Is this a normal or excessive amount of travel?

[Anonymous]

Personally it sounds like more than the "norm", but that totally depends on the area.

We currently travel 2 times a year. Next year we're able to bump it to 3. We have a week long family beach trip during the summer, a long weekend in Disney (this year it was 10 days because we added in Universal) and next year adding a week in the Caribbean.

The following year doing Alaska instead of the Caribbean, as well as a long weekend in Canada (long weekend in Disney and beach trip are yearly events).

Judging by most of our friends we travel more than most. Most of them take one trip every 2-3 years (Disney for all of them most recently), a few throw in a beach weekend.

Another does travel a bunch, but they have a lot of money. They take at least one international trip a year (London, Hong Kong, etc) plus 3-4 additional trips within the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP where do you live?

This amount of travel is pretty normal and middle of the road for any affluent area in DC.

Most families do this around here. Travel over each school break.

At school, the kids ask each other: where did you go? And it’s all Disney, skiing, Hawaii, Europe, etc.

this is excessive amount of travel, especially with all the kids. if she travelled 6 times a year she would complain about not traveling seven times. adding to her travel schedule would make absolutely no difference whatsoever to her satisfaction with her life.

[Anonymous]

Sounds basic to me OP. We travel more than that and avoid repeat travel. We want to see the whole world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds basic to me OP. We travel more than that and avoid repeat travel. We want to see the whole world.

Good for you. How many countries have you guys done? And apparently, based on the other thread in this forum, you haven’t seen the world until you’ve walked the urine soaked streets of Philadelphia. LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds basic to me OP. We travel more than that and avoid repeat travel. We want to see the whole world.

Good for you. How many countries have you guys done? And apparently, based on the other thread in this forum, you haven’t seen the world until you’ve walked the urine soaked streets of Philadelphia. LOL. [/quote

We've been to over 50 countries and have a lot to go! And funny, yes, we've been to Philly ... dare I say I'm not a fan ... I work with a lot of people from there and they LOVE IT!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds basic to me OP. We travel more than that and avoid repeat travel. We want to see the whole world.

Good for you. How many countries have you guys done? And apparently, based on the other thread in this forum, you haven’t seen the world until you’ve walked the urine soaked streets of Philadelphia. LOL.

I have traveled to around 60 countries with repeat visits to many countries. I also lived overseas for 12 years. Since coming back to the US I probably spend about three weeks overseas (one 2-week trip and one 1-week trip) plus a week somewhere in the US and usually 1-2 weekend trips domestically. But I don't travel with young children and I can't imagine doing the same travel with 2-3 kids under 14. My sister has young children and their travel is mostly to a resort in the Caribbean for a week in the winter and several weeks at the beach in the summer. She and her husband took a week to France alone for the first time to celebrate their 15th anniversary and she says she'd love to go back with the family but she won't take the kids on a more active trip until they're all at least 12 and I can understand why.

And I like Philadelphia. I think it's a cool town. I always have a good time there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds basic to me OP. We travel more than that and avoid repeat travel. We want to see the whole world.

Good for you. How many countries have you guys done? And apparently, based on the other thread in this forum, you haven’t seen the world until you’ve walked the urine soaked streets of Philadelphia. LOL.

I have traveled to around 60 countries with repeat visits to many countries. I also lived overseas for 12 years. Since coming back to the US I probably spend about three weeks overseas (one 2-week trip and one 1-week trip) plus a week somewhere in the US and usually 1-2 weekend trips domestically. But I don't travel with young children and I can't imagine doing the same travel with 2-3 kids under 14. My sister has young children and their travel is mostly to a resort in the Caribbean for a week in the winter and several weeks at the beach in the summer. She and her husband took a week to France alone for the first time to celebrate their 15th anniversary and she says she'd love to go back with the family but she won't take the kids on a more active trip until they're all at least 12 and I can understand why.

And I like Philadelphia. I think it's a cool town. I always have a good time there.

It obviously depends on the kids, but in my experience many kids are willing/able to do more rigorous things like walking long distances, moderate climbing, etc once they get to around 8. Personally if you had the money to afford it, I wouldn't wait all the way until all kids were 12+ to do a big trip. Obviously depends on your specific kids though- some just get whiny and pouty and thus are no fun to be around, so doing that type of trip with them wouldn't be worth it.

[Anonymous]

Obviously it depends on the area but this shows a huge amount of privilege to be able to travel like that. Many people aren’t able to travel at all. I know when I grew up in Arlington, Many families traveled a lot all over the country and abroad.

I now live in a different area of VA and it is NOT the norm to travel beyond the beach-typically VA beach, outer banks or myrtle beach with a few cruises and Disney scattered in there. I love to travel with and without my kids but we do it on a tight budget.

1 trip without kids for 1 week ($1,500-$2,000 with flights) and 1 week with kids (1,500-$3,000) plus a couple of hiking/camping weekends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously it depends on the area but this shows a huge amount of privilege to be able to travel like that. Many people aren’t able to travel at all. I know when I grew up in Arlington, Many families traveled a lot all over the country and abroad.

I now live in a different area of VA and it is NOT the norm to travel beyond the beach-typically VA beach, outer banks or myrtle beach with a few cruises and Disney scattered in there. I love to travel with and without my kids but we do it on a tight budget.

1 trip without kids for 1 week ($1,500-$2,000 with flights) and 1 week with kids (1,500-$3,000) plus a couple of hiking/camping weekends.

I’ll edit that I’d love to be able to travel that frequently! My goal is to eventually work for a school system and be able to take 3-4 week budget trips with my kids (my dream).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds basic to me OP. We travel more than that and avoid repeat travel. We want to see the whole world.

Good for you. How many countries have you guys done? And apparently, based on the other thread in this forum, you haven’t seen the world until you’ve walked the urine soaked streets of Philadelphia. LOL.

I have traveled to around 60 countries with repeat visits to many countries. I also lived overseas for 12 years. Since coming back to the US I probably spend about three weeks overseas (one 2-week trip and one 1-week trip) plus a week somewhere in the US and usually 1-2 weekend trips domestically. But I don't travel with young children and I can't imagine doing the same travel with 2-3 kids under 14. My sister has young children and their travel is mostly to a resort in the Caribbean for a week in the winter and several weeks at the beach in the summer. She and her husband took a week to France alone for the first time to celebrate their 15th anniversary and she says she'd love to go back with the family but she won't take the kids on a more active trip until they're all at least 12 and I can understand why.

And I like Philadelphia. I think it's a cool town. I always have a good time there.

This is fairly typical for UMC DC families, I think. I would say that most of my friends are in the 50-country club, with some over 100 countries visited.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like my wealthy neighbors, plus they own a second home in Florida and travel there many weekends. They’re in their 30s with two elementary age kids. Kids miss a lot of school because of the travels.

[Anonymous]

I’m from nyc and I love to travel.

Does she work?

Their annual ski, beach and Caribbean vacations seem normal. The summer vacation could be better but maybe their kids are young.

I probably travel the most in our circles. We go on 10+ trips per year. I do what your sister does but then also do Europe and Asia. We do both repeat and easy trips. And since we live in DC, we go up to NYC 1-3 times per year to visit our family and friends. We may do a lake house or cape cod. I don’t work though. When I worked, your sister’s trips sound just right. I travel with and without my husband. He sometimes meets us at the end of our vacation if he doesn’t want to take the whole week off or fly back ewrly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m from nyc and I love to travel.

Does she work?

Their annual ski, beach and Caribbean vacations seem normal. The summer vacation could be better but maybe their kids are young.

I probably travel the most in our circles. We go on 10+ trips per year. I do what your sister does but then also do Europe and Asia. We do both repeat and easy trips. And since we live in DC, we go up to NYC 1-3 times per year to visit our family and friends. We may do a lake house or cape cod. I don’t work though. When I worked, your sister’s trips sound just right. I travel with and without my husband. He sometimes meets us at the end of our vacation if he doesn’t want to take the whole week off or fly back ewrly.

This. Pretty standard. But we do Europe at least three times per year, and less NYC.

[Anonymous]

Anyone who answers this is a normal or low amount of travel is absurdly packaged in the DC bubble. For 90% of this country, that’s an unattainable amount of travel and privilege. The fact they can afford 5 week long vacations a year to other countries or to expensive activities like skiing makes them incredibly privileged and outside the norm. I get it, we live here where families make 300k and think they’re middle class so travel is normal and routine and affordable for many, but even if you’d like to do it more often, being able to do 5 vacations a year is a luxury.

[Anonymous]

I feel like that is a lot of traveling. Our schedules don't allow for that at all. We typically take an international trip in the summer, go somewhere a short flight away at Spring Break and take a few 3 day weekend jaunts to places where we can drive. I can't imagine that much time off of work. She should stop complaining.