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

[FUEGO]

Per household. Include trips where a significant component is leisure. Volunteer trips abroad can be included if a significant component of the trip is pleasure (you make the call). Don't include work/business trips. Do include cost for spouse/family to accompany you on business trips.

For you RV'ers and vacation home owners, do the best you can to figure out what you are spending on vacation/travel.

I am also interested in what people are getting for their money. Ie - 10 day cruise for 2 around Europe - $6000 incl airfare from US; weekend getaway to cancun - $600, etc.

I'm also curious if you are still working or ER.

 

[REWahoo]

For you RV'ers and vacation home owners, do the best you can to figure out what you are spending on vacation/travel.

Would that include or exclude the cost of the mortgage, depreciation (RV), maintenance, repairs, etc.?

 

[itsmyparty]

I did vote "1,000-$3,999 ... but we plan to spend more...starting this year (taking a second cruise this Oct. ...haven't done 2 in 1 yr before)..as dh is 'retiring' at the end of the year so we'll have more time. As we've gotten older, we're enjoying cruising vs travelling by car/rail in Europe, although we want to take another driving trip in France sometime next year. After a particularly long/horrible set of flights on our trip last year to Athens (spent a few days, then went on a wonderful cruise), my dh now doesn't want to fly long distances like that unless its in business class. I do all the travel details (love to)...and I know that will be something that could put a 'crimp' in plans...those prices have gone up and up, and although we have lots of AA miles...we can never use them when we need to! Can't take it with us...so we might as well enjoy!

 

[NW Landlady]

We Scuba Dive in Warm Exotic Places...
At least $15K-$25K for 2 Peeps - and that is pre-retirement.
Once we FIRE, watch out!!

 

[Automatika]

Planning on a $30,000 trip to Japan next May with wife and kids, Airline tickets taking up about half of that. My wife is from Japan and the kids have never been so this is something we've wanted to do for a long time. Other than that we usually spend about 5-6000 a year.

A future plan is to go around the world on the MV Explorer (Semester at Sea), a 3-4 month trip that runs about $30,000 each. I figure that will be our trip of a lifetime. Our daughter went last year and recommends it highly.

 

[FUEGO]

I voted in the $1000-4000 category. For 2010, this will get us a week at the beach (shoulder season), a couple weekend trips to Washington DC and other places, and maybe a 5 night cruise to the Bahamas.

 

[FUEGO]

Would that include or exclude the cost of the mortgage, depreciation (RV), maintenance, repairs, etc.?

Go wild. If you think it fits within the general category of vacations/repairs, then include it.

 

[DangerMouse]

Must admit we don't do a budget, we just have one big bucket and as long as there is money in there we do it. So far this year we have had to spring for 5 tix to Hawaii, 2 tix to Australia, 1 tix to Vegas, 4 tix to San Diego and we plan on a further trip to Hawaii for Xmas but have used FF points because the flights were so expensive. Will probably do a driving trip over Thanksgiving up to Seattle.

 

[aaronc879]

I clearly live in a different world than most on here. I would expect a poll like this to start at <$100 and end at at most $5000. I don't think i've spent more than $100 in any 1 year for vacations in my life. I'm considering spending close to $1000 next year, however, to visit family in Florida. Now that my mortgage is paid off I can somewhat justify spending that much for a non-necessity. I still may back out. That's a lot of money for me.

 

[FUEGO]

I clearly live in a different world than most on here. I would expect a poll like this to start at <$100 and end at at most $5000. I don't think i've spent more than $100 in any 1 year for vacations in my life. I'm considering spending close to $1000 next year, however, to visit family in Florida. Now that my mortgage is paid off I can somewhat justify spending that much for a non-necessity. I still may back out. That's a lot of money for me.

I wanted to make the poll bins of a sufficient size to capture the "frugal infrequent traveler" up to the luxury traveler. Some folks have 4-6 people in their family, and that of course can make even a simple vacation expensive.

 

[FUEGO]

During early retirement, I have tentatively planned on $12000 a year in vacation/travel spending. I figure we will have a lot more time to travel, and can do longer extended trips.

 

[FIREd]

This varies from year to year but it always seems to land in the $2,000-$5,000 range for the 2 of us.

For $2,000, we get one 15-day trip to Europe.
For $5,000, we get two 15-day trips to Europe and one week-long trip to the west coast.

Once my wife retires, I hope we can get 1 trip to Europe plus lots of small RV trips throughout the year.

Note: we have lots of family and friends living in Europe and on the west coast so we enjoy free lodging and free meals on many of our trips.

 

[Texas Proud]

Here is where the problems comes in....

last year ago... buget $3,600... spent $13K..

upped the budget and talked to wife... budget $6K, spent $13K... so far this year!!!


Got to get the wife on board on how much this costs.... BTW, she is spending her money to make up a decent part of the difference between budget and spend... but not the full amount...

 

[FUEGO]

Texas,

I was actually curious how much people are actually spending, instead of solely a budgeted amount.

And I fully understand travel/vacation expenses varying year to year, since ours are the same way.

 

[jimnjana]

Some travel is not necessarily "vacation" for my DW, she doesn't consider travel to my family's annual "beach week" family reunion as vacation... a portion of our last cruise was "business travel" for DW as it was a "Seminar at Sea", we packed 9 hrs of Seminar into a 16 day vacation... the most expensive individual item for that trip was her Airline ticket. For 2010 we budgeted 6k for travel, and we spent less than 5k.

 

[rothlev]

Firedreamer: I am just curious How do you get a 15 day trip to Europe for 2 people for only $2000

 

[rescueme]

Some travel is not necessarily "vacation" for my DW, she doesn't consider travel to my family's annual "beach week" family reunion as vacation.

Heck, I feel the same. DW (while still wor*ing) takes vacation.

Me (while retired) don't get any more vacations - they are just "trips" ...

Actually, since I hate to travel, my "trips" are more like wo*k....

 

[nun]

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.

 

[FIREd]

Firedreamer: I am just curious How do you get a 15 day trip to Europe for 2 people for only $2000

We have family and friends living all over Europe. We crash in their guest bedrooms or in their vacant vacation homes for free. So we rarely pay anything for lodging. Often times they feed us too and lend us one of their vehicles to get around. So usually, our largest expense is airfare which ranges from $1,500 to $2,500 for 2 people depending on the season. Of course we return the favor when they come stateside. We just hosted a group of Germans last week.

 

[cardude]

We budget 12K for the year, and we've already spent $13500 this year. Family of four.

That includes a couple of Costa Rica trips, DC trip, two Vegas trips (not with kids), 3 New Orleans trips, and some other smaller Texas trips. Most of it is air fare. Travelling with kids is expensive..........

 

[Independent]

Before I retired, I planned on $20,000 or more. Health and the economic meltdown have cut that down dramatically. I answered $4,000 - $9,000

 

[haha]

I keep waiting for Prince Charles or the Sultan of Oman to clock in with $100,000+.

What are we, a bunch of pikers?

Before I retired, I planned on $20,000 or more.

As for me, the only category that would get me to spend $20,000 /yr would be eternal youth.

Ha

 

[Tesaje]

I budgeted 8-9k per year but haven't yet used anywhere near that for 1 + pets (care or bring along).

 

[bob boag]

Our family of four takes one big trip a year. This year a 14-day December cruise from LA to Hawaii & back in a mini-suite for about $11,000. Maybe a half dozen mini-vacations a year each less than $500.

 

[FUEGO]

I keep waiting for Prince Charles or the Sultan of Oman to clock in with $100,000+.

I had to put the high dollar categories on there just in case. As you have pointed out, some people seem to spend A LOT of dough on traveling. I think we have a wide range of wealth and spending levels on here from the ultra frugal to the high rollers.

I know some have portfolios in the high seven figures and low eight figures here. And some have stated incomes extending well into six figures or the low seven figures. So a mere $100k/yr on luxury vacations doesn't seem out of the question.

I suppose if our family ever does that year round the world vacation I have been thinking of, we may be at least in the $50k-100k category for a year.