Vacation expenses

[Anonymous]

HHI is about $420K. We spent $27K on travel this year. Last year it was $15K. We are recent empty nesters so this was our plan and we subsidize our children in their 20’s when they travel with us.

[Anonymous]

$350k, family of 4. We spend $15-25k, depends on the year. Annually - Spring break, 1 week at the beach in NJ (in laws pay for the house), 2 localish / driving long weekends like Shenandoah or NYC. Every other year we take a trip to visit west coast family.

[Anonymous]

A little lower hhi...around 275k- spend around 6k a year on one big family domestic trip

[Anonymous]

$375k, family of 3. This was a big year with two big national parks excursions which probably totaled $12k or so. 2024 is going to be very light, but we are headed to Europe in 2025 so that will be a chunk. Still, seems like less than a lot of people in this thread.

[Anonymous]

This is eye opening considering how many people on DCUM act like it’s super pitiful if your annual vacations are to places like Rehoboth and Orlando. I also don’t understand how people are spending this little.

We are going to Key West for Spring Break and staying in 1 hotel room at a mid-level full service chain (Marriott, Hilton). Our flights and hotel alone are $6-7k once you factor in checking 1 big suitcase for all 4 of us, Uber to/from airport, resort fees and taxes, etc. It’s easily a $10k trip with a car rental, meals out, and excursions like renting kayaks and swimming with dolphins. And it seems like we always stay at really dumpy hotels compared to other families we know in a similar income bracket!

We’re traveling to a wedding on the West coast this summer and will tack on a national park trip afterwards. I’m sure the whole thing will cost $20k and we’ll be gone 2-2.5 weeks. A trip to Europe or South America would be equally costly.

[Anonymous]

We spend about 5k skiing every year (accommodations free because I’m laws have a mountain home). We do a big beach house for a week with friends for about $6k. We do a smaller summer trip typically for $3kish. Then we do a spring break trip about $5k. I am splurging now because kids are in elementary and still want to spend all their time with us. I consider these memory making years and I want to cherish them. Once they’re out of house I expect we will significantly scale back travel. I travel a lot to work all over the world so probably will just have spouse travel with me once kids out of house. HHI is $425k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Zero.

How is this possible? You take zero vacations per year? No time away at all?

[Anonymous]

Family of 5. $1M HHI. Travel budget $40k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zero.

How is this possible? You take zero vacations per year? No time away at all?

No vacations since before covid hit. Before that it was rare too. What do you mean how is it possible? With covid, colds and flu and people inconsiderate there is zero chance I'd get on a plane or go somewhere crowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is eye opening considering how many people on DCUM act like it’s super pitiful if your annual vacations are to places like Rehoboth and Orlando. I also don’t understand how people are spending this little.

We are going to Key West for Spring Break and staying in 1 hotel room at a mid-level full service chain (Marriott, Hilton). Our flights and hotel alone are $6-7k once you factor in checking 1 big suitcase for all 4 of us, Uber to/from airport, resort fees and taxes, etc. It’s easily a $10k trip with a car rental, meals out, and excursions like renting kayaks and swimming with dolphins. And it seems like we always stay at really dumpy hotels compared to other families we know in a similar income bracket!

We’re traveling to a wedding on the West coast this summer and will tack on a national park trip afterwards. I’m sure the whole thing will cost $20k and we’ll be gone 2-2.5 weeks. A trip to Europe or South America would be equally costly.

I don't see how you're paying this much. $2k tops on tickets and $2500 for mid-level hotel.

There's no reason a trip to Europe or South America needs to be $20k, particularly if you just spend a little bit of time searching for flight deals.

[Anonymous]

We are retired so we are on full time vacation with two homes, visiting friends, kids, nice trips etc. I’m clueless as to what we spend on all of the comings and goings but $50,000 would not be a surprise. All I know is that we spend a lot more in retirement than we ever did when working.

[Anonymous]

Family of 4. We budget 20k for travel every year. Normally 3 big trips - one to Europe, one to Asia/latin America, one to a national park in the U.S. We also do a few small trips like NYC, or road trip locally from time to time. The way to keep budget under 20k is that we use lots of points as we both travel for work a lot. We also do some tag along trips with one spouse’ business trip so that at least one big air ticket is covered etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family of 4. We budget 20k for travel every year. Normally 3 big trips - one to Europe, one to Asia/latin America, one to a national park in the U.S. We also do a few small trips like NYC, or road trip locally from time to time. The way to keep budget under 20k is that we use lots of points as we both travel for work a lot. We also do some tag along trips with one spouse’ business trip so that at least one big air ticket is covered etc.

Even with airline ticket help that’s a lot of vacation for $20k. How do you vacation in Europe for about 10k. Any pointers on how to do it?

[Anonymous]

About $10-$15k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is eye opening considering how many people on DCUM act like it’s super pitiful if your annual vacations are to places like Rehoboth and Orlando. I also don’t understand how people are spending this little.

We are going to Key West for Spring Break and staying in 1 hotel room at a mid-level full service chain (Marriott, Hilton). Our flights and hotel alone are $6-7k once you factor in checking 1 big suitcase for all 4 of us, Uber to/from airport, resort fees and taxes, etc. It’s easily a $10k trip with a car rental, meals out, and excursions like renting kayaks and swimming with dolphins. And it seems like we always stay at really dumpy hotels compared to other families we know in a similar income bracket!

We’re traveling to a wedding on the West coast this summer and will tack on a national park trip afterwards. I’m sure the whole thing will cost $20k and we’ll be gone 2-2.5 weeks. A trip to Europe or South America would be equally costly.

We stay at dumpy hotels too. We went to London and found a place that was about $350/night. Great location, but wow, no one was enthused when we walked inside our room. The nicer places were $500-$700 and that definitely puts us over budget.