Average Vacations In A Year and Average Cost?

[eliza61]

Depends on the year.

this year we're doing Europe so that tends to raise my average price due to expensive air fare.

We do disney often but that's usually a very inexpensive trip for us since we are dvc'ers, we some times drive down and have annual passes and we don't eat onsite often.

This year we have 3 major trips
did disney in March
london/paris in 3 weeks
Las vegas for Christmas.

I'm doing a solo trip back to wdw since my kids will be back in school and 4th of July I may sneak down to Charleston to visit relatives.

Like GS above me last year was a pretty horrible year for me so I didn't take any vacation.

Next year I'm determined to do the Yellowstone/grand tetons and a few civil war sites. I haven't priced them out yet so I don't know.

 

[indimom]

I'd say we average one a year. Many would be visits with family or short weekend camping trips. We've taken four or five trips in the last 17 years that were longer than a weekend.

2002: 7 days in Destin at my sister's house. Very much a vacation. Dolphin tours, aquarium, a local zoo, the beach, etc. $1,200.

2004: 7 Days tent camping at Mammoth Cave Kentucky. Tons of fun. A great value. $1,500.

2005: 10 Days in Disney. Priceless. $3,000.

2008: 7 Days at Universal. Loved it. $1,500.

2010: 14 Days in Disney. Ahhhh. $5,500.

2013: 8 days: 5 camping at Disney, 3 at Universal. About $1,200 thanks to rewards points. We're only paying oop for gas, groceries (which will mostly be from the cooler) and 3-day universal tickets.

Future plans include DC and a two-week trip out west to see several National Parks.

 

[eliza61]

3 vacations a year

2 weeks on an international vacation-must be a new location each time

1 week at Disney

1 week in a tropical location; usually Hawaii

I also go to Las Vegas for long weekends (usually 5 days) twice a year with my best friend

Pakey, I think I said this before, you've got to start a travel blog. I live through you and I need pictures for my fantasy.

 

[Granny square]

We don't vacation much. We maybe take one week a year away. This year we're renting a house in the Adirondacks for a week. Some years we go nowhere. It's just not a big priority.

Oh, the museum at blue mountain lake is one of my favorite anywhere. No clue why, but if you are near it is a nice small visit.

 

[Jaime4004]

I've just been texting back and forth with DH today to let him know our vacation plans for the year (i'm the planner, he goes along for the ride...) because he needed to give work notice. They are asking for it all now and stated that everyone must use up one week of vacation before June 23rd this year.

DH and I are going to FL for a long weekend in May
I'm going on a 4 day cruise from Boston to Canada with friends (my first ever non family vacation in July
Cape cod for long weekend in July with whole family
Family vacation to FL in Aug for 10 days
Long weekend in NH white mountains in Oct for family
FL again over xmas break with family

Luckily, my parents have a vacation rental in FL that we can use whenever and usually drive so it's affordable. These are not always Disney vacations, definitely not in August, not sure about the Dec trip yet...

 

[NHdisneylover]

I've been finding the opposite, but then again I am not big business material. My work history is in social services, education, and a short stint in journalism.

Sadly, your fields are not the ones doing this sort of thing. DD16 wants to be an OT and she knows she will not get this kind of vacation in that field.

DH is in a line of work where he travels 5--80% of the time, so having weeks to spend with his family and recuperate from the stress really does make him more productive overall.

 

[hlg22]

I usually try to take one big international trip, a shorter international trip, and then a few domestic trips. I get 4 weeks of vacation at work but it can be hard to take them all depending on what's going on because I really still have to remain reachable.

Last year wasn't the most exciting for travel, but I did (from the East Coast):

• 2 long weekends in San Diego, where I grew up
• A weekend in Philly
• 12 days in Paris and Provence
• A long Thanksgiving weekend in Oregon
• A week in San Diego over Christmas

I think I probably spent around $10k? Maybe a little less. They were all pretty low-cost trips, except for France.

So far this year I've done:

A long weekend in Seattle
A week at Disney/Universal

I am sadly probably not going to get to take an international trip this year, since my sister is getting married in the fall and I know that I'm going to have to spend a week out in the Pacific Northwest for that, and then probably a long weekend in Vegas or somewhere for her bachelorette. I'm trying to sell Christmas in the Caribbean rather than San Diego this year but I'm not sure that's going to fly.

 

[Candleinthewind]

Vacations to us are a priority, it is how we choose to make memories. Last year it was a Disney cruise, a river cruise through Europe, a cruise on the largest ship in the world, a Hawaiian cruise and vacation.

This year it is Iceland this summer and a trip out of NYC on the new NCL ship. No one I know has photos of them going off to work, however I know a ton of people who have tons of vacation photos.

 

[scrapquitler]

We usually do 5-6 long weekend trips a year within New England/midAtlantic area. Once every few yers we'll go somewhere further for a longer time period (usually every 3-4 years for 10 days at Disney World). The long weekend trips cost us maybe $500 each, sometimes less or more depending on exactly where we go or what we do while we are there. The WDW trips cost us about $4000-$5000.

DD is going to be a senior in high school next year, so we'll be gearing up to pay for college. We probably won't be doing very much vacationing for the next 5 years or so as a result.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Yes! In fact, that is his favorite movie. I have never seen it so I didn't know it was a quote.

One of my top five favorites as well

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Next year I'm determined to do the Yellowstone/grand tetons and a few civil war sites. I haven't priced them out yet so I don't know.

Yellowstone/Tetons is definitely a bucket list item for our family. I've been twice, but both were before meeting DW, so neither she nor the kids have gone. Majestic is the only way I can describe it

 

[Colleen27]

It varies wildly from year to year. When DH was self-employed we usually took one weeklong trip and one or two long weekends because his slow season was smack in the middle of the school year so time was very limited. Now it is all up in the air; DH closed his business to take a "too good to pass up" job offer last year, only to have that end with a "temporary" layoff that turned permanent, and now he's in a full-time seasonal position while also juggling a part-time position with another company while going through the evaluation process for a management position there. What happens with vacation will depend on if he moves into that full-time management job with the second company - if he does, he'll have paid vacation after 6 months and a great deal of flexibility in when he's able to take it. If he doesn't, we'll be back to traveling in the winter slow/layoff season which will seriously cramp our vacation style because our oldest will be in high school next year and can't easily make up missed days.

I do travel without DH (with his blessing) too. So between our family travels and my trips with the kids, we probably spend 15-20 nights a year away from home. This year will be more for me because the plans just sort of worked out that way - one-on-one trips with each of my kids, a solo trip to meet some friends at WDW, plus two weekend whole-family trips over the summer, and hopefully a kid-free anniversary trip in the fall if DH can get the time. It might actually add up to a whole month this year!

As far as budget that's pretty much "everything that's left over once the bills are paid". We're "experience" people - we don't spend much on material possessions but we're suckers for travel, special events, and otherwise making memories. We probably spend about 10K in an average year, more in years where we're taking bigger trips and less in years when we do more driving/weekend trips.

 

[tasha99]

Sadly, your fields are not the ones doing this sort of thing. DD16 wants to be an OT and she knows she will not get this kind of vacation in that field.

DH is in a line of work where he travels 5--80% of the time, so having weeks to spend with his family and recuperate from the stress really does make him more productive overall.

Excellent career choice for your daughter! Wish more kids would look into allied health--she will have a job when she graduates. If she works in a school, she'd make less money but lots of time off. Lots of choices for OTs . . .

 

[MIGrandma]

Our vacations vary from year to year. We don't "budget" vacation money. If we have extra $$ we go, if we don't we don't. But most years we are able to take at least one big trip, sometimes more.

This year we spent 3 weeks (end of January/beginning of February) on vacation. We stayed a few days in New Orleans (French Quarter), took a Caribbean cruise out of NO, then spent a few days in Memphis and several days in Nashville (rented a log cabin in Whites Creek). We really didn't keep good track of the money spent, but I would guess somewhere around $5,000 for the whole trip.

We're planning a 2-week camping trip in the upper peninsula for July, will probably do that for $1500 or so.

Then in September our DD and I are going on a "mother/daughter" trip to Disney, staying a week at Port Orleans and the trip is about $2500, plus whatever I spend on the trip (shows, food, etc.) so probably around $3,000 for that.

We spend as much time as possible at our place up north over the warmer weather months, so we spend quite a bit on gas going back and forth, but not a lot when we're there so it's really hard to guess the cost of that.

And we go away for a few weekends a year too, for our anniversary, our birthdays, etc.

We love to travel and see new places, and go back to favorite places. I know we could spend the money elsewhere but traveling is what we enjoy and we want to do it while we're both in good enough health to enjoy it.

 

[disykat]

Our general pattern has been one two week vacation, two five day trips (8 hour drive away) to visit family, and one weekend beach trip (a few hours drive) each year. The entire budget for all of that is probably about 6K but it varies depending how much we have in savings. We've had great trips, and although we're not world travelers, our kids have been in about half the states and Canada. Usually we did a driving trip one year, a trip involving airfare the next. We're not really resort travelers, but more budget explorers.

Like others, we're in college mode right now. Since the kids hit high school, we really haven't done any long trips. With their summer jobs, band camp and their youth group mission trips have been all they could handle. (And we've got money going out for some of those things!) DH and I have gone on short trips nearby each summer while they've been on their youth group trips.

The only big "vacation" we've done in the last five years is a week long Christmas trip to WDW. Their spring breaks are at different times, summers they've got jobs, internships, drum corp, etc. If we get any travel time, we go to visit family or take a family weekend to the beach. Our family travel budget has been more like 2K each year, although this year it might be a bit higher if DH and I travel to one of our son's drum corp performances.

We're just about at the two kids in college hump and once that's over we'll be bumping our travel back up. After they're both out, we hope to do a lot more traveling! I'd like to get back to Europe and we'd both like to go to Australia. We'd also like to road trip the rest of the states.

We feel very fortunate to have done the traveling we have. We've always traveled, but we've chosen to be very frugal about it because as much as we consider it a priority, we've got other even bigger priorities!

 

[Ember]

We travel a fair bit. We just got back from 8 days in Bali (it was an anniversary trip so we did it in luxury and spent a fair bit), we have a diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef planned in July, a week in New Zealand in October, DH has a conference in Portugal in August and will tack on some extra travel days and I hope to spend a month in India in the new year volunteering. All told we probably spend around 15k in travel per year. (Now, to afford that we live pretty modestly, probably more so than most people would be comfortable with.)

 

[Kitty 34]

When the boys lived at home we would take one "fly" vacation to WDW or Las Vegas as they got older. For five of us we usually planned on about $4,000 tops (2000 to 2010)

We also would do our annual summer trips for 3-4 days to Mackinaw City which would cost us usually a grand.

 

[J.C.&ALI'SMOM]

We both work for the public school system so we get more time off than most people. Every year is different as far as trips go and a lot of it depends on whether we have APs or not! We had 4 trips on the last set of APs. For this year:

June - 12 days in Orlando, staying at Reunion Resort

July - 10 days, 3 in Fort Lauderdale and a week at WDW (we had to get that last AP trip in, lol)

Nov - week in Las Vegas for DD1's birthday and Thanksgiving

March - 5 night cruise and 2 nights in Myrtle Beach for DD2's birthday and Easter/Spring Break

We take several weekend trips through the year, to the Smokies, Cincinnati, Charlotte, etc. for sports events, concerts, and shopping.

 

[lovin'fl]

Due to DH's work schedule, the kids' school schedule and my DDs' softball (year round, club...and DH helps coach) schedule we have to work really hard to find times to vacation. Yet, I really really love to vacation (specifically WDW and cruising). So, since 2010, we tend to do a few shorter trips (4-6 nights) every year (5 trips in a 2 year period, if you take out the softball stuff).
2007-
Jan 5 nights at WDW (with MIL and FIL)
**Aug-moved from NC to MD**
Sept 7 night family cruise (with MIL and FIL)

2008-
9 night summer trip to WDW (with DH's sis1 and our fams)

2009-
summer DVC trip- 4 nights at HH and then 3 nights at OKW for Seaworld (no WDW parks)

2010-
spring 3 day cruise for just DH and I (yup, we drove to FL)
softball WS in OC, MD (a couple other weekend travel tourneys)
August 5 day family cruise

2011-(year of APs...unusually expensive and intensive vacation year)
spring 4 day cruise for just DH and I (yup, we drove again)
softball WS at Disney World (a couple other weekend travel tourneys)
August 5 day family cruise (I won this, so free cruise for 2 of us)
6 night Xmas trip to WDW (with DH's entire fam)-flew for 1st time

2012-
spring 7 day cruise for just my mom and I (my Xmas gift to my mom...and to me from DH)
softball...many away tourneys this year and a WS in Spartanburg, SC
August 4 nights at Vero Beach plus 2 nights at Universal Hard Rock

2013-(year of PAPs...DH and I turn 40 this year and we wanted to celebrate with vacations instead of parties or other big gifts)
5 night Jan trip to WDW-flew again
softball WS in OC, MD (a couple other weekend travel tourneys)
August 2 nights in Miami and 4 day cruise (with DH's sis2 and our fams)- flying
???looking to get DH, for his big 40, tix to Buckeyes' game (he's a huge fan and always wanted to go to a game) and book a hotel in Columbus...kids or sans kids, not sure yet???
5 night Xmas trip to WDW (with DH's entire fam)??flying??

Cost??? Not too sure (maybe $4000-6000/year not including ANY softball travel...but I do count in the annual dues for 325 DVC points)...we do cruise Carnival and try to get great deals and we will drive most times (even to FL from MD...flown twice and flying again this August) and we own DVC, so no hotel costs at WDW. We also have made use of APs and will likely continue with the 2 trips to WDW on APs and then a year off where we do a DVC beach trip instead. DH is sick of cruising and kinda sick of Disney , but we can't afford for 5 of us to fly too far away. I like to spread the $5000 over several vacations/year instead of just one week of vacation abroad. I also do not spend money on other things and will 'cheap out' just about every way I can so I can have nice-ish vacations...I know we're not going to London or anything like that (will wait for the kids to be grown and gone). I also don't tend to get any gifts from DH as the vacations (or adding on DVC points) counts as my gifts for the year.

 

[JamesMom]

Wow. Jealous of all vacation time and money to be able to travel so much! My hubby makes great money, but can't afford to travel like y'all time-wise or financially. This year he finally gets 3 weeks vacation time, but likes to spend some of it just hanging at home. Btw I define vacation as days not working other than weekends. Trips are going overnight someplace other than home
For the school year September 2012 - August 2013 we traveled:
- 5 campouts - Friday to Sunday with Scouts. ~$100 each for our family of 4 with fees and food.
- Great Wolf Lodge overnigter for DS10 b-day in December ~$200 groupon with more wristbands than we used.
- Sea World/Corpus Trip in June - 10 days to visit the park and family on the beach ~1,500 for 3 night hotel, tickets, food, gas, souveniers and general spending
- 5 night Scout Summer Resident Camp in July ~$250 for 3 (me included, Cub Scouts - pack pays for parents) includes food, activities and shirt.
- Great Wolf - day passes (left over from B-day party) in August. Free + food for the day.

So we plan to spend ~25 days away from home this year for about $2,500. We did the exact same thing last year except had to pay $700 for 3 nights August Great Wolf. Next year we hope to add Disney in December for 6 nights at $4K so no overnight Great Wolf this summer.