OK, so how much is all of this going to run you? I should
have started with that question long ago, since that’s the first question that
you should ask: what has it cost you, what have you won? When I go to Europe I start
with an estimate of $10,000. $1,000/person for airline tickets, $4,000;
$200/night for 10 nights, $2,000; $100/day for a decent rental vehicle with car
seats, $1,000 – That’s $7,000 already. Call it $300/day for the actual fun
stuff – dining, tickets, purchases. $10,000.
Yep, that’s why I don’t go every year, or even every other
year. I don’t have $1,000 in my monthly budget to set aside to save for a trip,
which is what you should do. Your tax refund won’t cover that either, not by a
long shot. But you should try to set aside $400/month in a fund, over two years
that will get you there. Or, if you’re lucky enough to get a bonus, make that
the kitty.
After that, you’re going to have to try to shave costs where
you can. I put in $1,000/ticket, but shoot for $800. You can rent a vacation
apartment for $1,000 for a week, plus a few extra nights, call it $1,500. Cut
down on the number of driving days: $600. Go off season and save another 15%.
Depending on where you make your compromises, you can still have a great time
at $7,000. Below that and you’re risking your trip. But $300/month over two
years will get you to that $7,000. Reachable.
You want to go for less? I briefly discussed travel agencies
and packages. On the former – they can be great resources, true, if you have a
good agent. They’ll certainly save you money if you don’t want to do any of the
legwork I’ve outlined, but you won’t be going on the cheap. On Packages and
Tour Operators…I firmly believe you get what you pay for, here. If that room is
being discounted heavily, it *may* be because of volume through the operator.
Or, it may be because that hotel has trouble getting repeat business. I’ve
purchased through a package operator once: it was indeed a low price (though I
can’t recall what it was). Covered flight (NYC-Paris) and a three star hotel in
a convenient neighborhood. Caveats: you had to fly out of NYC, so factor in the
cost to get there (I’ll guarantee you no tour operator runs packages out of
Birmingham, and no, as much as I like putting these trips together, there’s not
enough local volume to make it a viable business). The flight was Wed-Wed –
it’s a small thing, maybe, but I hate losing the extra weekend. Ideally, you
fly Fri-Sun combos, right, to max the weekends – fit in 9 days while only
taking 5 off. It makes a difference. As to the hotel...it may have qualified as
a three star, but it was pretty shabby, and the mattress was far from
comfortable. To be fair, I’ve had that issue with other three star hotels,
especially in France. This was in the days before TripAdvisor, so perhaps now
you can do better vetting of package hotels before purchasing. More likely
you’ll be able to AirBnB your way into a better spot. And I won’t even get into
the group tours, nope, not waiting around for other people to get on the darn
tour bus so we can go to the net spot.
So – count on $10,000, you’ll have a great time if you can
swing it. Go off-season, if you must, and you can compromise on dining out –
eat large breakfasts at the hotel (usually included) and make sandwiches for
lunch. But *don’t* spend $4,000 on a cheapie trip and walk away from it
remembering only the bad food and rotten hotel. In that regard, a trip is a lot
like a wedding: horribly expensive, and not necessarily worth it. You get good
memories and photos, mostly. But if you cheapen up on a few key things (e.g.,
cash bar) you leave with the wrong memories.
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