$2,000 per week per person per vacation

[dougp26364]

I read an article in Travel and Leisure that stated the average cost of a 1 week vacation was $2,000 per person per week. Aspen CO came in at something like $5,400 per person per week.

I really haven’t thought about how much we spend vacationing each year. Owning timeshare, it’s a yearly expense and we just book and go. The only time I’ve thought about it has been with the cruise we’re going on soon, and that’s amazed me at how expensive cruising has become with all the extras like, specialty dining, drink cards, shore excursions et….

Maybe I’ll sit down some day and figure out how much we spend, but I doubt it. We bought timeshare to assure we take time off each year, travel and see the country/world. It’s been a priority for us.

Reading that article I understand why so many young families rarely travel. Most I know are lucky if they drive over to Branson, MO for a long weekend.

 

[PaulaC]

We never calculate our travel spending either and we use a combination of timeshare stays, cruises, and hotel stays. I'm sure we would be shocked at the total cost, but I think it is worth every penny for all the wonderful experiences we've had and hopefully continue to have.

 

[Patri]

I read an article in Travel and Leisure that stated the average cost of a 1 week vacation was $2,000 per person per week. Aspen CO came in at something like $5,400 per person per week.

I really haven’t thought about how much we spend vacationing each year. Owning timeshare, it’s a yearly expense and we just book and go. The only time I’ve thought about it has been with the cruise we’re going on soon, and that’s amazed me at how expensive cruising has become with all the extras like, specialty dining, drink cards, shore excursions et….

Maybe I’ll sit down some day and figure out how much we spend, but I doubt it. We bought timeshare to assure we take time off each year, travel and see the country/world. It’s been a priority for us.

Reading that article I understand why so many young families rarely travel. Most I know are lucky if they drive over to Branson, MO for a long weekend.

Sounds realistic. Many mf are around $1,000. Add in travel expenses, food, activities, and there you are.

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

While I calculate the cost of my vacations, the results are pretty variable. The timeshare cost is defined (per week) but other variables? Air fare, car rental, food, entertainment, ect., are not fixed.

When I go to Hawaii, for example, I pay airfare. It's the same whether I stay 3 days or 3 weeks. How should I average it on a per weekly basis?

 

[jp10558]

I think at this point a LOT of that is eating out. Then again, hotels are running $250 a night in cities at least, especially considering taxes etc. So that's around 875 a person, though if 3 or 4 people stay in a room that drives it down. But food is like $25 / person / meal at anything better than fast food, and fast food is still $15 / person / meal from what I've seen. That's ~ $65 a person a day. Then there's the attractions - I recall the last paid attraction I did was cheap at $22 a person, but the one before that was like $70 a person, and that's stuff like a sculpture garden and a gondala lift to the top of a mountain, not a theme park or anything. And that doesn't count travel costs - from my calculation it's leaving about $700 for travel costs per person, which might cover airfare depending on where and when you're going. It would likely cover gas for most trips, especially because that's cheaper in that you can again have 2-4 people in a vehicle for basically the same gas cost.

I will say I'm not paying that much per week because timeshares and hotel points are kind of a cheat code for it. We also will do 3 people in a hotel room if we have to. I think worst case per person has been $620 for a week, which is less than the normal estimate I made above. My trips where we can't have a timeshare the food really comes up as the biggest obvious cost. It never was cheap, but it used to be similar to lodging, now it's painfully expensive. And the food often isn't great. I often feel like it's not worth it anymore...

I'm just glad I'm not having to pay for the average 2 kids on top of myself.

 

[1Kflyerguy]

I do track all of our travel expenses, so now just need to calculate this on "per week basis". We do a mix of hotel and timeshare stays... The hotel weeks do usually cost a lot more, but that also depends on the location type of activities we are doing...

The Travel and Leisure demographic certainly skews towards hotel travel, and probably mid to upper tier hotels more than budget properties...

 

[aandmrun]

I do calculate what we spend on "vacation spending". That is separate from the maintenance fees involved. Since the maintenance fees are paid well in advance of the trip, I find that we usually average about $200 a day on our vacations for two of us. That usually includes eating out, tours, etc. Of course, if it's New York City, or somewhere where we take in a lot of expensive shows, it will be more, but I buy all tickets in advance . The $200 per day is basically incidentals, etc. I like most of my vacation to be pre-paid.

 

[pedro47]

I do not track our timeshare vacations expenses. But I do track our cruising expenses. Years ago cruising was very cheap. We could fly round-trip to Florida for two for under $200.00 dollars. Now a one way airline ticket to Fort Lauderdale is over $150.000 for one. We could cruise with Celebrity Cruise Lines in a balcony state room for two for under $2000.00 with excellent food in the main dinning room. There was no WiFi packages or drink packages.

But now with the increase in staying in a hotel one or two (2) days before a cruise or after a cruise, restaurants food costs, Uber costs, the increase in airfare costs, selecting a good cruise stateroom, the extra costs for a premium drink package, eating In speciality restaurants, wifi cost and excursions costs. IMHO, the true cost for taking a seven (7) days have increase over 400%.

This is only my IMO.

 

[CaliSunshine]

I can believe it. 800 for the hotel. 400 for the air fare. 400 for the restaurants. Add in a couple of excursions or fine dining, and you're at 2 grand, easily.

 

[pedro47]

I can believe it. 800 for the hotel. 400 for the air fare. 400 for the restaurants. Add in a couple of excursions or fine dining, and you're at 2 grand, easily.

Cruising is not cheap.

 

[dougp26364]

I do not track our timeshare vacations expenses. But I do track our cruising expenses. Years ago cruising was very cheap. We could fly round-trip to Florida for two for under $200.00 dollars. Now a one way airline ticket to Fort Lauderdale is over $150.000 for one. We could cruise with Celebrity Cruise Lines in a balcony state room for two for under $2000.00 with excellent food in the main dinning room. There was no WiFi packages or drink packages.

But now with the increase in staying in a hotel one or two (2) days before a cruise or after a cruise, restaurants food costs, Uber costs, the increase in airfare costs, selecting a good cruise stateroom, the extra costs for a premium drink package, eating In speciality restaurants, wifi cost and excursions costs. IMHO, the true cost for taking a seven (7) days have increase over 400%.

This is only my IMO.

Cruising has become very expensive. The last time we cruised was 2010 and we felt the cost was reasonable. We’ll be back on a cruise ship next week and have been astounded at the cost of all the “extras”, let alone the price of the stateroom. The excursions are exorbitant compared to our last Alaskan cruise. Fortunately, we’ve been there, done that, so it’s easy to just spend time in the ports on our own.

 

[WinniWoman]

I always track our expenses for vacations. But timeshares are a fixed cost. Now we just have one TS week (under &1000 maintenance) that is a 45 minute drive from here. I don’t count gas, which is minimal. I don’t count food because we mostly eat in anyway. Just the one or two restaurant meals. Might even be take out like pizza or Chinese. We do mostly free activities or little things like hit the movie or live local theaters.

This year with going to Florida and renting a cabin in Vermont and of course the big bucks Italy trip I am tracking everything. We are already going to come in a bit over what we budgeted for the year because of Florida and Italy. Didn’t realize how crazy airfare was.

One thing: we don’t buy things when we go away because we are not shoppers and we downsized for a reason. Not to accumulate more useless stuff.

Next year should be more “ normal” for us. Just the timeshare and we like to always get away from motorcycle week here in June. But it will more than likely be a drive to vacation, not a fly to.

 

[WinniWoman]

I think at this point a LOT of that is eating out. Then again, hotels are running $250 a night in cities at least, especially considering taxes etc. So that's around 875 a person, though if 3 or 4 people stay in a room that drives it down. But food is like $25 / person / meal at anything better than fast food, and fast food is still $15 / person / meal from what I've seen. That's ~ $65 a person a day. Then there's the attractions - I recall the last paid attraction I did was cheap at $22 a person, but the one before that was like $70 a person, and that's stuff like a sculpture garden and a gondala lift to the top of a mountain, not a theme park or anything. And that doesn't count travel costs - from my calculation it's leaving about $700 for travel costs per person, which might cover airfare depending on where and when you're going. It would likely cover gas for most trips, especially because that's cheaper in that you can again have 2-4 people in a vehicle for basically the same gas cost.

I will say I'm not paying that much per week because timeshares and hotel points are kind of a cheat code for it. We also will do 3 people in a hotel room if we have to. I think worst case per person has been $620 for a week, which is less than the normal estimate I made above. My trips where we can't have a timeshare the food really comes up as the biggest obvious cost. It never was cheap, but it used to be similar to lodging, now it's painfully expensive. And the food often isn't great. I often feel like it's not worth it anymore...

I'm just glad I'm not having to pay for the average 2 kids on top of

Agree. Eating out just not worth it. The food isn’t as good. It’s crazy expensive. We went out last week with friends visiting from Florida and they didn’t even put bread or crackers on the table. We thought the meals were ok - not great- but not for the price.

My friend and I used to go out every other month or so for lunch and now we’ve just been doing ice cream.

 

[DancingWaters]

We can certainly be creative with new ways to cut costs!

 

[elaine]

Timeshares really help defray the costs! Esp if we cook/grill a couple dinners and enjoy beverages on our balcony and not the bar.
We still “try” to only cruise for $2k/week for 2 persons. We’ll splurge to $3000 if it’s in Europe/Alaska. No insides, but we’ll do OV. Hotels are getting $$$! Even a mid-range FtL hotel was $300 and motels off I95 from DC-FL are $150 for something I used to pay $79!

 

[PrairieGirl]

If you live in the middle of the Prairies (US too, but Canada is even worse) airfare to ANYWHERE makes that $2,000/week for your holiday sound pretty realistic, even fairly appealing. When you live in a location that is remote from a major airport, driving to your destination is generally not an option either. I often sigh when folks complain about their airfares (or travel time to the airport) because I'm thinking "you have no idea how good you have it!".

But there ARE some pretty terrific trade-offs for living in God's country, so no complaints here, just an observation.

 

[Tacoma]

I track my vacation costs extremely well when it involves a flight and travelling expenses. Then for fun I average it out by the day. I didn't used to track my timeshare vacations as closely but now I at least put down a fairly good estimate of those as well. I know the timeshare fees, add on any exchange fees or taxes, but might guesstimate the gas and eating out expenses. If we do a tour or rent a car/boat that of course also gets added in. Last year I went a bit crazy so am trying to cut back a bit. It didn't help that my husband retired last year and there was an amazing airfare deal to Australia when I already had enough holidays over the year. Prairie girl you need to sign up for YYC deals or YVR deals and the airort that you are closest to. Last year we paid $850 Canadian to fly to Australia from Vancouver and this year we just got back from Vietnam from a YYC deal for only $800. I also just found out that Fiji Air lets you book to Australia or New Zealand and stop over in Fiji one direction for not that much more. I priced out that trip for next year and we could fly from Vancouver to New Zealand and stop in Fiji for a week for nder $1500 per person. I didn't think that was too bad.

 

[jp10558]

I track my vacation costs extremely well when it involves a flight and travelling expenses. Then for fun I average it out by the day. I didn't used to track my timeshare vacations as closely but now I at least put down a fairly good estimate of those as well. I know the timeshare fees, add on any exchange fees or taxes, but might guesstimate the gas and eating out expenses. If we do a tour or rent a car/boat that of course also gets added in. Last year I went a bit crazy so am trying to cut back a bit. It didn't help that my husband retired last year and there was an amazing airfare deal to Australia when I already had enough holidays over the year. Prairie girl you need to sign up for YYC deals or YVR deals and the airort that you are closest to. Last year we paid $850 Canadian to fly to Australia from Vancouver and this year we just got back from Vietnam from a YYC deal for only $800. I also just found out that Fiji Air lets you book to Australia or New Zealand and stop over in Fiji one direction for not that much more. I priced out that trip for next year and we could fly from Vancouver to New Zealand and stop in Fiji for a week for nder $1500 per person. I didn't think that was too bad.

What's YYC? I swear I signed up for some vacation deals site that used to e-mail me near incessantly, now doesn't anymore. I have to recall what that was called.

 

[marmite]

What's YYC? I swear I signed up for some vacation deals site that used to e-mail me near incessantly, now doesn't anymore. I have to recall what that was called

YYC is the code for Calgary airport. Not likely you would want travel deals from that airport. https://www.yycdeals.com/

 

[jp10558]

YYC is the code for Calgary airport. Not likely you would want travel deals from that airport. https://www.yycdeals.com/

Ahh, no thanks lol. I recalled it was TravelZoo.

 

[DaveNV]

I find if I track the cost of a vacation I tend to have less good of a time. If it's a timeshare, I knew I'd paid the MF well in advance. Airfare was booked 11 months out, in most cases. So the only ongoing daily cost would be food, entertainment, and (possibly) a rental car. If we eat *average* meals in or out, and don't get crazy on the things we do, the costs tend to be manageable. I figure if I can pay the credit card balance without a stretch before the next statement closing date, then I've done well.

If it's a preplanned expensive trip (e.g. our major bucket list three week trip to Italy this summer, including a week's Greek Island cruise, ending with a few days in Athens), I just bite the bullet and try to prepay as much as I can, not worrying about the daily cost. I've done pretty well, (airfare, cruise, and excursions all prepaid), but I still expect to rack up several thousand dollars on my card in daily expenses during the trip. Ask me after we get home. This one will be about the memories, and not trying to save any money.

Dave

 

[dioxide45]

I used to be quite detailed at tracking nightly costs for our timeshare stays. I never really kept track of how much we spent on other stuff. Now we just travel. I don't have as much time to keep track of all the costs but I know I have already proven the concept of timeshare travel based on my tracking of previous travel.

 

[Timeshare Von]

I don't do much in the way of tracking my total out-of-pocket costs for vacations. I do however, monitor our utilization of timeshares and the costs associated with them.

I've been fortunate to be able to travel frugally and not really worry much about affordability. We are far from rich, but have been savers and planners, which makes it easier to afford to vacation comfortably. (As an aside, my hubby hasn't worked a "paying job" since we got married . . . mainly by choice/design, so we have been truly dependent on my job and income.)

With my impending retirement (less than a week from now), I had someone see it necessary to "lecture me" on my "lavish" travels and being able to afford such on social security. I simply laughed at them, and shared with them all of the great travel (including some pretty nice international destinations) I/we have been able to afford when I've been between employment gigs. In fact, over the past 30 years, I've been "between gigs" (aka "unemployed") roughly 40 months (the shortest was 3 months, longest 16 months) . . . and yet, I was still able to take 15 awesome vacations (all at least 1 week, and 1 was 2 months) without going into debt or withdrawing from our retirement savings.

It's unfortunate that people read articles such as that one in Travel & Leisure and then feel they can't afford to travel. That said, I also know that many people want to be pampered and do travel extravagantly . . . and $2,000/week may fall short as a fair estimate.

 

[Timeshare Von]

If you live in the middle of the Prairies (US too, but Canada is even worse) airfare to ANYWHERE makes that $2,000/week for your holiday sound pretty realistic, even fairly appealing. When you live in a location that is remote from a major airport, driving to your destination is generally not an option either. I often sigh when folks complain about their airfares (or travel time to the airport) because I'm thinking "you have no idea how good you have it!".

But there ARE some pretty terrific trade-offs for living in God's country, so no complaints here, just an observation.

I love living in the Midwest, where car travel is a wonderful option. I realize driving (and car camping) isn't for everyone, but until I'm unable to do so, I will continue to enjoy it.

 

[Timeshare Von]

Cruising has become very expensive. The last time we cruised was 2010 and we felt the cost was reasonable. We’ll be back on a cruise ship next week and have been astounded at the cost of all the “extras”, let alone the price of the stateroom. The excursions are exorbitant compared to our last Alaskan cruise. Fortunately, we’ve been there, done that, so it’s easy to just spend time in the ports on our own.

Having only recently discovered cruising last fall, I am glad my sister is frugal and a wise cruise vacationer. I've benefited from her knowledge & experience . . . and have been able to do 2 cruises already, each for under $1,000 (not including casino loss/wins). We were able to pick up a nice 7 night cruise this fall to New England & the Maritime Provinces of Canada using our casino comps for under $300 each (port fees & taxes only). We're both flying on frequent flyer miles to/from Boston . . . and will have a pricey hotel room the night prior to the trip, but even with that, we're going to be looking at $500-$600 for the entire 8-9 day vacation.

Admittedly, we're both alright with no frills staterooms, skipping the unlimited booze package and dining with the options that come with base price of the cruise. I know some folks who do it first class all the way, but that's simply not my/our travel style.