LarkSFO

As I read through threads here and drool and daydream (where I wish I was going next!), I began to wonder: Do members of this forum set an annual budget for travel? Or is it more opportunistic / unplanned: The itch gets strong, Aman or Maldives or Singita calls, and the trip is booked...

I see some people here speaking of using miles, and booking during shoulder or low seasons, apparently with the desire to get the most luxury travel 'bang for their buck'.

Others appear to have less focus on cost, and more focus on the best travel experience available, wherever and whenever they desire to visit.

So, at the risk of appearing crass and rude (in which case this thread will die a timely death): What is your annual personal travel budget?

We do not set an annual budget, per se. However, when the economy is good and our year is going well, that 'extra' money sitting in the bank account calls out to us to get out there while we are still young(ish) and see the world!

Does not always have to be luxury - our recent trip to Vegas, Zion, Bryce, and Moab did not involve anything remotely close. But we did stay in the lodges at Bryce and Zion within the parks (perfect choice), and in a property that worked in Moab (ahem, a Fairfield Inn).

Our 'biggest' year included multiple long international trips, some with the kids, Aman's, 4S's, small exclusive properties, Ritz', baseball trips, and first class travel. Our spend that year was in the range of $80K, although it was likely higher as I am not one to track too closely.

Other fun and great trips (like this recent Utah trip) have been much lower budget, but still have satisfied what we were looking for in almost every way. With some camping this summer added in (not in an Aman tented camp! In our own tent. ), and a couple of other wedding / baseball / family trips thrown in, this year will be closer to $25 - $30K.

If you are comfortable sharing your thoughts in this area, either your general philosophy, or your specific approach to budgeting and spend, please do!

MikeFromTokyo

I think Nan Kempner once said it well, "I spend way more than I should...but way less than I want."

I try to maximize my travel budget by targeting low season and "shoulder season" periods when occupancy is lower but weather is still very nice. I also target upgrades and negotiate when possible.

I would need a substantial six figure annual travel budget before I felt I could stop negotiating, but even then I am sure I still would keep looking for deals. Getting a good deal - without compromising on where I stay or what I do - is almost half the fun of traveling for me.

Musken

We do spend a lot on traveling, but there is a limit. However, we rather save on other things than holidays. During the last years we have typically taken three major holidays a year, each 2 weeks, staying most nights in a luxury hotel (average 4 weeks in an Amanresort a year I would say, so feel free to calculate ;-) ). We have to go during school holidays, so we cannot really change time to save money on off season rates, but we try to look for - or ask for - special deals. For a long time, we would be happy flying tourist class or using miles, but nowadays we have stopped that as comfortable travel adds to the enjoyment and relaxation. We have nothing against staying at simpler/cheaper hotels if it is just a night or two or when we will be out a lot (typically when in cities) as we feel that it is not worth it paying lot of money for "just a bed to sleep in".

Ericka

We budget/plan for one big international trip each year and then let a few other trips fall into place....long weekends, a few days added on to a business trip....whatever opportunities present themselves. We use airline miles where possible. And yes, we look for deals and upgrades. That's half the fun and makes us feel like we are getting more for our $$,$$$ travel investment.

As Americans still of a working age, we don't have the vacation time that our European friends do since the standard vacation allowance is 2 weeks. So even if money were no object, there is only so much personal travel my husband's job would allow. In fact, here in the US it is sometimes frowned upon to use all of your vacation time depending on how the company is doing, etc.

pricesquire

This: "I spend way more than I should...but way less than I want."

I don't have a dollar figure.

MikeFromTokyo

I have a flexible schedule and a lot of time to travel, so it works better for me to avoid high/peak season at resorts. In the low season not only are rates lower, but upgrades are easier and service is often better due to lower occupancy.

On the other hand, having more time means more nights in hotels and resorts, and therefore budget constraints are still an issue. I can see how having less time to travel could have an upside in terms of being able to afford higher average nightly rates, i.e. spending more on less travel.

An advantage to living in Thailand is that I need fewer long haul flights to get where I want to go, and when I do take long haul flights there are a lot of great F and J fares ex BKK.

Pierre&Cédric

I make in a year less than most of you spend for your vacation So we need to set an annual budget and anticipate all details to make sure we can maximize use of our EUR. Usually we book long trips in advance, especially when we use miles. It means we will spend something between 10k and 20k for our biggest trip of the year. I prefer to leave fewer days but still splurge for the best hotel and room category we can afford.
Short stays and weekends getaways are not scheduled a long time in advance, it all depends upon opportunities. Let's say we will spend an additional 10k for these short trips.
But it depends a lot from one year to another and our budget can be sometimes reduced (no vacation in 2009 and 2010) or extended (this current year we are lucky enough to have scheduled 4 Aman stays and many more luxury properties).

dlerner

I found that setting a travel budget allowed me to "splurge" without guilt. I still try to do most travel on miles and points (and have no specific budget there), but if the place I want to go doesn't have a nice hotel on points or the only flights on points involve numerous segments, I have no trouble spending dollars for a great hotel or a direct flight.

cruisr

Don't have a budget, just spend what I want, when I want, where I want. If I don't think the cost of a travel purchase is worth it I don't purchase it. If I think it's worth I do. Has worked out well for me so far. As the above post mentioned, Miles and points also play into my vacations which makes it easier to spend cash on places that don't have redemptions opportunities. In my mind when I use miles or points that is a very low $ outlay. Can there for spend "real" $ on other travel.

MacMyDay

I was actually thinking to ask a similar question the other day, although I assumed no one would either want to say the exact amount due to not wanting to show off, or for fear of being trumped. I was more interested in what percentage of their income they spent on travel.

I'm with you there. I find booking the holiday immense fun and only use AMEX to book it for the deal, rather than tell me where to do. Our Christmas holiday consists of 7 countries in 20 days and I've organised the entire trip, even though the journey is all flown in F or J and consists mostly of Aman's and other high-end resorts. Last Christmas we did 3 countries across 7 hotels in 3 weeks as well. Most people I meet at the resorts cannot be bothered with the hassle and would rather a TA just did it all for them, whereas that idea feels like a complete waste of money.

In terms of the budget, I do set an annual spend and plan it from the beginning of the year. As per my point above, all our holidays for the year are already booked and planned, with all the exact costs worked out by yours truly. As much as I appreciate I have a lot of time available off work compared to my American cousins, it still never feels enough, so I'm happy to pay extra to go in peak and ensure the weather is nice, than take the risk otherwise - that opinion may change in years to come. As per Musken, I'm happy not spending a fortune for a lot of places. At Christmas we were moving around between Vietnam and Cambodia and stayed at the Park Hyatt in Siem Reap for the night between going to Song Saa. On the way back we stayed at Amansara, which was around 8x the price of the Park Hyatt. Now it was a great hotel, but 8x the price? Absolutely not. I don't think you should ever lose sense of value, regardless of what you earn.

747FC

We never established a budget, just tried to be prudent in all of our travels, as well as other spending decisions. Now that we are contemplating retirement, we are asking ourselves:

1. How much travel might we want to do each year?
2. What budget is sustainable without dipping too far into our reserves?
3. With anticipated multiple long-haul flights and eventual exhaustion of our mileage accounts, will we actually pay for F, or will J do?
4. Is Google Flights the answer to #3?

So how much is our annual budgeted amount: 1.2% of our liquid assets.

LarkSFO

1.2% of your liquid assets, in retirement? You must have a lot more saved than we do, because this % will not work for us (too low a % based upon our forecasted savings).

As we inch closer to retirement, we are planning (hoping?) that our annual travel is the largest component of our budget! Especially in the early years of retirement where our health and energy level allow this.

Pay off debt, children off on their own after college, make it possible to envision a scenario where travel spend is the biggest annual budget item we will have. We'll need to be judicious in our travel / spend decisions, and compromise where we need to, but spending 5 or 6 months per year traveling (longer stays in fewer places is our style) sounds like fun!

Airbnb, VRBO, and even possibly home swaps will hopefully help enable this plan at a more manageable cost.

floridagal23

We are DINKs in our early 30s. we try to do 1-2 big trips a year and then a few long weekends or shorter trips from time to time if a good deal pops up or we need a break. We don't have a set budget but look for a night free, a miles upgrade, etc. if possible.

For ex, we are going to singita this year. We also went to Milan and Lake Como but only because we caught the emirates deal because the SA trip is not inexpensive.

We will see what then rest of the year brings.

RichardInSF

I'm with you, getting a deal is a goodly part of the fun. I've even let an exceptional deal on some part of a potential trip cause me to go somewhere I hadn't planned on going!

I used to fret a lot about air fares until I looked at a few annualized credit card summaries and realized I was spending way more on hotels than on air fares. Now I try to bargain with hotels, although I still use air miles, if I have them, on J and F fares.

pricesquire

Same boat