Annual travel budget? Trips/nights?

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music-and-ski

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Can you share your annual travel budget, and how many trips/nights it covers?

We're about to retire and wonder what to budget. Based on past history it looks like CAD$25K/year (18,500 USD) could cover two or three 3-week trips, especially if we use home exchanges to get a free week of accommodation on each trip. We don't travel super cheap anymore, but neither do we splurge.

Older people I knew/know didn't travel much past 75 years old, so in the basic retirement financial plan I'm putting travel expenses in until 75, not inflation adjusted.

I always wanted to travel the world for a year, but now I don't think we'd enjoy it — 3 week vacations seem to work for us. I guess we should have travelled the world in our 20s or 30s, although perhaps we wouldn't have enjoyed it then, either.
 
Our annual travel budget is around $120K - $150K. We are into luxury cruising so probably only 120-150 nights away per year. We are in the middle of our longest time at home since retirement (including pandemic) of almost 10 months but we will be gone almost 200 nights between 1 Nov 23 and 31 Aug 24. We have been able to stay in 22% bracket last five years but have to bite the bullet and be in 24% bracket 2023-2025. We will see what future taxes look like to see if we can still afford our (expensive) habit.

Marc
 
We started early retirement with a seven month trip.

Since that time, twelve years ago it has been two 7-9 week international trips per year. Sept/Oct and Jan/March. Plus the occasional last minute or quick trip here and there.

We do not have a budget. Depends where we go. Thailand is less expensive than Australia. Same for Italy/UK and Greece/Turkey.

Inflation has definitely hit. We are seeing increased prices in some areas. Air to SE Asia is up 30percent. Yet, we spent five weeks in Portugal last May/June. We found prices to be similar to past trips.

Most of our travel is independent and we are very spontaneous travelers. Not unusual for us to arrange air in and out. Then follow a general plan but never reserve more than a few days in advance so that we can make changes as we go. On one trip to Greece we booked air to Athens and home from London. We did not know where we would end up at the end of 8 weeks but we knew we could easily and inexpensively fly to London for anywhere. We ended up in Cyprus for our two remaining weeks. We do the same when we go to SEAsia/Australia, or Mexico/Central America in the winter.

We no longer do very much travel in NA. More often a stop for us on the way to some other country. We have found that hotel prices in Canada (where we live) and the US have increased substantially. Just booked a hotel in DT Toronto for a few nights and prices appear to be much higher than than we paid last year on our way through to Portugal.

I expect our annual spend to fall between $25K and $50K CAD depending on the year.
 
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We budget $18,000 a year and we do two big (18 to 24 night) cruises a year....spring and fall....So that comes to around $450 a day....all in.

We love Holland America Line for the great prices, varied itineraries, awesome service, good food and very reasonable prices. The actual cruise price runs around $100 a day per person....The rest of the $$$ is for pre-post cruise hotels, transport, tours, airfare, tips, wine.
 
It is all very individual, depending on how you like to travel.
We tentatively plan $10-20,000.

DH needs/prefers FC air if we fly due to back issues, so that can limit.
We do short drive trips some years and 1-2 week trips some years.
Almost every year we have several 2-4 days trips locally in the PNW, lots of things to see from ocean to mountains to desert-like country.
Every summer we rent a house on VRBO and invite our kids/grandkids.
Next year is a bigger BTD, as we are taking them all to Hawaii.

Everyones budget is different, so go by what you have spent in the past and what you look forward to in the future.
 
Budget around 16k yearly with ~20 nights, which includes 1 cruise. Some of our "Travel Budget" also includes hosting family members in Florida.
 
We budget US$25k. That covers us for two European trips and one, maybe two, domestic trips. But we also travel light with backpacks and mostly stay in AirBnb's so we can do laundry and cook for ourselves when we get tired of eating out.

We did a 30 day trip in Italy last fall and spent a total of $6600. Started in Capri, then onto Amalfi, Polignano, Ostuni, Lecce, Matera, Catania, Taormina, Syracuse and Naples.

As Pacergirl mentioned, a lot depends on your travel style.
 
Our rule of thumb. I figure $325 a day for domestic trips via car. Double that amount for Europe. Our trips are comfortable, Hilton ish level accommodations, some nice dinners, some charcuterie on the patio, good wine. Not cheap, not overly extravagant.
 
We currently have 3 trips that we are working on.

Just booked air to Morocco for a month mid Sept-Mid Oct. Will add something in front or after. Transatlantic air seems to up by just a small amount..maybe 8-10 percent.

Looking at 2-3 weeks in Mexico in Nov/Dec. Pacific coast...probably Zihuatanejo or PV areas. Too for us to buy air but it will be more expensive than our trip in March. That is a given.

Watching for air to Thailand for what may be our last snowbird trip. Air is up by at least 30 percent over the pre covid fares that we are used to.

Some prices are up but no point in moaning about it. It came down to making a decision...stay home or do what we enjoy.
 
We are just getting started and planning for fall 2024 as the first big trip. DW and I have differences of opinion regarding budget. My goal is to BTD compared to what we did as worker bees. I am aiming for ~25K with at least 6 weeks of road trips and the same for air travel to Europe.
A chunk of our time will be at our friends in the UK, so that skews the budget quite a bit.
The same is true of the road trips, as we travel with our own apartment behind us.
That first '24 trip may be a house rental in Cabo San Lucas or another destination in West Mexico, shared with family.
 
We don't budget for trips, we just go. We have around a dozen short trips for different events with friends, and a few long term travel trips around the US. Its time to enjoy, not fret about the penny's. Mostly camping, that we enjoy, and average 60-70 nights a year.
 
No real budget, just spend whatever necessary. We do spend about 3 months away a year. We own a ton of timeshare and that helps to keep costs down. Our timeshare maintenance fees/dues are currently about $14K a year, and we always book 2BR so that we can invite others to join us, with no charge to them. That takes care of about 6 to 8 weeks. We also golf alot while we are away and that increases the costs by thousands of dollars. The rest of the time, we cruise, we take land tour (going on a Collette tour later this month to Britain and Ireland) or whatever we fancy. Air fare is another expense as my husband will only fly first class. Everything adds up. When we need more money, we just withdraw from our investment accounts.

Oh, my husband is 75 and travelling is not stopping anytime soon.
 
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Travel expenses

We prefer not to travel in retirement, because during our working years we both had to travel extensively to go to meetings, conferences, workshops, and so on. And then before that, I grew up in a family that traveled the world almost constantly since my father was a "travel addict" and had the money to support that lifestyle. So, by retirement I felt I was completely DONE with traveling.

In our 14 years of retirement, we have driven to other states twice for hurricane evacuations.

1.) Our Hurricane Isaac (2012) evacuation to Alabama cost $980.
2.) Our Hurricane Ida (2021) evacuation to Arkansas cost more because I ended up hospitalized for 3 weeks due to Covid. I didn't record our expenses that time.

Other than those two evacuations, we haven't been more than 5-10 miles from home since we retired, and we like it that way. :D Each to his/her own! :dance:

So anyway, that's what we spent on travel during 14 years of retirement.
 
We do not budget it strictly but it has run $20-30k.

We travel quite a bit, about every other month. Usually a 3 week destination type trip twice a year and then several 2-4 weeks domestic trips to visit family and friends and to keep up with our favorite college sports teams. These happen three to four times a year.

The per night cost varies. I do analyze that but have not used it to budget. We are rather frugal travellers.
 
Travel is one of those activities where you can spend a huge amount if you want to, on the other hand you can also do it much cheaper even though it might be a lot more work sometimes. In other words, you can adapt your travel to your budget.
 
Just got back from Italy yesterday. (And I'm posting at 3am local time due to jetlag).

We spend about $25k/year.... still coming to our new normal in the post covid, post kids off to university so they aren't with us.

We do at least one international trip/year and lots of scooby-van camping trips. Got back from Italy yesterday, and are heading to Yosemite in 2.5 weeks for a camping trip.

We stay at airbnb's and typically don't do tour groups. Our airbnb in Venice was amazingly nice and about 1/2 the price of a 3* hotel/night.

We're actually pushing more travel sooner, into the next few years, since we've discovered we're aging (shock!) and won't be able to do some of the more active trips in 5-10 years. Can't imagine hiking Cinque Terre in my 80's. (It was challenging enough this trip with super steep trails.) So we'll probably do more travel in the next 5 years, and then lessen /change style of travel when we are less mobile.
 
Over 6 years we have spent between $28-$54K per year. Last year we spent $50K and were gone a record 15 weeks over 6 trips. It was a Covid catch-up year, and we would not spend that much time in a single year again.
 
I've seen from $40 to $400 per person-day in last ten years. The low end is going to relatives places, the high-end is a river cruise. When you roll trans-Atlantic air into the daily rate, it really inflates it, especially when you get business class. But my average ($139) is brought down with the domestic driving trips. I've got a long cruise trip coming up with business air and a few BTD selections where I've already got $230 per person-day spent.
 
My guess at the end of this year it will be about $20K Cad. So far it has been Mexico for three weeks.

Still to go are just booked Morocco for one month with a ten days prior in Toronto and Montreal. Two-three weeks in Mexico or Costa Rica in late November/early December. And a summer wedding to attend in Toronto.

Just a guess. We could spend more in Morocco..who knows?

And....we come across a great last minute offer on an AI or a cruise we could easily snap it up.

More next year when we get back to serious international snowbirding.
 
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DW and I will spend around USD $60k to 70k on traveling this year (both family trips for 4 as well as a couple of solo trips on my own). We don't really have a budget, and our traveling constraints are entirely due to our two kids' school schedule. Once they go to college, we plan to really ramp up our traveling to take advantage of our remaining active years, and I can see us spending $100k+ a year well into our 60s.
 
Just returned from Spain and Portugal (Azores). Surprising that you are in the same area and things varies so much. Azores was much less than say Seville & Grenada. We do post-mortem on spending & find our average is $200/nt for food and lodging for most Air B&B's & middle priced restaurants. Mexico is maybe $150...

We spend $10-15k annually for 5-6 weeks travel, some of them visiting family and friends. Couple road trips, couple of weeks in Mexico & 3 weeks (last & this year) in Europe. We work air points & credits pretty often to soften the blow too.

Post covid seems to be ramping up to an additional week or two too. I'm starting to feel like I'd rather live in two places vs traveling so much...
 
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