What is your yearly vacation budget PER person.

[donkeyandshrek]

points and miles,miles and points,It's my part time job to pay for what I love,traveling!

I wish their were a points and miles category on DIS so we could share ideas and what works - without getting ripped on the other forums

 

[disneychrista]

I don't really have a set annual budget per person. I just looked at what the budget for our last trip was and it looks like $625 per person for a 4-day Disneyland trip, including car rental, gas, food, tickets, hotel & boarding for our dog. It does not include souvenirs.

My vacation savings has been $1,200/year, with a trip every 2 years.

 

[EMode]

I vote other because I really don't have a budget. We usually take 2 big vacations a year and some little trips too. I just try to keep the costs as low as I can.

 

[msmama]

I would vote "other" too. Rack rate, I'd guess I'm close to the top (though probably not over 6001, lol). But as much as I can I travel off season and use points and miles like others so actual out of pocket is probably half that.

It's higher for my family of 2 though, because I pay the same amount for a hotel as a family of 4! A $200 hotel room is only $50/pp for them, but $100 for me (yes, I know they have other larger expenses, but it's still something that always bothered me, lol).

Also I guess it depends on what you define as a vacation. I see people counting family visits which I wouldn't count as vacation - it's more of an obligation.

Still travel though, so ...

 

[wallawallakids]

We average 10K a year for 6 of us. So a little less than 2000 pp. This year we went to Disneyland for under that though. 7 nights, we paid around 7k total. Next year we are on a cruise and it will be more around 15k after airfare, excursions etc. So I say we "average" around 10K. Year before this we paid only 8k and before that was 10k even.

It is hard to get prices down with 6 people. Airfare kills us every time, and even hotels are hard as in most places we need two rooms. It is rare that you find a hotel that sleeps 6, even a suite.

We have tried rental homes before but they are not always a great option $$ wise either. Of course, it depends on the location.

 

[disfanforlife]

My estimate is about $1500 per person. That is taking into account our DVC dues.

 

[skysmom99]

I guess I'm one of the poor relatives on this board. LOL

We don't vacation every year so I really don't budget that way. I chose the $500 or less per person per year option, and if we go to WDW every other year and spend $5000 or less for the whole thing, that option works. A decent room discount or FD will bring that amount down.

Our 'other' vacations are usually weekend camping trips at a local campground where basically the only cost is $20 per night campground fee. We had planned to go to South Carolina, near Myrtle Beach, over spring break but life got in the way. Even then, it was the cost of gas to drive there since my parents have a house where we'd stay free.

 

[Marionnette]

I would vote "other" too. Rack rate, I'd guess I'm close to the top (though probably not over 6001, lol). But as much as I can I travel off season and use points and miles like others so actual out of pocket is probably half that.

It's higher for my family of 2 though, because I pay the same amount for a hotel as a family of 4! A $200 hotel room is only $50/pp for them, but $100 for me (yes, I know they have other larger expenses, but it's still something that always bothered me, lol).

Also I guess it depends on what you define as a vacation. I see people counting family visits which I wouldn't count as vacation - it's more of an obligation.

Still travel though, so ...

This is kind of like us. We're not quite empty-nesters, but we tend to travel without our adult kids (24, 22, 21). We also prefer to be - how shall I put this? - comfortable when we vacation. So I tend to book higher-end rooms, premium locations and luxury experiences. It all comes at a cost but traveling while we are still healthy enough to do it is important to us.

Now, my "vacation budget" covers anything requiring an overnight stay. So, the expenses for a weekend with friends, my brother's wedding, a week's condo rental at the shore, and any other travel comes under that category. I use whatever miles and points that I can to shave the prices down. But the fact remains that we do have a pretty generous travel budget.

 

[JanaDee]

All of you that picked $6,000 per person per year, I'm available for adoption!!

 

[3Gsandme]

All of you that picked $6,000 per person per year, I'm available for adoption!!

No cutting! I offered first!

 

[JanaDee]

No cutting! I offered first!

I'm sure they could afford both of us, right?

 

[JanaDee]

Why are you surprised? This is a forum dedicated to vacationing at a pretty pricey place. If you asked the same question on a Dave Ramsey board, I could see being surprised at a number that high.

I'd rather see how those numbers translate into % of total income. Let's face it, $6K pp to a person bringing home $60K is a much bigger budget item to him than $6K pp is to the guy bringing home $200K.

We have a fairly high income and I can't imagine spending $24,000 a year on travel for the four of us. I won't say percentages because it is easy to figure out yearly income that way, but for now, spending $24,000 a year won't be happening when we have college tuition coming up in the next couple years. Plus, DH is frugal and would probably fall over dead if I ever suggested spending $24,000 a year for travel.

That doesn't mean we don't vacation. We do. DH and I are going to Mexico next week (booked earlier this week) and DS is going to Costa Rica this summer on a school trip, plus we'll have days and weekends throughout the summer where we go places and do fun things.

 

[pigletto]

I don't know to be honest. It's different depending on the year. Last year my family bought a cottage and we are using it a lot. We'll go for several long weekends and at least one full week. It's 6 hours away, so gas is high, and we end up stopping for a few meals each way. Once there, it's really just the regular grocery budget though we probably buy more beer and food because it's more of a community pot with whoever is up at the time. So for all those trips.. maybe $1200? That's 5 long weekends and a full week.

We now do one big "other" trip per year. I like it to be about 10 days. Last year it was Disney, this year we have Disney planned but we are contemplating switching that out for a cruise and a few days at Universal. So maybe $6000 when all is said and done?

So I guess we are at $1800- $2000 per year. That's just an estimate though. If I can get our big trip lower I will.

 

[Jacoby 46]

I have a trip planned in November for 6 days. It is my daughter and myself only and I have budgeted $2000.00 for each of us so it will average out to $650.00 a day to spend. This number is not including airfare, tickets or our room at the Swan. It is my first Mother/Daughter trip and I don't want to have to worry about money or if I can buy this or that. Just want to have fun and do whatever we want!!

 

[Marionnette]

We have a fairly high income and I can't imagine spending $24,000 a year on travel for the four of us. I won't say percentages because it is easy to figure out yearly income that way, but for now, spending $24,000 a year won't be happening when we have college tuition coming up in the next couple years. Plus, DH is frugal and would probably fall over dead if I ever suggested spending $24,000 a year for travel.

That doesn't mean we don't vacation. We do. DH and I are going to Mexico next week (booked earlier this week) and DS is going to Costa Rica this summer on a school trip, plus we'll have days and weekends throughout the summer where we go places and do fun things.

An therein lies the rub! You are paying for 4 people to travel. I am paying for two. My expenses would be not quite half of what yours are. As a percentage of our income, our vacation budget is very reasonable.

 

[JanaDee]

An therein lies the rub! You are paying for 4 people to travel. I am paying for two. My expenses would be not quite half of what yours are. As a percentage of our income, our vacation budget is very reasonable.

Once our kids no longer vacation with us, I can easily see us spending $12-15,000 a year on vacation. We'll have to wait a bit longer for that, though.

 

[hsmamato2]

LOL on the 6000+ per person! And I agree, when you travel with the family of 4, it doesn't bring cost pp down,as the hotel room costs the same etc.
As far as simple miles and points I like the Chase family of cards(SWA is Chase) and Amex deals the best, but that's my personal thing. Just google and ye shall find..(lots of info everywhere)
Once you have the Chase card options, then you check out their travel and shopping portals to open up new possibiities Heck,SWA has their own shopping portal,and a Rapid rewards 'other rewards' section on your personal page...(A few years back I used a chunk of my RR points to stay onsite at Universal for FREE,it worked for us, b/c that's what saved us the most $$$ that trip) sorry to ramble,back to the thread

 

[wallawallakids]

LOL on the 6000+ per person! And I agree, when you travel with the family of 4, it doesn't bring cost pp down,as the hotel room costs the same etc.
As far as simple miles and points I like the Chase family of cards(SWA is Chase) and Amex deals the best, but that's my personal thing. Just google and ye shall find..(lots of info everywhere)
Once you have the Chase card options, then you check out their travel and shopping portals to open up new possibiities Heck,SWA has their own shopping portal,and a Rapid rewards 'other rewards' section on your personal page...(A few years back I used a chunk of my RR points to stay onsite at Universal for FREE,it worked for us, b/c that's what saved us the most $$$ that trip) sorry to ramble,back to the thread

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.

 

[Marionnette]

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.

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.

 

[DawnM]

It depends on the year and what is going on. I would say on average we spend about $1,000 per person per year on vacationing.

This year we will spend at least $6,000 though as this summer just has too many things happening and then our Disney trip in December.

Dawn