Poll: Average Daily Cost of Vacation

[2017ish]

... However, our Raja Ampat trip wasn't cheap....average daily cost was about 300 day to do 4 amazing dives at different amazing sites a day, a luxury sailing cruise to one of the most remote places on earth and being fed 5 times a day! ...

$300 per person, or per couple? Sounds like you did one of the liveaboards? Which one?

We just decided this will have to wait for 2019, unfortunately. The 2018 south pacific trip, although 11 weeks, was getting too full.... (Fiji, Solomons, Vanuatu, Tonga.) 5 months may be a better idea!

 

[exnavynuke]

Let's see, going to Aruba in September. All-inclusive and I've booked stuff for 4 of the 6 days already and I'm at $182/day right now, that'll probably hit $200+ by the time I eat away from the resort a couple times though. That does include dive cert (been over 10 years so I'm just doing it again and this time through PADI) which does include 4 dives though. It also includes one day on De Palm Island. The resort I booked with points though, so "real cost" would probably be double that.

The trip to Vegas I'm at $161/day and that only includes flight, hotel, and 1 show so far. No pts used on that trip though.

 

[Fedup]

I just did the Bryce and Zion Canyons through Las Vegas. I think for 6-7 days, it was about $250 a day. That's the cheap trip because no airfare.
But Hawaii trips have always been expensive. Same with U.K. Trips. I'm sure it's a lot higher per day. Possibly $600-$700 per day for these places. Bora Bora is another money sucking place. Could even be $1000 or higher per day. Of course cost depends on the season, low or high.
We stay at nice luxury like the Hiltons, but not super luxury places Four seasons or St Regis.

 

[kcowan]

In looking at house/pet sitting assignments, I came across a villa in Malta that offered their BMW but had chickens and a horse to look after. I thought that might be a challenge when compared to a lab. Although DW has had experience with both of them, especially cleaning out the chicken coop daily!

 

[audreyh1]

In looking at house/pet sitting assignments, I came across a villa in Malta that offered their BMW but had chickens and a horse to look after. I thought that might be a challenge when compared to a lab. Although DW has had experience with both of them, especially cleaning out the chicken coop daily!

Man, put DW to work!

 

[Fedup]

Interesting, one of the houses I thinking of renting has a few chickens, since I can't raise chicken here, I like the idea of seeing a few on my vacation house, but there is a caretaker there. I don't need to do anything except maybe picking fresh eggs in the morning.

 

[Free]

Flew to Destin, FL and stayed in a beach house for a week with a rental car. Ate out a few times at nice restaurants and played alot. Took a 3 day road trip to visit family afterwards. Total cost based on the poll criteria was about $2300 for one person - about $230 a day.

 

[jjquantz]

Wow! It really depends. DW and I did 17 days in Italy in January with a little tag in NYC to see the opera. Combining a good buy on airfare, some really nice, inexpensive apartments via airbnb, some home-cooking with friends in Italy and eating most breakfasts and lunches in the apartment we came out at about $120/person/day including museums, opera at La Scala and the Met and some nice dinners out.

On the other hand, I'm headed back out to Bandon Dunes for golf this fall. Because we're going in peak season, this will run in excess of $600/day.

On the other, other hand, two years ago I drove across country to see DD#2 in Denver. Played golf at municipal courses along the way, ate at dives and stayed in cheap motels or with family. Definitely came in under $100/day.

All three vacations were great fun, but different.

I chose $100-150 on the poll - probably averages out to that over the long run - I/we don't do many things like the Bandon Dunes trip.

 

[bearkeley]

$300 per person, or per couple? Sounds like you did one of the liveaboards? Which one?



We just decided this will have to wait for 2019, unfortunately. The 2018 south pacific trip, although 11 weeks, was getting too full.... (Fiji, Solomons, Vanuatu, Tonga.) 5 months may be a better idea!

It was $300 per person per day....but worth it! Went on Calico Jack.....not one of the expensive fancy ones but it was amazing?..highly recommend them, and yes, if you can get away for a longer time, do it!

Man, put DW to work!

Interesting, one of the houses I thinking of renting has a few chickens, since I can't raise chicken here, I like the idea of seeing a few on my vacation house, but there is a caretaker there. I don't need to do anything except maybe picking fresh eggs in the morning.

DH had to do all the dirty work with the lab since he had all the fun teaching him how to swim...the dog was bigger than me! . Housesitting is actually a choice we made, mainly to allow us to have pets in our lives....savings on travel expense was a plus. We were DINKs who had a 16 year old Shephard/Chow mix and a 13 year old Rottweiler/Hound mix....when we lost both of them, we decided we couldn't get another pet if we wanted to travel the world. We later experienced a void in our lives....dogsitting or cat sitting gives us the 'fix' we need....doubt if chickens would

 

[Car-Guy]

Depends, when I'm in Vegas it usually cost me a lot more than when I go to a national park, even though my travel cost, hotels rooms and meals are all free in Vegas. It's the "seats at the tables" that seem to cost a lot.

 

[Fedup]

Depends, when I'm in Vegas it usually cost me a lot more than when I go to a national park, even though my travel cost, hotels rooms and meals are all free in Vegas. It's the "seats at the tables" that seem to cost a lot.

I gave myself a $200 limit in Las Vegas. If I lose $120, I consider myself gained $80.

 

[pullmyfinger]

We are definitely frugal travelers, but we do like to do 2 Europe trips of 2 weeks each per year. We talk about doing longer trips, but don't like to be away from the cats for too long. For our most recent trip, 15 days in Germany in March for 2, we spent $4100 which includes 1K for the live-in petsitter. We look for good deals on airfares and generally stay at Ibis hotels.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Using a typical (for you) vacation/trip (domestic or international) you took in 2016, what was your average cost per day.

Include all expenses -- transportation, lodging, food, alcohol, entertainment, tips, tolls, and travel insurance (if applicable). Do not include souvenirs.

If travelling with a significant other, calculate the daily cost as if you were travelling as a single -- i.e. do not divide hotel, rental car, gasoline, etc. charges by two.

If travelling as a family of more than 2, sit this poll out. But feel free to chime in on the thread.

One of the trips I took in 2016 was a group hiking trip in Bryce and Zion national parks. The trip included guided hiking for 5 days, plus 2 days of travel to/from home. My total cost was $1803 -- or $257 per day.

hahaah you had to hike? and u paid? they would have had to pay me 257 a day

 

[Rambler]

This varies WILDLY for us. A trip to Hawaii for 8 days/7 nights can easily run close to $800-900 a day including flights, hotel, parking at the origin, rental car and parking at the destination, food, chatchkes, and kennel for the dogs. That is at a mid grade hotel. A condo would be a lot less.

OTOH, a 14 day trip in the RV, 1500 miles or so, will cost us less than $100 a day including diesel fuel for the RV, RV park accommodations, food, etc.

This year, we are planning 2-3 1000-1500 mile RV trips plus one @ about 3000 miles, one trip to Oahu staying at a hotel (done), and one renting a friend's condo on Maui in the fall.

 

[Scuba]

Hey Scuba - glad to see other folks with expensive hobbies like us! Yes, long term travel significantly cuts down on air / transportation expenses, so snowbirding for 5 months made sense. Dive resorts usually help reduce your average cost because you are normally doing 3-4 dives a day, so you can do 20 dives in less than a week of lodging...liveaboards can be even lower, on average, with 4 to 5 dives a day and if a one way trip to destinations of interest, like the El Nido to Coron trip we did, will also save you on island to island transportation costs. However, our Raja Ampat trip wasn't cheap....average daily cost was about 300 day to do 4 amazing dives at different amazing sites a day, a luxury sailing cruise to one of the most remote places on earth and being fed 5 times a day! Australia was even more expensive when it comes to diving....did a one tank shore dive for $200 a person....no gear rental, no lodging or food!


So....how did we offset costs to travel below (if calculated with shared rental car, hotel, gas) our daily budget?

- House / pet sitting: Australia is also very expensive when it comes to lodging. Housesitting allowed us to save on lodging and car rental. We pick the right house in the right location with the right pets (a cool lab, for example, who we could take to the beach or hikes or even camping with us)

- Camping: Campervan are the way to go when visiting Australia. We could have done it cheaper by buying/selling one but we opted to rent one before and after our housesit. Fuel is expensive (sunk cost if you want to see Australia) but we saved on lodging (pretty much had ocean view accommodations in our van about 5 nites a week!) and food by cooking our meals instead of dining out (lamb and red wine was our favorite!)

- Groupon saved us about 50 percent on our Vietnam / Cambodia tour. We weren't planning to go, but couldn't resist the deal....worried it was too good to be true....it was great! (No diving though!)

- Rewards points came in handy for free flights from and to home.....free nites at Marriotts in Perth and Jakarta, for example, after our long trips and when we needed a 'real' hot shower after staying in mid-range Asian hotels with limited hot water supplies

Hope this helps!

Great info, thank you! We're recently ER'd so haven't explored all the ways we can reduce costs of our travel. We are currently enjoying our "retirement celebration" trip - 3 months in the Virgin Islands.

For house sitting, did you sign up for that on a website or how do you find your gigs?

 

[audreyh1]

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.

Oops - I don't think I divided by 2 for 2 of us traveling, and I expect I'm not the only one, which could explain the huge cluster at the top of the range.

 

[bearkeley]

Great info, thank you! We're recently ER'd so haven't explored all the ways we can reduce costs of our travel. We are currently enjoying our "retirement celebration" trip - 3 months in the Virgin Islands.

For house sitting, did you sign up for that on a website or how do you find your gigs?

We used Trusted House Sitters. We have completed 5 sits so far Sydney (6 weeks) Melbourne (6 weeks), Perth (6 weeks) Los Angeles (2 weeks) New Bern, NC 1 Week. It is a really great way to get to know an area, and take over someone's life for a short while. We think it's awesome but it is probably not for everyone.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Oops - I don't think I divided by 2 for 2 of us traveling, and I expect I'm not the only one, which could explain the huge cluster at the top of the range.

The calculations are all over the place and most enjoyable to read but not scientific. I think you did it right for the most part, per the OP:

...

If travelling with a significant other, calculate the daily cost as if you were travelling as a single -- i.e. do not divide hotel, rental car, gasoline, etc. charges by two...

The prepaid air and hotels for our upcoming trip to the British Isles so far have cost us $430 a day but if I just back out one airfare it's $320 ish. Dividing the whole trip by two of course comes to $215 per day. We're neither splurging nor scrimping; the sightseeing and meals will add a huge chunk, plus boarding our dog. We still maintain the fantasy that vacation money is different

 

[Nemo2]

Our upcoming 47 day trip, (in 19 days from now), is pretty much finalized. All flights are paid, three back to back cruises (meals for 33 days) are paid, all other accommodation/transfers, (except Krakow to Warsaw, by bus or train), paid, medical insurance paid, Megabus to/from Toronto paid, for a subtotal of $8,132 Canadian, (~$6,085 US)..or ~$130 US per day, ($65 US p.p. per day).

 

[audreyh1]

The calculations are all over the place and most enjoyable to read but not scientific. I think you did it right for the most part, per the OP:



The prepaid air and hotels for our upcoming trip to the British Isles so far have cost us $430 a day but if I just back out one airfare it's $320 ish. Dividing the whole trip by two of course comes to $215 per day. We're neither splurging nor scrimping; the sightseeing and meals will add a huge chunk, plus boarding our dog. We still maintain the fantasy that vacation money is different

OK good - I did do it right as I was NOT supposed to divide by 2.

 

[Mango1956]

Our recent road trip with mostly boondock camping averaged 70 a day, which includes a couple of Airbnb stays, meals out in town and the cat sitter for 8 days. Free camping really brings the daily cost down.