How much do you spend on vacations in a year and where do you go?

[Ns1]

^^

baller.

 

[ponyo]

You guys are rich. I think I spent about $1000 over the past FIVE YEARs on vacations for my family of four, so about $200 per year. Usually a trip to San Diego or Vegas, but once I went to San Francisco. Usually stay with friends or at Motel Six.

Your wife and kids don't complain? In the past when I was busy with work, I would just send my wife and daughter on long vacations. Now I have lot more free time so I can go on many vacations as I want with them. Well, except summer time. That's my busy period.

 

[ponyo]

i did motel 6/super 8's for years, but finally got baller enough to afford staying at hampton inns most everywhere i go. the super comfy beds and delicious hot breakfasts with unlimited sausage and bacon are worth an extra 80$ a day to me.

Priceline. You're paying too much if you're paying extra $80 a day to upgrade to Hampton Inn.

 

[brianmanahan]

Priceline. You're paying too much if you're paying extra $80 a day to upgrade to Hampton Inn.

eh come to think of it, it's probably closer to 50$ (like 120$ vs 70$). does priceline let you get the hotel you want if you do the name your price? i've never tried it for that before.

 

[Ns1]

does priceline let you get the hotel you want if you do the name your price?

Nope, which is why if you ask for a 5* on strip in Vegas you'll end up at the Trump International.

 

[ponyo]

eh come to think of it, it's probably closer to 50$ (like 120$ vs 70$). does priceline let you get the hotel you want if you do the name your price? i've never tried it for that before.

No. Most of the time, I just use Priceline Express deals. I can usually figure out which hotel it is pretty much all the time. They don't really try to hide much on the Express deals and give you bunch of clues so you can figure out which hotel it is before you book.

 

[Ns1]

alternatively there are priceline forums and you can back into what hotel you're bidding on based on location and features.

 

[Exterous]

i did motel 6/super 8's for years, but finally got baller enough to afford staying at hampton inns most everywhere i go. the super comfy beds and delicious hot breakfasts with unlimited sausage and bacon are worth an extra 80$ a day to me.

My wife is fond of saying 'The M in motel is for Murder'

Your wife and kids don't complain? In the past when I was busy with work, I would just send my wife and daughter on long vacations. Now I have lot more free time so I can go on many vacations as I want with them. Well, except summer time. That's my busy period.

It could just be what they are used to. We went 5 years with only a single vacation to Disney where we stayed with friends who also worked there. Compared to this year where we're visiting 12 new countries it doesn't sound good but at the time it didn't seem so bad

 

[RossMAN]

alternatively there are priceline forums and you can back into what hotel you're bidding on based on location and features.

Yep I've used BB which helped me score some good deals:
http://www.betterbidding.com/index.php?/#ffmenuWB

 

[madoka]

Your wife and kids don't complain?

In the past, my kids didn't know any better, so they thought Motel 6 was great. In fact, my daughter would go bragging to her friends that we stayed at Motel 6.

The wife did complain about it though . . .

My wife is fond of saying 'The M in motel is for Murder'

After finally convincing the spouse that Motel 6 was a good place to stay, I remember pulling into the one in Carlsbad with a SWAT team and about four squad cars in the parking lot. Apparently there was an active shooter near the pool. When we got our room, you could see in the door frame that someone had kicked in the door before. Not confidence boosting.

However, my argument stands that it's a good value and we only use the rooms to sleep in.

 

[madoka]

eh come to think of it, it's probably closer to 50$ (like 120$ vs 70$).

The cost of our room is $50 a night at Motel 6 if you book early enough. And IMHO, I think the rooms are sufficient.

Last time I went to Vegas, I stayed in the Hooters Hotel. $30 a night and free wings. Can't beat that for value.

 

[vi edit]

It's an ebb and flow thing. Last year was a *heavy* travel year.
Vegas/Zion in March. Chicago for a few days in April. Myrtle beach for a week in June. NYC for a few days in August. Then vegas again in December. Cost wise...probably $8k or so total. Don't really know.

This year will be much lower on travel. We're doing Myrtle beach again for a week with friends and that burns up all of my time share points for this year and a lot of next. We might do orlando for a few days in December. But that's about it. We did a basement remodel that was about $8,000 this year and cut into "fun money" for the year too.

I bought a Hilton Grand Vacation Timeshare aftermarket that gets me "7000 Vacation Points" a year. Depending location, room size and time of year that's good enough for a week of a 3BR apt in Myrtle Beach in peak summer months, or almost 40 nights worth of a one bedroom studio at the Elara in vegas in the winter. Then anywhere in between. That costs me around $1300 a year for the maintenance. It pays for itself with the Myrtle Beach summer trip. I pay $1300 for the time share, a $50 booking fee, then we drive there and buy groceries once we do get onsite. The beach is free to use, there's a mini golf across the street from the property that is free to use. And we get free access to the water park further south on MB. My kids are 5 & 9 and it's a very cheap week long getaway. It's less than $1600 once you count gas and groceries.

I'm looking to grab a 2nd one off market again to get a boost in points to use for better room upgrades and more flexibility.

 

[dullard]

My wife and I tend to do about 6 to 8 long weekends a year (2.5 to 4 days), each of which is about $500 to $1500.

• Most of the time we are just hiking around Utah or Colorado, so it is basically the cost of gas and cheap hotels (the $500 trips, total for 2 people).
• We have also recently been doing long weekends to Mexico since it is also quite quick and cheap to do; we probably spend $1000 (total for 2 people) for those since the dollar to peso rate is so good.
• But, we also fly to Chicago or NYC once a year which costs a bit more (the $1500 trips, total for 2 people). Mostly because we try to hit a good show and great restaurant while we are there.

Then we do one or two international trips a year. We've been to about 30 countries: most of western Europe, parts of Eastern Europe, southern part of Africa, parts of Asia, parts of Oceania. The cost per trip varies dramatically since the different countries differ so widely in prices.

• Croatia/Albania/Montenegro/Bosnia area was probably the cheapest near $3000 total for the trip since the flights, hotels, and food were all cheap.
• Vietnam and Cambodia were middle of the line since the flights alone were $3000 for the couple, but $6 gets you a decent hotel ($30 gets you the king's suite). And if you don't mind the questionable health standards of street food, $2 will stuff you to the brim.
• New Zealand was the most expensive, at probably $8000 for the 17 days since absolutely everything costs a fortune there and it costs a lot just to fly there.

 

[louis redfoot]

Last time I went to Vegas, I stayed in the Hooters Hotel. $30 a night and free wings. Can't beat that for value.

i can't do the old style air conditioner... too loud. the best overall deal in vegas is bally's: connected to paris, center of the strip, and it's a big clean room

 

[TwiceOver]

We can't really afford travel. The wife and son have a camping trip they go on every year (actually a cabin). I go and visit for a couple of the days.

I'm not big on experiences. I get it, some people are into that kind of thing, I'm just not that kind of person.

 

[NuclearNed]

I spend 1 week a year on my "man trip" with my buddies. We usually find a mountain to climb, so location varies. Cost also varies widely depending on our target mountain. Typically this trip ranges from $1200 - $3500

My other 3 weeks of vacation I spend with Mrs. Ned, and we love to travel to new places, so we don't do a lot of repeats although we end up in Vegas a lot. These trips probably range $2500 - $4000 per trip, sometimes considerably more if we go somewhere more exotic than usual.

We also typically do a few long weekends, each of which cost a few hundred.

Not trying to make this sound like a brag thread... we love to travel together and we don't have kids so we have more money for travel than most.

 

[ponyo]

In the past, my kids didn't know any better, so they thought Motel 6 was great. In fact, my daughter would go bragging to her friends that we stayed at Motel 6.

The wife did complain about it though . . .



After finally convincing the spouse that Motel 6 was a good place to stay, I remember pulling into the one in Carlsbad with a SWAT team and about four squad cars in the parking lot. Apparently there was an active shooter near the pool. When we got our room, you could see in the door frame that someone had kicked in the door before. Not confidence boosting.

However, my argument stands that it's a good value and we only use the rooms to sleep in.

Love it! Shortly after I married, I took my wife on a long weekend trip to Orlando to visit Disney World. I didn't make any hotel plans and just drove around until I spotted a Howard Johnson. I remembered the Hojo commercials on TV back in the 80s and 90s growing up and Howard Johnson, the baseball player might have starred in an ad or two. So I was curious since HoJo and Motel 6 are sort of part of America roadtrip past culture so I stopped and got a room for the night. Oh man, my wife hated that HoJo. It was really old style motel with open bathroom and no door on the bathroom. I admit it was pretty bad but I stayed in far worse when I was single. She made me checkout the next day and I checked in to the Hilton. To this day she tells me how much she hated that HoJo whenever I book a motel and tell her it's budget.

I enjoy nice hotel but I think I enjoy staying at cheaper places more. To me, it's more fun and I tend to remember the experiences at cheaper places more than the boring luxury resorts. But my wife disagrees and now she has my daughter in her camp. I think you're doing it right and would join you at the Motel 6. You get free parking and probably free breakfast at Motel 6. Hotel I'm staying at this week is charging $65 a day to park. I could stay at nice motel at that price.

 

[vi edit]

Love it! Shortly after I married, I took my wife on a long weekend trip to Orlando to visit Disney World. I didn't make any hotel plans and just drove around until I spotted a Howard Johnson. I remembered the Hojo commercials on TV back in the 80s and 90s growing up and Howard Johnson, the baseball player might have starred in an ad or two. So I was curious since HoJo and Motel 6 are sort of part of America roadtrip past culture so I stopped and got a room for the night. Oh man, my wife hated that HoJo. It was really old style motel with open bathroom and no door on the bathroom. I admit it was pretty bad but I stayed in far worse when I was single. She made me checkout the next day and I checked in to the Hilton. To this day she tells me how much she hated that HoJo whenever I book a motel and tell her it's budget.

I enjoy nice hotel but I think I enjoy staying at cheaper places more. To me, it's more fun and I tend to remember the experiences at cheaper places more than the boring luxury resorts. But my wife disagrees and now she has my daughter in her camp. I think you're doing it right and would join you at the Motel 6. You get free parking and probably free breakfast at Motel 6. Hotel I'm staying at this week is charging $65 a day to park. I could stay at nice motel at that price.

That was a lot of the appeal to me of the Hilton vacation club I bought into. They are basically condos/apartments to live in. A week at the beach is a lot nicer when you can do laundry a few times right in the apartment and can cook/keep cheap and easy meals for your kids. The properties are usually very nice and usually have enough things there to keep kids occupied for a few hours a day in between other activities. Most our lodging is paid "lump sum" each October through maint fees. Then it's up to us where to book and how to use it. It's nice being able to check out and not having that bill at the end.

 

[shortylickens]

Back when I had a job and actually took proper vacations, my plans were usually along the lines of Drive To Vegas, Lose 300 Dollars, Drive Back Home.

The idea of spending thousands just seems kinda nuts to me.

 

[louis redfoot]

Back when I had a job and actually took proper vacations, my plans were usually along the lines of Drive To Vegas, Lose 300 Dollars, Drive Back Home.

The idea of spending thousands just seems kinda nuts to me.

vegas!!!!!

 

[ponyo]

That was a lot of the appeal to me of the Hilton vacation club I bought into. They are basically condos/apartments to live in. A week at the beach is a lot nicer when you can do laundry a few times right in the apartment and can cook/keep cheap and easy meals for your kids. The properties are usually very nice and usually have enough things there to keep kids occupied for a few hours a day in between other activities. Most our lodging is paid "lump sum" each October through maint fees. Then it's up to us where to book and how to use it. It's nice being able to check out and not having that bill at the end.

You got a great deal on the Hilton vacation club. If you see some good deals, share. I'm pretty lucky because my relatives own couple vacation beachfront condos on Navarre Beach, FL, so I can use it for free if no one is using it. They don't rent it out so most of the time it's available for use. So it's like having a vacation home without the costs associated with owning.

 

[Ns1]

Gotta wait for the economy to tank again to sweep up those sweet sweet timeshare deals.

 

[brianmanahan]

I think you're doing it right and would join you at the Motel 6.

get a room! :awe: