S/O family vacation budget

DH and I are pretty much retired (still do small consulting jobs) and travel has always been important to us. Next month we are taking a 2 week river cruise on the Danube. 2016 we took the two grandkids to D.C. for a week then we did a 2 week driving trip through New England last October. 2015 we did NYC for 5 days (we do this every 3 years or so). Then August 2015 we did a 2 week tour of Scotland. Summer of 2015 we went to Cleveland to visit a customer and extended the trip for a few days to see family and visit some sights. There are only 5 states we have not visited together and we plan to knock off two of them in the fall, Washington state and Oregon. We were just average middle class growing up but my parents instilled a sense of wanderlust in me and we took at least 2 vacations (economically) every year. They also took us to travelogues at the local college. Now if I could just win the lottery so we could fly first class!

It really depends on the vacation. Weekend trip to see a hockey game out of state? $500ish. Anything else is at least $1000 once you add in food and such. We typically do one close and cheaper one year and then one that involves and airplane the next year. Then we do a weekend here and there.

Anywhere from $1000 to $12,000 on a trip. $6-10,000 for a typical 9 day that we usually do as a family for our winter escape. If we go to my aunt's for summer vacation then it's fuel to get there and a hotel stay on the way there and back. My 2 daughters and I can spend way under $1000 for a 12 day vacation there. Our family of 4 has done Disneyland & Vegas with show tickets, or Mexico and just sat on the beach, we've had places were we had 2 room suites. We've flown, rented a house and a car. We've flown and stayed in my aunt's winter rental in Phoenix and used her car. We've stayed on property at Disneyland the first 2 times then decided it wasn't worth it and the next few times stayed across the street at the "cheap" hotels. Sometimes it's just my DH & I or just my 2 DD & I. At minimum we do a summer vacation and a winter vacation every year and a weekend to the mountains.

I don't do a budget so I never have set money aside for vacations. If/when we have extra money, we plan something. We go on one big vacation every year (it is usually WDW, which it will be again this year. Last Summer it was California). Then two smaller trips every year as well. Always upstate for 4-5 days with my family at our favorite Summer resort town and we go camping for 3 days every Fall.

I think it is safe to say we are in the $5000-$10000 bracket on vacay spending. We are a family of 5 and our big trip always includes airfare. Last Summer it cost me $3000 just to get our 5 asses from NY to CA. What a joke!

I don't have kids so cost is just for me. I typically spend $300-500 for a local short holiday in New Zealand. Often stay with friends so it's just the cost of a flight plus a bit for food. Would do 1 or 2 if those a year.

The last few years I've managed a trip to the USA or Europe every couple of years - and most would set me back $10k including flights, limited accommodation costs and spending money. That's usually for 6 weeks away. But the next few years I have big expenses for the house so have to curtail the travel.

Ours add up. This year for instance will be quite expensive. We never pay for air because we have so many points through my husbands business but since 9/16 we went to cannon beach for our anniversary approx $1100, Maui for thanksgiving, approximately $4000-5000 when you favtor in all the activities over 12 days, Costa Rica and then New Orleans for mid winter break (this was expensive about $12,000 but we were gone 17 days), we have an rv so we will do weekend trips over the summer so at least $1000, and we going on a cruise with my whole family (24 of us) in august. My parents are paying the cruise fare and several activities but for our upgrade and a 3 day extension to Iceland plus whatever we buy I anticipate at least $3000. Then I will be out of vacation time! Nothing else planned except we will go to New Zealand over spring break 2018.

We only have 1 child and he has limited daycare expenses these days. Part of why we chose 1 was so we could travel.

You know, we brought our kids on vacation one year and while away we had a home base of sorts, but then everyday we made a short (1 hr. drive or less) trip to a nearby town, parked the car, and saw what the town had to offer.  Now, my kids were young at the time, so some of what we did were very simple things--playgrounds, picnics, even checked out the local library.  (That location's library, of course---it was certainly not local to our actual home!).  The kids loved that trip.  And it was very budget friendly.  

Fast forward to last year and we traveled to the same basic region but scheduled larger, more costly, more "touristy" "experiences" to do each day, and there was so much strife on that trip.  One experience was great for half the family, but not the other half.  One kid was unhappy because there was no time for what they wanted to do while the other was unhappy that they missed something else.  I was unhappy because I felt like I never had a single moment to just relax.  And so when we came home we talked about the trip and asked what had gone wrong.

And over and over the kids, despite now being older, both said that they really just missed going to a town and doing whatever.  No big day long events taking up every minute of time we had.  Because if you went to a town, and mom wanted to see a boring scrapbook store, at least that only took 20 minutes and it was over.  But if you've bought tickets for a 5 hour long event and you realize that you don't really enjoy this, you're stuck for 5 hours.  Ultimately the kids felt that we had pre-planned too much of their vacation time, so when the pre-planned events were over, they wanted to squeeze in a few shorter things in between. 

But I, on the other had, felt like we had just spent 7-8 hours on one event and now I just wanted to sit for 30 minutes and enjoy some R&R, and felt exasperated that they had just done this cool thing and yet they were still badgering us to go do some other thing.  (And spend money on said other thing.)   I felt like I had spent months saving for this trip, planning this trip, researching for this trip, buying things for this trip, packing for this trip, dotting every "i" and crossing every "t" to be sure everything was in place and ready and no one seemed happy.  It was very frustrating.

It was a learning experience.  But ultimately the truth was that we spent far more money that year and had less of a good time.

So when we came home, we decided to make those same kinds of trips just around our area.  We'd pick a town, pack a picnic, and set out.  We found cool things right in our region that we had either never experienced before or that DH & I had seen when we were kids, but that our kids had never seen, etc.   Those day trips sometimes cost very little, and sometimes nothing more than the gas we used.  And it was a better "vacation" than our actual vacation.  

This year we did not schedule a vacation.  We're purchasing things for our home, and the kids are asking to find more towns to visit.      No vacation needed.
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We often take backpacking/camping vacations - but we tent camp, no RV. We've invested in high quality gear and have had it for years - cost is minimal if you look at cost per year.

It's just myself, husband, and daughter - three is definitely easier to budget than a larger family. 

When I think travel/vacation, I think about trips that require taking time off and often require airfare (last year was eight trips for me and an additional one my husband and daughter took. Five of those trips included flights.). We do a lot of weekend trips, but I didn't factor those in. Those are typically pretty low cost anyway - usually camping/hiking, renting a cabin with friends, or going to one of my husband's races.  

After taxes and bills, travel is definitely our biggest bucket of our budget. It's a priority for us, so we are frugal in other ways so we can take trips.

There's so many factors....

I am single, so my vacation are naturally a lot less money in general. I usually travel with a friend so we split costs, and then I have a ton of airline miles and hotel points, so I rarely pay for those as well.

I try to do 3-4 short trips during a year, and then one bigger international trip maybe every 4-5 years.

Last week I did Grand Canyon and Sedona for 4 days, but it was prior to a work trip. So work paid for my flight, and we used points for our hotel stay. So I paid $100 towards a rental car and gas, and paid for my meals, and that was it. Makes it affordable to take more trips, which I understand is a luxury many people do not have. So what cost me probably $250 total, would have cost a family of 4 probably $3000+ if you add in airfare.

We are probably in the range of $10-15K Canadian per trip. We always travel with the kids so there are 4 of us. We have done road trips through national parks, Disney, and a few countries in Central America, all for around the same price. This summer we are heading to Europe with the kids for the first time and it may wind up being slightly more.

We are fortunate to be able to do this. Travel is our number one leisure priority as a family. I have a friend who bemoans that she can't take her family on similar trips, but she has children who play travel sports. I suspect the amount she spends on fees, equipment, traveling many weekends for tournaments, special camps etc is pretty close to what I spend on traveling. We don't eat out much during the year except for when we travel, we only drink on special occasions, and we are homebodies. Those savings all add up and allow us to spend a few weeks each year treating ourselves. I admit that in recent years I have also fallen victim to the "I *deserve* this" mentality. As my career has gotten more hectic, I appreciate the chance to get away more, and am less willing to compromise on how we do it. Travel is definitely my vice.

I agree!   It is for two.  However...it is phase two for my 13 year old $5380. (this is with a $1000. discount!)  and phase one for my 8 year old $2780.

Is this normal?  I have been so sick about it today.  I really thought it would only be about half that amount.   I think I need a second opinion. 

 
we will be getting a second opinion maybe even a third. 

As others have said, it depends on the year and the trip. A 4-day jaunt down to Carmel wouldn't cost as much as 18 days in Europe. Maybe your poll is more for people who schedule a one-week or two-week vacation every year.