How much for a weeklong vacation for a family of 4?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
OP, this varies so much based on your own particular interests and destinations and standards. I’m okay with Hilton Garden hotels, sandwich shops and inexpensive museums and parks. Others may want a better hotel or dining or destinations. The best way to find out how much to budget is to plan a trip. |
Anonymous
OP, depending on your flexibility and expectations, the Miami trip could definitely be done for less. Travel during peak times will be $$, but if you look at MIA or FLL you should be able to find tickets for well under $500 a person. I’ve stayed at a decent hotel not on the beach but less than a block off for under $150/night on Priceline (based on amenities I could figure out which hotel it was before buying). A lot of your day-to-day costs could be low if it’s walking around, playing at the beach, etc. You’d probably want to pay for an airboat or other Everglades tour but that won’t be too expensive. Hawaii and Rome will obviously be much more expensive. |
Anonymous
| We stayed on a beach driving distance for $2500/ week. Other costs were comparable to a staycation. I saw Costco packages to Hawaii for $8k over spring break for 4 people, including air, rental car and hotel. Activities and food would be extra. |
Anonymous
I priced these out for a week in April in 2023 (i.e. spring break) for 5 nights. Assume hotel $300 per night, for 5 nights, for a moderate hotel in a room with 2 queens, $1500 all in. I think that would be pretty constant across all these destinations. Prices below are airfare plus hotel nights, bare minimum. You can go as flash or as frugal as you want on the rest. For example, you could have a great time in Honolulu hanging out at the beach (free), with a supermarket picnic (seriously, get the poke they sell in tubs in the supermarket, it's amazing) visiting parks and hiking (free, plus a bus fare), and stopping in to a museum or two. Miami Airfare approx $450 per person, so $1800 total. Plus hotel, $3300 San Diego Lots of variation on price here but if you were smart and shopped around, I think you could do $600 pp, so $2400. Plus hotel, $3900 Honolulu Airfare approx $1200 per person, so $4800 total Plus hotel, $6300 Rome This is the trickiest to price because there are so many travel options. If I was doing this, I'd find my best deal on a flight to Europe then use a discount airline (or train/car rental) to get to Rome. Based on my search, I'd say $900 pp, so $3600 for airfare. Plus hotel is $5100. Also don't forget cost of passports if you don't have them. |
Anonymous
|
OP - it's not one of your choices (pretty much all expensive) or else a stay cation.
We have done a lot of trips that are less expensive than those you metioned: NYC where we have a place to stay beach trips for a total of 4K where we don't spend money when we get there because we cook and go to beach everyday driving trips to nearby cities for 4 or 5 days with no airfare and inexpensive marriott hotels trips to visit family that include just a few days of hotels and travel combined with staying with relatives |
Anonymous
|
We do middle of the road travel (flights, good destinations, moderate hotels like Marriott’s or similarly priced boutique hotels).
A week for us is $7k. That is keeping a careful eye on the price of hotels and flights and taking advantage of any free hotel or credit card points. $2400 for airfare. $2500 hotels $1500 food $600 activities/shows/fees |
Anonymous
Didnyou include a car rental? Thats not cheap either. |
Anonymous
| OP, go to Costco travel (you dont have to be a member to see the costs) and price out some trips - and you will get an idea of cost... right now travel is very expensive. |
Anonymous
|
My 9th grader currently has a school project where they have to plan a family vacation for a family of four. Each student picked a state out of a hat. The budget for the trip (not including getting to the starting point in the state) is $4500. The trip needs to be between 5-8 days and the students get to assume they have use of a car (ie-they do not need to budget for a rental) but they do need to budget for gas, parking and tolls. The teacher has done this project for a number of years. Based on this you could assume that you are looking at at least $5K for a weeklong trip and that only works if you are planning to drive your own car.
This summer we did a 10 day road trip that cost $8k and included 4 nights of sleeping a the grandparent's house. Our first 4 days were in Niagara Falls in Canada and cost close to $5k because of better hotels, lots of attraction tickets and pricier food. |
Anonymous
|
OP if you really truly need to travel on a very strict budget it can be done. Over the last 6 years our HHI was 100k and our family has done:
-10 days in ireland -14 days in Spain -12 days in North Carolina -7 days in Florida -We are in the process of booking 16 days in Belgium/France/Netherlands over the holidays Yes, I go to great lengths to travel hack and save, but at the end of the day we have great trips and it's absolutely worth it to me. |
Anonymous
Adding we are a family of 4 as well |
Anonymous
|
Some ways to reduce costs:
Where are friends and family? Stay two nights or three with someone and then move on to another spot. Airbnb (or similar) and only eat out if you have to or as a treat. Miles for air travel Split cost of larger Airbnb with family or friends. Grocery stores and take out pizza are your go tos. Consider places that are much cheaper and really beautiful - second cities in the US, much of Latin America, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Cambodia. Plenty of amazing things to do. |
Anonymous
| Agree that cheaper options are to drive - we are located well for that. Think St Louis, Pittsburgh, Philly, finger lakes, North Carolina beaches, Smoky Mountains. It won’t be places you will make others jealous at parties, but you will be able to relax, spend time as a family, and have a lot of fun. |
Anonymous
I love how people always suggest this to budget travelers as if "just spend ludicrous amounts of money every year on your credit card!" is a viable option. A round trip ticket on AA without ridiculous restrictions that make them basically unusable is 40,000 points, or 160,000 for a family of four, so that's $160,000 on your AA credit card. Hilton Honors charges 45,000 points a night for anywhere you'd want to stay, so 2 rooms for 5 nights is 450,000 points or $150,000 spent on your credit card. Even with the intro bonuses for signing up for the credit card (50k for AA, 100k for Hilton, which is obviously a one-time thing) you're still looking at $225,000 required spend. Exactly how many families struggling to pay for a vacation do you think have the ability to put $225,000 on their credit card every year? |
Anonymous
|
If I was constrained by budgets I would do a scenic (go out west or NE like to Maine/Nova Scotia) road trip and hit the national parks. I mean - it's just gas and food really. You can find reasonable accommodations. That's honestly the most reasonable price giving you beautiful sights and I think can be very very memorable. I would do that every year.
I'm a bit more high flying so we go to the 4-5 star accommodations in Europe/Caribbean during high seasons which for a family of 4 is going to be min $10k for 5 days or so without airfare. But we did an amazing Airbnb last holiday in December for a week in FL for $5600 so add airfare, food, car, that's still about $7500. hat's our own pool, jacuzzi, 3BR for my 2 kids and DH and I, really really beautiful, upscale convenient locale. We've also done an amazing place in Palm Springs CA in December, for about the same price a few years ago too. More $$ to cover airfare to CA but my point is that a lot depends on WHEN you are travelling. I had a terrible time finding places open for Dec travel this year when I looked this Feb which is why we are simply going to NYC for a few days. But the Airbnbs are crazy - like $2-3k/night in Manhattan, so I would say that timing is everything. I'm looking in Sept for Dec high season - I'm sure that's why. I usually am done planning all our vacations by Feb for the year. Hell, I'm done with camps for my kids as well. Our March vacation which I finalized early August for 10 days will be $14k including airfare/private transportation/all activities for 4. Just to give you a sense of cost. The airfare was RT direct United for $500/pp at great times - so I would definitely plan really early for deals. If you didn't stay at the high end places with the private tours/transportations and all the many activities we are doing, you could get this trip down to probably $8-10k I'm guessing. It's really not bad when you consider 10 days for a family of 4 in the Caribbean. Everything is expensive these days so if you travel, you are going to need to pay up. My feeling is that you budget for a nice trip every 2-3 years. The time spent really enjoying yourself is worth it. I know a lot of people do bare minimum for budgets but when I'm on vacation I'm going to do it up because I'm supposed to. So yeah, I want to live like I'm a movie star for a couple days LOL |