How often for international travel as a family

[Anonymous]

Once a year bc my parents are in Europe. I did it when I made 35k, when we made 80k, 150k...If I did not have family there I would never go, but it's important for me that my kids spend time with grandparents and I spend time with my parents, so we do it. We usually do a few days in a different European city on the way now, did not when kids were little.

[Anonymous]

HHI about $200,000

By the time our kids are out of high school they will have done two, possibly three international trips. I would love to do more but there are two issues - one is that it's very expensive. Flights are outrageous. We are doing one of the international trips this summer and spending $1800 per ticket. For a family of four, that adds up really fast. Second is that my kids are both athletes and in different season sports, so through the high school years it will be very hard to get away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HHI about $200,000

By the time our kids are out of high school they will have done two, possibly three international trips. I would love to do more but there are two issues - one is that it's very expensive. Flights are outrageous. We are doing one of the international trips this summer and spending $1800 per ticket. For a family of four, that adds up really fast. Second is that my kids are both athletes and in different season sports, so through the high school years it will be very hard to get away.

This is what I wonder about with regards to kids in sports at a certain age! Agree about the tickets racking up!

[Anonymous]

We usually go on two international trips per year. Family of 4, $180k HHI. We use credit card miles plus miles my DH accumulates from work travel and we do home exchanges with other families so flights and lodging is usually $0 or very close to it.

Because we stay at houses, we always have laundry machines and just bring a few days worth of clothes and travel light, we have kitchens so we usually eat out once per day, many of the families leave us their museum passes or other memberships to use while we are there, we do lots of free or low cost things like markets, hikes, beaches, rent bikes, explore around. Our hosts usually hook us up with cool things too. In Rome, their grandmother who owns a restaurant came and gave us a cooking class with local ingredients. In Barcelona, the neighbor kids included my kids in a massive water fight and then they invited us to the neighborhood block party that night with local food, drinks, live music, and dancing. In Stockholm, we overlapped with our hosts for a day and the mom owns a vintage boutique so she took my DDs and I sourcing with her. In Starnberg (outside of Munich) we arrived early on Christmas Eve and our hosts had cookie dough ready to go and our kids made and decorated Christmas cookies together while us parents got to know each other over mulled wine before they left.

Probably not 99% of dcumers style, but we LOVE it.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know how most of you manage yearly. Flights are crazy expensive and we have 2 teens and most European hotels only accommodate 2 people per room. Thus we always need 2 rooms. We’re going this summer for a week and just hotel expenses alone will be over $8,000.

[Anonymous]

My kids are 14 and 10. We go as a family twice a year…once to Europe (tagging along to one of my DH’s academic conferences) and once to the Caribbean to visit my mom in the winter.

I usually take a dive trip, and my DH usually does 3-5 international conferences for work (but tags on a few days to relax and explore.)

[Anonymous]

When the kids were younger we just took the nanny and brought them everywhere. I traveled internationally a lot for work, so would just work "remotely" one or two days while there and tack on a weekend. Once they were in 2nd grade we stopped taking them out of school so much. Now in mid and late elementary it's probably around 3 times a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know how most of you manage yearly. Flights are crazy expensive and we have 2 teens and most European hotels only accommodate 2 people per room. Thus we always need 2 rooms. We’re going this summer for a week and just hotel expenses alone will be over $8,000.

I usually do AirBNBs in Eastern Europe. I can always find a 3 br+ home or apartment for between $100 and $200/night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We usually go on two international trips per year. Family of 4, $180k HHI. We use credit card miles plus miles my DH accumulates from work travel and we do home exchanges with other families so flights and lodging is usually $0 or very close to it.

Because we stay at houses, we always have laundry machines and just bring a few days worth of clothes and travel light, we have kitchens so we usually eat out once per day, many of the families leave us their museum passes or other memberships to use while we are there, we do lots of free or low cost things like markets, hikes, beaches, rent bikes, explore around. Our hosts usually hook us up with cool things too. In Rome, their grandmother who owns a restaurant came and gave us a cooking class with local ingredients. In Barcelona, the neighbor kids included my kids in a massive water fight and then they invited us to the neighborhood block party that night with local food, drinks, live music, and dancing. In Stockholm, we overlapped with our hosts for a day and the mom owns a vintage boutique so she took my DDs and I sourcing with her. In Starnberg (outside of Munich) we arrived early on Christmas Eve and our hosts had cookie dough ready to go and our kids made and decorated Christmas cookies together while us parents got to know each other over mulled wine before they left.

Probably not 99% of dcumers style, but we LOVE it.

Sounds fantastic to me! All those local connections, priceless!

[Anonymous]

1-2 times per year. Income under 200K. It’s a priority for us. Drive used cars. Limit our going out. Pick destinations in part based on flight and other costs. Hotels, airbnbs, hostels. We recently took a domestic trip and it felt very expensive to dine out compared to overseas. It isn’t necessarily more expensive to take an international trip.

[Anonymous]

We’ve done it every 3 years, but flights are so expensive now! We will probably do more domestic trips. HHI $300k-$600k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know how most of you manage yearly. Flights are crazy expensive and we have 2 teens and most European hotels only accommodate 2 people per room. Thus we always need 2 rooms. We’re going this summer for a week and just hotel expenses alone will be over $8,000.

We're wealthy. We also know a lot of other wealthy people with second or third homes in popular cities and they let us use them if they're not using them. But even if they didn't, we'd still go anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know how most of you manage yearly. Flights are crazy expensive and we have 2 teens and most European hotels only accommodate 2 people per room. Thus we always need 2 rooms. We’re going this summer for a week and just hotel expenses alone will be over $8,000.

You can do one room even with older teens though it’s harder to find at times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Once a year to see in-laws who live in Europe and are from there.

How long do you stay?

[Anonymous]

A couple times a year as a family, normally spring break and summer. Use work accumulated miles and points from personal credit cards. It’s still very expensive lately- we just spent about 12k over a one-week spring break not including airfare.