Vacation Budget Template

Travel is fun and exciting, but it can be expensive. However, if properly planned, there are ways to travel on just about any reasonable budget. We highly recommend that you develop a vacation travel budget and use our soon to be developed template (see our Travel Planning Tools Post).

However, we want to make it clear, this is not an article about how to travel on $5 a day, or anything close to $5 a day. Yes, there are websites out there that claim you can still do that. But, if that is your goal, then read no further. So, how did this idea of $5/Day budget travel even get started. Years ago, when Cos was a wee pup, back in 1957, Arthur Fromer, the inventor of budget travel, wrote his famous “Europe on $5 a day”. He bumped up the amount over the years to just under $100 day, which is probably the practical low budget cost these days, excluding airfare and assuming you are backpacking, hitchhiking, camping or staying in a hostel and eating street food.

Since this website is not about those stretch low-cost budget travel strategies, we think of travel budgets, including airfare, at somewhere between $500 and $1000 per day for the two of us. Depending on your travel choices, some of you may find that too expensive and some may find it too low. No problem. Clearly, there are days when we exceed this amount, however over the cost of a multi-week trip I attempt to keep the average in the three-digit range. How do we do this? Good question.

Loyalty Points

Perhaps the first trick is to use loyalty points. Every Airline, Hotel, Credit Card and Rental Car Companies and even online restaurant reservation systems have a loyalty program. Please read our post on Hilton vs Marriott Points for more information. With these programs you earn points which can be used to reduce the cost of travel later on. We are active in all of them. However, when you buy with loyalty points it can be confusing. For example, is using 10,000 points, a better option than spending $100 on a reservation? It all depends. We have found The Points Guy (thepointsguy.com), to be a great source of information about this question as well as an expert on all the good points deals out there. In general, this is our number one budget recommendation, however there are some additional cost-saving tips with each form of travel.

Airfare – Vacation Budget Template

Let’s start with airfare. While we would love to travel, especially on long international flights, in the front, or lay-down section of the plane, we are not about to shell out the big bucks to upgrade to what most airlines call business class. On occasion we have done this, but usually our payment for the upgrade includes loyalty points. An upgrade can normally be less costly than paying full price upfront. Free upgrades are also possible, but usually only available on less travelled domestic routes and rarely on international fares.

Many of the international airlines today are offering a premium coach offering. This offers some of the benefits of Business Class without the lay down seats. If coach travel just doesn’t fit your travel style, then this is a good alternative. It can often be purchased at only a fraction of the full price of Business Class. Another strategy that nomad travelers use, is to visit a number of different places on a single international roundtrip flight. For example, on our 2022 trip to Europe, we actually visited 15 different countries on a ninety-day trip. In addition, it cost us zero for the transatlantic airfare. We also used alternative travel modes and low-cost airlines to travel around Europe. To learn more about how to save money on the airfare component of your itinerary, please see our Airlines post.

Local Travel

Local travel can add a fair amount to your total travel budget, so here are some of our suggestions to keep the costs down:

• Walk: Assuming you are capable of walking, this is often your best choice to save money on local transportation needs. Typically, if the weather is good, our destination is no more than a mile away, and the path is safe, we will walk. Walking is our first choice for local transportation and it is good for excercise.
• Public Transport: If our destination is further than a mile away, or if other conditions suggest walking is not an option, then we normally choose public transportation. Public transportation must be safe (not late at night) and easy to use. We want there to be an English translation, how to use it and how to get around,
• Taxis and Ride Sharing: Taxis and Ride Sharing are often a good choices when walking or public transport options aren’t practical. However, you need to be careful with both. Taxi Drivers may take routes to drive up the costs on their meters. Less experienced, ride sharing drivers will sometimes get lost or take an uneconomical route. Normally this shouldn’t cost you more. But, we recentliy had a bad experience with one of the well known ride sharing companies. The driver didn’t know that the main route to our hotel was blocked. He then ended up taking a much longer, uneconomical route. It ended up costing us $100 dollars over the original price. I am still protesting this with the vendor. But due to their awkward procedures for claiming a credit, I have little hope of getting a refund.
• Hop-on Hop-off/Private Driver: An interesting alternative in most cities is to travel around town via a hop-on hop-off bus service. This can be very useful when you are first visiting a city and you want to get a basic understanding of where everything is in the city. It can be a good alternative to hiring a private car service. However, in some places, particularly third-world countries, private car services can be the best alternative. If you are choosing the private service, book it through a reliable agent, otherwise you could be making a bad decision. With private drivers make sure you check out their references.

Lodging – Vacation Budget Template

The largest daily cost item is likely to be your lodging cost. Lodging costs can vary widely depending on the type of hotel, rental, timeshare, hostel, camping or other alternative you prefer. Although in general, the dailiy cost will decrease among the following listed options:

• Hotels: A night in a hotel in most major cities will cost anywhere from around $100 to over $1000. The exact cost depends on a number of different factors. (See our Lodging post for more information). All of the major hotel companies have a variety of hotel brands that will span the cost alternatives. By being connected with the loyalty programs of the different chains, it is possible to reduce the cost of lodging. We are strong loyalty followers with three hotel families, Hilton, Marriott and IHG. When using points, Hilton, Marriott and other brands offer special programs where the fourth or fifth night can be free. This can make hotel stays cost competitive with the other lodging options.
• Rentals: Airbnb and VBRO are the principal services most people use these days for rentals. Bed and Breakfast lodging can also be an option. These options are generally less costly than a hotel. However, services will not be the same and it is also possible that privacy may become an issue. Nevertheless, for long term stays, rentals should certainly be a cost saver.
• Timeshares: Personally, Robin and I will go with a timeshare whenever we have the option. Collectively, we own a number of timeshare units. They are primarily with Hilton Grand Vacations. They all use points and allow us to book a reservation at thousands of timeshare locations around the world. We find timeshares to be a good alternative between hotels and rentals. Timeshare units are much like hotels, with a few differences. In most cases, timeshare units are a little larger and provide either a full or partial kitchen. However, most likely with a timeshare, you will not get the daily room service. Although you will get more service than in a rental. You will probably pay a llittle more for a timeshare than a long or short-term rental.
• Hostels or Camping: Robin and Cos have little experience with these alternatives. Although for very tight budget travelers these may be good alternatives.

Restaurants & Food – Vacation Budget Template

Depending on your food preferences, daily food costs can vary greatly. In the spirit of Anthony Bourdain, one of the reasons Robin and I like to travel is to experience different food cultures. If you are a foodie, like we are, this can often end up being costly requiring us to find other ways of lowering our travel budget. Since Robin and I are not big fans of the large fast-food chains, we have found a number of ways to enjoy the local cuisine and still have an inexpensive meal.

In a number of places that we have visited we have found food trucks to be a great place to get a good inexpensive local meal. Another way to keep the cost down is to choose a lodging alternative that includes a free breakfast. By choosing some of these options we find that we can afford a nice fine dining dinner experience, and not blow our travel budget. (For more information, please see Our Favorite Restaurants or check out our Vacation budget Template in our Travel Planning Tools Post).