Poll:What's your annual vacation/travel budget?

[Nords]

One thing I am curious about from those who are posting relatively high numbers. Do you find that your LBYM instincts are suppressed when planning travel? I.e. you will do research and shop around for days to save $100 on an appliance purchase, but for whatever reason you do not choose to work as hard to find low fares or less expensive hotels?

Some of it is the nature of the event. You're traveling during a school break or to a major gathering (like Rice's Families Weekend). The airlines & hotels know that you're part of a tightly-scheduled crowd so they're not interested in negotiating.

Some of it is a minimum standard of living-- it's hard enough to share an entire house with a teen, let alone a hotel room. She thinks she's getting a great deal with her own suite bedroom or an adjoining room, but we're getting an even better deal for parental privacy!

Some of it is time pressure. When you're researching reservations, you err on the side of paying for quality to minimize the risk of having to spend your first day finding a better place. Or even worse, your first night.

Some of it is a tolerance for pain. I know it's cheaper to connect through three hubs than to fly direct, but each hub just raises the chance of missed connections, lost luggage, or other bad things. I know the midnight Vegas charter is cheaper, but I've had horrid experiences with noisy crew & passengers only to arrive at 8 AM (seven hours before the hotel room is ready) exhausted, standing in long lines with a crowd of other cheapskates, and not exactly in the right frame of mind for the $25 blackjack table. Much better to fly after a good night's sleep in my own bed, to arrive after the hotel room is ready, and to enjoy a leisurely dinner or a show instead of fighting the casino crowds. The blackjack tables have the same odds at 5 AM as any other time of day.

As soon as our pet bunny goes to his great reward I'm really looking forward to picking a last-minute cruise (we're only 30 minutes away from Pier 10), snapping up an unannounced fare sale, staying at a destination for 2-3 months instead of 2-3 days, and renting cheap monthly apartments instead of hotels or condos.

Thanks! I'm most excited about the poll's near perfect bell curve I have created from carefully selecting bin ranges.

And I thought I was the only one who noticed...

 

[freebird5825]

Single and FIREd.
My annual budget is approx $6K for my FL trips to avoid severe cabin fever. I took 3 FL trips this year because of an unexpected tax refund . I would normally take only 2.
I always get a place with a kitchen to save on eating out expenses. I hate eating alone in public.
I am now doing small local overnights within NYS during good weather, less than $200 per excursion.

 

[dtbach]

Should we update this with new members? I just voted and am in the $20K range.

 

[SumDay]

Our kids live in VERY high cost of living areas, so it's impossible to visit for a few days for less than $2500 (if we don't want to sleep in the same bedroom with them on an air matteress). I'd love to do something else with our travel budget once in a while, but should enjoy the fact that they truly want us to come at least annually and go out of their way to show us a good time. I imagine if we were a little less free with picking up the tab for dinners and show tickets, they might not be as thrilled. Hey, we're making memories, right?

 

[Nemo2]

Since last year was unfortunately truncated, and this year may not see us travel at all, I looked at our Fall 2017 trip, (Bulgaria and a transatlantic: 13 nights Bulgaria, 1 night Rome, 13 night cruise, 1 night Toronto), $5,620 Canadian....(we were doing 2 trips per year...and hope to resume that pattern).

and

the Spring 2018 journey, (transatlantic cruise followed by Romania: 13 night cruise, 13 nights Romania, 2 nights Munich) @ $6,480 Canadian

Total: $12,100 Canadian = ~ $9,100 US.

 

[jollystomper]

We have a couple of kids currently living overseas, so a visit to each of them once a year will total close to $20K (this is non-frugal travel, we want some level of comfort when flying 12-20 hours one way). Any other trips will be primarily in the US and we estimate between $5000-$6000 for those.

 

[GravitySucks]

Budget is about $3000 for the two months to ride my bike across the USA.
$300 for the Amtrak ticket to Seattle and $40 a day on the ride back.

Nice!

 

[braumeister]

Should we update this with new members? I just voted and am in the $20K range.

Will it really be comparable with the poll responses from nine years ago?

 

[Helen]

We are just finishing our 4th year of retirement and are in our high travel years. While we were working we both spent most of our vacation time visiting our families in the Midwest so we haven't traveled much.

This year we were in Palm Springs for six weeks and we are about to leave for a three month trip to Europe. I'm guessing we will spend between $40k - $50k on travel this year.

When we are not traveling we don't spend much money, we like to hike, backpack and mushroom hunt for hobbies.

 

[RE2Boys]

Hopefully you'all realize that your voting/commenting on a 9 year old poll!!

Besides, what's a budget

 

[ckelly78z]

I voted in the $5-10K slot but sometimes (like last year) we exceeded that by a bit. We spent a week at Sandals Jamaica, and also a week in a VRBO in the Smokey mountains with all family members. We generally go about 6-7 weekends a year in our 32' camper pulled by our diesel Excursion, so there are costs, and usually a getaway weekend or two in a State Park cabin.

 

[dtbach]

Will it really be comparable with the poll responses from nine years ago?

Have things gotten that much more expensive from 9 years ago? Or should a new one be started so that everyone has a chance to update their numbers?

 

[stepford]

No vote here - our standard deviation is too large to give a decent number. Years that saw us bumming around the western US have been as low as $2-3K total. Years where we spent multiple months on other continents have reached 5-10 times that amount.

 

[W2R]

I can update my numbers, now.

Since my 2009 retirement, I went on a trip just once, for our Hurricane Isaac evacuation in 2012. My total cost for that was $913.80.

So, my average annual travel expenses have been less than $92/year for the first 10 years of retirement. Guess I don't need a travel budget!

 

[Dtail]

15k budget for us.

 

[Ronstar]

We have been $5-10k every year of retirement. Could go higher if something very interesting and more expensive comes along. I suspect that we will exceed $10k in 2020 if we go to Hawaii as planned.

 

[audreyh1]

Should we update this with new members? I just voted and am in the $20K range.

Well our travel spending has more than doubled, so what I voted for in 2010 is quite obsolete.

 

[audreyh1]

Have things gotten that much more expensive from 9 years ago? Or should a new one be started so that everyone has a chance to update their numbers?

Things must be a little more expensive, but in our case we are doing extensive international travel annually now which we were not doing in 2010.

 

[HadEnuff]

I budget 25K, but that includes my winter snowbirding. Does not include groceries while gone. Does include dining out, golf, just about everything else we do that I wouldn't be doing at home.

 

[audreyh1]

Please, someone close this poll and start a new one!!!!

This is garbage with most responses form 2010 and now new folks adding in 2019 numbers!

 

[FIREd]

My numbers have not changed much since 2010, but I am single now and I was married back then (so my number back in 2010 was for 2 people). I am still within the $1K-$4K range, probably closer to $1K nowadays. When I lived in the US, I used to take an annual trip (or two) to go visit my family in Europe. Now that I live in Europe, I do not have to take long, expensive trips overseas anymore. Discount airlines, trains, and shorter driving distances keep the cost of traveling within Europe very affordable (and there is a lifetime of travel opportunities only within 1,000 miles of my home). Traveling is not a top priority for me at the moment (never has been or never might be) and my budget reflects that.

 

[HadEnuff]

Please, someone close this poll and start a new one!!!!

This is garbage with most responses form 2010 and now new folks adding in 2019 numbers!

oops...didn't see that...

 

[phil1ben]

Retired in January, 2017 and prior to retirement never had more than 5 business days in a row off for vacation since completing my education. Just turned 59 and my wife is 55. Owned my own business.........We are now making up for that.

We really do not have a budget but have been spending between $50-70,000.00 on travel in each of 2017-2018 and planned for 2019. Normally go to Europe for 12-15 days, Caribbean for 5-7 days and 2-3 other 5-7 day trips. Trips in 2019 so far:

1. Puerto Rico in February for a week
2. Scotland and England in May for 12 days
3. Bahamas in May for 5 days
4. Northern Idaho, Montana and Wyoming for 12 days in September
5. France/Canal du Midi in October/November - 3 weeks. We are traveling with a Thomas Jefferson scholar/author and visiting the places TJ went while a Minister to France between 1784-1789 including a 7 day private (10 people) barge trip up the Canal du Midi with a chef and private guide.

Although we normally stay in 5-star hotels, hire private tour guides etc.... I still can't bring myself to pay the extra amount for business class. Trying to follow what an older gentleman told me last year, "If you don't fly first class your children surely will".....but have not gotten there yet. However, a friend of mine reminded me that, "the guy paying $6,000 per ticket isn't getting there any faster than the guy paying $700.00 per ticket". Safe travels to all.

 

[kgtest]

Retired in January, 2017 and prior to retirement never had more than 5 business days in a row... "If you don't fly first class your children surely will".....but have not gotten there yet. However, a friend of mine reminded me that the "the guy paying $6,000 per ticket isn't getting there any faster than the guy paying $700.00 per ticket". Safe travels to all.

I need to tell DF that. Guy flies a few classes below where he really is in life, but it's hard to crack that depression era influenced LBYM mentality. In his defense he does splurge on things like airplanes, boats, campers, trucks etc.



In reality from like 50 to 80 you are traveling, maybe 85 but I don't see a lot of people over 80 on the airplane.



If the airport is busy, first class will get you to the seat faster, but yes the plane goes the same speed no matter what class. I don't drink, and I am not a big guy and usually my family is occupying the whole row so first class is not totally feasible right now.



I answer $4k to 10k. I've never spent more than 10k in a year, or more than 6500 on a single trip. Usually do FL or somewhere else warm like MX or Hawaii in Feb, Road Trip in June down south, occasional trip out east to sisters, then cabin/cottage over Labor Day. This year we are skipping trip out east and visiting FL 2x, once w/o kids. I may still visit out east in the fall, tbd.

 

[Magoo30]

Our vacation budget is $1K per month. We have a separate savings account just for vacation funding. No kids. 1 year until retirement. The plan is to keep the same monthly budget when I retire next year.