What is your yearly vacation budget PER person.

[garnetandblack]

I chose under $500pp. We only did short vacations last year with DS4. 3 nights at Great Wolf Lodge and 2, 3 night stays at Myrtle Beach. We went off season, mid week to each one. Great Wolf Lodge was only $200 for 3 nights because DH and I got a "free" vacation certificate for going to a Direct Buy promotion. We stayed at decent beach front hotels in MB for under $40 a night - one of them was a 1 bedroom condo and the other was a studio so they both had kitchens and that helps keep the food budget low. I also save gift cards from reward sites to use (and try to combine coupons) when we go out to eat.

We have done a few week long beach vacations off season (after Labor Day) and get 2 bedroom beachfront condos for around $600. The beach is free and on week long vacations I cook at least half of our meals in the room so that keeps our budget super low.

We don't buy souvenirs other than a toy for DS and it's a tank of gas round trip for us to get to both locations.

We don't have any vacations planned this year because DH had to take most of February off and doesn't have much vacation left. We had an offsite DW trip planned and budgeted around $2000 for 7 nights plus a few short beach stays. So our budget would have been closer to $1,000pp.

 

[hsmamato2]

sorry.... let me clarify.... for MY circumstances, I choose trips that cost less pp for our family of four....in general. The one exception to this is at Disney and park tickets.
We either drive, or use airpoints for trips for years. 2 kids is way different than 4 kids,for trips, b/c of room sizes,etc.
I am thinking from a couple of years back, the diff. between my fam trip,and my sis fam. trip, (2 people vs. 4 people in room)
the cost pp was much lower in that scenario,overall. I paid for one room, 4 park tix= enough food for 4 people,room,tix for XXX.XXX
She paid for the same room, food, and 1/2 the park tix. Overall, it almost doubled pp her cost over mine,as they had 2,not 4 people. Again,this is averages, not exact. In the future years we will be a fam of 3 traveling,and that changes the overall pp cost,based on our own patterns, not costing more, but 'averaging' more pp.
( when I budget,I include ALL costs, then divide by # of people involved,from petsitting to airport parking)

 

[rhondabee]

Each year varies for us. This year will be more than our "normal" amount. My daughter and I have a Disney trip planned for May. In July, my husband, daughter and I are going to Dollywood and finally--we are going as a family to Universal in the fall. We will more than likely take a few weekend camping trips this Spring & Summer.

 

[wallawallakids]

Well let's see.

Just using Disney as an example and a family of 4 vs. 2 adults traveling.

• The cost of the room is the same for both.
• The cost of the tickets is lower per person when you factor in the lower cost per ticket for kids vs. adults.
• Kids eat less, therefore it costs less to feed them on vacation.
• Two adults traveling by car will spend the same in tolls and gas as they family of 4.

So, yes, the cost per person can certainly cost less when you have more people traveling than when you only have a couple of people.

I can see that being true depending on the family. I was just pointing out that it isn't always true. Maybe we are the exception? Might be because we have preteens that eat like horses and costs us more to feed than DH and I would costs, or the fact they are now "adults" in Disney's eyes so their ticket prices are higher, that we always fly and never drive, or that 4th kid causing us to have two hotel rooms. For us being a family of 6, it just doesn't work out that way. Like I said, my experience. Probably when we were a family of 4, this was more true. (That was so long ago and for only a relatively short period of time so I don't really remember plus they were so little, I don't think we ever took them anywhere then ). I wasn't trying to start a disagreement. I was just saying I don't believe that to always be true.

 

[wallawallakids]

sorry.... let me clarify.... for MY circumstances, I choose trips that cost less pp for our family of four....in general. The one exception to this is at Disney and park tickets.
We either drive, or use airpoints for trips for years. 2 kids is way different than 4 kids,for trips, b/c of room sizes,etc.
I am thinking from a couple of years back, the diff. between my fam trip,and my sis fam. trip, (2 people vs. 4 people in room)
the cost pp was much lower in that scenario,overall. I paid for one room, 4 park tix= enough food for 4 people,room,tix for XXX.XXX
She paid for the same room, food, and 1/2 the park tix. Overall, it almost doubled pp her cost over mine,as they had 2,not 4 people. Again,this is averages, not exact. In the future years we will be a fam of 3 traveling,and that changes the overall pp cost,based on our own patterns, not costing more, but 'averaging' more pp.
( when I budget,I include ALL costs, then divide by # of people involved,from petsitting to airport parking)

I get it now and I agree.

 

[disneychrista]

Just using Disney as an example and a family of 4 vs. 2 adults traveling.

• The cost of the room is the same for both.
• The cost of the tickets is lower per person when you factor in the lower cost per ticket for kids vs. adults.
• Kids eat less, therefore it costs less to feed them on vacation.
• Two adults traveling by car will spend the same in tolls and gas as they family of 4.

So, yes, the cost per person can certainly cost less when you have more people traveling than when you only have a couple of people.

• Room cost MAY be the same, if your children are young. Many hotels charge for anyone over 8 - 12yo. Which will add cost to the room charge.
  
• Tickets prices is only lower if the child is under 9yo, under 48" or whatever.
  
• Young children may eat less but older children will eat as much as an adult, and I have heard teen boys will eat twice as much.
  
• And if we want to split hairs - if you are traveling with older children you may need a larger car which can cost more in rental & gas. The more weight in the car the more gas consumption. But for the most part yes travel by car will be the same regardless of the number traveling.

 

[hsmamato2]

to pp's.... what you say IS true! It totally varies by family, choices made,and what you all enjoy doing! So there is no set and fast rule with costs,etc, because we all vacation differently! no arguments there....

 

[JillianMarie]

I chose $3000-$4000 but I honestly don't know. We don't really have a set vacation budget. We travel A LOT but I wouldn't really say we take vacations like a lot of people here do - we're just sort of always on the move. It's part of our normal living. And I already know this year we're going to exceed that dollar amount thanks to a spontaneous trip last month.

It's not the individual trips that push up the budget for us, it's their frequency. So we do the points thing which really helps since I am incapable of spending more than a month at home it seems.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We have 2 kids and definitely spend less per person when the kids go along. Hotel and travel (by car) are pretty much the same either way. Only food and entertainment get pricier.

 

[ceemys]

I don't budget for vacation unless I actually have one scheduled.

But this year, we have 3 Disney adults, 1 child. The drive down, hotel, DDP, food and hotel on the way, gas, it is about $4405. So I guess $1100 per person.

 

[Egdisney]

Are you saying traveling with more people brings the cost per person down? Sorry if I am misunderstanding you but I would respectfully disagree if that was what your first sentence meant. If I am reading it wrong, I am sorry. Hubby and I could take a trip with just the two of us (someday, maybe…a girl can dream) for far less per person than it costs us to bring our brood with us. Part of that is having more than the average amount of kids (that 4th really kills the budget….good thing she is cute. ). But there is no way the pp budget is less with more kids going. I understand the point about hotel room costs being the same (although for us it isn't as we need two rooms) but you pay the same amount pp for airline tickets/park tickets/food/excursions etc. A lot in the price pp doesn't change with the additional person or two added. Even on a cruise, we get charged 4 adult fares and only 2 children as the first two people in a stateroom are full price regardless of age and again, they don't sleep 6 (Again where that 4th kid gets us!! ). Just our experience.

Yes, that darn 4th kid is a budget killer! We can't stay in most hotels and wouldn't want to be that scrunched anyway. I have been dreaming of a cruise but can't figure out how to do it with 6 people without spending a small fortune.(kids are all 10 or under, so two rooms doesn't seem like the best option) I wish we were campers, playing outside is great, but I don't think sleeping outside is all that fun!
My husband and I are going on a weekend trip to a football game in October! I am very excited to go on a small trip without kids, but for the price of the football tickets we coils have done another family vacay

 

[Egdisney]

[*]Room cost MAY be the same, if your children are young. Many hotels charge for anyone over 8 - 12yo. Which will add cost to the room charge. [*]Tickets prices is only lower if the child is under 9yo, under 48" or whatever. [*]Young children may eat less but older children will eat as much as an adult, and I have heard teen boys will eat twice as much. [*]And if we want to split hairs - if you are traveling with older children you may need a larger car which can cost more in rental & gas. The more weight in the car the more gas consumption. But for the most part yes travel by car will be the same regardless of the number traveling.

So true about the rental car. Our kids are all 10 and under, but we have 4 of them. We are driving to Florida in May(emerald coast) and looked into renting a minivan. Holy buckets, that was expensive! We will be driving our own van.

 

[Eighty8Keys]

My expenses are all over the place so I don't even know how to answer the poll. I travel with my grown son and we each get our own hotel room and pay our own expenses. It's usually 3 years between WDW trips and then we'll get in two trips in one year with an annual pass. On the off years, we'll do Disneyland 1 or 2 times in the year since it's less expensive for us living on the west coast. 2013 was a very unusual year since we upgraded to the premier pass while at WDW in January and managed two WDW trips and 2 DLR trips for a total of 40 park days and a total cost per person of $9700. I tracked expenses for each trip, but didn't total them together until just now. Yikes, that was a shock. This year it's one budget DLR trip for five days at a cost per person of $966. We're using a combination of miles, points, gift cards, cash to keep it under a $1000. Typically, a WDW trip of 10-14 days is around $3,500 and a DLR trip of 7 days is around $1,500.

 

[Marionnette]

• Room cost MAY be the same, if your children are young. Many hotels charge for anyone over 8 - 12yo. Which will add cost to the room charge.

It's still cheaper "per person" to pay the 2 extra person fees for one room and divide that cost by 4 people than it is for 2 people splitting the cost of one room. Do the math sometime.

• Tickets prices is only lower if the child is under 9yo, under 48" or whatever.

That only makes the cost "on par" with the per person cost for just two adults. It doesn't make the cost more on a per-person basis.

• Young children may eat less but older children will eat as much as an adult, and I have heard teen boys will eat twice as much.

Yes, teenage boys can eat an enormous amount of food. As the mother of two young adult males, I will acknowledge that point. However, you're throwing a red herring out there to try to prove a point. Not everyone is going to be vacationing with one or more starving teenage boys.

• And if we want to split hairs - if you are traveling with older children you may need a larger car which can cost more in rental & gas. The more weight in the car the more gas consumption. But for the most part yes travel by car will be the same regardless of the number traveling.

Perhaps that fully-packed minivan is going to gobble more gas than my 12-year old sedan with 2 suitcases and a small cooler, but it's not going to cost double what I spend. It's still cheaper per person for 4 people to drive than it is for 2 people to drive unless the those 4 people are in a gas-guzzling motor home that is getting 8 miles to the gallon. In which case, they don't need to pay for the extra persons in a hotel room in the first point you made.

 

[JeremyGNJ]

• Room cost MAY be the same, if your children are young. Many hotels charge for anyone over 8 - 12yo. Which will add cost to the room charge.
  
• Tickets prices is only lower if the child is under 9yo, under 48" or whatever.
  
• Young children may eat less but older children will eat as much as an adult, and I have heard teen boys will eat twice as much.
  
• And if we want to split hairs - if you are traveling with older children you may need a larger car which can cost more in rental & gas. The more weight in the car the more gas consumption. But for the most part yes travel by car will be the same regardless of the number traveling.

What kind of hotel charges per person???? The only time I've EVER seen that is at an all-inclusive resort.

 

[disneychrista]

What kind of hotel charges per person???? The only time I've EVER seen that is at an all-inclusive resort.

Not per person but for a third or fourth adult in the room.

 

[Katy Belle]

Oh gosh, ours varies greatly from year to year. This year it was about $3,500 per person, for 8 nights at WDW. Last year was Branson, MO about $400 per person. The year before was a week in CA , probably $1500 a person. When we lived overseas we visited 16 countiries...some years were very expensive, some not.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Oh gosh, ours varies greatly from year to year. This year it was about $3,500 per person, for 8 nights at WDW. Last year was Branson, MO about $400 per person. The year before was a week in CA , probably $1500 a person. When we lived overseas we visited 16 countiries...some years were very expensive, some not.

Interesting - our Disney budget is about 1.5-2 times our Branson budget. Funny how it can be so different for different families

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Yearly budget though doesn't take into account things like our DVC, which is paid for already, or our camper, which is also paid for. Those items save us money and determine our vacation choices. They also mean that I only budget Hunting Club fees and DVC dues, not the accomodations I would otherwise.

Also, while I have a plan that includes xx amount each week socked away into the Vacation Account, we don't have a "budget" per se. I might go over that one year and under it another year, but the amount put into savings remains steady, so long as I am always in the black on my planned and actual travel expenditures but not too far into the black. For example, I'm currently doing 3 WDW trips in 12 months to make the most of our APs, but then won't go back for about 16 months, so the amount spent in 2014 is greater than the amount spent in 2013 or than will be spent in 2015, but my savings remains consistent.

So what I spend on vacations is probably incomparable to what another person might spend on vacations.

 

[Katy Belle]

Interesting - our Disney budget is about 1.5-2 times our Branson budget. Funny how it can be so different for different families

Our Branson trip was 4 nights, rather than 8. We drove rather than fly. All 5 of us stayed in one room. Two very different trips.