Is $12,000 per year in travel enough

Preliminary/incomplete data for our (scheduled) Fall trip, (CatScan follow up for aneurysm scheduled for September 09.....the results of which could, if extremely negative, but hopefully not, put the kibosh on everything).

Figures are in Canadian dollars ($1 Canadian = ~ 77¢ US)

Flights: Toronto - Malaga (Air Transat) $788.32

Accomodation Malaga 18 nights through WIMDU: $835.71

TA Cruise* (Oceanview cabin) 13 nights, Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas: $2,143.48

Flights: Miami - Toronto (AA) $367.68

Subtotal: $4135.19 Canadian = ~ $3214.00 US


(Not included: Bus to/from Toronto Airport - Belleville Approx $104 Cdn return for two, Medical Insurance, food in Malaga (we'll eat in the apartment), Cruise 'mandatory gratuities' (we have an onboard credit of $US225 to partially offset these), incidental bus/train side trips from Malaga.)


*We booked early at a cost of $1,378 US for two people, (not including government taxes, but including a $225 US onboard credit).....currently, at VTG, the cruise is shown as sold out, with a final price of $1,964 US for two people, (not including government taxes, and no mention of an onboard credit)

Nemo2, that sounds FANTASTIC... it's a long month at such a cheap price.. I really want to try the TA cruise.
I have never booked an overseas trip before.
Did you book the TA first, then the flights, and then the accommodation ?
What is WIMDU ?

Yeah $835 for almost 3 weeks is great. In Canadian it's amazing.

What kind of amenities does this place in Malaga have?

What will you be doing in Malaga besides hanging out? I've only passed through there for getting to Granada and other parts of Andalusia or returning back to the US from the airport there, didn't seem terribly interesting.

Sunset said:

Nemo2, that sounds FANTASTIC... it's a long month at such a cheap price.. I really want to try the TA cruise.

Click to expand...

We like the repositioning cruises; there are good deals to be found, and, unlike Caribbean cruises, (I've only done one, circa 1972, and that was because I wanted to sail on a particular ship), they are not (usually) 'party cruises'.

Sunset said:

I have never booked an overseas trip before.

Click to expand...

Time's a'wastin'.

Sunset said:

Did you book the TA first, then the flights, and then the accommodation ?

Click to expand...

In that order yes. Once you know the ship's departure date you can shop around for flight deals.....on one trip, departing from Barcelona, we found a flight from Toronto, (earlier than we had anticipated going), that was half the price of the days before and after.......we arrived in Barcelona a week earlier than we might otherwise have done, and the money saved on the flight paid for our extra stay.

Sunset said:

What is WIMDU ?

Click to expand...

An accommodation agency, along the lines of House Trip, airbnb, etc...we've been happy with properties rented via all three:

Wimdu experiences: What others are saying about us

explanade said:

Yeah $835 for almost 3 weeks is great. In Canadian it's amazing.

What kind of amenities does this place in Malaga have?

Click to expand...

Here's the little apartment..it's not as nice as the 4th floor walkup we booked with the same lady, but developing sciatica interfered with those plans somewhat.

Studio in the Historical Centre - Apartment - Malaga

explanade said:

What will you be doing in Malaga besides hanging out? I've only passed through there for getting to Granada and other parts of Andalusia or returning back to the US from the airport there, didn't seem terribly interesting.

Click to expand...

Bus day trips, Ronda, maybe Cordoba, etc...

$36 a night is a deal.

Granada is one of my favorite places. Thought it was interesting that when the Moors lost Granada for good, the guy who had ruled it looked back at it one last time, hence The Last Sigh of the Moor.

Meanwhile, in Venice, there's the Bridge of Sighs that prisoners crossed as they lost their freedom.

explanade said:

Granada is one of my favorite places.

Click to expand...

I haven't been there for 28 years, so it's another option......lots to see......first time in Andalucia was 53 years ago...time flies.

Here's another day trip prospect:

http://www.andalucia.com/province/malaga/velez/home.htm

Sunset said:

Nemo2, that sounds FANTASTIC... it's a long month at such a cheap price.. I really want to try the TA cruise.
I have never booked an overseas trip before.
Did you book the TA first, then the flights, and then the accommodation ?
What is WIMDU ?

Click to expand...

I have a TA booked for next April with Royal Caribbean and their air to sea program have great fares for one way trips .

Nemo2,

Very awesome, sir. We'll be doing pretty much the same thing once the kids are out of the house. For now it's squeezing in 5-7 nt Caribbean cruises during the off season in such a way that the kids don't miss too much school. And the one big long summer trip (hopefully Europe summer of 2017).

Nemo2 said:

first time in Andalucia was 53 years ago...time flies.

Here's another day trip prospect:

The village of Velez-Malaga in the Malaga province, Andalucía, Southern Spain

Click to expand...

also check Serrania de Ronda while on that page. Very memorable! Their "new" bridge was built in 1890.

kcowan said:

also check Serrania de Ronda while on that page. Very memorable! Their "new" bridge was built in 1890.

Click to expand...

+1

(Also the inspiration for the old Beach Boys hit Help Me R(h)onda.....geez, I've carried that lead balloon around for 50 years now. )

Trip Advisor takes over House Trip:

Don't know what the full implications, if any, are of this buy out:

TripAdvisor acquires HouseTrip as home-rental market consolidates | VentureBeat | Business | by Paul Sawers

I imagine there will be a slow loss of credibility until it sinks to TAs level.

kcowan said:

I imagine there will be a slow loss of credibility until it sinks to TAs level.

Click to expand...

We'd already noticed that the steadily increasing prices of their rental offerings have been making them less and less competitive vis-a-vis their rivals such as airbnb.

Also check out airdna.com. They rank the bnb offerings in a town by # of customer reviews.

We are planning our early retirement at the moment and have included around $25,000 travel budget with the following considerations.

1. We are going to be living a holiday lifestyle having always dreamt of living in Austria we have bought a house there and will be moving in three weeks! That means that our main winter (skiing) and summer (biking and walking) needs will be taken care of. We will need to pay for season lift passes (c. $1,200 for two)

2. We intend to spend 6-8 weeks a year in the UK (where we come from and where our children live) which will likely cost around $3,000 in accommodation (we don't want to stay with them ALL the time) and around $5-600 in travel costs (petrol and / or flights).

3. We have just started enjoying cruising and our intention is to do that probably twice a year for two weeks at a time which will likely cost c. $3,000 per cruise plus a further $1,600 for flights. Which together with various ancillaries probably adds up to around $10,000 in total.

4. We may take a 2-3 week break somewhere warm (e.g. Spain) if the winter weather gets too much for us although that should be pretty cheap - say $2,000 all in.

5. We will probably take another 2-3 weeks visiting some of the areas in Europe where we have not been or want to spend more time (Ireland, Greece, Scandinavia etc.) for which I estimate around $1,500 a week.

That gets you to about $20k (excludes food as we need to eat anyway!) and leaves us with a bit of a cushion.

I should add that I love booking travel as much as I enjoy doing it and am looking forward to retirement when I can spend more time looking for bargains.

Nemo2 said:

Preliminary/incomplete data for our (scheduled) Fall trip, (CatScan follow up for aneurysm scheduled for September 09.....the results of which could, if extremely negative, but hopefully not, put the kibosh on everything).

Figures are in Canadian dollars ($1 Canadian = ~ 77¢ US)

Flights: Toronto - Malaga (Air Transat) $788.32

Accomodation Malaga 18 nights through WIMDU: $835.71

TA Cruise* (Oceanview cabin) 13 nights, Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas: $2,143.48

Flights: Miami - Toronto (AA) $367.68

Subtotal: $4135.19 Canadian = ~ $3214.00 US


(Not included: Bus to/from Toronto Airport - Belleville Approx $104 Cdn return for two, Medical Insurance, food in Malaga (we'll eat in the apartment), Cruise 'mandatory gratuities' (we have an onboard credit of $US225 to partially offset these), incidental bus/train side trips from Malaga.)


*We booked early at a cost of $1,378 US for two people, (not including government taxes, but including a $225 US onboard credit).....currently, at VTG, the cruise is shown as sold out, with a final price of $1,964 US for two people, (not including government taxes, and no mention of an onboard credit)

Click to expand...

Update: DW tells me the $104 airport bus is per person. So, with the medical insurance booked, and the bus now booked, we're up to a subtotal of $4,986 Canadian ($3,778 US).

$104 per person for an airport bus?

Long distance?

explanade said:

$104 per person for an airport bus?

Long distance?

Click to expand...

About 120 miles each way......train is more.

Omg- does your wife have a blog?? Notify me first if she starts one- I am a fan already!

Arrived home last night......all inclusive total spent $5,756 Canadian - approx $4,331 US......includes 4.5 day trips from Malaga (one was by local bus so it only counts for 1/2 ).

Nemo, you guys got a great deal! We also like the re-positioning cruises. We were offered a deal by RC if we could leave within 45 days to the Western Caribbean for 278.00/each. Of course once they add in tips and port fees, etc the price doubles but still cheap for 7 nights/8 days. We leave on Wed. I also researched flights and then booked through their website since it saved us a lot of $. A flight through them was cheaper then the cheapest airline going to Miami. We find that if we go when school is in then the crowd is generally middle to our age or older so few kids or crazy drunks)

How much is enough really comes down to your budget, how you want to travel, where, when, and for how long. And how you buy the travel.

If you are staying in five/six stars, travelling in peak periods, and frequenting popular or trendy destinations $12K may not go past a few weeks. That would last us three months of winter travel in SE Asia and we would have money left over.

Teacher Terry said:

Nemo, you guys got a great deal! We also like the re-positioning cruises. We were offered a deal by RC if we could leave within 45 days to the Western Caribbean for 278.00/each.

Click to expand...

We DO love deals! We have our eye on another RC, (we were very impressed with the Rhapsody of the Seas......not just the ship, but especially the crew.....we always eat at the buffet, and spent a lot of time this voyage speaking to young dining room staffers from Romania/China/Croatia/Mauritius/Ukraine, just to name a few), trip Civitavecchia to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in November next year.........(that's after we get back from our three back-to-backers with Pullmantur (owned by RC)).

Yup - and those MB prices are also for ocean front condos. Weekly stays a a bargain as well compared to daily rates. MB is a fair "degree" cooler than mid to south FL, but we love it. The town is almost empty, most of the tourist traps are shuttered for the winter, and 30 people on the beach within eyesight is a crowd.
We get a a unit with a kitchen because we like to prepare our own meals, and eat out when more convenient or feeling lazy.