Family of 5 Travel Budget

[Anonymous]

According to DCUM the only way to not waste money on travel is to cram everyone into one hotel room. Everything else is fine as long you don’t get two hotel rooms. The rule of travel, is that there is no two room travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to DCUM the only way to not waste money on travel is to cram everyone into one hotel room. Everything else is fine as long you don’t get two hotel rooms. The rule of travel, is that there is no two room travel.

Two rooms is fine. Hell, get FOUR rooms if you like - then no one has to share. What gets everyone upset is the snotty posters dramatically exclaiming “If I had to share a hotel room with my kids on vacation, I’d refuse to even go!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to DCUM the only way to not waste money on travel is to cram everyone into one hotel room. Everything else is fine as long you don’t get two hotel rooms. The rule of travel, is that there is no two room travel.

Those poster clearly do not have mixed-gender teenagers. I can’t make anyone share a bed with a teeenage boy, especially not his teenage sisters. There are certain biological issues. We need at least three beds, so at least two rooms (which is almost always cheaper than a suite with two beds and a pullout couch, surprisingly).

[Anonymous]

Family of 5 here.
Our trip from this school year will be
- 1 week west to visit family; we get an Airbnb so we don’t have to cram in anyone house
- 5 day Caribbean trip
- 1 week California over winter break
- 1 week Hawaii for spring break
- 2 weeks Europe over the summer

Plus 2 girls trips (4 days each) for me with friends (no kids)
5 weeks vacation and I travel for 4 of them.
Not including food and activities on trips, probably $35k at least; I don’t typically budget or total the cost; I just pay for each trip as we go.
HHI $650; travel is the thing we love, so we spend less on other things that don’t matter to me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family of 5 here.
Our trip from this school year will be
- 1 week west to visit family; we get an Airbnb so we don’t have to cram in anyone house
- 5 day Caribbean trip
- 1 week California over winter break
- 1 week Hawaii for spring break
- 2 weeks Europe over the summer

Plus 2 girls trips (4 days each) for me with friends (no kids)
5 weeks vacation and I travel for 4 of them.
Not including food and activities on trips, probably $35k at least; I don’t typically budget or total the cost; I just pay for each trip as we go.
HHI $650; travel is the thing we love, so we spend less on other things that don’t matter to me

Wow! How do you make so much money but get so much leave!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to DCUM the only way to not waste money on travel is to cram everyone into one hotel room. Everything else is fine as long you don’t get two hotel rooms. The rule of travel, is that there is no two room travel.

Those poster clearly do not have mixed-gender teenagers. I can’t make anyone share a bed with a teeenage boy, especially not his teenage sisters. There are certain biological issues. We need at least three beds, so at least two rooms (which is almost always cheaper than a suite with two beds and a pullout couch, surprisingly).

Maybe it’s a boy thing. We have teen DD’s but we split them up. One DD and DH sleep “hot” and want almost no covers and other DD and I want extra covers. It’s totally NBD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to DCUM the only way to not waste money on travel is to cram everyone into one hotel room. Everything else is fine as long you don’t get two hotel rooms. The rule of travel, is that there is no two room travel.

Those poster clearly do not have mixed-gender teenagers. I can’t make anyone share a bed with a teeenage boy, especially not his teenage sisters. There are certain biological issues. We need at least three beds, so at least two rooms (which is almost always cheaper than a suite with two beds and a pullout couch, surprisingly).

Maybe it’s a boy thing. We have teen DD’s but we split them up. One DD and DH sleep “hot” and want almost no covers and other DD and I want extra covers. It’s totally NBD.

You don’t want to be on a bed with a teen boy. Think like dogs in heat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family of 5 here.
Our trip from this school year will be
- 1 week west to visit family; we get an Airbnb so we don’t have to cram in anyone house
- 5 day Caribbean trip
- 1 week California over winter break
- 1 week Hawaii for spring break
- 2 weeks Europe over the summer

Plus 2 girls trips (4 days each) for me with friends (no kids)
5 weeks vacation and I travel for 4 of them.
Not including food and activities on trips, probably $35k at least; I don’t typically budget or total the cost; I just pay for each trip as we go.
HHI $650; travel is the thing we love, so we spend less on other things that don’t matter to me

Wow! How do you make so much money but get so much leave!

DH makes a little more than that and never has to be in an office. Really he just needs to be able to respond to calls/emails within 24hrs. He makes his own schedule and maybe travels for work 2-3 times a year. We pretty much travel whenever we want. Know plenty of people in the same boat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family of 5 here.
Our trip from this school year will be
- 1 week west to visit family; we get an Airbnb so we don’t have to cram in anyone house
- 5 day Caribbean trip
- 1 week California over winter break
- 1 week Hawaii for spring break
- 2 weeks Europe over the summer

Plus 2 girls trips (4 days each) for me with friends (no kids)
5 weeks vacation and I travel for 4 of them.
Not including food and activities on trips, probably $35k at least; I don’t typically budget or total the cost; I just pay for each trip as we go.
HHI $650; travel is the thing we love, so we spend less on other things that don’t matter to me

Wow! How do you make so much money but get so much leave!

Not PP but lots of companies (including mine and dh’s) give unlimited PTO now. This kind of time off is not unusual.

[Anonymous]

We earn less and probably spend more on travel than the OP (much to my husband's chagrin).

Here's the thing: you can't take it with you. Life is short, make it sweet. You only truly have control over your kids until college, so you *need* to squeeze in family travel before you send them off to college. It's a *need* not a *want* IMHO.

We earn $275k and are a family of 6. COVID slowed us down, but are planning to catch up.

I've never really budgeted for travel or tallied up every penny we spend towards it, but we typically go to the DE beaches several times throughout the year (including off season); we travel to NYC; we visit relatives who are a long drive away (and hotel rooms are required); we go away every spring break and winter break (often flying); big summer vacation (on top of DE beaches); sports related tournament travel (roadtrips plus hotels); random overnights or weekend trips (Williamsburg, Philly, Hershey, the beach, the bay).

It's got to be north of $25k considering the trips I'm eyeing right now are north of $15k.

Again: you can't take it with you. There's no such thing as too much when it comes to travel ;0)

PS - We haven't made it to Europe with the kids yet. That will definitely be north of $15k, and I have at least 2 trips we need to take. We've done Canada, and it was fun and definitely less than Europe. We mostly find ourselves in the Caribbean since we love the beach and enjoy the vibe.

[Anonymous]

To OP, rent the ski equipment locally and buy a season pass to use at a few different locations. It will help offset the cost. The passes aren't accepted on holiday weekends, but it motivates you to go at other times. Keep up the travel! I am from a traveling family of 5 who didn't fly unless it was across the country or overseas, but did lots of different trips and activities. These are priceless memories I have with my parents and siblings, and we crammed into one hotel room. My family of 3 flies everywhere and we enjoy it immensely. It's money well spent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We earn less and probably spend more on travel than the OP (much to my husband's chagrin).

Here's the thing: you can't take it with you. Life is short, make it sweet. You only truly have control over your kids until college, so you *need* to squeeze in family travel before you send them off to college. It's a *need* not a *want* IMHO.

We earn $275k and are a family of 6. COVID slowed us down, but are planning to catch up.

I've never really budgeted for travel or tallied up every penny we spend towards it, but we typically go to the DE beaches several times throughout the year (including off season); we travel to NYC; we visit relatives who are a long drive away (and hotel rooms are required); we go away every spring break and winter break (often flying); big summer vacation (on top of DE beaches); sports related tournament travel (roadtrips plus hotels); random overnights or weekend trips (Williamsburg, Philly, Hershey, the beach, the bay).

It's got to be north of $25k considering the trips I'm eyeing right now are north of $15k.

Again: you can't take it with you. There's no such thing as too much when it comes to travel ;0)

PS - We haven't made it to Europe with the kids yet. That will definitely be north of $15k, and I have at least 2 trips we need to take. We've done Canada, and it was fun and definitely less than Europe. We mostly find ourselves in the Caribbean since we love the beach and enjoy the vibe.

I don’t think anyone disagrees w/ your sentiment! I’m sure every single person here wants to squeeze out as much travel as possible. The benefits are huge! Pesky pesky details get in the way…vacation time …and then of course cost! We spend about $15k a year on travel but also have college costs coming in four years and retirement..our dumb health insurance is 2k a month…we are a public school family..everything is costing more, our house needs work. Blah! Wish I could travel all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We earn less and probably spend more on travel than the OP (much to my husband's chagrin).

Here's the thing: you can't take it with you. Life is short, make it sweet. You only truly have control over your kids until college, so you *need* to squeeze in family travel before you send them off to college. It's a *need* not a *want* IMHO.

We earn $275k and are a family of 6. COVID slowed us down, but are planning to catch up.

I've never really budgeted for travel or tallied up every penny we spend towards it, but we typically go to the DE beaches several times throughout the year (including off season); we travel to NYC; we visit relatives who are a long drive away (and hotel rooms are required); we go away every spring break and winter break (often flying); big summer vacation (on top of DE beaches); sports related tournament travel (roadtrips plus hotels); random overnights or weekend trips (Williamsburg, Philly, Hershey, the beach, the bay).

It's got to be north of $25k considering the trips I'm eyeing right now are north of $15k.

Again: you can't take it with you. There's no such thing as too much when it comes to travel ;0)

PS - We haven't made it to Europe with the kids yet. That will definitely be north of $15k, and I have at least 2 trips we need to take. We've done Canada, and it was fun and definitely less than Europe. We mostly find ourselves in the Caribbean since we love the beach and enjoy the vibe.

I don’t think anyone disagrees w/ your sentiment! I’m sure every single person here wants to squeeze out as much travel as possible. The benefits are huge! Pesky pesky details get in the way…vacation time …and then of course cost! We spend about $15k a year on travel but also have college costs coming in four years and retirement..our dumb health insurance is 2k a month…we are a public school family..everything is costing more, our house needs work. Blah! Wish I could travel all the time.

I'm right there with you, pp! (I'm the "you can't take it with you" poster.)

We skimp in other areas in order to have money for travel. We drive toyotas until they die (tip: they last a long, long time). Our furniture is the original furniture we bought when we started living together back in the 90s. We're still using the dishes we received as gifts at my bridal shower (Mikasa holds up well, apparently!). We opted not to have a cleaning service or lawn service, and I remind DH how much we save annually by not outsourcing. We have college costs, too (x4). And retirement. But I've told DH I'm fine with downsizing dramatically for retirement.

I've literally spent the day online researching for spring break and summer vacations. The problem is that i'm all over the place: FL, Caribbean, Europe, and cruises. I'm receiving all kinds of pop up and ads on various platforms, and some are actually pretty great!

FWIW, I found a package through Cosmos for air and hotels for a family-friendly multi-country tour through Europe that coincides with mcps spring break that was very reasonably priced. Tons of packages throughout the summer. You can find deals if you look and are up for being flexible.

Another tip: our local DC area airports are typically more expensive than Philly, Newark and JFK. If you plan to fly abroad, compare those airports. Flights from the DC area to europe are $1k while flights from Newark and JFK are routinely $500 (sometimes less!). Philly is easy to get to the day of the flight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family of 5 here.
Our trip from this school year will be
- 1 week west to visit family; we get an Airbnb so we don’t have to cram in anyone house
- 5 day Caribbean trip
- 1 week California over winter break
- 1 week Hawaii for spring break
- 2 weeks Europe over the summer

Plus 2 girls trips (4 days each) for me with friends (no kids)
5 weeks vacation and I travel for 4 of them.
Not including food and activities on trips, probably $35k at least; I don’t typically budget or total the cost; I just pay for each trip as we go.
HHI $650; travel is the thing we love, so we spend less on other things that don’t matter to me

Wow! How do you make so much money but get so much leave!

Not PP but lots of companies (including mine and dh’s) give unlimited PTO now. This kind of time off is not unusual.

Probably at your level it makes sense; for worker bees unlimited PTO is generally a scam b/c they don’t have enough leverage to take time off because “there is always more work”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Good grief.
Sounds like you spend most of your income.
Second home, $125K annual travel. Even 1.2M won't stretch that far.
Our income is similar, and we don't do half what you do. And we don't own a second home. We're frugal I guess, but college and retirement funds are paid up. That's just us. We're not materialistic, and we don't care about staying in fancy hotels/resorts. Just do stuff we enjoy like museums, galleries, theater, dance, music events in large cities, outdoor events, hiking (no camping I hate camping) in beautiful places. We don't travel to Europe often. I guess we're homebodies.