2015 YTD Travel Results: Experiences

[NW-Bound]

For me, one long RV trip lasting 8 weeks with 2 1-week stops in timeshare condos, 1 week in Maui, and 1 week on a cruise ship. Time spent up in my 2nd home does not count.

I used to entertain the idea of spending a month or two at a time in Europe, but it is harder now to do that as I am so used to extended travel with a motorhome. It is a lot more comfortable for extended travel than living out of a suit case in hotel rooms.

No travel plans yet for 2016, not even with the RV.

 

[shortstop14]

Never really thought to count it up, but I was on the road 162 days in 2015, just under half the year. And still traveling, but we expect to get home in a couple of weeks. Too much of the budget is going to travel, though - so we'll cut it down in 2016. Now that I'm retired, I seem to have a lot more offers to play in age-group baseball tournaments.

Almost all domestic this year. Palm Springs, CA; Chicago (three times); central Washington; Colorado; and then the long cross-country trip - Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Cuba, Kentucky, Ohio, New York and Chicago.

 

[braumeister]

I bet you enjoyed the beers! Were those all separate trips, or was it something like two 2-week trips?

Yes, England/Scotland on one trip, and Germany/Czech Rep. on the other.

Honestly, the beer is one of the main reasons I like Europe.

 

[explanade]

Off the top of my head, about 60 days, all international trips.

I spent just over 30% of my total expenses this year, my first full year FIRE'd, on travel.

But fortunately, my total spending for the year is just under 2% of my savings.

Got some more big trips lined up this year, including one starting Monday.

 

[brett]

15 weeks in Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, NZ
1 week in British Columbia
2 weeks in Ontario
6 weeks in Greece.

So far palnned in 2016:

1 week in Mexico AI wedding
8 weeks in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam
1 tentative week in BC-Bowen Island
1 week in Ontario-wedding
6-8 Weeks in Southern Europe TBD


Lots more to see and do!

 

[CherylGrrl]

Three week road trip to New Orleans and back, 5,000 miles with a small trailer

Two weeks in Yosemite

Two weeks on Viking River cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam, plus two weeks in Amsterdam and London

Seven weeks in the Canadian Rockies in small trailer again

One week at a bluegrass festival

One week at a western film festival

Two weeks in Death Valley, large trailer this time, followed by six weeks in Tucson.

More than 50% travel!



Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[sengsational]

That's quite a diverse set of destinations! The other half of time you must have spent planning your trips.

 

[brett]

Just started reading Lonely Planet Argentina.

We are thinking of spending next winter in South America. The currency is good for us and SA has been on my bucket list since a quick trip to Rio 25 years ago. The beaches are wonderful.

We would like to snag a last minute cruise around the horn while we are there.....if the price is right.

The flight is ugly but we are up for it given that we would stay for three months.

 

[Milkman]

Prior to retiring 17 months ago, I was a million mile flyer for my job. So last year I could not bear to get back on a plane. Our only trip was a three week cross country driving trip from Colorado to Virginia to take care of our grandkids while their parents took an Alaskan Cruise. Coming back, we criss crossed our way through the Appalachians and saw four national parks. Despite all the driving it was a great trip.

Now next week we are going to Italy with group from our church for 11 days. I guess I am ready to get back on a plane.

 

[kaudrey]

I love reading these types of threads! We are 10 years from retirement, and my DH works for himself, so we can't travel as much as we'd like. Let's see:


Three or 4 trips to NH/MA visiting family (holidays, and had a death in the family)
Long weekend in Miami
8 days in Portugal (biking trip)
5 days in Minneapolis (for a hobby - I go every year)


I guess that was it last year - except for an overnight in Philly and a weekend at Lake Anna at a friend's house. Hmmm....have to work on that!

 

[TallTim]

I love these as well -- gets my mind turning on plans ...

'15 was pretty moderate for us, but I only RE'd in July, and DD and DS are still in school -- so we do have to accommodate their break calendars.

3 days in Seattle
3 days in Boston
10 days in Spain (Toledo, Madrid, Malaga)
4 days Palm Springs
4 days Scotland
6 days Ireland
4 days Wash DC
4 days Ithaca NY
4 days Chicago
4 days Phoenix
4 days San Fran
and
ended the year with 6 days in Iceland ...

So far 16 plans are still in development, but for sure:

3 days in Philly (glad to get out ahead of the big storm - just barely!!)
1 week college tour w DS (NYC, BOS, Ithaca)
9-10 days Ithaca spread over 3 trips (DW's 25th Reunion, DD move-in weekend and Parents' Weekend to see DD)
4 days in Vegas
10 days in Germany/Czech Republic
4 days in Chicago
7 days SF

and hoping for another couple of weeks' worth of larger trips in there.

 

[smurray5991]

In 2015, about 28 weeks in total away from home, all but a few weeks for fun. In chronological order:
1 week Austin
2 weeks Jordan (a consulting job)
4 weeks Europe (cruise)
6 weeks sub-Saharan Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania)
8 weeks Latin America (Paraguay, Ecuador, Cuba)
5 weeks East Africa (cruise)
2 weeks New Jersey

For 2016, I want to spend less time away, but already have commitments for about 10 weeks of fun travel, and suspect I'll end up doing more before all is said and done.

 

[Bamaman]

We've got to where we seldom travel in the U.S., and that even includes cities within 120 miles of us. We do keep a RV in the mountains and travel there periodically.

On the other hand, we spent 2/2015, in Las Vegas, Oahu and back through San Francisco. We had just taken a cruise to Aruba, Curacao and Turks/Caicos.

We also flew to Copenhagen for a few days in August before taking a cruise to Germany, Estonia, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm and back to Copenhagen. We flew to Oslo and took a train/fast boat trip to Bergen, Norway before flying home.

Just after that trip, my wife and a girlfriend went on a cruise to Mexico and Belize.

We're leaving the last of April flying to Rome for a few days before going on a cruise to Malta, the Grecian isles and Turkey--coming back thru Venice. We're staying in London on our way home.

We've gotten to where we travel perpetually to stave off boredom in retirement. But having so much extra time in retirement, I find such incredible travel bargains online. We live frugally in order to afford such travel. But when you go to a great place like Venice for the 8th or 9th time, the really special wears off.

After our upcoming trip, we're going to try and stay home in the future. We have enough toys to keep us busy at home.

 

[explanade]

Yeah I haven't done big road trips within the US but I want to see the Southwest and Colorado and Utah. Inspired by the photos thread.

However, it would be a lot of driving from Northern CA, unless I flew and rented a car.

But I'm using a lot of frequent flyer miles and also trying to fly enough to maintain FF status too.

 

[ElizabethT]

We've been shooting for an average of 26 weeks (50%), but new grandbaby definitely took priority in 2015:

- 2 weeks in Palm Springs
- 2 weeks RV'ing at the beach
- 4 weeks in France
- 6 weeks RV'ing in Oregon
- 1 week backpacking in Grand Canyon
- 2 week cruise to Central America
Total of 17 weeks

We also spent many days and weeks overnighting with SIL, DD and new grandbaby, so technically our goal of 26 weeks really was met. Thank goodness our SIL seems to like us!

Am currently lying here in bed in Costa Rica, listening to Howler monkeys in the trees outside my room, so 2016 is definitely off to a great start.

 

[kitesurfer2]

2 weeks from Fla to Ontario on my motorcycle
3 weeks to Colorado driving miata
3 separate one week trips via motorcycle to NC/Va mountains
a long weekend to FANTASY FEST in Key West in Miata
1 week to upstate NY in Miata

riding a bike or driving a sports car turns monotonous road miles into adventure.

 

[jjquantz]

Fun thread. Our travel is still limited a bit by DW's w*rking and, this year only, by younger daughter's wedding. Still we did the following:

February - Long weekend in NYC to see a couple of operas at the Met
March - Several days to attend an engagement party for DD in Springfield, MO
June - Long weekend in Richmond, VA because we'd never been
July - Week in Denver for DD's wedding
September - Week at Bandon Dunes for me
October - Long weekend in Raleigh, NC for a Bluegrass Festival
November - Week in Boston and Maine for Thanksgiving with DW's brother

Just got back from a week in San Diego and we are planning a spring training trip to Phoenix in March so DW can see the Cubs. Probably will have a couple of other short getaways but 2016 is going to be light so that we can do some major travel in 2017.

 

[Gone4Good]

In 2015 we traveled to 13 different countries and somewhere around 60 different cities and towns. Here's a summary of our travel calendar:

Cambodia	Jan 1 - Jan 14
Thailand	Jan 14 - Feb 12
Malaysia	Feb 12 - March 7
Singapore	Mar 7 - Mar 13
Thailand	Mar 13 - Mar 17
New York	Mar 17 - Apr 29
Vienna	Apr 29 - Apr 30
Greece	Apr 30 - May 28
Rome Italy	May 28 - Jun 1
Croatia	Jun 1 - Jun 22
Montenagro	Jun 22 - Jun 26
Bosnia	Jun 26 - Jul 5
Croatia	Jul 5 - Aug 3
Italy	Aug 3 - Aug 24
Switzerland	Aug 24 - Sep 19
Iceland	Sep 19 - Sep 26
New York	Sep 26 - Oct 31
Asheville, NC	Oct 31 - Nov 30
Key West, FL	Nov 30 - Dec 31

2016 we thought might be a bit slower, but we're still scheduled to hit 12 countries this year. I think we'll take a breather in 2017 . . . maybe.

 

[brett]

I could easily live with that travel schedule. We did, but only for seven months. DW wanted to go home. I would have been happy to stay out for 12 months, home for three months, and then back out for 12. Oh well!

Now we compromise. Two months out. Three months in.

 

[explanade]

Dang, those are a lot of long trips, which for me would be any international trip over 2 weeks.