How much is your trip costing you?

[aussiegirls]

oooooooooh, I like the way you think heidi

 

[PrincessInOz]

Well, after reading every board on here, I have a feeling it *may not* be the only trip. We are, after all, going with my sister, this will be her 2nd trip in 3 years (this time minus her kids!).

I'm already kind of planning how I can coerce my hubby into coming on our NEXT trip. My girl and I arrive home from our holiday on the 22nd Jan, it's our wedding anniversary on the 26th (Aust Day). Perhaps if I ply him with alcohol...and remember, he'll be alone for 2 weeks while we're away...there are ways I can make him agree to coming next time!

I think this may way too much information Heidi!! But I love it....

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

For our trip last September, I budgeted around 30k. I know that all of the flights and accom and insurance for 2 adults and 2 children came to $14.5k.

We had 6 internal flights and had a limo transfer to and from the airport each time. The one time we didn't have a limo transfer organised was in Vegas and I swear as we lined up for what seemed like an eternity in the taxi line, DH and I vowed we'd always have a limo transfer. It really doesn't come to much more and it's nice to have someone there waiting for you to help with luggage and a nice clean car and an experienced driver. A few cabs we caught in NYC made me see my life flash before my eyes, seriously scary experiences.

Accom - we stayed in nice places across the board at DH's request. DL Hotel 5 nights, NYC Crowne Plaza 5 nights, The Venetian in Vegas 3 nights, Grand Hyatt in San Fran 3 nights and The Renaissance in Hollywood for 3 nights. I researched each place heavily and we were thrilled with everywhere.

Extra things - we did a day bus trip to the Canyon, we did a 5 hour guided tour around NYC (absolutely amazing tour), a private stretch limo tour of Hollywood, stars homes etc., a day trip to Alcatraz, Cirque De Soleil in Vegas, Mary Poppins on Broadway in New York, baseball game in San Fran, and the ultimate - Bruce Springsteen concert in New Jersey. That was the dearest thing coming in at around $1200. The tickets were just over $750 plus we hired a limo to take us to and from the concert as it was out of the city and we had some concerns about being able to get the kids home easily after such a big concert in a strange city. Worth every penny.

We budgeted around $150 per day for food, most days were under that though.

We ended up coming home with around $2.5k still in the travel card and hadn't touched the credit card and man can my husband shop. We took over 3 cases and came home with 5 so yeah, he's a shopaholic. I didn't shop much at all, I was too busy just soaking everything in.

So essentially we spared NO expense on this trip. The main reason for this was that we had never travelled overseas before and it gave us piece of mind to have everything organised with nicer accom, cars and guided tours. With that said, I researched every car hire company, hotel, guided tour, accom, DL tickets, shows, etc. and found the best deals possible for the level of comfort we required. So I did still bargain hunt. I booked all of the accom myself with the individual hotels, used my NRMA card for the AAA discount for hotels, shows, etc.

Next time I will definitely be able to do the trip much more economically but for now, I wouldn't change a thing about our first trip. As other's have said, it really is about what you value and what is important for you. I didn't want to not do anything, I wanted to cram it all in because at that stage, I too was calling it "the trip of a lifetime"

DH said if we do another trip to the US (what does he mean if, I'm sure he means when right ) he would still like to stay at nice hotels and have car transfers. I agree on the car transfers but maybe could find some cheaper accom this time around. Could definitely do food cheaper. Wouldn't change a thing though about tours and shows, they are worth every single penny.

We don't have any intention of hiring a car and driving ourselves, it would be too stressful for us I'm afraid but I can totally see how it saves many so much money.

I am kinda secretly planning another trip for Dec 2011 now (will tell DH when the time is right ) and think I could do the trip for around 18-20k this time around. We would do WDW for 10-11 days staying either at WL or POFQ, a day trip to Kennedy Space Centre, 1 day at WWoHP, 5 nights in New York over Christmas, another Broadway show, A Rockette's show at Radio City Music Hall, a basketball game, 3 nights in Washington, probably a guided tour here (we love our guided tours). So that is around 19-20 days.

However we may add a week in Canada which would bump it up to around $26k + because we would do a 5-6 day bus tour from NY up through Boston and Niagara Falls, into Canada and back down.

Ahhh, who am I kidding, we can't do a frugal trip

 

[heidispidi]

Ms Shuttergirl, we would get along SO well I can't help but spend money. And if there is an upgrade for something, I'll most times end up paying the extra money for it. Eg is the hotel we are staying at in San Fran for one night - the Argonaut. It's costing something like $300, with a view of the Bay (plus a glimpse of the GG Bridge, if I remember right?), plus breakfast. Thinking now, we will be arriving late at night, it will be winter - what will we see? Most likely mist or fog in the morning before we checkout. The ocean view room in Hawaii is of course not essential, but it will be memorable, I'm sure. Like you, I'm considering a private car for a combined day at Universal Studios/LA/Hollywood. My girl will be 8 then, and gets so narky when she's tired, if I can cut hours off any tours that we do, I will.

Which limo company did you use for your Hollywood tour?

 

[Aust]

Ha ha Heidi - I know this won't be your last trip! and it won't be mine either, remember I have to take the kids back again in a couple of years! (I'm the sister she's travelling with).

In Oct 2007, 2 adults and 2 kids, Qantas airfares, 10 nights at DLH, 14 day hoppers, 2 character meals, coach tours/admission to Universal, LA tour, Seaworld - I think we spent about $18,000?

This trip I have estimated $5,000 - my airfare is the biggest chunk ($2,500, Qantas, I know it's ridiculously expensive), about $600 for 7 nights at HoJo, $100 for one night in San Francisco, $200 airfare to/from San Francisco, then transfers, SF tour, park hoppers, one character meal, $1,000 spending and food money which I don't think I will spend all of.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

We used a company for the private tour called Deluxe Limousine, it was a 3 hour tour, 10 seater stretch limo, toured Walk of Fame, and stars homes, Beverley Hills for a little walking (not shopping because we couldn't afford it ) and then onto Farmers Market/The Grove which was wonderful for an hour or so.

I felt the trip was great value for what we saw, I can't remember exact price but I researched this heaps and heaps and this company seemed the best value for money. I keep thinking it was maybe $250-$275 but I could be wrong.

We didn't use this company for the airport transfers though, we used Winn Limo as they had rave reviews online and the price was right.

 

[aussietravellers]

We used a company for the private tour called Deluxe Limousine, it was a 3 hour tour, 10 seater stretch limo, toured Walk of Fame, and stars homes, Beverley Hills for a little walking (not shopping because we couldn't afford it ) and then onto Farmers Market/The Grove which was wonderful for an hour or so.

I felt the trip was great value for what we saw, I can't remember exact price but I researched this heaps and heaps and this company seemed the best value for money. I keep thinking it was maybe $250-$275 but I could be wrong.

We didn't use this company for the airport transfers though, we used Winn Limo as they had rave reviews online and the price was right.

Ms.Shuttergirl, who did you use for your airport transfers in NY? I am so with you on having a pickup organised when you arrive somewhere. I don't think I have ever not had transportation organised when I have arrived somewhere in all of my years travelling OS. I have no idea who to use in NY though, have read good and bad reviews and am not sure who to book, so would love to hear who you used and if they were good.

 

[ehsmum]

I'd like recommendations for transfers too . I was only planning on booking a limo in Orlando but after reading your post, I think we will book for NYC and Las Vegas (and maybe San Francisco too).

 

[Tracy72]

What did we do before internet ??

The info on this thread has been invaluable..

I was also just getting on to ask Ms Shuttergirl who she booked NYC Transfers through. What a great idea. Also the 5 hour sightseeing tour of New York ? Where did they take you ?

We've finally booked our New York Accom. Staying at the Park Central New York (hope it'll be ok).

Can't wait to get to Orlando and New York !

Tracy

 

[aussietravellers]

What did we do before internet ??

The info on this thread has been invaluable..

I was also just getting on to ask Ms Shuttergirl who she booked NYC Transfers through. What a great idea. Also the 5 hour sightseeing tour of New York ? Where did they take you ?

We've finally booked our New York Accom. Staying at the Park Central New York (hope it'll be ok).

Can't wait to get to Orlando and New York !

Tracy

Oh yes I'd love to hear about the sightseeing tour in NY too!

We have booked at Doubletree Guest Suites Times Square, but I haven't booked anything else for NY, so would love to hear about sightseeing tours and any other NY tips.

 

[Tracy72]

One more question, which airlines have people flown internally with ?

We are going to be flying from LAX-Orlando-New York-LAX. We really want an airline that has inflight entertainment, but I'm finding this really hard ? I've found Virgin America but they have not got flight released past November and we're flying in December.

Our girls are 10 and 7 years and think they will be bored if they don't have the option of watching something on those long flights.

Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Tracy

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

One more question, which airlines have people flown internally with ?

We are going to be flying from LAX-Orlando-New York-LAX. We really want an airline that has inflight entertainment, but I'm finding this really hard ? I've found Virgin America but they have not got flight released past November and we're flying in December.

Our girls are 10 and 7 years and think they will be bored if they don't have the option of watching something on those long flights.

Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Tracy

We flew from LA to New York and back last year with Delta and they had inflight entertainment. We also took some shorter flights with United and they didn't

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Ms.Shuttergirl, who did you use for your airport transfers in NY? I am so with you on having a pickup organised when you arrive somewhere. I don't think I have ever not had transportation organised when I have arrived somewhere in all of my years travelling OS. I have no idea who to use in NY though, have read good and bad reviews and am not sure who to book, so would love to hear who you used and if they were good.

I researched the New York transfers alot because I also wanted a company to take us to and from the Springsteen concert. I found this guy who was awesome. I read reviews about him on www.yelp.com. The company is called Wirolimo, his name is William and he was really helpful. His email address is wirolimo@yahoo.com. Read the reviews on Yelp.com and shoot him an email for a quote.

As far as the New York tour went I researched the death out of this also, . We really wanted to find something that hit all of the "highlights" for us in a day, so that we could then decided what we wanted to go back to and see more of.

We went with www.allnewyorktours.com. Again, the reviews for this were amazing. All of the reviews kept mentioning this amazing tourguide. I am happy to say that the reviews weren't wrong. The tourguide was absolutely amazing. When we hopped on the bus for this tour we were all sooooo tired. We had flown from Vegas to LA, 3 hour stop over then 6 hour flight to NY the day before and we were buggered. My husband turned to me and grumbled that I was to never book a bus trip for 5 hours for him again.

Within 30 minutes he turned to me excited and said how great the tour was. It was completely down to the amazing tour guide. He was witty, knowledgeable, thoughtful and just his funny little tidbits of info and stories totally made the experience for us. His stories about his experiences with 9/11 were emotional and made it all so much more real. We thought the tour was worth every penny and the bus was quite small. It wasn't a big coach, it maybe had 25-30 people on it. We had the only kids on the bus and all of the other people and most esp. the tour guide were lovely with them.

 

[Sugarglider]

One more question, which airlines have people flown internally with ?

We are going to be flying from LAX-Orlando-New York-LAX. We really want an airline that has inflight entertainment, but I'm finding this really hard ? I've found Virgin America but they have not got flight released past November and we're flying in December.

Our girls are 10 and 7 years and think they will be bored if they don't have the option of watching something on those long flights.

Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Tracy

Interesting thread everyone! I suppose it goes to show that you can spend any amount on a trip!

Anyway - we are going in June and Qantas gave a FAB price - SYD - LAX - MCO - LAX - SYD for $1300 for DH - which is only $200 for the LAX -MCO internal return flight. I bought this online as 1 combined fare and when I spoke with Qantas the chap said it was the only way to get the cheap price - he could not sell it to me over the phone. LAX - MCO rtn is on American Airlines which have inseat entertainment on the larger planes.

I'm doing LAX-MCO-LAS-LAX and got a price of $500 which isn't too bad. I suspect on the short flights they will not have the entertainment.

Last year I flew Delta LAX - MCO rtn and they had in seat entertainment - and Disney gave me a $200 price - the best price on offer

 

[1rocky]

We are going to america in Jan 2011. There are three of us.
A rough breakdown of costs are:
Hawaiian Airlines to Oahu then to LA and return These cost us $2000
7 night cruise Penthouse Pride of America
Ocean view room Ohana Waikiki Beachcomber 6 nights
tours around Oahu including Pearl Harbour and Movie Hummer tour.
Sheraton Universal LA
5 nights accommodation
Vip tour to Universal Studios
Warner Bros super deluxe tour
Citadel shopping tour
La grand tour including Movie stars Home
Then onto Disneyland
Disneyland Hotel 6 nights
Premium Room (have requested Dream Tower)
14 day Park Hopper
Character Meals
Dinner with Shamu at Seaworld
inlcuding Transfers by Limo and travel insurance
and an extra night in Hawaii on the way home
this is costing about $9000 each including the airfare..

we have been saving for this over 12 months.
But no matter how you go you will have a great time. We did alot of research and also this forum helped alot.