$2,000 per week per person per vacation

[Panina]

Timesharing "right" is very cost effective. Actually it is a bargain. A few weeks ago I had a trade into Captiva which I decided not to go to as nothing opened there yet as was planned. I decided to book 3 nights at a hotel in Stuart, Fl. It was a nice room and priced right but I actually left saying never again. I am spoiled. I normally stay/trade into at a HGVC property beachfront in Stuart. I missed the space. I missed not having a full kitchen. I missed most the patio facing the beach. I basically missed what a timeshare offers.

I believe the estimate for vacation cost is right as I recently was planning to go to a wedding up in the northeast. Between transportation cost, hotel and food the amount was ridiculous.

 

[WinniWoman]

Timesharing "right" is very cost effective. Actually it is a bargain. A few weeks ago I had a trade into Captiva which I decided not to go to as nothing opened there yet as was planned. I decided to book 3 nights at a hotel in Stuart, Fl. It was a nice room and priced right but I actually left saying never again. I am spoiled. I normally stay/trade into at a HGVC property beachfront in Stuart. I missed the space. I missed not having a full kitchen. I missed most the patio facing the beach. I basically missed what a timeshare offers.

I believe the estimate for vacation cost is right as I recently was planning to go to a wedding up in the northeast. Between transportation cost, hotel and food the amount was ridiculous.

That’s like when I recently visited my brother in Florida. Over $2400 just for 6 days with the airfare being $1300 of that for two of us from NH!

$84 to park at the airport. Airport Hyatt hotel in Fla. $152 with breakfast included. Car rental $275 4 days.

Best bargain was the timeshare resort condo we stayed at at 600+ for 4 days.

And my brother and sister-in-law did cook two meals and provide some breakfast, lunch, and wine/ cocktails. We paid for all of us to eat a dinner out for just one day!

 

[ScoopKona]

That’s like when I recently visited my brother in Florida. Over $2400 just for 6 days with the airfare being $1300 of that for two of us from NH!

We recently attended a funeral back home in Florida.

Airfare: LAS to EYW $222 round trip (Delta via DFW. Ugh.) Easy to remember.

I don't have to pay for lodging. But if I did, a week in a studio at Sunset harbor would have cost $1,000 worth of my points and maintenance fees.
We spent $10 at Sandy's Cafe every morning; and ate $50 worth of seafood most days (procured at Fishbusterz market). The days we had Dion's chicken and El Siboney Cuban food were less than our seafood meals. So $420 total in food. No car. What's the point in Old Town?

Total for two people: $1642. Our actual total without lodging was around $800 for the week. I looked it up easily because we didn't use cash once on the trip.

 

[WinniWoman]

We recently attended a funeral back home in Florida.

Airfare: LAS to EYW $222 round trip (Delta via DFW. Ugh.) Easy to remember.

I don't have to pay for lodging. But if I did, a week in a studio at Sunset harbor would have cost $1,000 worth of my points and maintenance fees.
We spent $10 at Sandy's Cafe every morning; and ate $50 worth of seafood most days (procured at Fishbusterz market). The days we had Dion's chicken and El Siboney Cuban food were less than our seafood meals. So $420 total in food. No car. What's the point in Old Town?

Total for two people: $1642. Our actual total without lodging was around $800 for the week. I looked it up easily because we didn't use cash once on the trip.

You’re lucky with the airfares!

Nothing like that here. In fact, even my brother looked for me before I booked and he couldn’t find anything reasonable. And he’s a very experienced flyer like you.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Which DVC will you be going to. I found some at Copper Creek in the cabins section. I doubt anyone would stop someone from using them if they were in Boulder Ridge Villas. I haven't seen them at other resorts yet, but we haven't been to all of them yet.

Old Key West starting 5/17-5/31. Exchanged in.

 

[ScoopKona]

You’re lucky with the airfares!

Nothing like that here. In fact, even my brother looked for me before I booked and he couldn’t find anything reasonable. And he’s a very experienced flyer like you.

Like Jim, you don't live near a major airport. But you can get to BOS easily, which means BOS > ATL > EYW (or whatever combo works for your actual Florida destination). BOS used to be my main "there and back" airport. It was easier for me than JFK. I've hitchhiked to BOS in order to fly to Europe. (Even in my youth, I had my priorities straight.)

It's always possible to make a trip more expensive. But it's also usually possible to make the trip less expensive. Eventually we hit a point of diminishing returns. I think people would do well to actually hit that point at least once to see what diminishing returns looks like.

The original article could have just as easily picked any other number out of thin air. "Foreign travel costs people $10K per person, per week." As long as the traveler isn't visiting Laos or Hungary, $10K is a reasonable number, too. But so is $1K. Or in the case of my youth, $0K. (Amex flight voucher, get a gig tutoring English in Germany, spend the entire summer in Germany and leave with slightly more than I had when I left. Best of all, Oma was reliable about matchmaking.) I did this every summer during university. I'd show up in a German town (usually near Frankfurt), with some schoolwork, a university pullover, and sit in the central Platz. It was barely 15 minutes before someone approached and asked what I was doing. "My homework. I'm spending some time in Germany to improve my language skills."

"My son has bad grades in English, do you think you could help?"

Another summer, sorted. The best part was they'd take me with them for summer holiday. I saw a dozen countries this way.

 

[WinniWoman]

Like Jim, you don't live near a major airport. But you can get to BOS easily, which means BOS > ATL > EYW (or whatever combo works for your actual Florida destination). BOS used to be my main "there and back" airport. It was easier for me than JFK. I've hitchhiked to BOS in order to fly to Europe. (Even in my youth, I had my priorities straight.)

It's always possible to make a trip more expensive. But it's also usually possible to make the trip less expensive. Eventually we hit a point of diminishing returns. I think people would do well to actually hit that point at least once to see what diminishing returns looks like.

The original article could have just as easily picked any other number out of thin air. "Foreign travel costs people $10K per person, per week." As long as the traveler isn't visiting Laos or Hungary, $10K is a reasonable number, too. But so is $1K. Or in the case of my youth, $0K. (Amex flight voucher, get a gig tutoring English in Germany, spend the entire summer in Germany and leave with slightly more than I had when I left. Best of all, Oma was reliable about matchmaking.) I did this every summer during university. I'd show up in a German town (usually near Frankfurt), with some schoolwork, a university pullover, and sit in the central Platz. It was barely 15 minutes before someone approached and asked what I was doing. "My homework. I'm spending some time in Germany to improve my language skills."

"My son has bad grades in English, do you think you could help?"

Another summer, sorted. The best part was they'd take me with them for summer holiday. I saw a dozen countries this way.

Trust me I tried to go from Boston and it was just as bad in terms of airfare.

Anyway, this is probably our last year flying anywhere ever again so I don’t care about it.

After this year back to short drive to’s.

 

[ScoopKona]

You’re lucky with the airfares!

Nothing like that here. In fact, even my brother looked for me before I booked and he couldn’t find anything reasonable. And he’s a very experienced flyer like you.

BOS to EYW (which should be the most expensive airport) is running $244 right now on Kayak. Just looked -- American with stops in MIA on the way down and CLT on the way back. Although Florida is long and skinny, all you need to do is get to one of half a dozen airports, and then it's an easy drive to where you really need to be.

I'm guessing that you are demanding Goldilocks flights. "Tiny little airport in NH to tiny little airport in middle of nowhere FL." (Nashua to Ocala, for instance.) Florida isn't as easy a destination as Las Vegas. But it's still rather easy.

 

[easyrider]

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.

For us , it can go either way depending on if and who we travel with and special events. We spend more for one week trips than multi-week trips. We haven't had a $4,000 week for the both of us yet. Maybe $1,200 a week for the both of us for drive to locations and $2,000 a week for the both of us on flights and rental car trips. Again, it depends on who we are with. I will spend a lot to create memories with the kids and grand kids. Fishing trips, hunting trips, excursions , restaurants and what ever seems fun are all on the list of things to do with my loved ones.

Bill

 

[WinniWoman]

BOS to EYW (which should be the most expensive airport) is running $244 right now on Kayak. Just looked -- American with stops in MIA on the way down and CLT on the way back. Although Florida is long and skinny, all you need to do is get to one of half a dozen airports, and then it's an easy drive to where you really need to be.

I'm guessing that you are demanding Goldilocks flights. "Tiny little airport in NH to tiny little airport in middle of nowhere FL." (Nashua to Ocala, for instance.) Florida isn't as easy a destination as Las Vegas. But it's still rather easy.

Are you kidding? You think I would want to twist myself into a pretzel to get somewhere for cheap when it takes me totally out of my way? Drive like 7 hours from Key west to Palm Coast? No thanks! I’m a sane individual.

I went from NH to Jacksonville, not Key West. The flights I had also stopped in North Carolina - horrible airport. In fact- my neighbor just came back from Tennessee and had a bad experiences in that airport ( and with American Airlines) as well. And she was supposed to be First Class which never happened- long story on that.

We used Boston/Manchester Airport in NH. Boston/Logan airport as I mentioned before was just as bad with prices.

 

[jwalk03]

I track the costs of our weeks- around $1300/week which is a steal compared to what a week in even a mid-tier hotel costs these days.

I don't closely track our other travel expenses (though after paying off this month's credit card bill from our Vegas trip yesterday maybe I SHOULD start tracking more closely!!)

To us the best part about timeshares is the extra space it provides and the kitchen! We order groceries and cook a good portion of our meals in the villa- so to us the food expenses of traveling are not that different than home. Though we do eat out a bit more on vacation, and we certainly tend to drink more on vacation then we would at home in a normal week so there is extra expense there.

Beyond that the expenses vary a lot based on the destination. Some of our cheapest trips tend to be beach vacations- sitting at the beach or enjoying the resort pools is free with the stay! Where as our trip to Vegas for Spring Break this year was significantly more expensive with Cirque tickets, Sphere tickets, a very expensive dinner at Hell's Kitchen, and just buying random stuff walking around like ice cream or snacks. Vegas is definitely not the inexpensive vacation destination it once was that's for sure!

 

[ScoopKona]

Are you kidding? You think I would want to twist myself into a pretzel to get somewhere for cheap when it takes me totally out of my way? Drive like 7 hours from Key west to Palm Coast? No thanks! I’m a sane individual.

That's not what I'm saying at all. Key West is a small (but popular) airport. It's also the furthest and requires the most stops. If you can fly to EYW for less than $250, you can also fly to Tampa, Miami and Orlando for less than $250. You have to work at it to make airfare cost $1300.

 

[WinniWoman]

That's not what I'm saying at all. Key West is a small (but popular) airport. It's also the furthest and requires the most stops. If you can fly to EYW for less than $250, you can also fly to Tampa, Miami and Orlando for less than $250. You have to work at it to make airfare cost $1300.

Nope. Not for my trip and dates. We tried for the Orlando airport as well as Jacksonville. From Boston and Manchester.

 

[jp10558]

That's not what I'm saying at all. Key West is a small (but popular) airport. It's also the furthest and requires the most stops. If you can fly to EYW for less than $250, you can also fly to Tampa, Miami and Orlando for less than $250. You have to work at it to make airfare cost $1300.

This is where driving still saves money if you live in the middle of no-where. For the airport 1hr away from me, my trip to Miami in Dec would cost ~$500 a person round trip, so for 3 going, that's $1500, and that's just the front Kyak page. Adding checked bags for everyone would take us to $1,750, and tax or whatever is likely to put that to $2,000. Plus a rental car needed down there, which I guess for ~2 weeks would be about $700? Or I can drive the ~2770 miles for a gas cost of around $520. Add a hotel room on the way down and back up for $150 each or so. $820 is a savings over $~2700 in travel costs.

I could drive 5 hours to EWR and get that price down to maybe $250 per person round trip, plus $50 checked bag per person, plus taxes, so likely $350 per person, or $1050 for flights, so I would save about $1,000 that way, but now I also need to add in the gas to and from EWR - about $80.I still need the same rental car for $700. So here I'm at $1,830 for travel vs $820 driving. I could even add a second hotel night each way for an additional $300 and still be well under flying.

The tricky part is amortizing the cost of the vehicle you own, but I tend to not allocate that cost to traveling as I need a vehicle "anyway", though my recent purchase was targeted to this travel though I'm not sure how much of it was per-se. I'd say looking at it, probably $20,000 could be allocated towards the travel, but it's also more time based than distance / trip based. Taking this over the 5 years of a car loan split with the expected life of the vehicle gives me around $4,000 a year considering loan interest right now. Split across the 4 driving trips planned this year puts me at $1,000 a trip in car overhead so I'm still beating flying locally, and maybe on par with driving to EWR, but that's also a long enough trip that I could make the case that I need the car for that option also. It's one thing to bum a ride 45 minutes and ~80 miles, and another to go ~5 hrs and 208 miles.

For me, I think the tip over point is when you get to 3 nights in hotels on the travel part - then the travel starts to become kind of a main point of the trip and I'm willing to pay the premium for flying. That said, I am considering planning out a cross country trip with stays in Timeshares like others have done on TUG, but in that case, the driving across the country is part of the trip in a way that just going to California *isn't*.

 

[ScoopKona]

Nope. Not for my trip and dates. We tried for the Orlando airport as well as Jacksonville. From Boston and Manchester.

Spirit flies BOS to MCO for anywhere between $9 and $150 round trip. That's less than it costs in gas to drive there. And since an exit row seat costs $50 extra, you're there and back for $200 with rather comfortable seats. If you can get to Burlington or Hartford, Breeze will get you there for around $100.

This is how I flew to LAX and OAK every month just to escape Las Vegas. Same basic deal. I've flown so many $9 fares I've lost count. It's worth it to pop over for the day at those prices.

We just flew Spirit a few months ago -- LAS to BUR to kick start our last vacation. It was far less expensive than driving $20 per person -- total price with taxes. (The taxes were more than the fare.) Land in Burbank, rent a car and drive to Santa Barbara. That cost something like 1/10th the price of flying to Santa Barbara.

 

[WinniWoman]

Spirit flies BOS to MCO for anywhere between $9 and $150 round trip. That's less than it costs in gas to drive there. And since an exit row seat costs $50 extra, you're there and back for $200 with rather comfortable seats. If you can get to Burlington or Hartford, Breeze will get you there for around $100.

This is how I flew to LAX and OAK every month just to escape Las Vegas. Same basic deal. I've flown so many $9 fares I've lost count. It's worth it to pop over for the day at those prices.

We just flew Spirit a few months ago -- LAS to BUR to kick start our last vacation. It was far less expensive than driving $20 per person -- total price with taxes. (The taxes were more than the fare.) Land in Burbank, rent a car and drive to Santa Barbara. That cost something like 1/10th the price of flying to Santa Barbara.

Yeah, well I don’t do Spirit or Allegiant. Though I did check on them as well. Breeze just coming into Manchester so limited flights. Plus you have to consider the time of departures and arrivals and so forth. You make everything sound easy. It’s nice if you don’t care about anything but money I guess.

But for me- flying will be over after Italy in the fall so I don’t care about any of it.

Enjoy all your easy and cheap travels! After this year I’m sticking to our timeshare and short drive to vacations.

 

[ScoopKona]

It’s nice if you don’t care about anything but money I guess.

What I care about is seeing the planet. It's my home after all. I'd like to see all of it. Refusing to use all the tools at your disposal costs money. I absolutely consider the time of departures and arrivals -- I modify my schedule to go with the least expensive, easiest solution. I don't try to shoehorn the entire airline industry to conform to my schedule. That's why I don't book any timeshares until I've checked airfare. Both have to line up, or I go someplace else.

It would be like complaining about the cost of car repair, and then demanding "I refuse to pop the hood and have a look to see if it's something I can fix myself." Sometimes the car goes to a mechanic. Other times it's a $50 oxygen sensor I can replace in minutes with one tool. And I can find out which by spending 10 minutes on Youtube.

 

[WinniWoman]

What I care about is seeing the planet. It's my home after all. I'd like to see all of it. Refusing to use all the tools at your disposal costs money. I absolutely consider the time of departures and arrivals -- I modify my schedule to go with the least expensive, easiest solution. I don't try to shoehorn the entire airline industry to conform to my schedule. That's why I don't book any timeshares until I've checked airfare. Both have to line up, or I go someplace else.

It would be like complaining about the cost of car repair, and then demanding "I refuse to pop the hood and have a look to see if it's something I can fix myself." Sometimes the car goes to a mechanic. Other times it's a $50 oxygen sensor I can replace in minutes with one tool. And I can find out which by spending 10 minutes on Youtube.

I agree. Smart. Don’t book a timeshare unless you check airfare.

For me I’ve always like using our home resorts each year which we could drive to. No flying involved. Very relaxing..

 

[spec1]

This is where driving still saves money if you live in the middle of no-where.

My biggest worry when driving long-distance in own vehicle is getting a flat tire. I've had a number of these (exclusively in Texas, for some reason), and irreparable tire damage can wreak havoc on a carefully planned road trip. A spare tire won't get you far and a detour may be needed to get to a tire shop, they may not have the right size tire, and in any case buying new tires is then very expensive. A middle ground is to do the road trip in a rental vehicle. Savings are not as great, but less risk, since you can usually get the vehicle replaced.

 

[WinniWoman]

My biggest worry when driving long-distance in own vehicle is getting a flat tire. I've had a number of these (exclusively in Texas, for some reason), and irreparable tire damage can wreak havoc on a carefully planned road trip. A spare tire won't get you far and a detour may be needed to get to a tire shop, they may not have the right size tire, and in any case buying new tires is then very expensive. A middle ground is to do the road trip in a rental vehicle. Savings are not as great, but less risk, since you can usually get the vehicle replaced.

We had a nightmare road trip many years ago from NY to Williamsburg. Good Friday in Alexandria, Virginia 95 backed up - crawling. Braking so much our brakes went. Hubby had to use the emergency brake to get to the next exit. One shop open. Didn’t have the right part. Took a while for the shop to track one down. We were there for hours- no food. Meanwhile 95 still didn’t break up. Ended up going down Route 1 the rest of the way. Didn’t get to the timeshare resort until midnight! Totally exhausted.

Vowed never to drive down south on 95 again. And we haven’t.

 

[SteveinHNL]

I think for our Alaska cruise in two years, we may look for an inside cabin. We were hardly in our cabin, except to sleep and wake up in the morning. We were in their room quite a bit to play with the grandkids, and of course the shore excursions.

Inside cabins were our cruise strategy for some time for this reason. At some point we rented a balcony cabin and we realized that there are a lot of enjoyable moments sitting in the room and on the balcony enjoying the ocean going by and having a bit of quiet alone time! I don't think we will go back to inside cabins.

 

[Rjbeach2003]

We have made two major trips in the past 12 months. One to Europe for a bicycle and hotel trip. That was expensive. Flew PDX to FRA on Condor using Alaska miles. Then had to fly to Munich to meet group. Up to St. Moritz and did a 9 night 10 day bike ride. Cost, including hotels, most meals, not all, ebike rental for two about $8000. Then train to Bologna for 6 nights. Hotel there $1200. Flight home on miles but fees of $300 or so. The bike trip paid before we left, so Bologna, trains, meals were all we had to pay while there. We usually ate two meals and snacks. Not real super foodies so we look for reasonable dining. Whole trip was about $11,000 out of pocket, so about $4800/week.
Second trip was 14 days in Hawaii. 7 Big Island and 7 Waikiki. We stayed in Shell Vacation timeshares, total cost based on maintenance fees about $1900/week. That's average between the two. Waikiki much more. I always begin reserving cars as soon as I book flights and TS. I might rebook 3-4 times. Final price average $250/week for each. Airfare, companion fare on Alaska, ended up being $650 for both of us. Breakfast a mix of
meals in room and a couple out. Usually have late afternoon meal, along with some snacking, so really only two meals a day. We often had food after dinner out to take to room. Ok, we are frugal, but then the budget is limited. total for two weeks, including TS MF about $6000.

 

[dougp26364]

Keep in mind it is an average. Some people spend more, some do budget vacations. We’re at a point in our lives where I’ll book first class seats every chance I get……but I try to be cheap about it by selecting the lowest cost (or close to it) seats, which is often the less desirable flight times. Doing this often saves us $500 to $1,000 between The two of us.

What the article doesn’t say is what expenses they’re looking at. I would like to imagine cost of travel (airfare or cost of gas if driving), meals, entertainment, hotel, rental cars, public transportation, taxis/Uner/Lyft are the expense that come to mind. But what about travel insurance and incidental fees like resort fees? With timeshare one would need to account for MF’s, lock off fees, exchange fees, upgrade fees, exchange company membership fees et…..

Everyone will have a different cost depending on their comfort level. I could easily knock our cost down by flying coach class, only taking carry on bags, renting the least expensive rental car (tiny economy class), taking the least expensive view when booking with points, staying in smaller units et….. When we started in timeshare there were those on this site that made fun of the money I spent when they had found ways to cut costs. That was fine, but we preferred traveling a little different and wanted the nicer view or higher floor which came by owning direct with the company rather than owning the cheapest cost week and trading in. We just didn’t want to risk getting the parking lot or dumpster view and we’re willing to pay a price for a little better status.

So cost will vary depending on travel style/comfort. In the end it’s just an average between those who choose the Ritz and those who choose Red Roof Inn or Motel 6.

 

[bnoble]

I think for our Alaska cruise in two years, we may look for an inside cabin. We were hardly in our cabin, except to sleep and wake up in the morning. We were in their room quite a bit to play with the grandkids, and of course the shore excursions.

Cindy, Alaska is the one cruise for which I would definitely get a balcony cabin. Most itineraries spend a day at a glacier, and the captain will generally turn the ship so that both sides get a good long view of it. Being able to do that from our balcony was one of the very best memories I have from the Alaska cruise we took on DCL.

It's more expensive---a lot more. But, this is one time when I don't think you should pinch pennies.

 

[jp10558]

My biggest worry when driving long-distance in own vehicle is getting a flat tire. I've had a number of these (exclusively in Texas, for some reason), and irreparable tire damage can wreak havoc on a carefully planned road trip. A spare tire won't get you far and a detour may be needed to get to a tire shop, they may not have the right size tire, and in any case buying new tires is then very expensive. A middle ground is to do the road trip in a rental vehicle. Savings are not as great, but less risk, since you can usually get the vehicle replaced.

One of the best somewhat unexpected surprises with my new travel vehicle the Honda Pilot Trailsport is it has a full size spare tire. So I could just swap the tire out. But this often isn't the case with vehicles. I will say (knock on wood) this has yet to happen to me.