Is $12,000 per year in travel enough

[DrRoy]

$12K won't work for us. I know that one can do a lot for that amount if you stay domestic and do not fly, or fly super cheap. However, we have things on the list that go beyond that limit, and we want to travel several times per year. For example, DW has a requirement that we cruise with her 2 DS's and spouses about every year. For 2020, they got on the idea to do a Danube cruise. 8 days on Viking (their shortest offering), medium cabin, air, plus a Prague add on and we are already at $11.5K.

 

[Teacher Terry]

My son is moving there to teach English and we were planning on visiting him but I have asthma and it is one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world (Saigon).

 

[explanade]

My son is moving there to teach English and we were planning on visiting him but I have asthma and it is one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world (Saigon).

Yeah those scooters are bad. Wouldn't surprise me if they pollute worse than a car.

I heard that the government was trying to encourage use of public transportation but people won't give them up.

And in Hanoi, the water in those lakes look foul. For one thing, I don't recall seeing ducks or fish in them.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We were in Thailand in 1998 and the river stunk something awful. I didn’t have asthma back then and the air was terrible.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Dr. Roy, we cruise and go to Europe twice a year for between 10-14/year. Nemo goes even more reasonable than us. It’s not that hard to do.

 

[foxfirev5]

Wow. I'm surely not in this league. DW and I spend almost 12k on a fall trip to Myrtle with the kids and a trip or two to Key West each year. However that's about my limit. Too many years of business travel. Now we're pretty selective about where we stay and who we're with.

 

[Scuba]

Based on your description, it may be enough. But for me and my wife, who like to travel and scuba dive, it's only one trip. The trip may be 10 days on a liveaboard dive boat (all meals, diving, accommodations included), or it may be a month in Bali, Florida, Thailand, the Philippines, or Thailand. However, in retirement, one trip annually is not enough for us; we're budgeting half of our income for travel; hoping to do 4 to 5 trips annually like this.

Agreed. Diving definitely adds a lot to the cost, but we love it!

 

[Scuba]

Dr. Roy, we cruise and go to Europe twice a year for between 10-14/year. Nemo goes even more reasonable than us. It’s not that hard to do.

It depends on travel style, right? For example, we just got back from 2 weeks in St. Thomas. We stayed in a really nice condo right on the beach and we rented a car. We went diving a few times and we ate at some very nice restaurants as well as some cheaper ones. We had cocktails or wine with all dinners and sometimes at lunch. Used miles to get our plane tickets but it still cost several hundred dollars to get better coach seats near the front. This one trip cost around $7-8K.

If we had flown on Spirit without pre-assigned seats and had only carry-on luggage, we could have saved maybe $400. We could have rented a much cheaper apartment with no ocean view instead of falling asleep listening to the waves breaking and waking up to a stunning view of St. John and the BVI. We could have relied on public transit to go where we could and skipped going anywhere not on the bus line, probably saving $2-3K on lodging and transportation. And we could have cooked lunches and dinners at home and skipped the alcohol and saved another $1-2K. However, these cost saving moves would have seriously detracted from our enjoyment of the trip.

I’m all for getting good value for money but I don’t think a Viking Cruise experience is comparable to that of a budget cruise line. YMMV

 

[Teacher Terry]

It sounds like you got a lot for your $. The main reason we don’t take river cruises is that they don’t offer what we want. We spent 5k on 10 days in Poland and stayed at a nice hotel and had great food. We don’t cook while on vacation. Granted Poland is much cheaper than Italy. If we are in a big city in Europe we used public transportation. When in rural areas we rented a car.

 

[brett]

Saigon does indeed have an air pollution challenge. We spent a month in the country a few years ago, travelling from south to north on our own. Saigon was the only city where the pollution bothered us. We were that area for five days. There is so very much to see and experience in Vietnam outside of Saigon and Hanoi.

It is the same for Thailand. We have spent four winters in Thailand and probably were only in Bangkok for seven or eight days total between them. This year we did not even go in to the city.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Brett, so the air is better in other parts of Vietnam? I have asthma. I actually have no desire to go there but since my son will be working there I wanted to go see him. I hate heat, humidity and have a hard time with it.

 

[explanade]

Hanoi is cooler so maybe not as bad.

But they also burn things on these fields too.

And they're downstream from China so they get water and air pollution.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Sounds like I might not be able to go. When we have fires here sometimes I have to stay home. One year I couldn’t leave the house for 2 weeks and the fires were quite a ways away.

 

[explanade]

If you do go, I would use Uber a lot.

Costs only a couple of dollars to travel a couple of kilometers but you get out of the heat and you don't have to navigate the crazy streets, especially crossing streets where you have a river of scooters to wade through.

 

[NW-Bound]

I'll let other people go to crowded cities, while I will be heading to Alaska in a week.

But here's something that bothers me. Saigon and other Oriental cities show horrible street traffic and crowded housing. Yet, when you look at the statistics, they don't show up in the list of highest population densities.

Here's an example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_population_density. In this list of 42 cities, Paris shows up along with 6 other French cities. The Philippines have 9 cities on the list, but Vietnam, Thailand, and Hong Kong are absent.

My theory is that some cities have extremely crowding problems in the center, while the outer areas are not bad. That drives down the people-per-mile statistics, and it does not look too bad. But the reality is that tourists all flock to the center, because there's nothing much of interest in the outskirts.

Hence, all the travel and youtube videos I see of Oriental cities show people on top of one another, while I have been to Paris quite a few times and it is not as bad as the order on the above list suggests.

Another explanation is that Paris residences are mostly apartments in multi-level buildings. Hence, there are a lot of people per square mile, but if they don't all flock to the street in scooters, you don't have the congestion and pollution as in Oriental cities.

 

[REWahoo]

But here's something that bothers me. Saigon and other Oriental cities show horrible street traffic and crowded housing.

Street traffic is only "horrible" when drivers lack precision...

 

[MichaelB]

I'll let other people go to crowded cities, while I will be heading to Alaska in a week.

But here's something that bothers me. Saigon and other Oriental cities show horrible street traffic and crowded housing. Yet, when you look at the statistics, they don't show up in the list of highest population densities.

Here's an example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_population_density. In this list of 42 cities, Paris shows up along with 6 other French cities. The Philippines have 9 cities on the list, but Vietnam, Thailand, and Hong Kong are absent.

My theory is that some cities have extremely crowding problems in the center, while the outer areas are not bad. That drives down the people-per-mile statistics, and it does not look too bad. But the reality is that tourists all flock to the center, because there's nothing much of interest in the outskirts.

Hence, all the travel and youtube videos I see of Oriental cities show people on top of one another, while I have been to Paris quite a few times and it is not as bad as the order on the above list suggests.

Another explanation is that Paris residences are mostly apartments in multi-level buildings. Hence, there are a lot of people per square mile, but if they don't all flock to the street in scooters, you don't have the congestion and pollution as in Oriental cities.

Transportation infrastructure may also have something to do with that. Another factor may be some cities, such as Saigon, have industry & manufacturing inside the city limits, so most of the employment is concentrated. In France industry and employment is more decentralized.

 

[NW-Bound]

Very impressive, until it is pointed out that it is CGI (Computer Generated Imagery).

Look at a woman and her dog crossing the street at around 0:20. A motorcycle drives right through the dog. Both of them disappear when they reach the other curb.

This is real Saigon traffic.

This is Hanoi.

This is Beijing.

This is Alaska.

 

[REWahoo]

Very impressive, until it is pointed out that it is CGI (Computer Generated Imagery).

Some are quick to spoil a joke ... or tell small children Santa isn't real.

 

[explanade]

I read an article that they were trying to encourage people to take new, modern buses.

But they probably don't have enough coverage and people would give up a lot of mobility by not using their scooters.

Really if they want to get serious about it, they can impose pollution controls or raise registration and fuel costs on scooters.

But that might also hamper their economy as workers can't get to work as easily.

 

[Breedlove]

Going to Europe in August have our AF , very good rates 538.00 each round trip ( American Airlines ) We stay in B&B they are small about the size of a large closet . Amsterdam 80Eu a night Berlin almost the same . This is our 21st trip to Europe , we usually start in Amsterdam and just let the trains take us where we end up . We have budgeted 200.00 Eu a day 80 for the rooms and 120 for eating and whatever Euro rail 264.00 each . We think we will be around 5 K for 2 weeks with AF . Lots of walking !

 

[JustCurious]

12k a year in travel in retirement would not be enough for me.

 

[brett]

Terry....we found the air in other parts of Viet Nam. We entered in the south by land from Cambodia and started on island of Phu Quok. From there it was Mekong, Hanoi, Saigon, Dalat, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Da Nang, Hue, and Saigon. 30 days in total. Mid Feb-Mid March.

We did not find the pollution near as bad in Saigon. In fact we hardly noticed in. No issue in other places since we were either near the ocean or in the country. We did a fair amount of private tours into the country.

Cambodia seemed much warmer to us, especially Siem Reap. No noticeable pollution but by 3PM we were ready for a swim and a cold beer. We have never encountered any noticeable (to us) pollution in Thailand however 95 percent of our time is spent by the Adaman Sea in the south.

 

[Sunset]

Very impressive, until it is pointed out that it is CGI (Computer Generated Imagery).

This is real Saigon traffic.

This is Hanoi.

This is Beijing.

This is Alaska.

Thanks for letting my know as I didn't catch it.

The Alaska video refused to run due to wrong country


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.

 

[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.