Poll: Average Daily Cost of Vacation

[Surewhitey]

Guess it depends on the length of the vaca. We do a week or two in Mexico on the cheap (non-resort).

We did a 40 day trip late Feb (2015) in Europe (France 2 wks, 10 day eastern Europe cruise and 2 wks in Italy) and averaged $220. Could have kept it below this if we wanted, but we definitely did everything we wanted while there...

Going to Cali for a quick camping trip (4 days) and all we have is $250 air and a little food...and firewood.

 

[brett]

Leaving in two weeks for a nine week trip to South and Central America, including a 14 day cruise. The per diem cost will probably be double what we spent on a last winters trips to Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam. Huge differences in the cost of in country air, hotels, etc.

Bottom line is that we have no average. It is completely dependent on where and when we travel. And on the travel offers that we pick up prior to or along the way.

 

[Live And Learn]

I just looked at the results of the poll. Over 30% said they spend $450 per day or more.

 

[2017ish]

I just looked at the results of the poll. Over 30% said they spend $450 per day or more.

I am one of the guilty ones. Still not retired; thus, international airfare only amortized over a week vacation, we dove every chance we got, and when not diving, we packed in as much other stuff as we could. No time to relax before getting back to the grind.

The other week we had off was for family get togethers with parents; not what we consider "vacation."

Our per day costs will go down as the gross expenditures go up later this year....

 

[FreeBear]

I just looked at the results of the poll. Over 30% said they spend $450 per day or more.

My reaction too! We've never gotten close to this burn rate on a trip. Maybe we should try

Actually, this thread keep me awake last night and inspired me to price out some Mediterranean cruises. Well, I could hit this numbers only if I treated DW to a nice ocean view suite. Never even thought about flying business class and paying directly for it... Well, in the end, I decided it was too much w*rk and cost, so we put off our "big" vacation yet another year.

To my surprise, we spend half as much on vacations as we did when w*rking. We expected and planned to even double the travel budget. We've been FIRE'd about 2 years; I wonder if we'll get restless at some point and start traveling again. Surprisingly, we seem quite comfortable hanging around here locally with our friends, hobbies, and church community.

 

[Happyras]

I have taken only 3 cruises in my life, and though I enjoyed them do not want too long a cruise. I am a loner, a recluse, and do not partake in public activities.

The last cruise I took was on a Celebrity ship, and the crowd was mostly 50s and up. And so, it was nothing wild like the Carnival ships that I have only heard about. One night, I walked a tour of the ship, and found the dance floor up at the top empty with only two couples dancing. The DJ had to be discouraged and bored out of his mind.

And then, one time at lunch, a woman sat down near us, and complained bitterly that there was nowhere on the ship that she could go to escape the live music. My, I did not think it was all that bad.

We love to cruise on Celebrity, and yes it was us dancing until close in the upper lounge. We are booked for Singapore to Hong Kong this year in a S1 Suite, flying first class on Cathay and should cost us about $200/day plus airfare, which is on miles hard to price. OK the foodie tours are expensive in Bangkok and Vietnam, but why not, just add another $100pp/day.

We just booked a high end 2 king bedroom condo in Kaanaplai on the beach in Maui with another couple. All in with airfare, premium, will be about $233/day. No first class this time, the other couple is cheap, so we booked them premium seats up front so we could all sit together and have free Mai-Tai's.

So what is a vacation anyway when your retired? We are heading to Palm Springs in a week for a horse show. Camping at the show in our RV and dining out every night, but its not a vacation for me, just the normal 4 weeks south in Jan where I can golf at Indio under the lights.

 

[SecondCor521]

Voted $151-$200 before reading the instructions. Feel free to remove my vote.

I spent about $5400 this year to go to London (10d), Utah (5d), Utah (6d), Utah (5d), and SFO (6d). If you divide that out it comes to $169 per day.

Some of those were with some of my kids. If you divide it out by person, it's more like $73 per person per day.

I do use miles and points from credit card travel hacking to bring down the cost quite a bit.

 

[NanoSour]

Family of 5 travelled to Italy. 14 days total for $9800. Average of $700/day.

 

[audreyh1]

I just looked at the results of the poll. Over 30% said they spend $450 per day or more.

Hey - if you have the money to spend, and that kind of travel is a priority, why not spend it?

 

[Live And Learn]

Hey - if you have the money to spend, and that kind of travel is a priority, why not spend it?

Oh absolutely. I was just surprised since I've only spent that amount once (2016), on what I considered a "once in a lifetime trip". To put it in perspective, for 2013 my total annual travel expense was $387.

 

[Danmar]

Oh absolutely. I was just surprised since I've only spent that amount once (2016), on what I considered a "once in a lifetime trip". To put it in perspective, for 2013 my total annual travel expense was $387.

Really depends on your priorities. Many people focus on travel, especially once retired, as they really enjoy it and now have the time. Others don't. The cost of travel will, often be commensurate with how much you spend in your "regular' existence. In my experience travel will usually cost more than staying at home. If you spend a lot at home, you will usually spend a lot on travel. Someone who spends $100k per year is spending almost $300/day at home. Granted a fair amount of that will be fixed in nature.

In our case we spend about the same in travel /day as we do at home/day.

 

[Koolau]

What we now call vacation has been visiting the Mid-West mainland. Once there, our priorities are to visit family and friends who are scattered across the Lower 48. This past year, we stayed close to our home base and only ventured as far as Ontario once.

We have been flying "cattle car" class. We keep a small apartment year round (I count the yearly cost in the total of our trip.) I don't keep track of fuel/repairs/insurance/tags for the car, but count $.50/mile for our cost. I count about $20/day average for our food and or eating out (heh, heh, we SAVE money by eating in the Mid-West over eating back home, but I include it anyway.) I don't count our back-home costs which still accrue (HOA dues, minimal electricity, etc.)

Since we stay up to 4 months, the denominator is huge. Best estimate is about $100/day or less for this year (will use $51 to $100 in the pole.)

Next year, we hope to take a western states vacation from our home base. That will likely add $200/day or more for the 3 to 4 weeks on the road.)

I don't anticipate that we will ever do any significant international travel. While I understand the allure, the hassle factor (from visas to potential te33or), not to mention our ignorance make it unlikely. YMMV

 

[NW-Bound]

I just looked at the results of the poll. Over 30% said they spend $450 per day or more.

This thread made me look at what I spent per day on the last cruise, and it was more than that.

However, it was only for 1 week, and if I am going to be spending like that for the upcoming 6-week European trip, it is going to mess up my WR. I still have no budget for it, but would be surprised if it is going to be more than $250-300/day, including transportation costs. Will see what it turns out to be. I will use AirBnB this time, and that should help.

 

[Lsbcal]

We also splurged in Hawaii this year as we went all out to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary - our most expensive trip at around $700 per day.

Hawaii has always been expensive for us too. We did a VRBO there and our San Diego + Hawaii trip came out to $500 per day for 13 days.

Other trip per day costs:

1) Seattle, Vancouver (flying) was $320 per day for 14 days.
2) Sierras including Yosemite and Mammoth Lakes was $210 per day for 9 days.
3) Italy was $585 per day but that included half the trip on a Rick Steves Southern Italy tour. Tours like this are expensive and we prefer being on our own. Just tried out the RS tour as an experiment.
4) Carmel-by-the-Sea was $230 per day for 4 days.

 

[Lsbcal]

This thread made me look at what I spent per day on the last cruise, and it was more than that.

However, it was only for 1 week, and if I am going to be spending like that for the upcoming 6-week European trip, it is going to mess up my WR. I still have no budget for it, but would be surprised if it is going to be more than $250-300/day, including transportation costs. Will see what it turns out to be. I will use AirBnB this time, and that should help.

I'm just guessing at $380 per day for our Netherlands + Austria trip (without air fare) starting late August. I like a bargain but am trying to relax about the costs and have fun. We try to find nice middle-of-the-road lodging whenever possible. That is why we made cancellable reservations in early December.

 

[NW-Bound]

We will be traveling with another couple, and share the cost of 2-BR AirBnB rentals and the car rental. That helps a bit.

 

[bearkeley]

DH and I just got back from traveling for 5 months.

- 3 months exploring Australia's west coast (beaches, hiking, sailing lessons, paddle boarding, snorkeling with whale sharks, sharks and Mantas, scuba diving....7 dives each)
- 24 day tour of Vietnam and Cambodia
- 12 nite cruise on a traditional Phinsi sailboat with 8 other guests and a crew of 13 to the remote Indonesian islands of Raja Ampat (31 dives each)
- 31 days in the Philippines hiking thru the world heritage Banaue Rice Terraces, 4 nite scuba diving Safari (14 dives each) visiting the islands of El Nido and Coron, and 13 more dives each on the island of Bohol

$100/day average.....scuba diving's expensive!

Being able to do these things everyday now that we are retire....priceless!

 

[Johanson]

My recent trip to Athens was less than $50/day. $450 flight that was delayed due to Delta. They gave me a $400 voucher. I used hotel points for my hotel. I ended up spending another $240 and was gone 6 days.

 

[DrRoy]

Rodi, my dream trip would be New Zealand. DW and I love that kind of scenery. It is so far though that we think we would only be able to make it if we went business class, but that makes the airfare around $10K instead of $3K and I have a hard time wrapping my head around that. We could have 2 weeks in Europe for the difference. I can't decide if it is worth it. How does one pull the trigger on the expense?

I think I have changed my mind on the dream trip. I am a serious amateur landscape photographer and I came across a professionally led 16 day photo workshop in Patagonia - $6550 so $415/day. We can get there on airline miles and it is pretty inclusive. It is some of the most striking landscape on the planet. I haven't made a commitment but gave a verbal that I would go. Now I am thinking that if I am in that part of the world, perhaps I should take the chance to visit Machu Picchu.

 

[audreyh1]

I think I have changed my mind on the dream trip. I am a serious amateur landscape photographer and I came across a professionally led 16 day photo workshop in Patagonia - $6550 so $415/day. We can get there on airline miles and it is pretty inclusive. It is some of the most striking landscape on the planet. I haven't made a commitment but gave a verbal that I would go. Now I am thinking that if I am in that part of the world, perhaps I should take the chance to visit Machu Picchu.

We did several photography tours when we first retire, and really enjoyed them and learned a lot. Have a great time!

 

[Scuba]

DH and I just got back from traveling for 5 months.

- 3 months exploring Australia's west coast (beaches, hiking, sailing lessons, paddle boarding, snorkeling with whale sharks, sharks and Mantas, scuba diving....7 dives each)
- 24 day tour of Vietnam and Cambodia
- 12 nite cruise on a traditional Phinsi sailboat with 8 other guests and a crew of 13 to the remote Indonesian islands of Raja Ampat (31 dives each)
- 31 days in the Philippines hiking thru the world heritage Banaue Rice Terraces, 4 nite scuba diving Safari (14 dives each) visiting the islands of El Nido and Coron, and 13 more dives each on the island of Bohol

$100/day average.....scuba diving's expensive!

Being able to do these things everyday now that we are retire....priceless!

Sounds like a great trip! We recently RE'd and are also divers. I realize the cost per night goes down a lot when one stays away longer, but please share more about how you did so much diving for so little. Most of the places we've been around the world charge at least $70 for a 2-tank dive. That would leave only $30/day for meals and lodging.

 

[bearkeley]

Sounds like a great trip! We recently RE'd and are also divers. I realize the cost per night goes down a lot when one stays away longer, but please share more about how you did so much diving for so little. Most of the places we've been around the world charge at least $70 for a 2-tank dive. That would leave only $30/day for meals and lodging.

Hey Scuba - glad to see other folks with expensive hobbies like us! Yes, long term travel significantly cuts down on air / transportation expenses, so snowbirding for 5 months made sense. Dive resorts usually help reduce your average cost because you are normally doing 3-4 dives a day, so you can do 20 dives in less than a week of lodging...liveaboards can be even lower, on average, with 4 to 5 dives a day and if a one way trip to destinations of interest, like the El Nido to Coron trip we did, will also save you on island to island transportation costs. However, our Raja Ampat trip wasn't cheap....average daily cost was about 300 day to do 4 amazing dives at different amazing sites a day, a luxury sailing cruise to one of the most remote places on earth and being fed 5 times a day! Australia was even more expensive when it comes to diving....did a one tank shore dive for $200 a person....no gear rental, no lodging or food!


So....how did we offset costs to travel below (if calculated with shared rental car, hotel, gas) our daily budget?

- House / pet sitting: Australia is also very expensive when it comes to lodging. Housesitting allowed us to save on lodging and car rental. We pick the right house in the right location with the right pets (a cool lab, for example, who we could take to the beach or hikes or even camping with us)

- Camping: Campervan are the way to go when visiting Australia. We could have done it cheaper by buying/selling one but we opted to rent one before and after our housesit. Fuel is expensive (sunk cost if you want to see Australia) but we saved on lodging (pretty much had ocean view accommodations in our van about 5 nites a week!) and food by cooking our meals instead of dining out (lamb and red wine was our favorite!)

- Groupon saved us about 50 percent on our Vietnam / Cambodia tour. We weren't planning to go, but couldn't resist the deal....worried it was too good to be true....it was great! (No diving though!)

- Rewards points came in handy for free flights from and to home.....free nites at Marriotts in Perth and Jakarta, for example, after our long trips and when we needed a 'real' hot shower after staying in mid-range Asian hotels with limited hot water supplies

Hope this helps!

 

[brett]

Our daily spend varies widely. It depends on the type of vacation, where we go, and the length of travel.

We spend far more per diem on a cruise or an AI than we would on an extended winter trip to SE Asia.

Now retired, our trips are usually 6-12 weeks long and may include anthing from a cruise or a five star hotel stay, to a small B&B or pension. Or even a home stay in Vietnam. We tend to look for value, experiences, and places that are high on our respective bucket lists.

 

[Lsbcal]

I use average daily cost figures for some overall planning purposes.

What we do not do is to scrimp and claw to get the lowest cost vacations. The primary objective is fun. There is some cost benefit (and minor fun) to good trip planning and early bird specials.

 

[Nemo2]

There is some cost benefit (and minor fun) to good trip planning and early bird specials.

Our (informal) motto: "Utility Maximization R Us."