From the statistical data that was collected on a survey by the AAA Travel, it was proved without any reasonable doubt that fifty-five percent of adults in the USA will go on vacation, even for a single night.

From these records, it is incontrovertible that Americans are vacation enthusiasts who never want an entire year to pass by without them breathing the air of a different place. Amazingly, there is a Kenyan adage that goes, “A person who does not travel says that it is only their mother who cooks well.” And another one like it says, “One habitat has lice.” These two wise sayings perfectly complement traveling and going for vacations.

As you plan your vacation, you should cut your coat according to your cloth. Plan and budget wisely because after travelling, you will come back and find your responsibilities still lying there waiting for you. What if you are a conspicuous consumer who outrageously overspends as if there is no tomorrow? It will hit hard on you when you return without any ducats to pay for your bills.

How Much Does The Average Vacation Cost?

Since the advent of COVID-19, prices have sky-rocketed and you have to budget for basic necessities such as food, fuel, accommodation, fare and flight tickets. The prices vary significantly from place to place, and the entire cost will depend on the:

• Activities
• Season (peak or low)
• Accommodation
• Destination, etc.

Below is a table that provides accurate vacation cost details.

Statistics of Average Vacation Cost in The USA

Latest Expenditure on Vacation Costs

What is The Average Cost of a Vacation?

As you budget for your vacation, there are basic and major things that you should prioritize on, because of their paramount nature. They include:

• Transport
• Food
• Accommodation
• Entertainment

To be more precise, let us look at each of them specifically.

Transport 

Transportation cost depends on your vacation destination. The far you travel is directly proportional to the amount of money you spend, e.g., to places like Maldives, Japan, Bora Bora Europe, Italy or Greece. For instance, if you are taking your flight from California to Washington, it will be more expensive compared to traveling to a nearby destination within California. Moreover, apart from the flight ticket, you will also need extra money for road transport, since you will not travel everywhere in an aeroplane.

For instance, will you travel by public service vehicles like buses, taxis, or rideshare services like Uber or Lyft, or you will hire a car? And if you choose to go for a hired car, you will have to fuel it, pay toll, and also pay for parking fees, and any other unprecedented cost that you may encounter on the way before returning the car. You should count the entire cost before setting the ball rolling.

Average Transportation Cost

The Latest Data on Transportation Compared to What Was Available Previously

Average Annual Transportation Expenses for families:

Flight tickets are determined by the demand, when there are fewer travelers, the ticket prices get lower and vice versa. Since there were lockdowns and traveling restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, people can now travel a lot to compensate for the vacations that passed them by.

The season that you are traveling also determines the prices. For instance, a hotel room that is on the oceanfront in Florida is expensive in winter compared to summer. People travel to warmer places when winter hits where they live. They may even decide to go on an international vacation to Africa where it is always summer time.

To lower costs on your vacation budget, you may decide to cut on a number of activities and opt for cheaper traveling and other transportation costs. Instead of using yachts, speed boats, hiring posh cars, etc., you can go for public service means such as using trains and buses. You can also go for cheaper hotels instead of lodging in a 2, 3, 4 or 5 star hotel that charge an arm and a leg for accommodation. This depends on whether you can afford and willing to spend heavily.

Average Accommodation Cost per Night

Food and Entertainment Costs

Food and entertainment is also another factor that eats from your pocket. This is a basic necessity that most people do not take into account. They simply overlook it, but it is very consequential, since it deducts from your pocket, unless you are dieting or fasting.

The Average Cost of Food and Entertainment

Latest Data on The Cost of Food

Average Cost of a Vacation per Number of People

When you are traveling as a group or a family, it can be tricky to budget because all of you have different needs and tastes & preferences. This becomes even more challenging, especially when you are carrying young children with you. It also depends on the health condition and age of those who are in the group.

You will require a more spacious room and lots of activities that everyone in the group will enjoy to have memorable moments. Wherefore, the budget will be bloated even beyond what you have planned. In this case, you should consider checking available group rates as well as discounts. These two help you to minimize the costs instead of incurring the charges at personal level, which is apparently expensive. However, if you want to surprise your family and your bank account is heavily loaded, you can do it your way.

Basically, the average amount of money that a family of four can spend is roughly about $4,580 per annum. This amount comprises:

• Transportation including flight tickets
• Food
• Accommodation
• Activities
• Entertainment

Saying that this is the average amount, means that it can, either be less or more that the stated figure depending on the aforementioned factors that determine the budget. Since accommodation is another big deal that greatly drains your pockets, you can choose to go for alternative means such as staying with relatives or friends who live in your destination. Amazingly, when you go to live with them during your vacation, you will not only be accommodated for free, but also have the advantage of eating free food.

Wherefore, the only things that you have to pay for are the activities, entertainment, and maybe buy some stuff. For instance, if you consider how much many families earn per year, you will find that $4,580 accounts for about 8%-9% of their annual income. This is quite a significant amount and most families cannot afford to go on multiple vacations, lest they will not have much money left for development at home.

A small family of four consumes food worth $132 per day without luxuries such as alcohol, snacks, and tips. Therefore, instead of buying everything that you eat, you can choose to prepare your own meals, and that will greatly reduce the amount to just about $24 per day, which is quite affordable. Otherwise, there are hotels that offer bed and breakfast, and it is usually a heavy breakfast, such that when you take it, you will be full for the whole day. You can take snacks or fruits for lunch and only require something heavy for dinner.

Average Cost of Vacation per Week

The average amount of money that one person can spend per one week’s vacation is the US is $1,919. However, this is just a rough estimation because the actual amount is determined per the usage of the person who is going on vacation. Therefore, depending on diverse factors, like activities, destination, and spending, the amount can either be lower or higher than this figure.

Average Cost of Vacation per Day

To determine the average amount of money that you use on vacation per day in the US, you simply have to divide the weekly expenditure by 7 days. Therefore, $1,919 divided by 7 days will give you $274.1 per day. When you are setting out of your aboard for a trip, regardless of where you live, you should have a daily pocket money of between $50 and $100.

Average Cost of Vacation per Family of 3 to 5

The average cost of vacation per a family of three is approximately $4000 per annum, while a family of five can spend approximately $5000 per annum. There are many factors that determine the amount that a family uses. So, the final amount depends on the family.

Budgetary Vacation Options

There are three vacation options in terms of cost:-

Budget-friendly vacation:

• 1 day cost per person – $83
• 1 week per person – $582
• 1 week for a couple – $1,163
• 1 month per person – $2,492
• 1 month for a couple – $4,985

Regular option:

• Daily cost per person – $223
• 1 week per person – $1,558
• 1 week for a couple – $3,116
• 1 month per person – $6,677
• 1 month for a couple – $13,353

High-end option:

• 1 day cost per person – $663
• 1 week per person – $4,434
• 1 week for a couple – $8,869
• 1 month per person – $19,004
• 1 month for a couple – $38,009

Average Hotel Price in Renowned Cities

Las Vegas is a luxurious city, famous for gambling and all fun activities of the world. That makes it the number one tourist destination, not only in America, but also on earth. People want to go there for vacations to participate in the entire funfair, and also confirm whether what they hear about this city is true.

New York is the next in line, but surprisingly, accommodation here is even more expensive than the number one tourist destination on earth, Las Vegas, as you can see in the table above.

Orlando closely follows behind Las Vegas, with just a slight difference of $13 in accommodation charges per night. All the same, there many other travel destinations like Maldives, Japan, Bora Bora Europe, Italy and Greece.

Average Entertainment Costs for Vacationing Families

Average Cost of a Vacation by Generation

AAA latest Travel Trends reportages have it that when it comes to vacations, baby boomers are the heaviest spenders. The reason behind it could be because more than half of them are retired, and at this elderly age, their working stamina has subsided. Thus, they have much time to rest and go on vacation to enjoy their evening years. According to the same report, millennials spend the least. It could be because they do not have money for vacations; most of them are still in schools, colleges and universities learning, or they engage in other activities instead of going on vacations.

Average Cost of Vacations by Generation

From the findings of VRBO survey, millennials have the highest probability of getting into debts for vacations, while the group that is least likely to go into debts for the same is the Baby boomers. Apparently, these are people who are, or have been in long tenures; hence they have fat bank accounts.

Comparing Staycations and Vacations

There is something interesting here about these two terms. A vacation refers to traveling and staying away from home, while a staycation is going for trips, but you still stay at home. Therefore, you do not incur any costs for accommodation, flight tickets, breakfast and dinner, since you take them at your home. In fact, you may never need to buy any food; since you can easily cook at home and pack the food & drinks that you take for the whole day when you are away.

This is the cheapest form of “vacation”, but it is also limited because you cannot travel very far from home. You can choose to forego rented cars, paying for accommodation, flight tickets, etc. It has fewer hassles compared to vacation. What are other benefits of a staycation:

• It is convenient for people who have young children
• A staycation gives people who have recently emigrated to another place a good chance to explore their neighbourhood
• You do not have to adapt to staying in a hotel
• You still have time to do your duties and responsibilities
• Your domestic chores and roles are never neglected, likewise to your family

Budgeting Tips for Vacation

Going on vacation should not be done by impulse. Rather, it should be a well thought out plan because it drains your vaults. You can easily exhaust your hard-earned cash within days, which has taken you a whole year to accumulate. By the time you return, you will have to start all over again right from square one, and this can cause you heartache. So, how should you go about it?

• How much are you willing to spend on your vacation? Go as per your budgeted amount.
• Do not go on vacation during the peak season. Rather, opt for the low season when prices are low.
• Go for low-cost flights, which you should book in advance.
• When traveling overseas, look for favorable currency exchange rate agents.
• Plan for meals and when to take them, especially in hotels that have fair prices and quality food.
• Go for affordable accommodation. Perhaps Airbnb can be a good choice.
• Pack what you need instead of buying most of what you use.
• Minimize activities and entertainment.

You can make payments and do purchases using a prepaid debit card. Alternatively, you can use a good travel rewards credit card to earn cash back on some purchases

Disney World Trip Cost

The Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World was visited by a whopping 20 million people in 2016, while over 10 million of them also visited other parks of the Disney World. However, this is not for free, and the charges are as follows:

DisneyLand’s Family of Four Costs

DisneyLand is the real Disney, where Walt Disney began all his dreams. In as much as Disney World is larger, it is more expensive to visit Disneyland. The table below shows the charges:

Hawaii Family Vacation Cost

Hawaii is a highly coveted vacation destination for many people on earth. However, the required budget goes through the roof, and you have to save for it for quite some time depending on your source of income. But the high and mighty can go at any time, since they have deep pockets.

For common people, you have to plan very well and budget for it, because even just landing in Hawaii is expensive.

Flight

The average flight ticket to Hawaii goes for $1000, but there are cheaper options, especially if you are flying in off-peak times, or connecting via LAX.

Accommodation

Lodging varies greatly in Hawaii, and this depends on where you stay. For instance, an average room goes for $200-$400 per night, but a high-end room with all its luxuries goes for $800 per night.

Food

Dining in Hawaii can break a bank. One person can easily spend $100 on food per day on resort fare. However, local food is affordable and you can opt for it.

Which Cities Have The Highest Tourist Taxes?

Taxes are different across diverse cities. There are some that have very low taxes, while others have very high. When you go on vacation in high tax cities, you will spend a lot, because the taxes inflate your expenditure. Some of them include Minneapolis, Chicago and New York.

The main reason why the taxes are high is because the money collected through tax is used to fund budget deficits for struggling governments. These governments cannot generate income through other means. Wherefore, they end up relying on travelers to fund them by imposing discriminatory travel taxes on them (travelers), which inflate the prices; hence the entire cost. These taxes hit hard on travelers.

For instance, if you take a case study of New York, staying in a hotel room attracts 3 taxes and one fee as follows:

In New York, a $300 per night hotel stay hikes to $345.37, and when you stay at the hotel for four days, the cost will go high with up to $181.48.

Conclusion

It is good to treat yourself and your family well by going on vacations to various destinations such as Maldives, Japan, Bora Bora Europe, Italy or Greece. Life is too short to be mean by denying yourself because you will never depart with anything from this world. You come empty-handed and leave the same way. So, treat yourself well, but spend wisely by budgeting according to what you can afford.