wait until the start of the year, or will you not make a budget?

[disneysteve]

Has anyone else worked out their 2018 vacation budget yet, or will you wait until the start of the year, or will you not make a budget?

We are going to Disney World in January again when DD is on break.

We already booked the condo rental. That is $673.78 for 7 nights.
We will stay in a hotel for one night each way on the road. I'll try and use Marriott points for those stays. If not, each will be no more than $100 so $200 total tops.
Gas round trip about $150-175 depending on the price at the time.
Food about $900.
Tickets - probably buying annual passes again so about $2,200 but that will also cover us for another trip during the year.
A couple hundred for incidental spending.

Total for the trip will come in somewhere around $4,000 but again, the ticket price will get spread over 1 or 2 more trips during the year so it isn't all for this one trip.

This is the only 2018 vacation we have planned at this point. I'm not sure when we'll return to Disney World. I just know we will. Perhaps around early November.

We may also take a cruise in 2018 but have made no plans for that yet.

[tripods68]

I may have overstated our spending vacation from $2000 to $7000. We spent $4580 in 2017 in related vacationing this year that include Airbnb, transportation, plane tickets, food, clothes, gifts, and entrance fees. This probably the most we've spent on any given year.

For 2018, that cost is projected to go lower. Maybe around $2000

[Snave]

2017 was the most we have ever traveled. We probably took 8-9 trips and a few were very large. We typically take 2-3 smaller trips that are 3-4 days and they are usually inexpensive b/c of hotel and airlines points covering most of the cost, but this was a crazy year. Fortunately we had over 1 million Marriott points at the beginning of the year and we have a Southwest companion pass, so my wife flies free when we travel on Southwest. One of our trips was a cruise that a friend won in a contest, so we did that for free except the airfare. We then had an Alaskan cruise that was a make-up from a cancelled cruise from Hurricane Matthew a few years ago. They gave us 20% off a cruise this year so I told my wife to go-big. We also did spring training in Arizona. I lost my job in March and we had the time, so we figured why not travel. We will probably never get this chance again.

[scfr]

We just got back from our 2018 vacation so I thought I'd post the results. Our costs increased because we added a third city to our Arkansas itinerary. We visited Bentonville, Little Rock, and Hot Springs. We utilized hotel points for only one night, and paid for one night. We ran in to some limitations on where we could stay using points because of room availability and because we had our dog with us. Because we added some things, we also cut back a little and did not do the Hot Springs baths. We decided we'd rather add the Bentonville leg of the trip.

We drove 1,400 miles and visited Crystal Springs Museum (Bentonville), Little Rock High School National Historic Site, Bill Clinton Presidential Museum (Little Rock), and Hot Springs National Park (including Bathouse Row). We got in some nice walks / trail hikes with the dog. We saw some interesting sites in a state we had never visited, learned some things, saw some gorgeous scenery, and really enjoyed our time hanging out together. We even had a couple deluxe splurges like sharing a tasting flight of beers at Superior Bathouse (they utilize thermal spring water to make their beer). Before our trip I read several library books on the places we were going to visit and on the history of Little Rock HS, doing a little "armchair travelling" as a buildup to our road trip. I came home with a list of 2 books and 1 DVD I want to read/watch to continue my "education." While on the road we listened to audiobooks from the library.

We shelled out $264 on gas, tolls, hotels, food & drink, and one souvenier (a museum book). There were no admission fees. We started off with a full tank and came home with it about 2/3 full, so if you add another estimated $6 for a top-up, that brings us to $270.
If we calculate cost using IRS mileage instead of just gas (to account for wear & tear on our car), and deducting what we would have spent on food if we had been home, then our cost was $932.
And what was our "true cost"? Somewhere in between those 2 numbers.
And worth every penny.