Is $12,000 per year in travel enough

[Dawg52]

No more than I travel, I'm not skimping on a meals and having a drink at a cool pub. But that is one way to cut cost if that is not important to you. As far as a $12k annual budget goes, I haven't spent that in 11 years of retirement. I guess if I include condo fees, assessments and other expenses related to my beach condo then I would have several thousand there. But still not $12/year. I consider those as part of my annual living expenses as its just an extension of my normal living. I think of travel as anything outside of that. Just depends on how you want to look at it........

 

[Sunset]

Our actual travel expenses for the past 2 years have been approximately $14K per year averaged out. We do like bargains, so the costs could be higher.

It includes 2 weeks in Europe, and a couple of cruises, plus road trips of a few weeks in length.

Seems folks have different ways of counting, so when we travel, I count all expenses as travel: restaurants, booze, admission, taxi, bus, train, plane, grocery store, etc.


I do this because I'm spending more at restaurants than normal, but I recognize even if I didn't travel, I'd still go out to a restaurant.


So my travel costs are slightly inflated.

 

[NW-Bound]

All those videos just amaze me, I thought Barcelona was pretty crazy with traffic, our cab came within inches of other vehicles, and pulled up so close behind other cars you couldn't walk between them.
Later I realized if the cabs don't extreme tailgate, the scooters will drive up between cars and fill in the "gaps" to get ahead.

When we were in Barcelona ten years ago, saw a lot of scooters, but did not think the traffic was that bad compared to SF, NY, or Boston. Things may have changed, or we were not too observant. We walked and used the metro mostly.

 

[WestUniversity]

For our European trips we typically budget about $2,500 to $3,000 per traveler per week. For domestic travel it’s usually much less...

 

[Breedlove]

2,500 to 3,000 per traveler per week is way more then we usually spend but then we don't go to a lot of the pay tourist sites. We have made good friends over the years so we do have a network of B&B that are good for us and always under 100EU . In Amsterdam we get our laundry done by our B&B owner who owns a laundry around the corner. We only eat one meal a day , breakfast comes with the room , lunch might be a snack or bread and some wine . Dinner is always good and once again our friends have a network where to eat cheaper.
I think we are looking at around 4,000 to 5,000 total for our 2 weeks in August .

 

[JustCurious]

For our European trips we typically budget about $2,500 to $3,000 per traveler per week. For domestic travel it’s usually much less...

So you budget $12,000 for two people to go to Europe for two weeks? Wow, that is high. I'm trying to think what could cause the cost to be that high...do you fly first class or business class? Do you take luxury riverboat cruises?

 

[Nemo2]

So you budget $12,000 for two people to go to Europe for two weeks? Wow, that is high. I'm trying to think what could cause the cost to be that high...do you fly first class or business class? Do you take luxury riverboat cruises?

If we only had one round trip airfare p.p. that much'd last us ~ 3 months.

 

[Teacher Terry]

In 2008 we spent 8k in the Tuscany region of Italy and stayed 2 weeks. In 2015 10 days in Poland was 5k. We always fly coach.

 

[WestUniversity]

So you budget $12,000 for two people to go to Europe for two weeks? Wow, that is high. I'm trying to think what could cause the cost to be that high...do you fly first class or business class? Do you take luxury riverboat cruises?

Round trip air from Houston to most places in Europe will be $1,500 to $1,800 per person for coach. Out of the gate we’ve already spent $3 - $4K just getting there and back. Whether we do a two week cruise for two or spend two weeks touring with trains, hotels, dining and excursions, the balance of our Europe budget is pretty much gone...

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

We're currently spending around $10k-$15k CDN/yr for about 4-6 weeks travel per year which includes 1 or 2 overseas trips and a few side trips to places like Las Vegas, Tofino, Portland, Seattle, etc. The major trips are generally 2-2.5 weeks long. Total costs of these trips average are averaging us about $300/day for landtrips and $400/day for cruises.

In retirement, we're wanting to travel more which will obviously increase total cost per year but hopefully average down the cost per day by taking longer trips which would spread out the cost of airfare over more days, potentially allow us to book cheaper longer term accommodations (and possibly outside the core), and take advantage of various travel deals (last minute, trans-ocean, etc). On the flip side, I can see costs rising if we decide to book biz class and stay at some slightly nicer accommodations. I don't think we've compromised on food and activities so I don't see that variable changing much.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We have been able to fly to Europe from the West coast for 1k and under. Once we went to Poland for 750. Norwegian Air is your friend)

 

[gamboolman]

We fly to/from Nigeria twice or three times per year to Houston, Bush. Coach and you better count on $2,500 per person.