Travel/vacation budgets. What's yours?

[spartana]

Do you budget for travel or vacations? How much do you average spending-wise and what kind of trips/vacations do you usually do? For how long? Do you expect to increase that spending and/or length of time once FIRE? Nosey minds want to know!

I'm FIREd and generally do long term (multi-month) very low cost tent camping road trips to do outdoor recreational things in the US. I usually spend around $1500/month all in if going solo but can often half that if BF or a friend tags along due to splitting costs. Sometimes I've stayed at monthly Airbnbs off season so pretty inexpensive. I'll be doing a long overseas trip soon  - the first in many years - and have no idea what I will be spending beyond airfare and a 3 month rail pass. Generally I budget around $8k per year for solo camping road trips but will have a bigger spend this year. Technically I put aside $20k for a year of cheap overseas slow travel but will likely spend less as BF will join me for part of it (3 months) and I will likely not be gone as long as I originally planned.

ETA: I haven't  own a car in over 3 years so rent monthly when I do road trips and that increases the amount I spend but also decreases my overall expenses by not owning a car.

[Poeirenta]

Not so much an annual budget, but happy to share what we are paying for our two month stay in Portugal in case it's helpful for you.

$1100/mo (including utilities) for rent*
$325/ mo for rental car.
Gas is more expensive, but the car gets really good mileage, so that's a wash so far.
Spending $2-300 less per month on food/drink than at home, which includes eating out (which we almost never do at home).

* we probably could have found a less expensive place, since the one we are in is bigger than we need, but it's close to friends, in an area we wanted to explore, and fairly new construction (important if you don't want to be cold inside your apartment in the winter in PT; older buildings here are terrible).






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[bacchi]

We don't have a set budget but we spent $7800 in 2021 and $5600 in 2022.

We mostly take our time getting to national parks, camping and using hotel points/vouchers along the way. We'll also join our still employed friends when they gather over a long weekend at (often $$) cabins.

[HPstache]

Currently $4,200/yr, but we usually overspend... ha!

[FIRE 20/20]

We have had budgets of $9k-$12k, but I enjoy travel hacking and optimization so we've never spent even close to that amount.  We have also been taking COVID very seriously, so that's impacted our willingness to travel the past few years. 

[Dicey]

Hey @spartana, I have a related question. If you don't own a car, how do you handle insurance for rental cars? Do you buy theirs or is there a more cost-effective option? Thanks!

[Kris]

Not really. We don't go on a lot of trips, but when we do we spend several weeks at the destination. I generally have an idea of what I want to spend on lodging, etc. DH has an idea that is much higher, lol, and I try to restrain him until we meet somewhere in the middle.
And then once we've decided on that stuff, I try to let go of thinking about it once we're actually on the trip so I don't let money worries negatively impact the vacation. (Especially because honestly, we can afford it.)

[curious_george]

$0

I have never been on vacation in my life, lol.

Sometimes we visit with family out of state, which we sort of think of as 'vacation'.

[charis]

$0

I have never been on vacation in my life, lol.

Sometimes we visit with family out of state, which we sort of think of as 'vacation'.

You've never taken a vacation from work, or you don't travel while on vacation (popularly known as a "staycation")?  I think the question is geared toward folks who choose to budget for vacation travel.

My data point is - we don't set budget for vacations, but we try to keep costs down as much as possible with miles and points.  But it's still somewhat pricey because we are a family of four who only travels on school breaks.  Last year we spent $5k on 3 separate week-long trips (including cross-country flights, two days at Disney, a week at a beach hotel, cabin) and 3-4 weekend trips.  It would probably be twice that without the miles/points.  We spend way more on activities and restaurants during trips.

[curious_george]

$0

I have never been on vacation in my life, lol.

Sometimes we visit with family out of state, which we sort of think of as 'vacation'.

You've never taken a vacation from work, or you don't travel while on vacation (popularly known as a "staycation")?  I think the question is geared toward folks who choose to budget for vacation travel.

Yeah I guess I should have used the word "travel" to somewhere besides your home even if not far. Say renting a motel or cabin in a nearby town for a week or weekend.   I do consider visiting family far away for a longer then one night stay as a vacation but might not be considered a "travel destination". I don't really know the difference though.

@TreeLeaf have you never taken time off work and gone somewhere fun with your spouse and kids?

Negative.

Spouse and I were both raised in poverty so neither of us travelled when we were kids either. It's actually a foreign concept for some people.

I have pondered the idea though now that we have money...so I am mostly PTF.

[Log]

"Working vacations" only at this point. That said: way too much. Being in a field where career advancement is based on in-person auditions is a real money-pit. I would really like to travel a little less, both for savings and just for my own well-being.

My vision of vacation that I'm working towards is two have two kinds of trips in my life:
1) Visiting friends in great cities.
2) Retreats to the woods. Rent a cabin, shut the phone off, and just walk, read, meditate. Let myself be bored without reflexively turning to a screen.

Working trips cover a lot of #1 for me right now, but I don't have control of which cities I have opportunities to visit. For example, I've been wanting to go to Chicago for a while now, but I can't justify spending the money to go if it's not for an audition/gig opportunity. Hopefully within 2-5 years, a trip like that will be a regular yearly thing without needing a work justification.

[simonsez]

Around 10k-12k on average.

Usually do an int'l trip every 2 or 3 years provided there isn't a pandemic.  Throw in at least one extended family trip (usually to a beach or a mountain cabin), two or three Great American Roadtrips (Spring Break, summer, winter holiday break are prime times for us), around half a dozen weekends (though this was more during pandemic years) to the in-laws lakehouse or my family's rural property, plus some friend-related travel and it comes out to a mean of about 10k-12k with a range of 4k up to 15k.

2021 was a little higher as we went to Hawaii over Spring Break (wife is an educator which greatly dictates when we usually travel for trips longer than a weekend) and did it up a little bigger than normal to celebrate some marital and educational milestones.  This year for Spring Break we're doing some NM town exploring plus White Sands and Guadalupe Mts NP - should be several grand less than last year's Spring Break trip and overall 2021 travel spending.

Budget will have to increase once ownership/maintenance of the family properties pass to us but will likely always be below 10% of household income during our working years and I am 100% ready to spend much more of my time there, both for working on projects and leisure time.

[charis]

Spouse and I were both raised in poverty so neither of us travelled when we were kids either. It's actually a foreign concept for some people.

I have pondered the idea though now that we have money...so I am mostly PTF.

Interesting, I know some who grew up in poverty or didn't have travel opportunities that now vacation with their kids because they want to give them the experience that they didn't have growing up.

[HPstache]

Currently $4,200/yr, but we usually overspend... ha!

what do you usually do and where do you go?

Due to the stage we are in life with kids ages 3.5, 5.5 & 7.5 we own a travel trailer and do usually 2 local camping trips and one big one.  Last year our big trip was to Yellowstone (we are in NW Washington) and this year we are taking a 2-1/2 week trip to Disneyland and back.  On the way down our stops will be Bend OR, Reno NV, Kings canyon/Sequoia then Disneyland.  On our way back it will be Yosemite and then somewhere like Grants pass or Shasta City.  We have a KOA membership so most of our stops will be at those.

[Captain FIRE]

Post a poll? I’m guessing you’ll get more participation that way, as higher budgets may not want to share otherwise.

[ixtap]

We don't really budget for travel. Trips, transportation, entertainment and even gifts are all a bit blurry.

Last year we spent 8 weeks and nearly $15k between a cruise and a trip to India. That was about half of our travel but the vast majority of the cost. It should be much less this year, but DH is leaning towards spending the difference on a sailboat to keep with family.

[E.T.]

Pre pandemic we spent around 3-4k per year. Usually we'd hit a theme park for a week as our one big vacation.  Then we'd have a handful of shorter trips to visit far away relatives. We're thinking of doing Disney next and it'll be about $3k for ten days of hotel +park tickets and parking. Expensive but fun, and we didn't travel during the last three years really.

[StarBright]

We don't budget annually. Thus far we come up with a trip we'd like to do, schedule it a year or two out and then save for it.

We are a family of four, constrained by kids' school schedules and DH's university schedule (which don't align as much as I'd hope), and my limited PTO (no more than 5 days at a time unless I get special permission). It generally means that there are only a few weeks we can align for traveling and it tends to be during peak travel times.

We took a big trip in 2021 (7k, mostly flights) that we saved a couple of years for, visited family in 2022 for very little (gas money to TN basically) and did a small camping trip (not my thing), and have a big trip planned in 2023 (probably 9k, again mostly flights) that we've been saving for since 2021. 2024 will have a nice, local trip that we'll use travel rewards to book for very discounted lodging. If we have enough points, we'll invite my parents along in 2024 (they gave us points for our trip in 2021).

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We have a family of four, including two teen boys, so we are at the point where we really can't comfortably get one hotel room. We live in a different state than my family, and spend the majority of our travel budget going back & forth from CA to WA.

This year is a pretty big outlier:
-We are spending a lot to take our family to Dubai, which is one of the only places we can mutually meet my husband's family (they are from Iran). This is a once in a lifetime trip, and my husband & I have been married for 20 years, and I've never met/the kids haven't met any of his relatives, including his sister, niece, etc. That trip alone is going to be $10k+, as we will also be paying for the rest of the relatives.
-We are doing a few college tours with the teens
-I'm taking my sister to France for her 50th birthday. I have a travel credit that's quite large & about to expire, else I'd try to push this trip out by a year
-I'm likely going to be making one last work trip to Japan. If I do, I'll see if my husband wants to join. My flight/hotel would be covered by work, and we'd tack on a few days at the end.

Travel this year will be close to 1/3 of our overall spend. We have a paid off house, and can comfortably afford it.

[Kris]

$0

I have never been on vacation in my life, lol.

Sometimes we visit with family out of state, which we sort of think of as 'vacation'.

You've never taken a vacation from work, or you don't travel while on vacation (popularly known as a "staycation")?  I think the question is geared toward folks who choose to budget for vacation travel.

Yeah I guess I should have used the word "travel" to somewhere besides your home even if not far. Say renting a motel or cabin in a nearby town for a week or weekend.   I do consider visiting family far away for a longer then one night stay as a vacation but might not be considered a "travel destination". I don't really know the difference though.

@TreeLeaf have you never taken time off work and gone somewhere fun with your spouse and kids?

Negative.

Spouse and I were both raised in poverty so neither of us travelled when we were kids either. It's actually a foreign concept for some people.

I have pondered the idea though now that we have money...so I am mostly PTF.

I was also raised in a family that never took a vacation when I was a child.

I value new experiences and seeing the world, though, so I changed that as an adult.

[Metalcat]

$0

I have never been on vacation in my life, lol.

Sometimes we visit with family out of state, which we sort of think of as 'vacation'.

You've never taken a vacation from work, or you don't travel while on vacation (popularly known as a "staycation")?  I think the question is geared toward folks who choose to budget for vacation travel.

Yeah I guess I should have used the word "travel" to somewhere besides your home even if not far. Say renting a motel or cabin in a nearby town for a week or weekend.   I do consider visiting family far away for a longer then one night stay as a vacation but might not be considered a "travel destination". I don't really know the difference though.

@TreeLeaf have you never taken time off work and gone somewhere fun with your spouse and kids?

Negative.

Spouse and I were both raised in poverty so neither of us travelled when we were kids either. It's actually a foreign concept for some people.

I have pondered the idea though now that we have money...so I am mostly PTF.

I was also raised in a family that never took a vacation when I was a child.

I value new experiences and seeing the world, though, so I changed that as an adult.

I was also raised in a family that never took vacations...at least I was never taken on a vacation, my parents did a few trips solo, but they were divorced parents and could foist the kids off on the other parent, so why would they take the kids?? lol

I generally travel very poorly thanks to my health. I need so much recovery time after flying or driving long distances that going on a holiday with a daily cost is a waste of money. So instead, I need to go spend months in a place to make it worthwhile.

This is why we own a house in a bucket-list type of destination. We spend about $1500/yr getting ourselves and the animals out there, but I don't consider the cost of the house to be a travel expense, I just consider the combined housing costs our overall cost of housing.

The travel to get there and back is fun because one of us flies with the pets and the other drives, but the drive is a road trip vacation in and of itself, and we stay with family all along the way and take fun detours along the east coast.

So depending on how you look at it, our travel spending is either pretty modest, or very expensive if you include the cost of owning and renovating a second home.

[Log]

Re: changing travel norms from childhood to adulthood

My childhood vacation experience was almost exclusively roadtrips. Lots of long days on country highways through Montana and the like. There was one particularly massive trip when I was around 9 or 10 down the west coast, across the south to Florida, up to New York, and back across the north. I never really took to these constant on-the-move roadtrips, and much prefer spending quality time at a particular destination. The only parts of that trip I particularly remember are the places we stopped for multiple nights. Almost everything else is just a blur of long days in the car.

Roadtrips now just strike me as an extremely expensive and unpleasant way to cover any kind of long distance. I'd have loved more local trips in my childhood. Would have loved to just drive out to some local destination, spend a week there and drive back. Instead it was always days and days in the car, stopping at different motels every night. I do not have fond memories of these trips at all.

I'm from an absolutely beautiful part of the country, but I often feel like I hardly know the best places my state has to offer, because we never did those kinds of local trips. Seeing the sights out the car window just doesn't do it for me, but for whatever reason my parents are super into it. I guess they're products of their time, when the interstate system was a grand utopian vision, and "going for a drive" was still something people did for fun.

Flying felt very rare and extravagant in childhood. When I applied for undergrad I basically only applied for schools in the Midwest, so my trip for auditions was one flight and then three days of roadtripping for back-to-back auditions. I think that was the first time I had been on a plane in over 10 years. My career field has since desensitized me to just paying for the damn flight when I gotta get somewhere. And it is far more conducive to the kind of trip I enjoy. Get to the destination as quickly as possible, then settle in and stay a while.

[Cassie]

Through the years I have taken all kinds of vacations from tent camping to nice hotels. Now divorced and older I have been taking tours with a good friend of mine. We went to Ireland last year for 11 days. We have a European trip planned once a year for 11 days with the same tour company through 2025. They average between 5-6k depending on the location which is all the costs.

[Rdy2Fire]

To answer the initial question, no budget, some travel hacking etc spend depends on where, how long etc. Just did 6 weeks in Asia for under 2K

$1100/mo (including utilities) for rent*
$325/ mo for rental car.

Dusty Dog Ranch just wondering where in Portugal, such a great country! More so where you found a rental car for a month for $325?

[Poeirenta]

Hey @Rdy2Fire , we are in the Algarve. The rental car company is called EpiRent, based in Monte Gordo and with an office at Faro airport. If you need an automatic transmission, it will be more expensive than what we are paying, but thankfully we both can drive stick.

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[Rdy2Fire]

Hey @Rdy2Fire , we are in the Algarve. The rental car company is called EpiRent, based in Monte Gordo and with an office at Faro airport. If you need an automatic transmission, it will be more expensive than what we are paying, but thankfully we both can drive stick.

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Awesome, thanks for the info, I will look into it as I will be in Portugal for a couple of weeks but thinking next year around this time I'd like to spend a month or two. Luckily I too can drive a manual car :)

[GilesMM]

We try to budget around 10-15% of spending on travel and vacations, roughly the same as food and drink.


2022 was all domestic including some Family duty. So, Midwest, California and Hawaii plus assorted PNW car trips.

[deborah]

I guess I travel a lot. My parents live 7.5 hours drive away. For most of the thirteen years since retirement, dad’s been sick and I’ve traveled there between 13 and 26 times a year, for between four and nine days at a time. Dad died a couple of years ago, so I don’t need to go there so often - it’s back to 13 times a year.

To give myself a break, I also got into the habit of camping for a few nights on the way home from my parents, and then of going camping in remote places in my car for a month or two. That morphed into travelling overseas for between 2 and 3 months each year about eight years ago. I’ve also been camping once a month for a couple of days for the last two years or so (in between covid19 lockdowns).

My domestic travel is pretty cheap. Campgrounds in national parks are often $6 a night, particularly the remote campgrounds I enjoy. They used to be free and not need booking before covid19. They have minimal facilities, so when I was away for longer than a few days, I’d go to a town campground with facilities for a night, and do washing etc. Things don’t cost much when you do them this way - apart from fuel, which can be 3 times the price in remote locations. However, if there’s something expensive I want to do - a scenic flight, or have a gourmet dinner or luxury accommodation, I do it (but it really needs to be pretty special accommodation for me to be interested).

The stuff I’m interested in internationally tends to be pretty expensive, because, again, I’m interested in remote (although camping in the Yukon and driving up the Dempster highway weren’t expensive). However, I’ve spent time visiting mustachian friends, going to camp Mustache events and meetups, or going to classes in stuff that interests me, and that tends to be quite cheap because they’re not remote.

[Omy]

We visit one side of the family 4 times a year. That ends up being inexpensive because it's a rural area and they insist on us staying with them....so maybe $50/day after gas and tolls and gifts.

We visit the other side twice a year. Those visits are probably closer to $250/day with hotels, gas, food, etc.

Right after we FIREd (which was 6 months before covid started), we took 2-3 days each month for short excursion trips. They were often relatively inexpensive due to travel hacking...maybe $150/day.

We had originally budgeted $10k annually for travel, but have come nowhere near that since covid. We have a lot of making up to do.

[JupiterGreen]

About $4000 a year (housing etc.), it is to visit family who (unfortunately) live in a touristy area. We will reduce/eliminate this line item once we FIRE. It's one of the most expensive things we do, but we'll miss doing it because it's also a lovely place.

[Samuel]

I'm still a worker bee limited by PTO and work constraints so longer term slow travel is not yet in the cards, thus I tend to budget my travel by days of PTO more than by dollars. Perhaps if I had luxurious tastes or insisted on peak season travel such a relaxed method wouldn't work but my defaults are all pretty modest and dicey weather doesn't bother me (especially if it means fewer crowds) so it seems to work for me now. I also don't have many expensive hobbies so I'm fine with travel being one of them as long as the experience per dollar ratio remains high. It's not pushing back my FIRE date much. It probably helps that my core family all live within an hour or two drive.

Pre-Covid I probably spent $5k a year traveling up to 20 or so work days (so plus weekends/holidays) with at least one but usually two of the trips being international. But then the world stopped and I didn't get on an airplane for almost 3 years so I expect in the next couple years I'll be spending more while I make up for lost time and work to reduce my maxed out PTO balance. Probably $7k a year.

I will fully admit part of this is making up for having limited money and travel opportunities earlier in life. Our family summer vacations were road trips around Washington and Oregon. I didn't get on an airplane until I was 19. I didn't go east of the Rocky Mountains until I was 27 (right around when I stopped living paycheck to paycheck). I didn't leave North America until I was 30. But then I spent the next decade making up for lost time... As a former bookish kid with an active imagination I still get an indescribable kick out of standing on the Acropolis, seeing the skull of a Mayan human sacrifice in a cave in Belize, climbing into the Duomo in Florence, seeing the sky filled with the northern lights in Iceland, etc. Plus I'm developing a list of place I would like to return to (and some I won't want to return to) once my slower FIRE travel phase can begin.

[JupiterGreen]

About $4000 a year (housing etc.), it is to visit family who (unfortunately) live in a touristy area. We will reduce/eliminate this line item once we FIRE. It's one of the most expensive things we do, but we'll miss doing it because it's also a lovely place.

Will you not still visit family there once you are FIREd? I lived near both my parents and family (sister) when I FIREd so didn't need to travel to visit so that left extra $$s and time for me to travel elsewhere which was nice. But having a house and pets really limited me from longer trips unless I took them with me (thus the mostly camping road trips somewhat locally in the US). Now pet-less so  I'll be much freer. My only family (besides my sister who lives near by) is some distant relatives in Sweden and am really looking forward to going there soon! Likely expensive though.

We plan to move closer to them, far enough away from the higher priced real estate but close enough so that day trips are possible. We may still do a couple of overnights in the fancier areas, not sure. We'll have to see what our lives are like after FIRE. Even if we can cut this to 2k (and do other trips), it will be a win.

[Alternatepriorities]

Travel is definitely our least Mustachian spending area. While we were still intentionally accumulating we had a travel budget of 6k per year which was 10% of total spending. We optimized for maximum travel so any money that we saved on one trip just meant that we could go on another trip... However since we hit our FIRE number and DW decided to keep working anyway that's been the main area of budgetary expansion. Essentially we decided that while she's working we will worry less about minimizing the cost per day to travel and go when it fits her schedule even if it's not the cheapest. That's been remarkably difficult for me to adapt to after a life time of minimizing travel expense so that I could do more of it.

There is one other thing that makes our "budget" a bit of a farce... We live in Alaska a place people save up to visit for a week or two... A little over a week ago we took a two day drive through some of the most beautiful mountains to stay in a rustic hotel at the end of the road. Is that a one night "vacation"? What about when I make a similar drive to fill my freezer with wild game? People pay tens of thousands of dollars to hunt and fish here... I do it for food, but I'm probably having as good of time as they are. Is it a vacation or work? :)

[pdxvandal]

Based on my Personal Capital transactions, we spent $5k in 2022 and $3k in 2021. Some of our 2023 travel was purchased in 2022, so I imagine this year will be less than $5k. The value we are getting out of the travel is probably at least 25% more (and likely MUCH higher) in value due to travel hacking.

I am OK with spending even more on travel as I age (~$10k yearly), but might be pared back a little this year to due some unanticipated medical bills. But I just took the family to Vegas last weekend, an East Coast trip in a few weeks for spring break and another flight to a neighboring state this summer. Taking the train to Seattle in for a long weekend in May using all Amtrak points I just got as a SUB. We'll probably book a few more flights before the year is done and we have companion passes on two different airlines.

[Michael in ABQ]

No budget but with 6 young kids travelling as a family is difficult. For instance, airline not allowing you to purchase 8 tickets at once. We had to buy 7 tickets then one kid was on their own ticket.

We did fly out to see my family last summer. Airfare was paid for with points as was a hotel for my wife and I. We get 4x Amex points for every dollar we spend on advertising and shipping for our ecommerce business. Those expenses are over $100k a year so more points than we can use. The kids stayed with relatives. We probably spent a few hundred dollars at most. We "splurged" by spending about $75 eating out at a restaurant my wife used to work at when she was a teenager. Other than that our only expenses were a couple of tanks of gas for the cars we borrowed and pitching in on some groceries. Without points it would have been about $4k total.

Prior to this the only real overnight trip we took as a family was either many years ago with fewer kids or when my family drove about 5 hours to spend a couple of days with me in a hotel before I deployed overseas for 9 months.

[Zikoris]

Before the pandemic it was around 9K/year, and then we had several years of hardly anything, though it seems costs have increased substantially in that time from what we used to pay. We only just started travelling overseas again last fall when the Canadian government decided to get with the rest of the world and let unvaccinated people onto airplanes again, so we're still figuring out what our new travel budget should be.

[Alternatepriorities]

Travel is definitely our least Mustachian spending area. While we were still intentionally accumulating we had a travel budget of 6k per year which was 10% of total spending. We optimized for maximum travel so any money that we saved on one trip just meant that we could go on another trip... However since we hit our FIRE number and DW decided to keep working anyway that's been the main area of budgetary expansion. Essentially we decided that while she's working we will worry less about minimizing the cost per day to travel and go when it fits her schedule even if it's not the cheapest. That's been remarkably difficult for me to adapt to after a life time of minimizing travel expense so that I could do more of it.

There is one other thing that makes our "budget" a bit of a farce... We live in Alaska a place people save up to visit for a week or two... A little over a week ago we took a two day drive through some of the most beautiful mountains to stay in a rustic hotel at the end of the road. Is that a one night "vacation"? What about when I make a similar drive to fill my freezer with wild game? People pay tens of thousands of dollars to hunt and fish here... I do it for food, but I'm probably having as good of time as they are. Is it a vacation or work? :)

I think I would define travel/trips/vacations as going somewhere you'd "normally" not go to as part of your usual lifestyle. So your road trip to a cabin I'd call a trip.  If going into the Bush to hunt food is what you'd normally do then I'd probably not call it a trip or acation. But I think going to a place for an overnight or two - or even a day trip - for no reason but pleasure would definitely go into "took a trip" category. When I lived in Anchorage I'd go different places just for pleasure and recreation - like drive down to Homer to camp on the spit or to Talkeetna for the Moose Dropping Festival. I'd consider those "trips or maybe travel" but wouldn't call going to ski or hike locally a trip or travel even if people came thousands of miles and paid  thousands of dollars to do that stuff.

I didn't realize you'd live in Anchorage! How long ago was that? Funny enough the trip to the end of the road was to Homer. And we did stay on the spit. MY brother in law is building hours for his commercial license, so on Tuesday I flew to Talkeetna with him just because the weather was perfect for flying. We didn't do anything while we were there, but it sure is a different perspective to see the country from above like that.

When I lived in Albuquerque I had a rule that it wasn't a road trip unless it was at least 6 hours and crossed state lines. I'd have to drive pretty fast to make the border in six hours here...

I think your definition nails my accounting problem. Random trips are my "normal lifestyle", but I just realized we don't have an entertainment budget at all. Our entertainment is essentially all travel and adventures. When I was single if more than 1/2 my budget was going to "necessities" instead of "adventures" I took it as a warning to reevaluate my spending. The key to pulling that off on 1/2 my earnings so I could save the other half was to be ruthless about spending on day to day life. :)

[index]

$12k/yr. This usually includes 3 international vacations and two going home to see family trips. I travel a lot for work so we can usually get free hotel rooms and book half the flights with points.

[Taran Wanderer]

We spend $15k to $30k on travel. The range depends on destination and airfare more than anything else. Either way it’s a lot, but we have a big family, the kids go with us, and right now we travel during peak seasons due to the kids’ schedules. We’re FI, but not RE, partially to fund travel and partially because we college and other kids expenses coming at us still.

One thing I waffle on is what to categorize as a travel expense. Airfare, lodging, ground transportation, and museum or adventure expenses qualify. Food and gas and other expenses that we have at home don’t really count. In quicken, I can tag expenses associated with a trip, so the numbers above include food etc, but if I looked at our annual spending, actual travel expenses (air, hotel, transp, admissions) would be less.

If I had the money, I’d spend $100k a year on travel, so even though our number is absurd, I don’t regret it. It crazy though that one kid’s peak season airline ticket to Europe today costs more than my entire 1st (or 2nd!) trip to Europe a few decades ago. 

[GuitarStv]

We usually drive out to visit my dad once a year, and my mom twice a year.  That's about two tanks of gas, so maybe 200$ for our total travel budget?

[Alternatepriorities]

I was stationed there for 4 years in the early '90s before getting out of the Coast Guard (partly in Cordova and some other places). I really love Anchorage (and the bike paths around there and hiking trails so close by were great) and thought of staying but has a good civilian job offer in Calif. I'd love to go back and spend a year there as a FIRE person someday.  And yes...I like the winters :).

I think I'd call your road trips a travel or a trip or whatever even if not very far.  I use to take lots of shorter trips (Sundays to Friday's) within a 100 miles or so and count that as part of my "travel spending". I also don't budget or have a separate fund for travel stuff (or anything really) but I do like to add up my travel related expenses each year (or try too) just to see what I spend.
[/quote]

Let me know if you want to come back up do some hiking. My schedule is usually pretty open during the week. I'm still working on getting my local friends to retire early :)

[cupcakery]

We budget $6k a year for vacation.  This includes some family trips for a family of 5, and some couples or mom/kid trips.  I include all expenses in my budget, including food, since food on vacation is more expensive than food at home.  About once or twice a year DH has to travel to visit a client at a well known vacation destination, so I tag along and sometimes bring the kids.  We get reimbursed for most of our expenses, except for entertainment and gas, when we go.  Last year was a full week away, plus one staycation with day trips, one work trip with a few personal expenses, and a bunch of weekend hiking, concert, and museum trips.  This year, we'll go slightly over budget, because we had one splurgy family trip that we've been planning for years. 

[patchyfacialhair]

Way too much. Historically about $12k a year.

Typically we do a Disney trip/cruise once a year which is about half that, then basically long weekends to account for the balance. We have a 5 star resort in our city for staycations once or twice a year, glamping once or twice each summer, and that's basically it.

As our kids grow up, we'll probably sub out Disney with snowboarding. We're very fortunate that our family is local so that means we don't have to spend money to see them, and also that my wife also gets a few "spouse included" fun work trips each year, so that definitely counts for something and allows us to splurge elsewhere.

[catccc]

$10K post pandemic.  This is with some point/mile redemptions.  Family of 4.  Prices are inclusive of dining while traveling.  I used to record these as groceries/restaurants, but after having a dining plan for our first Disney trip in 2016, I started rolling it all into the travel category.

Year     Total    Trips
2016    3,930.58     Disney in April, Harpers Ferry in October (+$450 london/paris deposit for 2017)
2017    7,305.96     London/Paris in April, Hawaii in November, California in December (+2018 Disney Airfare)
2018    7,384.76     Disney in April, Hawaii in July/August, California in December
2019    6,389.86     Pompano/Miami in April, Yellowstone/Teton in July/August, Disney in November
2020    3,082.31     Bear Creek Jan/Feb (3 days of skiing), Camp Watkins Glen June, Beach Days in July/August, Beach House Oct/Dec
2021    2,628.73     Beach Camp in March, Portsmouth in August, Annapolis in November (+$550 GC for Bear Creek in 2022)
2022    10,333.66 Bear Creek in Feb, Philly in Apr, Hershey in April/May, Disney in Aug, Hershey in Oct, California in December
2023               Bear Creek in February, NYC in April, Hawaii July/August

We are in the Philly suburbs.  We didn't fly at all 2020-2021.  Disney trips are usually ~9 days, California visits are around a week (visiting family), spring break trips that require flying are around a week, and summer vacations that require flying are usually 2 weeks.  Local road trips are usually a 2-3 day getaway.  Hawaii for almost 3 weeks this summer, we are excited!

[clarkfan1979]

We spend around $10,000/year total on travel. We own an RV camper. I include the operating costs of the RV as part of our total travel budget. I think we are getting new tires this year, which will probably be around $1,000-$1,500. We earn around $5,000 worth of flights for free with credit card points. If we didn't have any credit card points, our total spend would be around $15,000/year. 

[Fomerly known as something]

It depends.  I’m still working so it’s more expensive since I’m not staying more than a week anywhere.  On the other hand, I also still have a decent amount of work generated frequent flyer/hotel points.  I also tend to rent a car, because I don’t have enough time to be on someone else’s schedule (mass transit to my preferred smaller towns).

I try to keep my car rentals below $400/week.  My hotels under $200/night.  I’m determining how strongly I like upgraded flights vs cost so that’s in flux and on the higher side if it’s longer than a couple of hours.  The rest, I tend to eat cheaper most days and I’d rather go for a hike than a helicopter tour so food/fun is less than $75 most days.

This year I’m taking 2 trips, but for one I’m not paying for 7 nights of hotels, and I’m not paying for Premium Economy to France on the other.  So far Hawaii is about $1,500 outside of food and fun (car, flight and resort parking fees).  France is likely $3000 for 2 weeks since I choose to go “higher end” on hotels this time.

ETA:  I was able to spend 4 weeks in New Zealand in 2017 for about $6000 in total, half of that was flights and a rental car.

[JAYSLOL]

For our family (still working, still many years away from retirement), we usually do an international trip about once every 3 years, and we put aside about $150/m (cdn) for that.  For shorter, more local trips and recreation, we usually just go camping or go stay with friends or family somewhere a couple times a year, so we figure about $100/m covers that. 

[use2betrix]

We are, unfortunately, in a part of the country that requires a fair distance of travel to visit many of the places I want to. Every Christmas we drive around 16 hours each way to AZ to see my family and camp for a week or so. 13 mpg of diesel fuel towing our camper. Other than fuel, reasonably cheap. In April we plan to head to the ozarks - 8 hours - similar trip, camping. Main cost will be fuel. Campgrounds or dispersed camping is cheap. This fall, planning around 16 hours to Colorado with our trailer. Again - fuel is the main cost.

We usually make a trip or two to some wineries a time or two a year. Around 3-4 hrs. Sometimes Airbnb (around $1200 for a long weekend), or bring our trailer ($180 for 3 nights in a good rv park).

We tried pricing out some “bigger” vacations this year, but couldn’t justify a $5k+ trip for a similar atmosphere we can drive to and stay in our camper.

I’ll have 1-3 work trips to EU/India this year that I can stretch out for a while and many locations, but the cost to bring my wife and daughter isn’t cheap, and I don’t like being away from them. I’d have a hard time stretching the trips to two weeks, and will likely be a long week.

My income used to be far far higher, but I didn’t have as much vacation, so the opportunity cost made the vacations cost prohibitive. Now I have 2.5x the vacation, but an income that’s been cut in half. Lots to consider.

[Taran Wanderer]

The vacation budget question is fascinating. If I could afford to spend $1,000 per year on vacations, I’d spend it on gear and gas and go camping or backpacking. That said, we have a super long list of international and cross country trips we want to take, and if we take one per year, we might take them all before we die.  So we take one every year.  And we also go backpacking!