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What are your spending habits like when you are on vacation?

E

Exterous

Super Moderator
I'm guessing the people on ATOT are still somewhat controlled in what they spend but, in talking to other people who complain they want to go on more vacations but can't afford it, many seem to completely open the money spigot when they travel.

I don't mean to say we eat at Denny's and do our tourist shopping at Walmart but we will often take public transportation instead of cabs, limit the shopping and budget for the food purchases etc

I talked to one person who was shocked we frequently stopped by a grocery store to get breakfast in the UK instead of a restaurant. They didn't seem to be swayed by the fact that the bakery options were fresh, delicious and cheap

Someone else found out we are going to DC and warned us about the food and how expensive the place was, lamenting that they probably won't go back because its so expensive. Apparently she and her husband spent $100 a night on dinner every night they were there! If you can do it without it preventing future travel thats one thing but to make the decision to spend that money when its going to limit you and there are other options are available...?
 
I've got kids now, so my vacationing has changed significantly. Almost every vacation I have done in the last three years has been through VRBO.com

We rent homes or condos with full kitchen setups. When we get into town we hit a grocery store and stock up for the time we'll be there. Maybe one or two nights in a week we'll go out for dinner to a local place. But most of the time we'll just cook at the house. It's *much* cheaper, and with 2 kids under 5 it's just a hell of a lot easier.

I won't plan a vacation any more unless I have a full kitchen at my disposal. We'll make due in a hotel for a night if it's drive that is longer than a day. But otherwise we basically eat the same stuff we'd do at home.

If it's just my wife and I on a trip, it's different. If it's a week long stay we may pick one or two nights that we'll splurge and do a $100+ dinner. And then the rest we'll hit inexpensive local shops (under $10 meals) we can bring leftover back for lunch the next day.
 
Depends. If it's a road trip we tend to just bring a cooler with tons of food. We do get suckered into some things though.

Overall we are very spend conscious. We would take public transit assuming it's available (I don't mean bus stops). A lot of our vacation tends to be going to see family, in which we just stay with family. No hotel, plus you get to feast together.

Speaking of spending, today I'm absolutely pissed off because I lost my Oakley's that retail for ~$140. Ugh, I'll probably have to replace them via eBay.
 
Erratic and nearly uncontrollable. My 2 vacations I've had so far in my life have been a train wreck. (Not because of poor planning, mind you!)

Mostly because everything that could go wrong during the vacation DOES go wrong. (Car breaks down, housing falls through, unexpected sickness, etc.)

And I do eat out frequently while on vacation, but that's just because of convenience or not having access to a kitchen. I'm also very hard to please. Unless there's a pizza joint nearby, I'm probably not going to eat anything from a restaurant. Fortunately, pizza is usually not hard to come by. Neither is a $5 footlong from Subway.
 
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Depends on the length of trip and what the point is.

Couple days out of town for anniversary then the per day spending will be pretty high.

Seven days will probably have one or two nice meals and mostly meals that cost around the same as an out meal at home. We've done the breakfast in thing and it is mostly about convenience, wife is terrible about getting ready in the AM so eating in the room makes life easier.

We've done public transit but wouldn't hesitate to take a cab when public transit was more pain that it was worth.

I don't ever budget travel. When we're out I don't go insane with spending but I also am not tracking every dollar. Wife and I are foodies (or close enough) so eating lunch/dinner in is just missing a chance to try some local place/cuisine. If money was tight enough that I had to choose between seeing sights or eating nicer meals I'd take the sights but if it was that tight I wouldn't likely be traveling.
 
Depends. I use Hotwire and Priceline to pickup cheap hotels for short weekend trips. Other times I'll book 5 star places and spare no expense. Or when I go down to my favorite beach town in Florida, I always book the same condo and cook there. But I never skimp on food costs or eating. I have no problem paying $100+ for every meal.

My problem with going on vacation is lack of time rather than money. I have the money but rarely the time to go on a lengthy vacation.
 
I set a budget and generally stick to it.

When we cruise, I set low spending budgets since meals are included on the cruise. Like we maybe will budget $140 for 7 day cruise for drink, then maybe $50-100 or so at each port on misc stuff. The best are the islands with La Casa De Havana 🙂

Otherwise, on vacation, we typically budget transportation and lodging ahead of time, and then stick to reasonable/affordable $50 or so dinners 60-70% of the time, and then more adventurous or extravagant dinners at around $100 30-40% of the time.

Sometimes there are trade offs. For example, if we are traveling but we lodge with family, since we are saving $$$ on lodging, we may go out for more expensive meals with the family members.

At home, we brew our own coffee, and drink like fish. But, We go through maybe 1.5 pounds per week. When we travel, we stop for coffee a lot, and it adds up. I drink black coffee and usually get a refill or two at the coffee shop so my $3 coffee is more like 3 one dollar coffees. My fiance likes to get fancy "soda jerk" type coffee cocktails with things like "Sugar" and "Milk" and ice cream and such in her coffee. Yech!
 
basically the same as when I'm not on vacation, aside from the expense of taking said vacation of course.
 
We tend to get kitchenettes and cook breakfast and most dinners. We are usually out and about for lunch and tend to eat well. We don't have expensive tastes in restaurants and we are teetotalers so the cost of meals out isn't usually an issue. We don't skimp on entry fees for stuff we want to see or do. We also are willing to pay to stay close to the things we want to do. So for beach vacations we spend enough to stay right on the beach. We're more into nature oriented vacations which are generally fairly cheap. Staying at a fancy resort would do nothing for us.
 
I tend to spend a ton. I try to avoid crazy expensive rooms, something in the $100-200 range is where I try to end up.

I don't do a lot of souvenirs, but tend to eat really great meals. I am not a foodie, I rarely eat breakfast and sometimes skip lunch. However; on vacation I try to check out the higher end local eateries.
 
My wife is a foodie, and I appreciate a well-cooked meal as much as the next man, so we tend to spend a cubic fuckton (roughly speaking) on restaurants when we're on vacation since there's no telling if we'll ever visit the area again. It depends on the area though. If you're going to get a good meal at a Michelin star restaurant in Vegas, you're probably going to be spending a whole lot more than if you're eating at some rural grease shack you saw on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. I figure, I'm on vacation, I'm content to pay extra to get something I wouldn't normally get in my daily life.
 
Mindless spending.

When I run out of money I just called the credit card company and ask them to raise my debt limit.
 
seems like I usually end up in ~$200/night rooms if I'm vacationing in any major metro area, although I also do a lot of off-peak traveling and look for discounts (eg: I just booked 5 nights in Toronto for $220 night that normally run closer to $300 thanks to an off-peak discount coupon code)

we'll do a couple really nice, fancy dinners and go out for drinks most nights (otherwise eating at mid-range places or even finding local delis/lunch trucks if applicable), but I'm not a big vacation shopper... it's very rare for me to see something on vacation that I wouldn't just as soon buy online instead. the only souvenirs I'll get are for my 2 nieces (maybe $20 a piece)

thinking about it, the only thing I find myself regularly buying on vacation are regional wines that I don't see at home.
 
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I hate souvenirs. It's the one thing guaranteed to sit on a shelf, do nothing, bring little to no memories, and in general - waste money.
 
Whenever I go out of the country, I like to bring $10,000 which is the cash limit before you have to declare it. All my housing is already taken care of, the flight paid for, and I generally eat street food (around $5 a meal). Everything else goes to shopping. I love to shop.
 
I usually spend a fair amount because more often than not I am going to at least one very nice restaurant and a few medium-nice ones in whatever city I am visiting.

KT
 
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madoka said:
Whenever I go out of the country, I like to bring $10,000 which is the cash limit before you have to declare it. All my housing is already taken care of, the flight paid for, and I generally eat street food (around $5 a meal). Everything else goes to shopping. I love to shop.
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Technically, $10k has to be declared. It's not a big deal if it's legal money though.

The problem is coming back into the country with more money than you started usually.

Even with $100's that's a big stack of cash. Do the areas you go have no bank access?
 
alkemyst said:
Technically, $10k has to be declared. It's not a big deal if it's legal money though.

The problem is coming back into the country with more money than you started usually.

Even with $100's that's a big stack of cash. Do the areas you go have no bank access?
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Yeah, you got me. I usually buy something at the airport to get me under the $10,000 limit. And really, it's not that big a wad. It fits easily in my neck pouch along with my passport.

I come back with extra suitcases of gifts and junk I bought so most times I have to pay some sort of luggage penalty. Sometimes I'll even mail back my laundry to make more room for stuff.
 
$10,000 in hundreds is not a big wad. It's just 100 bills. I usually carry 100 one dollar bills and 100 $5 bills for tips and small purchases when traveling outside the country.
 
ponyo said:
$10,000 in hundreds is not a big wad. It's just 100 bills. I usually carry 100 one dollar bills and 100 $5 bills for tips and small purchases when traveling outside the country.
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That's insane. You carry all this or kept portions in a room safe?

Visa is good almost everywhere.
 
I wouldn't hesitate to spend a $100-200 a person per day on a vacation. I'm not going to waste money, but I also don't want miss opportunities that I probably won't get again because I'm being frugal. I'd rather spend $50 for breakfast at some once-in-a-lifetime place than be frugal and miss out on that chance.
 
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