...
After extensive domestic travel before retirement, we seldom travel in the U.S. We keep a RV in the Blue Ridge Mountains and we have a lake house an hour away. We really don't have the time to get away often. And we no longer are visiting the mega cities in the U.S. either--too congested. We prefer nature in our retirement.
Many people that put in 30-40 years on the job didn't have the opportunity to see the USA because of their jobs. I certainly understand their wanting to hit the road. But with hotel prices rising, figure $250 a day when you travel.
Did some long haul travel out to Asia when w*rking, so I don't miss air travel at all. Heck, I don't miss w*rking either! DW was getting me geeked for a trip to Greece in 2020. We'll that didn't happen because we bought a new house 2000 miles away instead, just before covid shut everything down.
We've spent virtually all our energy and $$ getting the new house ready and moving in long distance. We just realized we have spent the last 2 years just doing house stuff and we need to get back to traveling.
So, we just got back from a wonderful 5 day trip to Sedona in a rental RV, our first time RVing. We loved it so much we're going to the Grand Canyon in a few weeks in another rental RV. We love SE Arizona because things we want to see are within a day's drive. Before we had to endure 2 long, boring days of driving just to get to the interesting stuff.
As for daily costs, we're close to Bamaman's $250/day, averaging just over $200/day for driving our little suv, Hampton Inn overnights, and a single good meal. In comparison, our RV glamping experience was quite pricey at $370/day. Even more shocking, owning an RV would actually cost more than renting until we hit the break even point over about 45 days. Still, I loved watching the sunrises over the mountains outside the RV.
So, we budget $8K/yr for travel. We only hit this one year when we were on the road 50 days straight. We actually planned for 12K that year, but couldn't spend the $$ because some house drama had to be dealt with. If we really get into RV'ing, this budget could double or triple, although most of this would be in terms of depreciation and opportunity cost of $$ not in the market.