Poll: Average Daily Cost of Vacation

[pacergal]

about $1000 per day for 2 weeks in Hawaiian Islands. However, this was a Retirement Celebration trip that we planned and saved money for 5 years prior to retiring. First class and luxury accommodations, plus gifts for family. We will most likely not spend like this in the future!

 

[RetireAge50]

When I retire next year my entire life will be a vacation and plan on about $200 per day (two people).

 

[Sunset]

....... I looked up the cost of the cruise we took late last year. With airfare to Florida and cruisefare, the total came to a bit more than $2800, which works out to $400/day for 2 people. Shorter flights, and no land stay.

What did I do wrong? I thought I got pretty good deals. By the way, they gave me free drinks, but I did not drink that much to make it worthwhile.

PS. Oh, the land stay would be lower cost than the cruise, and that brings the average down.......

We will be driving down to FL, a leisurely drive and staying a week on land and a week cruise, I'm estimating the cost will be $208/day for 2 people.

I will keep track for my own personal desire of knowing.

 

[bradaz2488]

Avg of $418/day. Disneyland (6d), Key West (5d), Las Vegas (4d), Colorado (4d) and Jerome AZ (3d) = 22 days

 

[Amethyst]

If you vacation via RV, don't you need to factor in depreciation (or something - I'm no accountant) since the RV is not only your car, but your hotel and dining room?

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, when the driving is with an RV, the gasoline alone is more than $100/day. One time, I have to fill up once in the morning, and again before stopping for the night.

The salvation is one does not do this kind of driving every day throughout a long trip, as it would not leave any time for sightseeing.

This thread made me look up Quicken to get a better estimate for one of my longer RV treks. The trip I made to the Canadian Maritimes in 2014 was about 60 days, and covered more than 10K miles including the excursions with the towed car.

The total cost was more than $6K, and as can be expected the gasoline cost was 3/5 of that. The above cost does not include groceries and restaurants, which we would spend even if we stayed home. It also does not include sunk costs of the RV, such as maintenance, insurance, etc...

So, the RV travel, being the cheapest method for me, runs a bit more than $100/day. Again, it's just the operating costs, and does not even include maintenance, license, insurance, etc...

If one has a new and fancy RV, the depreciation would rule supreme over anything else.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Should you include food and alcohol since you surely eat and probably (if you're partaking on vacay) drink while you're at home anyway? They are not really vacation costs. Maybe count only the a percentage of the splurge meals that exceed your typical restaurant meal you might be enjoying at home?

 

[NW-Bound]

Should you include food and alcohol since you surely eat and probably (if you're partaking on vacay) drink while you're at home anyway? They are not really vacation costs. Maybe count only the a percentage of the splurge meals that exceed your typical restaurant meal you might be enjoying at home?

When I do RV'ing, I do not include the food cost as the restaurant costs are not that much compared to the more meals we eat at the RV.

When I go on a European trip, I include everything. Man, everything is expensive there.

PS. This brings up an interesting question. Should the fussy among us deduct the regular home food cost off a cruise where food is included?

 

[brett]

We have no average. Depends on where, when, and for how long.

Earlier in the month we grabbed a last minute AI to Puerto Vallarta. $650USD each, including air. We were in Thailand for past three winters. On average hotels were $30-45USD night, including breakfast. Plus another 15-20 for food etc. We go on a SA cruise in a few weeks. Cruise is expensive compared to our pre and post cruise travels in South and Central America.
We won't know the average cost until we come home. We only plan a few days in advance so we could end up in a quaint B&B or a 4/5 star hotel for a few days. If we rent a condo, the average daily cost tends to decrease for the period.

 

[Golden sunsets]

All In, including Kennel - $303 per day for 8 weeks for two people in Mexico annually. Budgeting $308 this year. Without kennel it is around $260/day (two pooches). This is for a two bedroom ocean front condo and air from the East Coast of the US to the West Coast of Mexico plus food, dining, entertainment and other activity fees. Italy for 13 days cost us $753/day by comparison but that was before the euro fell.

 

[Bestwifeever]

When I do RV'ing, I do not include the food cost as the restaurant costs are not that much compared to what we eat at the RV.

When I go on a European trip, I include everything. Man, everything is expensive there.

PS. This brings up an interesting question. Should the fussy among us deduct the regular home food cost off a cruise where food is included?

With a strong dollar our European meals were quite reasonable last summer--maybe I should throw a negative number in there as they were cheaper thsn at home restaurants in many cases. Plus no tipping. I can rationalize many trips as being cheaper than staying home!

 

[DrRoy]

A European trip tends to run over $250/day, a US trip close to $200.

 

[braumeister]

When I retire next year my entire life will be a vacation.

Good answer!

Besides, there really isn't such a thing as a "typical" vacation trip, at least in my world. Sometimes it's a costly overseas trip, sometimes it's a camping trip in the woods. Could be either, or somewhere in between. Even with that caveat, one person can easily spend multiples of what another spends on a similar trip.

 

[NW-Bound]

With a strong dollar our European meals were quite reasonable last summer--maybe I should throw a negative number in there as they were cheaper thsn at home restaurants in many cases. Plus no tipping. I can rationalize many trips as being cheaper than staying home!

I like to hear that. 1 Euro = US$1.05, just now I look. The last time we were in Europe (it was some years ago), the exchange rate was around $1.40.

For really low-cost travel, one should go to eastern Europe. Moldova, anyone? A blogger said he recently paid $3 for a very nice bottle of red wine. Moldova is a big wine producer, but it's nearly impossible to get a bottle here in the US for me to try out of curiosity.

 

[LauAnn]

I remember going to a neighbor's party a few years ago and this came up between a retired megacorp VP, a Washington lobbyist, and perhaps someone else well-to-do. They all took high end cruises and guided tours, probably not flying in coach, staying in nice hotels, and going in prime season. They concluded that $1000/day for the two of them, or $500/person/day, was about their average.


I know I'm well under that, but it depends on where I go. A ski trip is going to add nearly $100/day just with the lift ticket, plus ski lodging isn't all that cheap. For other outdoor trips I may have no extra costs over food and lodging that maybe park admission. It's so varied I'm not even going to try to answer, and it's pretty useless information unless you take the same kind of trips I do, or my neighbors do.


These are the kind of polls I shake my head at. What possible useful information are you going to get when you don't know if my vacation is driving in the woods to tent camp, or flying to NY and staying in a nice Manhattan hotel with fine dining and see shows? For my neighbors, they knew they took similar vacations and probably just wanted to see if they were missing something and spending too much. They didn't even bother asking me because they knew I didn't travel like them.

I was the OP of this thread. Yes, I knew going in this was not an apples to apples comparison. But I was interested in a user's "typical" vacation style compared to mine. Sorry your head is shook.

 

[rodi]

I didn't participate in the poll since I travel with family or friends and don't have my own room.

This past year we did a trip to DC/Philly/NYC for 15 days total. Transpo was airfare (x4), rail (x4), rental car while in Philly, lodging in 'suites' - (residence inn, beacon hotel, etc). (I refuse to travel with the kids where we have a 200sf hotel and no kitchenette.) Lots of activities (statue of liberty, museums, etc). Total cost was $127/person.

The previous year we had our "trip of a lifetime" - that included business class airfare to Europe (for 2 of us - kids were back of the bus) 9 weeks of travel... lodgings were vrbo/flipkey apartments - mostly 2 bedrooms. Train travel between cities and 1 week we rented a car (for Aix-en-Provence.) We stayed in some cheap cities (Prague) and some super pricey ones (London, Paris, Nice). $128/person/day It helps that the airfare was amortized over 9 weeks. I'd set aside $30k for this trip prior to retiring and we didn't go over by too much.

We're in planning stages up a trip to Japan next year... It is not looking to be very budget friendly. Sigh.

 

[Koogie]

I was the OP of this thread. Yes, I knew going in this was not an apples to apples comparison. But I was interested in a user's "typical" vacation style compared to mine. Sorry your head is shook.

I posted one today, too. Forgot that polls bring out the pedants.

Ohh, well. I liked it..

 

[Breedlove]

Mine are at the high end of the list , no matter what my wife has to buy new shoes from the country we are visiting . Started years ago she removed her shoes on the aircraft so her feet swelled . Now when we go somewhere she has to buy shoes . Kind of a tradition .

 

[braumeister]

I posted one today, too. Forgot that polls bring out the pedants.

Also the nitpickers, cavilers, hairsplitters, quibblers, whiners, casuists, sophists, and others of that ilk.

Which, frankly, adds to the fun IMHO.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I usually answer polls and then don't look at the results again, but enjoy reading all the responses in the thread. So pollsters get some data to use as they wish and the rest of us get some entertainment. Win win imo.

 

[Ronstar]

$617 per day for England/Ireland 13 days

 

[Meadbh]

$617 per day for England/Ireland 13 days

Did you stay at Ashford Castle?

 

[Ronstar]

Did you stay at Ashford Castle?

No, but the cost per day sure makes it look like we did.

 

[audreyh1]

about $1000 per day for 2 weeks in Hawaiian Islands. However, this was a Retirement Celebration trip that we planned and saved money for 5 years prior to retiring. First class and luxury accommodations, plus gifts for family. We will most likely not spend like this in the future!

We also splurged in Hawaii this year as we went all out to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary - our most expensive trip at around $700 per day.

 

[jim747]

This past summer, we RV'd from Ohio to Alaska with stops at Theodore Roosevelt, Glacier, Banff and Jasper National Parks. The seven week trip was $4,000.09 including tours and souvenirs or $71.40 per day for two of us. It's 11,000 miles so gasoline was the biggest cost at $2,300 but we are thankful for the low gas prices and decent mileage on our Class B motorhome. Another huge cost savings was the low cost of camping fees. We are self contained so took advantage of boon-docking, BLM and National Forest campgrounds. Our total camping fees was $170. Considering the low gas prices and available free camp sites, I doubt if we will ever repeat this low cost for such a great trip.