What vacation $$ amount makes you squirm?

[Eastern]

I usually budget $1000 per day for everything for our family of 5. It usually works out over time as some vacations are off peak and some are peak. With 5 people I often have to get 2 rooms/2 cabins and that adds to the overall price.

I have paid more and I have paid less.

 

[Svhadden]

I guess $5k? We've done 2 2 week european vacations and didn't cross that. One was 2 adults 2 kids, one was 2 adults 2 kid. We do a lot of planning w/ our credit cards points, so flying for free helps a lot.

tourguide81, please PLEASE tell me how you've done 2 weeks in Europe for under $5K???

Teach us, oh wise one .

 

[mgsquared]

tourguide81, please PLEASE tell me how you've done 2 weeks in Europe for under $5K??? Teach us, oh wise one .

I am not the poster but I can assure you that this can be done!! Heck, the ABD itenaries can be done for this (the ones so have seen at least) if the hotels can be local ones.
Flights for 700$ (less maybe sometimes), staying at airbnb's, using public transport and trains, free walking tours where you give a tip, most entrances to places are not more than 15€ and you would be surprised to see how much is free.

It can absolutely be done and with plenty of comfort too.

 

[crisi]

I am not the poster but I can assure you that this can be done!! Heck, the ABD itenaries can be done for this (the ones so have seen at least) if the hotels can be local ones.
Flights for 700$ (less maybe sometimes), staying at airbnb's, using public transport and trains, free walking tours where you give a tip, most entrances to places are not more than 15€ and you would be surprised to see how much is free.

It can absolutely be done and with plenty of comfort too.

Maybe per person you can do ABD for $5k to Europe, but for a family of four, you aren't going to come close to that! One of the cheapest trips is Germany, and that's $4k minimum per person - not including airfare.

 

[pigletto]

Yes.. the ABD trips are staggering to me. If I had the disposable income perhaps not, but at this point in my life they seem very high.
My sister and I flew to Scotland, did all kinds of sight seeing and tours, shared a room, ate fabulous meals for 9 days and I was under 2k which was wonderful. However, that was just paying for me. For our family of 4, we'd be up at 8k at that point.

 

[alyssa18o6]

Our typical vacation is to Vegas to visit family. I typically spend under $1200 for flight and hotel for two people. Plus another $500 for food and whatever for shopping. Typically I just use tax refunds.

This our first (hopefully of many) Disney vacations together (neither of our first time though). For two people I was shooting for $2500 including flights but I don't see that happening. So now I'm trying to just keep it under $3000. It's also our honeymoon so I don't mind spending a little extra.

 

[Pigeon]

We can't do WDW for under $5K. Airfare for four is a huge chunk of that, and dh is a teacher, so we are limited to winter and spring break. That makes me squirm, so we don't go very often.

Actually spending money on a vacation, period, kind of makes me squirm. I'm way more focused on saving for college. So we don't go on vacation every year, and mostly we rent a house on a lake within driving distance for under $2K/week.

 

[BLAZEY]

All 3 of us did Disneyland for 6d/5n offsite with airfare for $2500. Tickets we free with Air Miles (5day parkhoppers).

I did 3 weeks in UK(England, Isle of Man, & Scotland) and 2 days in Paris In May 2014 for $7000 with my daughter. This included Rail Passes and Airfare. We split accommodations with my inlaws and stayed in apartments with a kitchen to save on food costs and we were fortunate to stay with some relatives for part of the time. My daughter is 5 so her rail pass was free with the purchase of mine, same with travel on the tube and buses. She was free to enter many sites with me, or was only a nominal charge.

So for Disney which is in my opinion "non educational" my limit is less than say a trip overseas. Don't get wrong I love Disney but I will spend more on an overseas trip, or one across the country to say Quebec where my daughter will learn something about history, culture or language.

 

[ToodlesRN]

I think it depends on where were going;
1. Disneyland 2-3000, as we have the DVC so its flight, tickets and eating/spending money
2. Disney world 3-5000, again its flights, tickets and eating/spending money
3. Disney Cruise were looking at 6-8000, depending on how many days, flights and add ons
4. Hawaii, 5-7000, flights, eating/spending money
4. Internationally, that's a whole other category!

 

[wishesuponastar]

$3 to $4,000 makes me squirm. We've only taken one vacation at that amount to WDW. We do have precious memories though.

I just priced an Alaskan Cruise for 4 of us and it is about $12,000 for a balcony cabin with land option too. That trip may never happen. If we were to be serious about it, we would have to not go on vacations for 3 years to save up for it. But $12,000 is a lot of money to shell out for a week!

 

[Bete]

For me it's anything over 5K for our family of four. Once we start getting above 6K, I begin to think thoughts like "we could buy a CAR for that amount of money!" (not a great car, but at least something that would run!!). Luckily, we've been able to stay under that thus far, but we do want to do an Alaskan cruise here in a couple of years, and I know that's going to cost us. Even if we can afford it-- over 5K seems like a huge chunk of change to drop in a week or two. Anyone else have a vacation $$ amount that makes them squirm?

I found the greatest cost of an Alaskan trip turned out to be the excursions. Make sure you figure this out ahead of time; so, you know what all the tours are costing you. If you just stay on the ship or near port you will not experience Alaska. You have to see or get on a glacier. You need to see the wildlife. You get the idea.

 

[VDrolet]

For a WDW vacation, we budget something like $3,500 for 5 or 6 nights. Of course, DS is flying and vacationing for free at the moment, so we will have to adapt in a year or two.

 

[eliza61]

$3 to $4,000 makes me squirm. We've only taken one vacation at that amount to WDW. We do have precious memories though.

I just priced an Alaskan Cruise for 4 of us and it is about $12,000 for a balcony cabin with land option too. That trip may never happen. If we were to be serious about it, we would have to not go on vacations for 3 years to save up for it. But $12,000 is a lot of money to shell out for a week!

Don't automatically count it out. What dh and I use to do was price out the trip and then see if there were ways to cut back a grand or two. for example,

What time of the year are you going?
What ship are you going on? when I priced out cruises, the older smaller ships were considerably cheaper (this wasn't to Alaska though).
If we decided on a newer, bigger ship with all the bells and whistles we could cut back on land excursions.
What about other cabin options?

I love traveling so I've been trying sneaky ways to make it happen.

 

[NancyIL]

$3 to $4,000 makes me squirm. We've only taken one vacation at that amount to WDW. We do have precious memories though.

I just priced an Alaskan Cruise for 4 of us and it is about $12,000 for a balcony cabin with land option too. That trip may never happen. If we were to be serious about it, we would have to not go on vacations for 3 years to save up for it. But $12,000 is a lot of money to shell out for a week!

If you're looking at an Alaska cruise plus a land trip -it will be longer than a week.

I've cruised to Alaska 4 times and never had a balcony cabin. I've also planned 9-day land trips with a rental car after 2 of them. Alaska isn't cheap, but there are ways to economize.

 

[aprilchem]

I don't like to spend more than $10k. I don't like to spend any amount if we haven't saved up the cash to cover it.

 

[Praying Colonel]

One miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilion dollars:

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Yes.. the ABD trips are staggering to me. If I had the disposable income perhaps not, but at this point in my life they seem very high.
My sister and I flew to Scotland, did all kinds of sight seeing and tours, shared a room, ate fabulous meals for 9 days and I was under 2k which was wonderful. However, that was just paying for me. For our family of 4, we'd be up at 8k at that point.

You ate fabulous meals in Scotland? Boy, I sure didn't

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Here's the thing, I don't squirm at any particular amount of money. I might consider a certain cost to be "too much" for a given vacation location, but I would more than likely be willing to pay that amount for a different vacation. There is no ultimate upper limit, though there are trips the cost of which I am not about to afford at this time.


For example, I'd like to take a year off and travel the world. I've read estimates that a small family can manage this comfortably on $100,000. Can I spend that now? Heck no. But I also don't think it's out of the range of what would be reasonable for that sort of "vacation".

 

[kathy884]

I like to go on vacation annually and put away $600 a month and usually end up doing one week long trip in the $5000 / $6000 range for our family of three and a get-a-way weekend (often that get-a-way weekend is an Orlando trip that isn't too expensive using frequent flyer mile, staying offsite, and short (often only there for two or three days)). And DH doesn't like theme parks so it's usually just me and DS.

If a trip is going to cost more than $8000 then (over 13 month's of vacation budget ($7800) It would have to be something we really really want to do and would be willing to make some sacrifices for (more modest vacation next or less frequent vacations) or I'll start coming up with a different place instead. // e.g I was looking at an Alaskan cruise for the three of us (balcony was all I'd consider) and it was sooo expensive. And I said -- no way -- I don't want to go that badly - it's not a bucket list item or anything like that -- was just a vacation thought. And instead we decided to do our favorite National Park -- a trip to Estes Park / Rocky Mountain National park in style with a wonderful luxury condo with hot tub on balcony and fabulous view, fly and rent car to save about 26 hours of driving, and $6000 will easily cover the whole thing. Can't wait to hit that park again (I just love it there), and picking that for vacation doesn't feel like a sacrifice at all. It lets me do a little get-a-way to Disney too if I want to.

Disney is never on the list for us as a week long get-a-way. DH doesn't like it there, so that's a big reason. I like our annual main trip to be something we'll all really like. I do though tend to make it down for a little mini trip annually or every other year with DS. (I keep whatever I spend on this little get away close to 2 K). Freebie air helps make that possible.

This limited budget does pretty much leave out most international travel except Mexico, Canada, Caribbean, Costa Rica -- closer places, and it makes Alaska / Hawaii pretty much off limits.

We did let DS pick a special destination subject to our approval for a High School graduation trip and that was a week long trip to Hawaii (cost was about $7500) last year. We did a one time up of the vacation budget, though, with bonus money (upped vacation budget by about $2500 for that). // Glad we did it, but it take so long to get there and air and groceries are outrageous in cost. // I don't envision going back any time soon, as there are destinations that are easier to get to that I like more for way less money -- Puerto Vallarta probably being my favorite for a tropical get-a-way

I should also mention that these days we are not lonely planet travelers. We like reasonably comfortable places to stay and sometimes will pay a little extra if that works for that wow factor -- great space, great view, amazing balcony. Used to like to camp, but now getting older the pleasures while still there seem like more work than they are worth. And we have a higher vacation budget than we used to have. For us we don't really want to sacrifice creature comforts for more vacations days and are OK with just a week long vacation and a long weekend annually.

We travel to see relatives on the east cost annually and budget $2400 for that, but that is separate from my vacation budget.

 

[DPickering]

Wow. I am always amazed at what people spend on their vacations. Our maximum, like the most extreme ever would be about $4k. Because of budget, our travel budget is actually quite small, and we have never needed to go higher. And we've done cruises in suites, been to far off places like Beijing and Dubai, toured the Caribbean, visit the Disney's every year, Vegas probably 3 or 4 times a year. I'm not sure which is my actual hobby, finding the really extreme travel deals or the actual traveling, but it's all fun.