Travel- How often, how long, how much $$?

[Rianne]

The great thing about ER, today you can decide tomorrow you’re going to spend the week on the beach. Then, in 2 months decide to go to Europe. You know, take up that fantastic deal that came in the mail.

 

[explanade]

By the time it comes in the mail, the deal would probably be over or sold out.

 

[brett]

We have done numerous last minute specials. AI's, cruises, air,etc.

One thing we have learned is when we see a great deal we snap it up immediately. We learned early on that 'sleeping on it' can sometimes result in the offer being sold out, withdrawn, whatever.

We do not wait for the so called 'best price'. We ensure that we understand what an average price is and what a great price is. If our target price hits be push the buy button immediately.

On our last domestic air we had a price of $258. each booked at 9PM.

Checked the price the next day and it was $512. Same as the competition. Almost decided not to book until the next morning. Thankfully common sense prevailed and we snagged it.

 

[matjung]

One year to retirement... Thinking about annual spending budget including travel.

Summary question- How often do you go on recreational travel; how long are typical trips; assuming a set budget do you go shorter with more luxury or stretch it out with lower priced options?

Last year, too often, and always too much $$$
Three trips for about one week each.
Dubai, Athens and Porto


My impression.

The concept of Luxury vanished over the years.
Weather I paid reasonably money or big money for a place stay - I am feeling like a commodity.

20 years ago, even in no star hotels, the receptionist or a luggage guy would bring me to my room or take an order for a welcome drink.
Now, even in 4 or 5 star places - one needs binoculars to find basic service
Maybe the Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI) still experience luxury.


Next trip, don't know yet. Due to politics I cancelled Peru and Israel.
For next year, I consider a budget tour up Mount Kilimanjaro if I can manage to improve my body mass index.

 

[explanade]

Mount Kilimanjaro tour?

Is it like people who spend tens of thousands to scale up Everest, hiring sherpas to take their stuff up the mountain?

Or is it more common thing, hike up a part of the mountain and go back to hotel the same day?

 

[matjung]

Mount Kilimanjaro tour?
Is it like people who spend tens of thousands to scale up Everest, hiring sherpas to take their stuff up the mountain?
Or is it more common thing, hike up a part of the mountain and go back to hotel the same day?

It is not like the 50K Mount Everest tours.
It is also not a day return trip.
A multiple day trekking tour where camps/tents are provided for you.
Going up and down takes about one week in total.
No climbing required.

You cannot walk up alone.
The national park makes money by selling guides to you and charging you for each day you are inside the park.
I think US Tourists spend about 6K for the experience (flights excluded).
Based on my memories, hiking up Fuji Yama was admission free.
One day up, the next day down.
I don't know yet if I will spent 6K for 7 days.

 

[explanade]

Thanks, that's interesting to know.

Your location is Zurich but you're going to Africa to climb a mountain?

Lots of mountain trains and cable cars in Switzerland but most of those are just simple day visits.

Someone must offer multiway trekking tours of some kind in the Alps?

 

[flyingaway]

Last year I started in Portugal where I arrived shortly before Xmas of 2021. I stayed there until early March and went to southern Spain for a few weeks. Back home at the end of March. I went to Mexico for about a month mid May and to Provincetown for two weeks at the end of July. Then I went to Europe for two months (Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Austria and Greece) at the start of September. Back home on November 1st. I'm flying out to Panama next week - no clue for how long and no idea whether I stay in Central America or head down south. I think the general idea is to spend winter in the sun.

While I do keep track of my expenses, I'm not sure I would consider my life as separated into travel and not-travel. I know how much I spend on dining out for example but that's worldwide - and while I have dinner in Vienna I don't spend money on food in US. My fixed US cost (rent, internet, phone, insurance, credit card fees etc. are around 20k). I think of that as the cost of maintaining a "base" - place that I consider home but it's hardly that anymore. Everything else is just every day spending. Some necessary (food and accommodation), some discretionary.

Interestingly, my typical travel choices lower my general cost of living. Well, normally... In 2021 I bought a car and did the road trip in North-East US and that was twice as expensive and half as pleasant as my time in Portugal. Food and accommodation quality in midwest just can't be compared to what you can get outside US. As an example: Waldorf Astoria in Panama City is around $180/night. That's what I was paying last year for a dusty Holiday Inn in... I dunno, Nashua.

Did you buy one-way tickets if you don't know in advance how long will you stay there, e.g., your upcoming trip to Panama?

 

[matjung]

Thanks, that's interesting to know.
Your location is Zurich but you're going to Africa to climb a mountain?
Lots of mountain trains and cable cars in Switzerland but most of those are just simple day visits.
Someone must offer multiway trekking tours of some kind in the Alps?

A vaction is a vacation, and I have never been to Tanzania.
For the Swiss Alps like Matternhorn one needs to climb.
Climbing does not go well with my body mass index.

The mountains with 2000 meters height, are hikeable, for 3000+ one depends on cable cars or talent in climbing.

I use my feet for going up and the cable car for going down.
Hiking the 2000 meters fits into a day return trip.

 

[brett]

Our first post retirement trip was 7 months of travel followed by a 3 month furnished city apt. rental. We were homeless. House sold, we downsized, what was left was stored in a PODS container.

One thing we noticed, and it certainly helped our travel expenses, was how much expense we avoided.

Just turning the key so to speak was expensive. About $2000/month in basic operating expenses (including insurances), net of storage fees. That was 12 years ago, it would about 50-60 percent more for the same home today. Much less now since we downsized to something more reflective of our lifestyle.

 

[oiseux]

A vaction is a vacation, and I have never been to Tanzania.
For the Swiss Alps like Matternhorn one needs to climb.
Climbing does not go well with my body mass index.

The mountains with 2000 meters height, are hikeable, for 3000+ one depends on cable cars or talent in climbing.

I use my feet for going up and the cable car for going down.
Hiking the 2000 meters fits into a day return trip.

Sounds like a true Swiss (I used to live in Lausanne).

My friend did the Kilimanjaro trek. She had to be airlifted out due to altitude issues (HAPE). She also organized a private Machhu Picchu trek, that we joined, and that was only moderately difficult with no issues (although it was slow going). The altitude is the big difference.... even with preparation and time to acclimate.

Following this thread as we've budgeted for our imminent launch, probably a bit excessively. Our case is different as we have maintained an overseas base, which will make exploration easier due to easy flight and train connections.

 

[braumeister]

We have friends who did the Kilimanjaro hike with an established tour company a few years ago. They said that while most were able to complete it, several were not, due to the altitude. At nearly 6,000 meters, and over 19,000 feet, it is not for the fainthearted.

 

[Still Learning]

One year to retirement... Thinking about annual spending budget including travel.

Summary question- How often do you go on recreational travel; how long are typical trips; assuming a set budget do you go shorter with more luxury or stretch it out with lower priced options?

We typically take a few weeklong trips per year. Any longer and it's too miserable coming back to mountains of work at my job. This year we are heading to Aruba tomorrow, Puerto Vallarta in April, Hawaii in September, and probably a weeklong hiking trip this summer. We also take a couple trips to visit the kids at their colleges across the country. We seek out deals and although we've moved on from Motel 6, we still have the mindset that lodging amenities aren't worth money when we're asleep. Typical weeks in Hawaii have been running us under $3000 in hotels, about $2000 if we share a condo and cook for ourselves. We spent about $12,000 on travel last year.

Realistically I don't think we would be doing more trips, just longer. Probably one bigger splurge per year farther away from home such as the South Pacific, South America, Europe. Definitely long hiking/backpacking trips but those don't really cost much other than transportation.

My seat-of-the pants guess is that $24,000 annual travel budget for the first several years of retirement would be plenty- a bit more for years we do a spurge trip. In fact it appears ridiculous but I also think hotels and restaurant meals are ridiculous so maybe it matches?

We design travel around our Black Lab so usually pet friendly accommodations or boating until last year when we sold our cruising boat and purchased a van for travel. Last year we did (2) 14 day trips from New York State through the Northwest to Montana and down south to the Gulf coast. Then (2) additional 7 day trips to the Lake Champlain area and a camping trip through upper New York in addition to about 6 shorter weekend trips. We made sure to schedule all accommodations in advance which was a disadvantage because we had to keep a strict schedule. We spent about $9K. Challenging ourselves to spend $12-15K this year with less advance reservations.

 

[Koolau]

Our situation is a bit different than many. We're in the middle of the Pacific, so every trip (other than an occasional inter island flight) starts with at least a 2500 mile flight to the mainland. Mostly we fly 5000 miles to the homestead in the midwest and make that our jumping off place. Since we spend 3 or 4 months there and have a car, it's relatively inexpensive though we pay $6K/year for the privilege of leaving summer clothes and normal living "stuff", etc. year round.

These days at our advancing (okay, advanced) ages, we rarely stay in hotels. If we're not staying with friends/relatives, we generally don't go far (a couple of hundred miles or so, maybe.) So with air tickets and incidentals, we budget about $12K and usually bring home some of that. YMMV

 

[Jimonlimon]

Our situation is a bit different than many. We're in the middle of the Pacific, so every trip (other than an occasional inter island flight) starts with at least a 2500 mile flight to the mainland. …

I appreciate your situation. We made it 56 years never going west of our city. Then a cascade of events suddenly made it easy and affordable for us to travel to Hawaii. Now we can leave the house and 8 hours later be on the beach on Oahu. We’ve done 8 trips to Hawaii with an average round trip for two costing $300. Like many our thoughts quickly went to relocation- but we calmed down and realized that wouldn’t work for us because like you said “every trip … starts with a 2500 mile flight “

I’m more interested in renting for a month or three at a time on different islands.

 

[TheWizard]

I appreciate your situation. We made it 56 years never going west of our city. Then a cascade of events suddenly made it easy and affordable for us to travel to Hawaii. Now we can leave the house and 8 hours later be on the beach on Oahu. We’ve done 8 trips to Hawaii with an average round trip for two costing $300. Like many our thoughts quickly went to relocation- but we calmed down and realized that wouldn’t work for us because like you said “every trip … starts with a 2500 mile flight “

I’m more interested in renting for a month or three at a time on different islands.

Round trip flight from the mainland to HNL for $150 seems low...

 

[Chuckanut]

Our situation is a bit different than many. We're in the middle of the Pacific, so every trip (other than an occasional inter island flight) starts with at least a 2500 mile flight to the mainland.

That's always been an issue to me and why I never considered Hawaii a 'paradise' for myself. I would feel trapped. It's a nice trap to be sure, but for me still a trap.

During Covid I vacationed by taking road trips to neighboring states and discovered some great state parks, National Monuments and a few cities that register very high on my Cute-O-Meter.

 

[Jimonlimon]

Round trip flight from the mainland to HNL for $150 seems low...

Hence my mention of "Cascade of Events".

• Starting in 2018 we managed to get a Southwest airlines companion pass through their credit card. (Companion flies free all year)
• Our local airport has a limited number of flight spots and an overnight curfew. The main carrier kept violating the curfew and then complaining about the fines, eventually pulling out entirely.
• Open spots were mostly grabbed by Southwest.
• In 2019 the Boeing 737 Max 8 was certified to fly to Hawaii under "ETOPS" or Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards.
• Southwest announced flights to Hawaii
• Also in 2019 the Max 8 was grounded for almost 2 years...
• In 2020... COVID happened.
• Eventually Hawaii opened up a bit, the Max 8 grounding ended, and Southwest started filling out a full schedule from our local airport.
• Since this was a new market, the pandemic was still going, and people were probably afraid of flying the Max 8... Fares started cheap.
• First round trip we paid $200 trip for two people.
• The most we've paid is $400 for Maui tickets later this year.
• Since our kids are now in college, they have accompanied us only 2-3 times out of 8 trips.

Previously we looked at trips to Hawaii and even though we're nearly the closest airport, prices even 15 years ago were over $500. The kids would have come so we would have been buying four tickets not one!

 

[Koolau]

I appreciate your situation. We made it 56 years never going west of our city. Then a cascade of events suddenly made it easy and affordable for us to travel to Hawaii. Now we can leave the house and 8 hours later be on the beach on Oahu. We’ve done 8 trips to Hawaii with an average round trip for two costing $300. Like many our thoughts quickly went to relocation- but we calmed down and realized that wouldn’t work for us because like you said “every trip … starts with a 2500 mile flight “

I’m more interested in renting for a month or three at a time on different islands.

We seriously looked into going that route. We finally decided that the benefits of being in the islands 8 to 9 months per year (principal residence) made it worth the hassle of flying to the mainland every year. We've gotten into a rhythm, now and don't think too much about the process. We've got it down to which carry on bag to use (no other luggage), about what time each year to get tickets, trips to and from airports, etc. Still a hassle, but so is travel in general. YMMV

 

[Koolau]

Round trip flight from the mainland to HNL for $150 seems low...

Heh, heh, yeah I wish! I too was wondering if I read that right. Guessing some air miles are involved. YMMV

 

[Koolau]

That's always been an issue to me and why I never considered Hawaii a 'paradise' for myself. I would feel trapped. It's a nice trap to be sure, but for me still a trap.

During Covid I vacationed by taking road trips to neighboring states and discovered some great state parks, National Monuments and a few cities that register very high on my Cute-O-Meter.

Yeah "Island Fever" aka "Rock Fever" is something each person has to consider (and deal with.) When we first looked at property in the Islands, our realtor told how she "cured" her second husband of this dreaded malady. He came to the Islands, met her and married her in whirlwind fashion. After several months on the same Rock, he started displaying all the symptoms of Rock Fever.

She told him to get on an airplane and fly "home" (he was from Detroit area.) Stay as long as needed. When ready, return or decide you can't deal with it. Her promise was that she would move to Detroit if he wasn't cured. He stayed several months in Detroit, returned and never left the Islands again. Her take: Once you prove to yourself that you can get on an airplane and leave any time you like, your Rock Fever goes away.

We'd made so many trips to/from the Islands, that we never got Rock Fever - not even during Covid. Everyone is different, and "A man's got to know his limitations." (Dirty Harry in Magnum Force.) YMMV

 

[explanade]

Speaking of flights to/from Hawaii, it was revealed this week that a United flight from Maui to SFO plunged from 2-3000 feet to about 800 feet before recovering and then resuming its path.

This was some time in December, apparently there was strong storm activity at the time it took off.

 

[flyingaway]

When I read posts on Reddit/travel, I feel that I want to go some of those places right away. But, on a second thought, I would still be OK if I don't travel anymore.

In reality, we travel internationally twice a year, about two weeks each. I travel one more time overseas alone to some far-flung places. We travel in the U.S. a few times a year. If you count our trips to casinos in neighboring states (90 miles away), we almost do that weekly when we are not elsewhere. No specific budget for travel or annual spending per se, 4% of our portfolio at the end of the previous year is the ceiling that we may spend a year. So far, we have never reached that yet.

 

[Koolau]

Speaking of flights to/from Hawaii, it was revealed this week that a United flight from Maui to SFO plunged from 2-3000 feet to about 800 feet before recovering and then resuming its path.

This was some time in December, apparently there was strong storm activity at the time it took off.

That can happen anyplace as I found out on final into SLC one stormy afternoon. Just after turning final, the plane dropped several hundred feet. The drop was so sudden and violent that my hands flew up over my head. The few items not collected by the cabin crew flew up and bounced off the ceiling.

The pilot was able to power the aircraft up and miss the runway for a go around (actually we flew out over the lake and wallowed around for 45 minutes before returning for a landing.) As I was collecting my luggage, a couple of the airlines other crew members were standing around and one said "I thought we'd lost flight XYZ" which was my flight.

Stuff happens in the air. Not very often, but it does happen. IIRC the day that Hawaii incident happened was the day an incoming flight got roughed up (several injuries) due to extreme turbulence. EVERYONE heard about that because it was on the news with people being taken away in stretchers. I suppose, since there were no injuries on the other flight, nothing hit the papers until now. YMMV

 

[brett]

Air is getting harder on us as we age. We are in our early 70's. One more extended snowbird trip to Thailand/Vietnam and Australia is in the plans.

Followed by what will be our last long flight snowbird trip. Hopefully we can get to spend 8 or 9 sun filled weeks in in Kenya and Tanzania.

After that....it will probably be Mexico or Costa Rica/Panama each winter.