Family of 5 Travel Budget

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So do most people not travel during holidays, spring break, and summer?! Just sene kids to camp?

We travel for holidays to visit family - so NY for Thanksgiving and NC for Christmas. Neither one costs us money besides gas and tolls.

We travel for spring break but keep it somewhere driving distance. Cabin in the mountains, Charleston, Williamsburg, etc.

In the summer our kids are in camp because both parents work full time. There is a week between camps closing down and school starting - we visit the NC relatives at the beach normally.

Yes, we could get more culture elsewhere but our kids are on the young side and I didn’t really want to fly before they were vaccinated. It’s always interesting to hear budgets from other households - we are at $300k HHI and our travel budget is maybe $1k a year.

Well yeah. If you have relatives with a beach house and can drive to family it’s way cheaper.

What do you do with kids for a week in the mountains? We like hiking (did Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon all before kids) but they are up for a day of hiking, maybe two if we are camping. A week would end in madness.

We do lots of shorter hikes; we get a place with a hot tub and keep the temp low so they can spend time in there; they bring soccer balls and footballs and play like they would at home in our back yard. We fly drones and gliders, drive remote control trucks and make the kids chase them. We set off those mini rockets. They have fun playing with toy figures in a new space so they set up battles between transformers and Pokémon or whatever they are in to. We roast s’mores over a fire. We don’t always go for a full week; we come home a few days early so they can have true downtime before school, have play dates with friends etc.

That sounds delightful. We should invest in some of those gadgets!

[Anonymous]

That’s way too many vacations. Way too much money.

Do one big summer trip, one winter ski trip, and a couple weekend getaways.

$15k a year should be sufficient. I don’t ski but if it’s important to you, keep it, but be mindful of costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re taking five vacations a year. That is a lot of vacation.

I get more weeks of vacation than you but we don’t go away every time. Just 2-3x a year.

Xmas break is family obligation, I don’t count it as vacation! (I would work if employer allowed it)

Spring break kids are home and it’s only time to go to places that are too hot on summer like Grand Canyon

Ski trips are long weekends — lots of families at our public school zip away for weekends, some even fly to Colorado or Florida

Beach and a big vacation is the only perhaps excess. Depends on what enriching vacation is or if we go to beach in spring time.

Kids are only young for a little while so trying make memorias.

Lots of excuses & rationalizing here. Travel is a luxury. Sounds like you spend way too much on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So do most people not travel during holidays, spring break, and summer?! Just sene kids to camp?

We travel for holidays to visit family - so NY for Thanksgiving and NC for Christmas. Neither one costs us money besides gas and tolls.

We travel for spring break but keep it somewhere driving distance. Cabin in the mountains, Charleston, Williamsburg, etc.

In the summer our kids are in camp because both parents work full time. There is a week between camps closing down and school starting - we visit the NC relatives at the beach normally.

Yes, we could get more culture elsewhere but our kids are on the young side and I didn’t really want to fly before they were vaccinated. It’s always interesting to hear budgets from other households - we are at $300k HHI and our travel budget is maybe $1k a year.

Curious what kids age 4-12 would find interesting in Charleston? Older kids might like colonial Williamsburg.

Dolphin boat; beach combing; plantation with swamp garden and farm animals; aquarium; kayaking; children's museum; older kids learn about slavery, the Gullah culture, etc.

I just don't see how you can do all that for $1K a year. Our last trip we did a plantation tour, swamp tour and an aquarium. For a family of 5, just those 3 activities cost over $500. It's 1,000 miles r/t to Charleston, so figuring 30 mpg (which would be great for a minivan) that's at least another hundred in gas, plus I assume you do at least a few meals out for a trip, and maybe have to pay for parking at some of those places like the aquarium. So that gets you to $1K right there on one trip. I think some of the people that have low travel budget are only counting hotel and airfare in that budget. When I do a budget, I do it all in because some trips have cheap airfare but expensive activities, while other trips are expensive airfare but activities are mostly free.

We're another family with only family on the other side of the country, and they live in an apartment so no room for us. (And, because they live in a warm climate, Christmas is high season for them.) We spend several thousand just to see them annually -- not sure whether I should consider that part of our "vacation" budget -- it's more just like a "family" cost. It should probably be a different line item on the budget. I never buy my parents presents, though! They always say "your visit it more than enough of a present".

[Anonymous]

Family of 5 (but often bring our ap so 6), hhi 900-1.2m, we spend most weekends at our second home in winter to ski, and a lot of the summer there as well. We also take 3-4 other vacations in normal times, plus 1-2 trips to see family. I think we probably spend @$50-100k/year on travel depending on the year. That’s not for first class and 5* hotels, that is just what it costs. We usually do europe at least once a year (haven’t been since 2019) and often rent a house and just stay for 3-4 weeks, doing day trips. Hoping we can resume that this summer especially since working remotely is accepted as a norm now. Big expensive trips in the past was @$25k for taking extended family to Disney for Christmas week, Hawaii for 9 days in Feb (rented a house with pool in one place, stayed in a resort just a couple of nights), dh and I try to take one nice trip a year just us. Jade Mountain was probably our fanciest, we’ve also done long weekends in various places in the US and Europe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So do most people not travel during holidays, spring break, and summer?! Just sene kids to camp?

We travel for holidays to visit family - so NY for Thanksgiving and NC for Christmas. Neither one costs us money besides gas and tolls.

We travel for spring break but keep it somewhere driving distance. Cabin in the mountains, Charleston, Williamsburg, etc.

In the summer our kids are in camp because both parents work full time. There is a week between camps closing down and school starting - we visit the NC relatives at the beach normally.

Yes, we could get more culture elsewhere but our kids are on the young side and I didn’t really want to fly before they were vaccinated. It’s always interesting to hear budgets from other households - we are at $300k HHI and our travel budget is maybe $1k a year.

Curious what kids age 4-12 would find interesting in Charleston? Older kids might like colonial Williamsburg.

Dolphin boat; beach combing; plantation with swamp garden and farm animals; aquarium; kayaking; children's museum; older kids learn about slavery, the Gullah culture, etc.

Yeah that works for the young elem set but we do a lot of that in DC on a regular weekend.

Really? You see dolphins and alligators in DC? Wow... Someone asked what kids do on vacation in Charleston, and I answered. Most vacations with kids are similar, regardless of location.

[Anonymous]

I think this travel budget seems about right. We have the same HhI and feel that travel is so wonderful and makes wonderful memories for your kids. This year we’re going to Florida/Disney, skiing, Yellowstone/grand Teton in the summer and a winter break trip somewhere warm. It’ll be about 25k

[Anonymous]

Swimming and skiing are amazing activities.

OP, we are a family of four and I think we spend a bit more per trip. It adds up. It's definitely our family indulgence. We don't have a big house and our car is 11 years old (and going strong) but we see travel as an incomparable way to understand the world, bond as a family and have fun.

[Anonymous]

If you are meeting your goals for college and retirement savings, and you don’t have consumer debt, I don’t have a problem with this OP. Maybe you save money on cars or housing. Money is fungible.

[Anonymous]

Curious to OP. Do you send your kids to private or public school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s way too many vacations. Way too much money.

Do one big summer trip, one winter ski trip, and a couple weekend getaways.

$15k a year should be sufficient. I don’t ski but if it’s important to you, keep it, but be mindful of costs.

Way too much for what? For you? So don’t do it! How can you say it’s too much money and too many vacations for someone else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s way too many vacations. Way too much money.

Do one big summer trip, one winter ski trip, and a couple weekend getaways.

$15k a year should be sufficient. I don’t ski but if it’s important to you, keep it, but be mindful of costs.

Way too much for what? For you? So don’t do it! How can you say it’s too much money and too many vacations for someone else?

Well she’s asking if her numbers are crazy, and I’m saying yes. And “way too much for what” you ask? Her income!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s way too many vacations. Way too much money.

Do one big summer trip, one winter ski trip, and a couple weekend getaways.

$15k a year should be sufficient. I don’t ski but if it’s important to you, keep it, but be mindful of costs.

Way too much for what? For you? So don’t do it! How can you say it’s too much money and too many vacations for someone else?

Well she’s asking if her numbers are crazy, and I’m saying yes. And “way too much for what” you ask? Her income!

Nah, her numbers are fine. A little low actually. It’s just a lot to spend for crap destinations. Aim higher OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious to OP. Do you send your kids to private or public school?

Wow! How prescient. We go to public but are considering public because it’s been a mess, and spouse is concerned we will have to curtail travel which is so important to our family.

We drive 12 year old cars, always shopped at old navy, and grew up MC so never traveled so this was like our one big splurge for kids. I mean I never skied until I was 25 — so when college friends went skiing I didn’t go because I didn’t feel like sitting alone by a fireplace all weekend.

I agree with PP we should aim higher, but unsure how to do that. We have one “reach” trip like Europe or Asia, and one national park (we hiked a lot before kids and trying to get them into it at least with stunt destination like Bryce Canyon, Zion, Glacier, etc). I also just want them to visit other cities around US, to see how other places live too. I guess we could cut the beach trip, but that is the only real “vacation” in the sense it’s sooo relaxing to go to a place we know, kids love boogie boarding and are in water all day, then just get food from our local faves without scouring yelp. It would be a dream if we had a relative with a beach house tradition, but obv just a dream.

The Xmas flights are required sadly; cross country and high season and with school schedules it’s hard to shift the days to save much. We book early as we can but it’s not like airlines discount that much, they know it will sell out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s way too many vacations. Way too much money.

Do one big summer trip, one winter ski trip, and a couple weekend getaways.

$15k a year should be sufficient. I don’t ski but if it’s important to you, keep it, but be mindful of costs.

Way too much for what? For you? So don’t do it! How can you say it’s too much money and too many vacations for someone else?

Well she’s asking if her numbers are crazy, and I’m saying yes. And “way too much for what” you ask? Her income!

Nah, her numbers are fine. A little low actually. It’s just a lot to spend for crap destinations. Aim higher OP!

You have a strong opinion — I would love to see your example of a better itinerary with that time and budget — maybe I can sell my spouse.

I wish we could get family to travel with us or to us, that would make Xmas a better deal but too old.