re: How much are you willing to spend on a vacation?

When I go on vacation I want to be on vacation. I want to enjoy myself and I don't want to cut corners so I rather do it right. Instead of going somewhere 2, 3 times a year, I rather put it all into one.. So for me at least $5k a person.

Im irrational when it comes to staying at hotels. I don't like staying at just any hotel, I like to stay somewhere that makes sure their customers are happy and more likely to not do half arse cleaning jobs in the rooms so I will wait a year and a half, two years to go because I want to save to pay for quality.

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How much are you willing to pay?

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This is a poorly worded question. If your household income is $100k it will be different then $500k.

Everyone also has different things they spend money on. I drive a 2014 truck but I just spent about $17,000 on a vacation for 16 days to Paris. Given that about $12k was credit card points, but I could have cashed those out.

ETA: Thats also not a yearly trip. More like 1 of 3 years.

I try to do one year of simple vacations like cheap trips, one year of domestic trips, and then do a big international type trip every 3 years or so.

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16 days to Paris.

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OT, but care to share any details on your Paris trip. Planning a trip now for 4 nights.

6-10k

Just spent about 10k for the wife and I to go to Seattle and Vancouver for 10 days.

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little f’ers don’t deserve nice things

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Just need all the other parents to realize this...

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OT, but care to share any details on your Paris trip.

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Depends on what your interests are. I'm a WWI/WWII dude, so I can give you tons of options within a four hour drive.

I'm sorry you're flying into CDG. Take the train, not a cab. The train will show you the un-fancy Paris (it's safe, just ugly). If any luxury shopping is happening, download and register the Global Blue app for automatic tax rebates so you don't have to do it in the shite show that is CDG.

If you have Marriott points, I cannot suggest a better hotel than the Prince de Galles in the 7th district. Real close to high end shopping, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, the Four Seasons (where all the arabs take their blonde harems.) If you're not baller status (I have more than 1,000 nights in beds with Marriott/SPG) then you won't get the room type I normally get unless you're lucky, but the service is impeccable.) If you email ahead with a request, they will fulfill it (fresh Creme Brulee upon arrival in your room, etc.) They will tell you where to buy croissants in the AM, etc., one of the most fabulous experiences of being "taken care of" I've had. I don't count Cancun and the dude I tipped $100 showing up on his day off to stock my beers before I get to the beach.

You can take day trips to the Champagne region/Bastogne, Verdun, Normandy, etc. from Paris if you get a car. Driving in Paris isn't bad, but I only drive in Paris in order to get in or out of Paris, not to get around inside the city. Traffic can suck goat nuts. Good luck figuring out the light green, medium green, olive drab, and dark green train lines from each other on the map.

A resource I used when I took my ex-wife the first time was Bourdain's The Layover. as well as his Parts Unknown Series. It used to have an app, but I don't know if it is still active. The gelato in the place in the episode is Leeeegit amazing.

If you're taking a woman, schedule a night cruise on the Seine around the burned hulk of the Notre Dame and next to the Eiffel tower. The boat will allow you to plug in your tunes and bring your own booze (from the restaurant next to the dock) on board. If you play some gansta shite, they get excited. I think they've heard Sinatra and that old school romantic BS enough they are excited for anything new. I think my buddy played "Magic Stick" and the like during the cruise for his 30th wedding anniversary.

Most of all, act like you live there. Find a grocery store on a back road so you can see what 150 chickens being roasted dripping their fat onto hundreds of gold potatoes at 9AM smells like. You MUST schedule time to sit in a cafe in front of the Eiffel or similar spot and just eat cheese, other snacks, and drink wine.

The Louvre is a shite show. You can also find better art on ancient cannons in the Musee de Armee (in my opinion.)

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After several family vacations I’ve determined these little f’ers don’t deserve nice things. Better to spend that kinda cash for a badass trip for just me and the lady

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Hahaha! I'm with you.

Our vacations with the kids(two boys - 6 and 10) typically consist of splitting a house(airbnb/vrbo) at the beach with another couple/s with kids the same/similar ages. Cook most dinners at the house because we can make food as good as overpriced beach restaurants. They'll have just as much fun at that week at the beach on the cheap than they would at any nice resort for a fraction of the price.

The money saved goes into a nice vacation for my wife and I or us two and another couple.

Having said that, we are taking the family to Italy for 2 weeks this summer because its my MIL's 70th birthday and they're paying for the house there.

We're looking at starting a yearly national park trip since my youngest is old enough now to appreciate those experiences, but other than that, it's a week at the beach or a mountain house with the boys for the time being.

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How? Saw flights in summer to Vancouver (from Dallas) at height of travel season are 550 or so each... 10 days at nice Airbnb Condo maybe 3k.... leaves 6k!!!

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I'm not saying the trip couldn't have been done for cheaper, but that's not the way I travel these days. I'm older and I like and can afford to travel more luxuriously these days. With that said, 2 first class plane tickets were about $2,500. Hotels ran about $5,000. That's $7,500 right there, before we ate our first meal or did any sightseeing. Going up in the Space Needle is like $75/person. Same for Chihuly Gardens. Admission to Mt. Rainier State Park costs money. Rental cars for a few day trips cost money. Ferry ride to Victoria costs money. Butchart Gardens costs money. It all adds up.

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We want to raise someone who is as curious, passionate and exposed to travel as much as we are.

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I get that, but I just don't think they're old enough yet. We live in a pretty cultural diverse area and they get some of that through their schools/friends. It's obviously not the same as being in another country, but I just don't think they're old enough to fully take that in yet.

A few more years and we'll probably be there. I'm about to have to pay somewhere in the $2k range per seat just to fly them to Italy with us this summer. We could do an entire week at the beach for less than $2k and he'd get just as much enjoyment playing in the sand/water at this point.

We took them to Provence and Paris for 2 weeks in 2019 and the younger one was not quite 3. Would not recommend that to anyone.