Over at Corporette today, readers are talking about paying for vacations, and we’re putting a spin on it for CorporetteMoms: How have your strategies for paying for vacations changed since you become a parent — as well as the vacations themselves? What are your best tips on how to pay for family vacations?
Regarding vacations with your kid(s) vs. solo trips or pre-kid vacations with your partner, how are they different, financially and otherwise? As a parent, do you take more trips or fewer trips than you used to? More/fewer sightseeing trips or more/fewer trips to see family? Do you do a couple of big vacations a year or more frequent smaller ones? How about destinations — how have those decisions changed for you since having kids?
{related: what kind of family vacation is right for you?}
Also, have you taken any vacations that you would have never considered before kids? Waterparks? All-in-one resorts? Cruises? Disneyland/Disney World/Universal Studios? Are you waiting until your kid(s) reach a certain age to do a certain kind of trip? And regarding types of lodging — hotels, B&Bs, Airbnb, and so on — how have those decisions changed?
How about vacation funds in general? If you’re spending LESS on travel now, where are you directing the extra funds — and does the money go toward everyday/immediate costs, or toward something like a 529? If you’re spending MORE on travel now, what’s the main reason for those increased costs?
{related: 3 baby gear rental companies for family travel}
On the sentimental side, Kat just shared a sobering fact with me: 75% of the time we spend with our kids will be spent by age 12 (source: 1000 Hours Outside). When trying to find the original source, I came across another stat in which the 75% is replaced by 75-95% and 12 years old is replaced by 18 years old, but no matter the correct numbers, it makes you think. With that in mind, are there certain vacations/destinations that you’re determined to share with your kids before they reach their teenage years or college age?
Anonymous says
We used to try to set aside about $10,000 per year for vacations, but we use a lot of that money for family travel and little weekend vacations like waterparks or visits to nearby cities. A friend just came back from Korea with her family and I’m trying to wrap my head around a trip of that size; she said the flight alone was $10,000.
Anon says
This sounds right. We went to India last fall for a family wedding and our flights were about $6K for 4 people.
No sticker shock for me – although we were not wealthy growing up, the cost of flights to Asia has always been around this; a “deal” on a ticket is if you could get it under the $1K-1200 mark.
Anon says
$10k sounds a little high for economy tickets unless they have a large family or had to travel at a very expensive time like Christmas break. But like you said you would certainly expect to pay ~$1,500 per person for flights to Asia and that’s been true for decades.
Anon says
We don’t save specifically for travel. We have retirement and college savings taken out of our paychecks and spend most of the rest on various things, including vacations. We spend a lot more on travel than we did pre-kid, both because of the extra person we have to pay for and because we have more financial stability than we did before we had a child (we paid off our mortgage during early Covid ).
My parents are local and my in-laws are a short, cheap flight away, so we’re lucky to not need to spend much time or money visiting family. Most of our trips are to places we want to go. We’ve taken our 5 year old all over the US, Europe and the Caribbean so far. We haven’t gone further than Europe yet, but have big plans for more exotic travel in the elementary school years. We’re currently planning Turkey for next summer and South Africa for the summer after that. For relaxation with young kids, it’s hard to top an all-inclusive beach resort. We especially love doing those as multi-generational trips with my parents, so we can spend a lot of time as a family but the adults also get a break. I try to aim for one kid-free trip every year, but I’m more passionate about travel than my husband so those trips aren’t always with him – sometimes I go solo, with friends or with my mom.
DH & I are both emphatically not Disney people and hope to avoid that, although we’ll see how long we hold out. DD has already started hearing about Disney World from friends. Otherwise we like to involve her in travel planning, and will give increasing weight to her destination & itinerary preferences as she gets older. I would even like to turn planning for some trips completely over to her (with budget and safety constraints, of course) once she reaches a certain age. I think that would be a really good exercise in managing money and keeping track of information.
Anon says
This sounds similar to our approach. DS #1 was 2.5-4 during the COVID years, so we missed a chunk of travel time (like many others), which also overlapped with DS #2’s baby years.
Last year went to India for a family wedding (DS #1’s first flight!), we are heading to Mexico soon for an all-inclusive multi-generational resort trip, and DS #1 asked for a trip for his 6th birthday, so I’m hoping we get to squeeze in a trip us 4 to Montreal around Thanksgiving or in early December.
I love shoulder season travel. I’m hoping to do a non-summer week in Europe as a family, maybe Stockholm or Berlin in 2024. And of course, I’d love to go back to India to see family and explore a part of the country we haven’t seen together to expose my kids to that side of their heritage.
Locally, we do an annual beach trip in late spring with some of my college friends + their kids which is SO easy, and so much fun. DH and I both love to travel, so if we can’t get away us 2, we prioritize letting the other take breaks. I had a girls’ trip earlier this year and am doing another one this Fall.
Anon says
Yep we didn’t travel between just turned 2 and 3.5 due to Covid. It was the best possible year to be grounded – although I find 3 year olds harder to parent, I think 2 year olds are harder to travel with – but it was still hard to feel like we were missing out during such a fleeting season of life, and it’s definitely given us kind of a carpe diem attitude about travel post Covid. We still save, but less aggressively than we did before.
That’s sweet that your son wants a trip for his 6th birthday! I took my 5 year old to Legoland for her birthday just us two (my husband is a professor and can’t travel during the academic year except on set breaks) and it was very special.
shortperson says
vacations are a definite priority for us while our two kids are in the sweet spot of elementary school. realistically we spend 15-30k per year, including three ski trips in the rockies, a winter break trip, spring break (sometimes to see family internationally), and a two week trip over the summer, and shorter weekends. other than skiing our priorities are seeing family, seeing wildlife, and visiting national parks. while this is a high total, it does not work out to that much per person per day. we save the luxurious hotels with fancy pools for the occasional one night which we turn into a full weekend of fun. we stay in three star or lower places, have ikon passes, no ski-in-ski-out, cheap airbnbs with friends whenever we can, cook a lot of our own food, i do a lot of travel hacking for flights, and we do timeshare demos when we can. i will spend serious cash only on truly unique experiences and ski school.
Anon says
Agreed on feeling like elementary school is the sweet spot for travel. They’re easy and fun to travel with, but they still love spending time with you.
Mary says
My husband and I traveled extensively (as cheaply as possible when we were younger/still dating) and because of this, we have always traveled internationally with our children, even when they were “too young to remember it”. Our kids have now been to over 25 countries–Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe, etc.– and now that we’re financially comfortable, we spend about $30-$40K traveling a year, which is usually one big international trip that costs about $20-$30K and a bunch of domestic ones. We don’t regret spending a penny of that money to have the time and the opportunity to explore the world together as a family. Now that the kids are in their late teens, they have a broader perspective of the world, they’ve interacted with so many different people, learned about all kinds of cultures, and understand that they’re part of the global fabric that connects us all.
Mary says
Sorry I meant 20+ countries for the kids—the 25+ was for my husband and I.