Vacation expenses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We spend around $12k in vacations. Our spring break trip to Hawaii (2 weeks) will run us around $8k. We're burning a ton of points across hotels and flights, which is why it's so cheap. Then we'll have a family beach trip with extended family (yearly occurrence), and a smaller fall trip.

Family of 3. I love being thrifty and seeing how far I can stretch a buck, especially vacation wise. For Hawaii we're flying round trip from IAD to LAX, then LAX to HNL. To/From IAD is solely points. We booked to/from Hawaii a week after the flight opened for $1,500. We're staying overnight in the Hyatt attached to LAX on points (and hopefully that helps with the time changes).

We just booked our rental car ($500 for the entire 2 weeks thanks to some reward points there as well) which means we can grocery shop keeping our food total lower.

Just be aware food even at grocery store is very expensive there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a HHI of about $400k and we’re a family of 5. We spend about $30-40k on vacations per year, but travel is a priority for our family. We do Caribbean for 1-2 weeks and then another cultural trip (Europe, Asia, Latin America) for 1-2 weeks, plus some local weekend trips each year. I don’t see how a family of 5 can travel for much under $15k for any international trip. I set a Google flight alert and try to get the cheapest nonstop flights and it’s usually between $5-10k for flights alone for our family. We don’t stay in fancy hotels, but prioritize location over amenities.

What is a cultural trip? You can do cultural trips in the US or non cultural ones abroad.

We try and do a "cultural" trip in a different country, where we visit and explore a different place and try to have a different cultural experience each year, focused more on learning and exploration (museums, tours, etc), rather than a restorative/relaxing beach experience, which we get from our Caribbean trip.

I wish international "cultural trips" weren't so expensive. I maybe need to find a way to make is less so. We did that for our family vacation last year, and it didn't feel like vacation. We're flipping back to a new part of the Caribbean this year...but it'd be great to do both if we could.

I think you can save money doing flights and letting the destination pick you, rather than you picking the destination. Be open to where you can go cheaply with flights, and I have had decent luck with airbnb outside of the US too. I more often use VRBO inside the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We spend around $12k in vacations. Our spring break trip to Hawaii (2 weeks) will run us around $8k. We're burning a ton of points across hotels and flights, which is why it's so cheap. Then we'll have a family beach trip with extended family (yearly occurrence), and a smaller fall trip.

Family of 3. I love being thrifty and seeing how far I can stretch a buck, especially vacation wise. For Hawaii we're flying round trip from IAD to LAX, then LAX to HNL. To/From IAD is solely points. We booked to/from Hawaii a week after the flight opened for $1,500. We're staying overnight in the Hyatt attached to LAX on points (and hopefully that helps with the time changes).

We just booked our rental car ($500 for the entire 2 weeks thanks to some reward points there as well) which means we can grocery shop keeping our food total lower.

Just be aware food even at grocery store is very expensive there.

It's not "very expensive". I've priced out a Target pickup for down the street from our resort and while it was more expensive than here, it was maybe 30%ish higher. Such as their brand 1lb of pasta here is $.99, there it's $1.29.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think HHI is the greatest determinant of travel budget. We have a large travel budget ($40k) but we own a smaller home with a lower mortgage, send our kids to public school, and drive older cars.

Or if you have other investments that give you more freedom with income. Our HHI is free money, we don’t have to use it for any expenses. We will spend about 150k this year on travel.

[Anonymous]

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

You can live a little. It will be ok!

[Anonymous]

Life's too short for all this pointless travel just to make a bunch of photos. My family is all super tall so flying is a drag as well. We just go to our second home on the Vineyard and hang out there. Ofc we are not from the DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yea, PP is an idiot for spending that much. We’re going to Europe for 10 days at spring break for about $6k and she’s spending $7k on Key West? Why would all four need to check a bag, for example? We usually check one large bag for our family of four and take some carry ons. Use points for some hotels, find deals for flights. Etc. We fly to Europe every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

You can live a little. It will be ok!

What would you suggest for a travel budget on this HHI?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yea, PP is an idiot for spending that much. We’re going to Europe for 10 days at spring break for about $6k and she’s spending $7k on Key West? Why would all four need to check a bag, for example? We usually check one large bag for our family of four and take some carry ons. Use points for some hotels, find deals for flights. Etc. We fly to Europe every year.

Want to tell us where you've gone - and how much around flights and lodging have cost? Where you stayed etc? I would be happy for ideas and tips! We are family of 5 - 2 adults and 3 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yea, PP is an idiot for spending that much. We’re going to Europe for 10 days at spring break for about $6k and she’s spending $7k on Key West? Why would all four need to check a bag, for example? We usually check one large bag for our family of four and take some carry ons. Use points for some hotels, find deals for flights. Etc. We fly to Europe every year.

Want to tell us where you've gone - and how much around flights and lodging have cost? Where you stayed etc? I would be happy for ideas and tips! We are family of 5 - 2 adults and 3 kids.

We’re going to Portugal this year. Flights about $3600 for four (on TAP Portugal which isn’t great btw). Car rental about $400. We have most of the accommodation paid on chase Sapphire reserve points, but spending about $750 for one Airbnb rental. Tbh there were great prices for places to stay without points / looking mostly for apartments/guest houses or suites. Trains are also inexpensive, so a car might not be necessary. Breakfast is included in most of the places we are staying and we also have kitchens at the two places we are staying the longest. Though will likely eat out quite a bit. Most activities and sights are not expensive. I don’t count our usual food and entertainment budget (what we’d spend if we were at home) as part of the vacation budget and it seems Portugal might cost less overall than we spend at home some weeks.

Have also flown to Europe via Iceland in Iceland air for bargain flight prices (stop over in Iceland is fun too, though Iceland is very expensive, particularly for food). Last year that cost less than $3k for flights for four. Don’t fly Saturday to Saturday for the best prices. In the summer we tend to go mid week to mid week and book as far in advance as possible.

[Anonymous]

$320k HHI, family of four (2 in college), between $5-8k per year depending on bonuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yea, PP is an idiot for spending that much. We’re going to Europe for 10 days at spring break for about $6k and she’s spending $7k on Key West? Why would all four need to check a bag, for example? We usually check one large bag for our family of four and take some carry ons. Use points for some hotels, find deals for flights. Etc. We fly to Europe every year.

Want to tell us where you've gone - and how much around flights and lodging have cost? Where you stayed etc? I would be happy for ideas and tips! We are family of 5 - 2 adults and 3 kids.

We’re going to Portugal this year. Flights about $3600 for four (on TAP Portugal which isn’t great btw). Car rental about $400. We have most of the accommodation paid on chase Sapphire reserve points, but spending about $750 for one Airbnb rental. Tbh there were great prices for places to stay without points / looking mostly for apartments/guest houses or suites. Trains are also inexpensive, so a car might not be necessary. Breakfast is included in most of the places we are staying and we also have kitchens at the two places we are staying the longest. Though will likely eat out quite a bit. Most activities and sights are not expensive. I don’t count our usual food and entertainment budget (what we’d spend if we were at home) as part of the vacation budget and it seems Portugal might cost less overall than we spend at home some weeks.

Have also flown to Europe via Iceland in Iceland air for bargain flight prices (stop over in Iceland is fun too, though Iceland is very expensive, particularly for food). Last year that cost less than $3k for flights for four. Don’t fly Saturday to Saturday for the best prices. In the summer we tend to go mid week to mid week and book as far in advance as possible.

Thanks! I hope you have a good trip to Portugal. My husband and I went to the Azores in July 2023 while our kids were at sleepaway camp and we liked it and found it affordable there! Mainland Portugal is cheaper than the Azores too, as I understand it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family of 3, hi $500k, usually spend $25k on vacations each year. Which usually includes one high end trip to Europe and a cruise.

I wonder what your definition of high end is. We just came back from Europe, stayed with family half of the time, and in a good but not luxury hotel for about 6 days, flew economy and the total came close to 15k, including some expensive activities, like soccer matches of major European clubs. Or are you just including flights and hotels? I normally think of travel budget as anything I would not have spent if I stayed in DC. So maybe that would be worth clarifying in the answers.

To answer OP’s question, we are a family of 3, our income is a bit over 500k and we spent about 45k last year. That included a trip to Europe (also mostly staying with family), two trips to the Caribbean and a few long weekends for which we rented a house within driving distance from DC. I want to bring it closer to 30k this year as we are undertaking some house renovations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Anywhere outside USA is incredibly cheap, including Europe. This summer we went to Spain for 12 days, six cities. Accommodation is on average less than $150 but very good. Food is amazing. Monuments are magnificent, max 10 euro for tickets, kids free or heavily discounted (on contrary any museum in New York such as MET/Mona is 30 dollar each). Food is amazing for half the price of USA. I see increasingly my friends are vacationing in Europe to save money.

That’s impressive. I’m wanting to go to Spain and my husband wants Italy.

This is a bit misleading. Nice (not even luxurious) places, and in particular in high season will still cost you a lot. We go to Italy yearly in high season (as that is when our work and school schedules allow to go) and the expense is always quite high if you want to have a nice room with sea view and a good dinner every night. Activities are not cheap either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a HHI of about $400k and we’re a family of 5. We spend about $30-40k on vacations per year, but travel is a priority for our family. We do Caribbean for 1-2 weeks and then another cultural trip (Europe, Asia, Latin America) for 1-2 weeks, plus some local weekend trips each year. I don’t see how a family of 5 can travel for much under $15k for any international trip. I set a Google flight alert and try to get the cheapest nonstop flights and it’s usually between $5-10k for flights alone for our family. We don’t stay in fancy hotels, but prioritize location over amenities.

What is a cultural trip? You can do cultural trips in the US or non cultural ones abroad.

A cultural trip in the US? You made me chuckle.