Expensive vacation?

[Sam]

Evanson built a couple of huts for the film crew to stay in and eventually continued building what would become a very exclusive, couples only resort. 14 couples at a time, prices start at $1,600 a night with a minimum of 6 nights.

Inspired by Leonidas post about the minimum $1,600/night in Fiji.

How much would your net worth be for you to consider a week vacation at this price?

 

[justin]

If it were the right vacation and the portfolio had done really well and I had an extra $10,000 to blow and I couldn't find anything better to spend it on. I'm not really into the expensive hotels, but I could see a unique personally guided trip to some exotic out of the way place that was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. It would probably involve helicopters, personal servants, massive waterfalls and/or mountain peaks, etc.

But I don't think I'd pay $10k just to lounge on the beach at a swank place.

 

[HFWR]

Doubt I'll ever do that, but maybe if I has $2mil...

 

[AltaRed]

Similar to justin, if it were the right vacation, I would. But I don't know what it might be at the moment. Maybe a week long Nextel Cup type NASCAR racing school including a lot of track time at Daytona?

 

[saluki9]

Similar to justin, if it were the right vacation, I would. But I don't know what it might be at the moment. Maybe a week long Nextel Cup type NASCAR racing school including a lot of track time at Daytona?

I paid for driving school last year at Daytona. I'm an F1 fan and not a Nascar fan. Nevertheless it was incredible to drive up on the banking at Daytona!

 

[Spanky]

It's not hard to spend $$$ (waste $$$) on vacations as demonstrated by celebrities:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206766,00.html

 

[grumpy]

I added up all of the costs for our recent 18 day cruise to Italy and Greece. Total was $11,000. It was worth every penny. Our net worth is >$1M not counting home equity. I hope to spend less on our next major trip but if that is what it costs to see the places we want to see, so be it. It is within our budget with a SWR < 4%.

Grumpy

 

[farmerEd]

When you travel with a family of 6 everything is expensive.

Last trip to the bahamas I dropped $35K on a 8 week vacation. We are going again for 4 weeks this winter for closer to $20K.

A one week vacation would probably cost darn close to $10K anyway since the airline tickets can run $700-$800 each (x6)...which is why I usually try and extend the stay to spread out the airline tickets over more weeks.

 

[shiny]

We travel quite a bit and spend some money, but always manage to spend less than 10k. If we were to spend that much for one trip it would have to be closer to a month. (Although if I had never been to Europe I would think Grumpy's' cruise would be totally worth it)

There is this organization that offers "volunteer" experiences that you give donations to go do. One of the trips is to Sri Lanka to observe monkeys. The fees and plane fare, etc. would probably be around this amount. It seems so far out that I was thinking of signing up for it to celebrate DH's "retirement" next spring, but I haven't yet.

 

[rs0460a]

Spend in excess of this, every year.

Why?

Because it's my DW's "passion".

Since it is what she wants to do, does not impact "my" lifestyle, and can afford it (and will continue to do so after our retirement in '07) we will.

However, my wife does not refer to these "outings" as "vacations". Since we are always moving dawn to way past dusk (e.g. not sitting on the beach, nor by the pool), she calls them "adventures" .

"A man who has not traveled has only turned the first page of life"

- Ron

 

[shiny]

Spend in excess of this, every year.

But on one trip?

 

[sailor]

Last trip to the bahamas I dropped $35K on a 8 week vacation. We are going again for 4 weeks this winter for closer to $20K.

He, He - everything is relative.
I remember one of your first posts, where you said you had "cheap taste". For comparison, early last year, we went to Grand Bahama, family of 3 at that time, for 9 days and according to Quicken we spent little less than $1000 - even linearly extrapolating this number to family of 6 and 8 weeks it only brings it up to roughly one third of it, i.e. 12k

But definitely agree with you that family vacations are expensive, when family gets bigger.

 

[rs0460a]

But on one trip?

Yes...

Last year we went to France (by rail, to Paris, Lyon, and the French Alps) in the spring. Yes, less than $10K.

In the fall, we took an Alaska cruse (over $10K).

This year it was a spring week in Wyoming/Idaho (Yellowstone), and we just got back from a 2-week Med cruise (like Grumpy, but going from Barcelona to Venice) which was over 10K.

We've already booked a two-week river boat cruise next September on the Danube. BTW, the ship (250 passengers) is already 75% booked. That trip is also $10k+. My wife has not "scheduled" our "spring trip" so I have no idea where, when (it has to be after 1-May, my retirement date, and she knows i do not want to travel before then - have "clean-up" work to do), nor what it will cost.

So travel is normal (for a lot of folks) and it is not unusual to spend in excess of $10K. As others have already stated, they spend more (however our $10K+ is just for the two of us).

It's good to be FI, old, and willing to enjoy life (we've earned it )

- Ron

 

[shiny]

It's good to be FI, old, and willing to enjoy life

Nice philosophy Ron!

 

[justin]

I think the issue of spending $35k for 8 weeks for a family of 6 in the Bahamas or $11k on a 2.5 week cruise (including airfare and incidentals?) is in a different class of vacation than spending $10k just for the hotel for 2 people.

I just don't think I'd get $9000 of extra value from spending $10k on the hotel instead of $1k on a hotel for a week. I'd rather stretch the vacation by a few weeks and consume the money that way! But then again I usually don't spend a whole lot of time cooped up in the hotel room on vacation anyway (unless I'm sleeping). Different strokes for different folks...

 

[shiny]

I just don't think I'd get $9000 of extra value from spending $10k on the hotel instead of $1k on a hotel for a week. I'd rather stretch the vacation by a few weeks and consume the money that way!

Yes, I totally agree. I know there are some exceptions, but to me the hotel is just the place where you are staying while you are doing the things you came to do, not the attraction of the trip itself.

 

[farmerEd]

He, He - everything is relative.
I remember one of your first posts, where you said you had "cheap taste".

I do have cheap tastes in most things (beer, wine, cars, clothes and lots of other things). Vacations I like to splurge on...and because I have cheap tastes else, I usually don't feel guilty splurging on *great* vacations.

The $35K vacation got so expensive because we rented a 5BD beachfront home for close to $3K per week(x8)...that was my retirement present to myself...lot of money, but never regreted it.

 

[Caroline]

If it's a week on the moon, sign me up.

Otherwise, with no kids, I can't see it. our trip to Africa came in at about that, but that took a lot more time...

 

[donheff]

I think DW and I spent around $10K on an 8 or 9 day trip to the Galapagos last year. It was a great trip and DW wants to do more like it. Speaking of which:

We've already booked a two-week river boat cruise next September on the Danube. BTW, the ship (250 passengers) is already 75% booked.

It's good to be FI, old, and willing to enjoy life (we've earned it )

- Ron

Let us know how the Danube trip goes -- that is one of the trips DW is interested in. And ditto to the closing sentence. The amount we have budgeted for travel in retirement is pretty outrageous.

 

[Sam]

So far the results are quite predictable, except...

If you ever get to spend time in one of these outrageously expensive places, watch out for one bum (0, live now, pay later), and a couple of dying guys (Just before I die, so I can die broke). I have the feeling that they stand out from the normal crowd.

 

[rs0460a]

The amount we have budgeted for travel in retirement is pretty outrageous.

Same story here.

However, it's relative. When we married (37 yrs ago) we had nothing (but each other) and the idea of a vacation was eliminated by having the "triple goal" of acquiring food, clothing, and shelter. It wasen't a requirement then, nor now.

We're fortunate to have had a "good ride", resulting in having our retirement budget for travel being set at slightly less than 20% of our net income. That's good in a way, since travel is a "want", not a "need". If something happens, we know that we can reduce our required total expenses quickly (by 20%), without impacting the "needs". As I said before, it's my DW's "passion" (I'm just along for the ride).

- Ron

 

[Bikerdude]

It's good to be FI, old, and willing to enjoy life (we've earned it )

- Ron

I agree with everything except the "old" part.

 

[rs0460a]

I agree with everything except the "old" part.

How about "mature" 8)

Will turn 59 on Jan 3rd. You determine if I'm old . With some (most) of the folks posting on this forum, I guess I would be considered "ancient"...

- Ron

 

[Nords]

I caught a 'Dream Fish' there a 20 1/4 pound Sea Run Brown Trout. It was probably the best $10K I've spent in my life.

$493.83/pound or $30.86/ounce-- I hope it was yummy!

We're still trying to decide how to spend our money on blowout vacations. Right now the pier-jump fares on NCL's interisland cruises are more than hedonistic enough. Part of our concern is spoiling a teenager's sense of entitlement...

 

[audreyh1]

Hey, that's how much it costs to go to Antarctica and I intend to do that one day. $20K - there will be two of us. It'll take longer than 1 week though.

Audrey