How much is your 2025 vacation going to cost you?

[disneydreamer1980]

We have a 2 week trip to WDW next week, a 2 week trip to France in June and a week at Myrtle beach in August. Luckily I don’t work so I dont have to worry about vacation time and DH makes his own hours. I’ll do the budget for our Disney trip here since this is a Disney site.

There’s 5 of us, 2 adults, 2 teens and a child.

We’re DVC but rented points this time, and we also have one night at POR.
POR: $380
BRV/WL: (197 points) $3546
14 day tickets from UK site:$3500
Airfare (southwest Reagan to MCO):$900
Airport parking:$250
Grocery estimate:$150
Food estimate (1 TS, 1QS, 2snacks per day): $7000 (we have this budgeted but will prob be a lot less)
Souvenirs: $1000 ($200 per person)
Ubers while there and to/from MCO:$300
Cash Tips (not restaurants): $200
MK FW dessert $500
Epcot FW cruise:$450
AH for DH and me:$380
Incidentals:$500

Total of $19,056 for 5 people over 2 weeks. Will in reality probably be less but I like to over budget, and whatever’s left goes towards another trip.

As for our France trip, our only real expenses are flights (which we haven’t bought yet) and some food and incidentals. We stay with family, so no money for hotels and most meals will be made by family.

Our beach trip is an annual thing where we rent a big house on the beach in Pawleys island SC and family all gets together to stay there and we all split the cost. Only real spending is our portion of the house, groceries and dinner out every night. This is always our cheapest vacation, and the most relaxing.

 

[kathy884]

I'm a new retirees (just retired six months ago), and we have some extra vacation monies budgeted above and beyond our normal retirement vacation budget, some that we'll be using this year to take advantage of having the time, health, and desire to travel at this point (in our early retirement years).

Anyway, we have three trips planned for 2025: A mini four night Tampa/Orlando trip (early February), a seven night trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (late February), and a seven night trip to Glacier National Park (mid July). We are also bringing my son and his husband on the two bigger trips with us.
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Here's the four night Tampa / Orlando mini trip budget (three adults): Estimated Total: $2585 = about $215 pp per day - four days of activities
Air - free (Southwest points) - flying to Tampa and back from Orlando
Airport Parking - $50
Gas contribution to nephew from Orlando who is picking us up - $100
Two nights at the Embassy Suites in Tampa (we are all sharing one room) - $510
In Tampa we are doing nature activities with a cousin of mine who is in assisted living there (Lettuce Lake Park and Honeymoon Island).
Estimated parking and food costs in Tampa - $200
Two tickets to Mama Mia (two of us are doing that at the Stratz in Tampa) - $230
Then we drive to Orlando and will stay for two nights at my nephew's house.
On our driving day we are going to hang at my nephew's house and visit a nearby park (go over there with his dogs)
One day at the MK three adults - $525
Lightening Lanes (two single and Multipass - three adults) - $200
Lunch at Casey's Corner - $60
Dinner at Ohana - $250
Seaworld Admissions - $300 (We are buying an annual pass for my nephew which will get us two admissions and parking) and then we are getting another single day ticket.
Food at SeaWorld - $60 (We are just doing lunch there)
SeaWorld Animal Trays and Photos - $60
Food at Airport - $40

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Here's the budget for a seven night trip to Puerto Vallarta (eight days) - four adults (late February): $9453 ($295 pp per day)
Direct flights on Alaska Air - $2263 plus $140 bags ($600 a person)
Romantic Zone condo two bedroom / two bath right across the street from the beach - $2500
Tours and tour tips (two food tours, whale watching, day trip to San Sebastian colonial town, and home tour): $1350
Food and incidentals estimate: $3200

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Here's the budget for a seven night July trip to Glacier National Park (eight days) - four adults: $11269 ($352 pp per day)
Flights counting checked bags (we are flying into Calgary) - $3120 - $780 pp Flying to Kalispell, MT with times we liked would have been $150 pp more. Prices are very high from where we live during high season. Glacier is more expensive and harder to get to for us than other national parks we have visited. That's probably why it's the only National Park on our bucket list that we haven't done yet. We are excited to finally get here.

Rental minivan for the week - $943 (includes an extra driver - so three of the four can drive). We are using our own insurance. Rental car costs are just high during the short popular summer season. A rental minivan in Kalispell, MT would have been a little over $100 a day more than here. Prices are way jacked up during high season.

Lodging (arrival night and day before departure in Calgary, four nights motor inn lodging right in Glacier National park, and one night lodging in motor inn in Waterton Lakes (Canadian National park adjoining glacier) - Note we have a bedroom and bath for each couple (two rooms everywhere except Calgary where we a two bedroom / two bath at a suite hotel: $3645 (an average of $260 a night per couple)

Historic Red Bus tour (guided tour of Glacier - doing this one day) and Boat tours we'll be doing in Glacier: $521
Special Afternoon tea at the Prince of Wales hotel in Waterton Lakes: $240
Food and Incidentals estimate: $2800

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I'm really looking forward to all three of these!

 

[mmbrad02]

We currently have a 7 night cruise booked on the Carnival Celebration in June. We have to travel in the summer as I'm not willing to pull my middle schooler out for a week, and we are also traveling with my nephew who is in college and my sister who is a teacher. That said, it adds up so quickly!!

7 Night Cruise with prepaid Gratuities (party of 3) - $4173.00
Travel Insurance Purchased Separately - $225
We have not booked airfare yet but from Kentucky to Miami we are certainly not finding any deals at this point. Estimating app. $1k for this if we are lucky. However, we opened a credit card earlier this year (not carrying any balances) and met the initial spend and the rewards should help pay about $700 toward our airfare
Hotel Room for night before cruise - Hoping to get in for $125 or so (we are not picky people for a night) but opened yet another credit card with rewards that will cover this.
We will likely have some Uber fees from airport/hotel/cruiseship but uncertain about those amounts at this point.
Also airport parking for our car at home.
We will also have the expenses of internet and soda packages on board.

That said, I am estimating around $6500 out of pocket for this trip. I've been saving credit card points and selling on ebay to help offset the costs. I'm truly excited for this trip!

This will likely be our only trip this year bu tnever say never when I get a travel bug

 

[PoppyJ]

Love to see everyone's budgets!

We are trying to max out our annual pass this year. We had one trip last October and three trips this year!

Budget includes my husband and I:

February 2025
Flights $747
1 night Hyatt MCO $0 (hotel points)
6 nights Beach Club $1,794 (DVC points)
3 nights Fort Wilderness $986 (DVC points)
Rental Car $482
Park Tickets $812 (Annual Pass - price / total days we will use it for the year * # of days we will use it for this trip)
$4,821

July 2025
Flights $135 (miles)
5 nights Polynesian $733 (DVC points)
Park Tickets $580 (Annual Pass - price / total days we will use it for the year * # of days we will use it for this trip)
$1,448

October 2025
Flights $22 (miles)
3 nights Bay Lake Tower $719.10 (DVC points)
Park Tickets $232 (Annual Pass - price / total days we will use it for the year * # of days we will use it for this trip)
MNSSHP ?
Discovery Cove 1-day resort pass $325 (Great Black Friday deal!)
Rental car $263
$1,561

We pretty consistently average $80/person/day for lightning lanes and food. I have about $2,500 in Disney gift cards purchased at 10-15% off, so we're in pretty good shape for the year!

 

[MICKIMINI]

I hate to be a Debbie Downer here, but we decided not to go in 2025. Our son and DIL are doing another European vacation in 2025 and we just met them at WDW in October 2024 and they were just here in NH a week ago.

Instead, we plan to finish the bonus room above the garage while DH is still working. I will be the "hall" monitor with the contractors such fun!
Next trip is DH's "retirement" trip in fall 2026! TBD.

 

[PrincessNelly]

We have a 2 week trip to WDW next week, a 2 week trip to France in June and a week at Myrtle beach in August. Luckily I don’t work so I dont have to worry about vacation time and DH makes his own hours. I’ll do the budget for our Disney trip here since this is a Disney site.

There’s 5 of us, 2 adults, 2 teens and a child.

We’re DVC but rented points this time, and we also have one night at POR.
POR: $380
BRV/WL: (197 points) $3546
14 day tickets from UK site:$3500
Airfare (southwest Reagan to MCO):$900
Airport parking:$250
Grocery estimate:$150
Food estimate (1 TS, 1QS, 2snacks per day): $7000 (we have this budgeted but will prob be a lot less)
Souvenirs: $1000 ($200 per person)
Ubers while there and to/from MCO:$300
Cash Tips (not restaurants): $200
MK FW dessert $500
Epcot FW cruise:$450
AH for DH and me:$380
Incidentals:$500

Total of $19,056 for 5 people over 2 weeks. Will in reality probably be less but I like to over budget, and whatever’s left goes towards another trip.

As for our France trip, our only real expenses are flights (which we haven’t bought yet) and some food and incidentals. We stay with family, so no money for hotels and most meals will be made by family.

Our beach trip is an annual thing where we rent a big house on the beach in Pawleys island SC and family all gets together to stay there and we all split the cost. Only real spending is our portion of the house, groceries and dinner out every night. This is always our cheapest vacation, and the most relaxing.

Is there room for one more on this trip? lol Sounds amazing!

 

[QueenIsabella]

Booked our first big trip of retirement. A Princess land/sea 14 day package. Just under $14,000 with air fare/excursions/pre-paid tips/hotels and about half the meals on land. Our retirement planning included a budget of $1,000 a month for travel, so that money every month has been going to pay down that trip.
7 days touring American Historic sites by bus, all around Washington D.C Philadelphia. Boston, Gettysburg ending up in NYC getting on an Eastern Canadian cruise for 7 days.

If you get a chance, try the duck boats in Boston. It's a land-sea tour in an amphibious vehicle. My husband and I grew up in the area (I actually grew up in Connecticut, he lived in Mass.), and we still got a lot out of the duck boat tour. We chose a Red Sox themed vehicle--DH has been a big fan forever--and they even let him drive for most of the water portion. Usually, they let a kid do this. DH got a sticker, and was insufferable for the rest of the day!

I'm a zoo person, and can highly recommend both the National Zoo and the Philly Zoo. The Bronx Zoo is also amazing.

Given that you only have a week along the east coast, you'll only get a taste of what's here. But there's plenty to see and do, especially if you like history.

 

[jo-jo]

Booked our first big trip of retirement. A Princess land/sea 14 day package. Just under $14,000 with air fare/excursions/pre-paid tips/hotels and about half the meals on land. Our retirement planning included a budget of $1,000 a month for travel, so that money every month has been going to pay down that trip.
7 days touring American Historic sites by bus, all around Washington D.C Philadelphia. Boston, Gettysburg ending up in NYC getting on an Eastern Canadian cruise for 7 days.

That sounds wonderful. How is the bus touring been done? Is it set times and places or we get you to DC , etc and you're on your own?

No vacation for us this year, so $0 in 2025.

 

[tvguy]

That sounds wonderful. How is the bus touring been done? Is it set times and places or we get you to DC , etc and you're on your own?

No vacation for us this year, so $0 in 2025.

Everything scheduled. There are free times built into the schedule.
https://www.princess.com/en-us/news...isetour-ahead-of-250th-anniversary-of-america

 

[tvguy]

If you get a chance, try the duck boats in Boston. It's a land-sea tour in an amphibious vehicle. My husband and I grew up in the area (I actually grew up in Connecticut, he lived in Mass.), and we still got a lot out of the duck boat tour. We chose a Red Sox themed vehicle--DH has been a big fan forever--and they even let him drive for most of the water portion. Usually, they let a kid do this. DH got a sticker, and was insufferable for the rest of the day!

I'm a zoo person, and can highly recommend both the National Zoo and the Philly Zoo. The Bronx Zoo is also amazing.

Given that you only have a week along the east coast, you'll only get a taste of what's here. But there's plenty to see and do, especially if you like history.

We have done duck boats in Alaska. They are a lot of fun. Everything is pretty much scheduled by Princess, so not a lot of free time. I have never been to Washington D.C and my wife has wanted me to go for all 42+ years we have been married. She went the first time because one of her step-fathers was from Virginia. 8th graders here commonly go to D.C on school trips during the Easter Vacation from school. My wife went with our daughter's class as a chaperone. I couldn't go because I was chaperoning our son's High School Baseball team to a Easter vacation baseball tournament in Las Vegas.

 

[cheryllarsen]

We are blessed to live nearby but still spend quick a bit on food! Average $250 per day for a family of 6.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

9 days/8nights in May for 2 adults - myself and DD19

AKL standard studio Jambo - $1908 by renting points on the board

14 day park hopper plus with memory maker - $1252

Airfare - $0 on points (haven’t purchased yet)

LL - estimating $500

Food and extras - estimating $2000

Total - $5660 but out of my pocket is around $3800.

DD wanted to do AKL and pitched in towards the room. She also wants me to book Narcossees on our last night as a thank you from her to me for planning the trip. (She went in July with a friend and realizes how much work it can be to plan and how expensive it is to go to Disney). Her father (X husband) paid for DDs park ticket. He doesn’t vacation much so likes to pitch in for them to travel. I also received Disney gift cards for my birthday and Christmas. I told the kids and SO to give me Disney gift cards for Mother’s Day too since we leave a few days after.

We also have other non Disney trips planned but I don’t have them booked yet so no set budgets for the trips.

 

[Brownsfan]

17 days/16 nights June/July - 2 adults(retired) 1 granddaughter (age 11)

Gas $325 (based on Oct 2024 trip)
2 nights Quality Inn Fort Mill, SC $0 (Choice points includes hot breakfast)
2 days Carowinds $0 (All park CF SP with dining and drink plan)
1 night Drury Disney Springs $305.99 (splurging for balcony and fireworks view)
6 nights WDW package $4345.87 (LM AOA, 3 days park hopper, free DDP - upgraded)
After Hours HS $559.14
4 nights Compass Cove Resort, Myrtle Beach $1200.42 (2BR/2B villa splitting with my daughter includes full daily breakfast)
3 nights Doswell, VA $103.76 (2 nights free on Choice points includes hot breakfast)
3 days Kings Dominion $0 (All park CF SP with dining and drink plan)
Extra Food $500 (Snacks at C and KD, 8 meals)
Total $7340.18
Extras needed - LL, Myrtle Beach Activities, Disney Ins and Memory Maker so hoping to keep it around $8000
Granddaughter has Disney Gift Cards from Christmas and Birthday for her souvenirs

 

[Dakota731]

I'm a new retirees (just retired six months ago), and we have some extra vacation monies budgeted above and beyond our normal retirement vacation budget, some that we'll be using this year to take advantage of having the time, health, and desire to travel at this point (in our early retirement years).

Anyway, we have three trips planned for 2025: A mini four night Tampa/Orlando trip (early February), a seven night trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (late February), and a seven night trip to Glacier National Park (mid July). We are also bringing my son and his husband on the two bigger trips with us.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the four night Tampa / Orlando mini trip budget (three adults): Estimated Total: $2585 = about $215 pp per day - four days of activities
Air - free (Southwest points) - flying to Tampa and back from Orlando
Airport Parking - $50
Gas contribution to nephew from Orlando who is picking us up - $100
Two nights at the Embassy Suites in Tampa (we are all sharing one room) - $510
In Tampa we are doing nature activities with a cousin of mine who is in assisted living there (Lettuce Lake Park and Honeymoon Island).
Estimated parking and food costs in Tampa - $200
Two tickets to Mama Mia (two of us are doing that at the Stratz in Tampa) - $230
Then we drive to Orlando and will stay for two nights at my nephew's house.
On our driving day we are going to hang at my nephew's house and visit a nearby park (go over there with his dogs)
One day at the MK three adults - $525
Lightening Lanes (two single and Multipass - three adults) - $200
Lunch at Casey's Corner - $60
Dinner at Ohana - $250
Seaworld Admissions - $300 (We are buying an annual pass for my nephew which will get us two admissions and parking) and then we are getting another single day ticket.
Food at SeaWorld - $60 (We are just doing lunch there)
SeaWorld Animal Trays and Photos - $60
Food at Airport - $40

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the budget for a seven night trip to Puerto Vallarta (eight days) - four adults (late February): $9453 ($295 pp per day)
Direct flights on Alaska Air - $2263 plus $140 bags ($600 a person)
Romantic Zone condo two bedroom / two bath right across the street from the beach - $2500
Tours and tour tips (two food tours, whale watching, day trip to San Sebastian colonial town, and home tour): $1350
Food and incidentals estimate: $3200

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the budget for a seven night July trip to Glacier National Park (eight days) - four adults: $11269 ($352 pp per day)
Flights counting checked bags (we are flying into Calgary) - $3120 - $780 pp Flying to Kalispell, MT with times we liked would have been $150 pp more. Prices are very high from where we live during high season. Glacier is more expensive and harder to get to for us than other national parks we have visited. That's probably why it's the only National Park on our bucket list that we haven't done yet. We are excited to finally get here.

Rental minivan for the week - $943 (includes an extra driver - so three of the four can drive). We are using our own insurance. Rental car costs are just high during the short popular summer season. A rental minivan in Kalispell, MT would have been a little over $100 a day more than here. Prices are way jacked up during high season.

Lodging (arrival night and day before departure in Calgary, four nights motor inn lodging right in Glacier National park, and one night lodging in motor inn in Waterton Lakes (Canadian National park adjoining glacier) - Note we have a bedroom and bath for each couple (two rooms everywhere except Calgary where we a two bedroom / two bath at a suite hotel: $3645 (an average of $260 a night per couple)

Historic Red Bus tour (guided tour of Glacier - doing this one day) and Boat tours we'll be doing in Glacier: $521
Special Afternoon tea at the Prince of Wales hotel in Waterton Lakes: $240
Food and Incidentals estimate: $2800

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I'm really looking forward to all three of these!

Where did you get your rental car from for your Glacier trip? We’ve been looking, and the quotes were much higher than yours!

 

[kathy884]

Deleting this one and responding below with quote.

 

[kathy884]

Where did you get your rental car from for your Glacier trip? We’ve been looking, and the quotes were much higher than yours!

We went with Avis from the Calgary airport.. I looked on Expedia to do a comparison and of the rental companies that I'm willing to go with they were the best deal for us. Also, our insurance will cover a rental car in Canada, so we didn't have any extra charges for that.

 

[wendlle]

I come from Australia, we are arriving in the USA on April 29th and leaving on June 2nd.
I haven't worked out the complete total because I'd have a heart attack but rough estimate puts me at US$30,000

That's for flights, accommodations, tickets and transfers (no rental car) and doesn't include our food which will be around $3000

 

[cvjw]

We have several trips planned this year.

5 nights at kidani village in March. $10,000 (approx)
$4000 tickets
$3000 annual dues on the points I used
$3000 food/snacks
$1000 genie +

7 nights in watercolor, Florida in June. $15,000 (approx)
$10,000 house rental
$5000 food and drinks

10 night eastern cruise on Disney magic in July $9,000 (approx)
$7000 cruise fare
$2000 onboard spending

7 night western cruise on the Treasure in October. 2 verandah cabins. $16,000 (approx)
$12,000 cruise fare
$4000 onboard spending.
Also thinking of adding Halloween tickets, which will add around $1000

 

[easyas123]

No plans on WDW for 2025 until about Dec., 2024 and we realized we wanted to see Muppets 3D Theatre & Tom Sawyer Island one more time! So I slapped together a last minute trip which we took on early on in January - right before the Marathon. 1 night at the Hyatt at MCO(late arrival flight), 3 nights at the Yacht Club & three day park hoppers. All in I think we were around $5,000.

I do have work trips to San Diego in Feb. & Cayman Islands in March which I'll tack a few days onto, but I haven't figured out the cost associated w/ that yet.

Longer trip this fall to Scotland. Husband doing a hunting trip for a few days then we are going to spend 10-14 days in the Country. Haven't sorted our arrangements and itinerary out yet. I'm guessing $10-15K.

 

[Genie+]

We’re finalizing our late May trip to Italy.

4 people - May 15 to 22 - NYC to Rome - staying in Termoli, visiting family and celebrating the Madonna del Soccorso with them. Total: $8.5k

We did the 2BR last time and loved this place: https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/rivazzurra-homes-a.html

We stayed in room #28 and it was spectacular. 2BR with 3 ocean front balconies, kitchen, laundry, 2Baths, We were going to repeat but the 3BR was only $10 a night more than that 2BR. 2BR $129/nt; 3BR $139. Both in the ocean front category. Our total after cleaning fee and taxes is $1,220 for 7 nights.

(I just saw a 2BR at $77/nt - wow! Hard to beat any of these prices. This place also lists monthly - I’ve seen some as low as $1,000.)

The biggest cost is round trip airfare. $1k each on Norse. Base price was around $600 with carry-on. +$90 r/t adds checked luggage up to 50lbs and a meal, and +$30 for priority airport check-in both ways (saves hours of standing on lines), these are a solid value. The seats? More of a splurge at +$120 each way for the best seats outside business class, and we added +$20 for second meals each way. That last $280 each would be the easiest to trim off. DH and I compromised - he wanted to do Business Class again but it was $1,800 each this year… it’s nice but not that nice lol. I convinced him to do the regular cabin and just upgrade it as best we could I can handle adding $400 to the base price - not $1200 each!!

$4,000 - Airfare for 4ppl
$1,220 - Condo for one week
$900 - Hertz car rental - Peugeot mid-size SUV
$1,880 - Groceries, dining, gas/tolls, and mailing back gallons of olive oil lol

I’m pretty sure we’ll stay within this $8k budget. The highest I’d expect is $8,500.

The big question - Why do 4 people visit Italy for a week on a beach, as lovely as it is?

We did the tourist thing last year over 2 weeks - Rome, Florence, Venice, Montepulciano, Massa Lubrense, Pompei, Puglia. It was absolutely incredible. We saved visiting our family for the last 3 days and it ended up not being enough time. This trip is centered around that. The highlight is my 81yo father-in-law is going the same week - his 4th trip back to his hometown after leaving Italy for New Jersey at 12yo, and his first return to the festival he grew up with.