I was reading through the "Why do you spend 400 Euros on a hotel in Paris" thread, and though this was a much more interesting question:

WITHOUT indicating an actual figure, what percent of your "on the ground" (flights excluded) budget do you spend on food, accomodations, ground transportation, site seeing? Is there something that you MUST do or have each trip? Do you even budget at all, or just come back and brace yourself for the VISA bill? No need for justification on any of it, but feel free to mention reasons if you want.

An interesting spin-off question is, what % of your annual net income do you spend on travel?

For myself, I have found that even when we have been able to increase our overall travel budget, the proportion of what we spend on what, seems to remain about the same. For TWO of us (sharing a room), we end up pretty close to: 1/3 accomodation, 1/3 food, and 1/3 for admissions and ground transportation combined.

I'd also never thought of it until today, but we likely spend about 15% of our net income on travel.

I am interested to hear how numbers vary, and how people prioritise!

I have never done a budget or kept track. I buy the plane ticket with the best routing and times at a hopefully decent price direct from the airlines, book centrally-located 3-star hotels with reasonably good reviews, and go...

I take cash and an ATM card for daily expenses. I am not extravagant nor am I a shopper. I use a charge card only for the hotel and if an emergency came up.

Maybe I'm not good at math but I also have no idea what % of my annual income goes to travel. Interesting question though.

I have a second job that I use for travel. After I've paid the airfare and estimated hotel bill, I just divide what's left by how many days I'll be there and that's my daily budget. Two years ago I estimated 300E a day which I NEVER spent. I came home with money. Not sure how much I'll have this next trip but I'm sure I'll have fun.

I guess I'm in the no budget and brace myself for the Visa bill camp. I will admit that as I've gotten older, I've desired nicer accomodations. Food has probably been the area where we've been a bit stingy; there are 5 of us, so the tab gets run up pretty fast. I think I'll be a bit freer with the food euros in Barcelona than I was in Italy. We live in the Dallas area, and restaurant meals are quite affordable here. We tried to eat for comparable prices in Italy and had some pretty bad meals.

I don't budget at all. I don't brace myself either, as I am not a big spender and don't have any problem paying my bills. For many things, I don't spend any more when I'm on vacation, than at home (like on restaurants, events or food).

There was a very similar question on here not that long ago about the budget thing, but yours makes some sense (although I don't really see what the point of it is, actually) -- the other question referred to pct of annual budget or somethign that had no particular meaning, and some people answered in gross income, some in net, some in terms of "budget" whatever that means (before or after savings or whatever).

The response to pct spent on food etc. varies a lot depending on how many people you travel with. I travel alone most of the time, and obviously my accommodation costs have to differ from someone who is splitting room costs two or three ways. There isn't any way in the world I could spend a third of my budget on admission fees and local transportation, I don't see how anyone could, actually, that's a huge amount. Admissions are almost nothing for me (a few euro for a museum maybe, but some are free), and costs for metro/bus tickets can't be more than a few euro a day no matter what you do. So I added in some to cover some train trips for day trips or other cities, to come up with:
roughly, I spend about 60% on hotel, 30% on food and 10% on the other.

I spend between 5 to 8 pct of my net income on travel, I suppose.

Looking at our budget for our May/June 17-night trip to Amsterdam/Berlin/Crete/Athens, our budget breaks down like this:

Food, sights, spending money: 36%
Inter-Europe travel (trains, planes, ferries, car rentals): 31%
Accommodations: 32%

So I guess the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 rule is a pretty good one!

We spend about 10-12% of our net income on travel.

I am definitely a budgetter - just my nature. I even have spread sheets, so it was easy to look things up

For large trips (longer than a week, not including camping trips) for food and lodging we average right around 35% of the budget for each. Transportation is about 12%. Sightseeing is about 8% and shopping about 10%.

We find that an easy way to stay within our buget for daily expenses like food is to just go with cash. I set a reasonable budget based on our travel style and the costs of where we are going and then we take cash out as we go along - 2 days worth at a time or whatever. And we make hotel reservations ahead of time, so that is easy to budget. Transportation and sightseeing costs - I check them out ahead of time to get an idea of what they will be.

Overall, we spend between 5 and 8 % of our income on travel.

One thing I realise I didn't even consider was shopping and gifts etc. I spend very little on those things, but when I do they fall into the 1/3 for transportation and admissions etc.

We can spend quite a lot on transportation and admissions. We like to move around during the course of a trip, so trains, car rentals, etc add up. And our highest priority is probably sites. We never skimp out on going to a museum or site. And sometimes we'll take an organised day trip which can be a bit pricy.

I try to get an idea of cost by doing a spreadsheet and inputing as much information as possible such as hotels and some transportation and activities costs.

Regarding Christina's post: budget is most certainly contingent on who is traveling. We are a family of four. Some hotels require two hotel rooms or we are charged extra for the kids. This is not split costs. In addition, transportation cost for families can be very costly and can easily be a big percentage of the budget. For Greece and Turkey we have to take one ferry that is 160 Euros for four and we are taking 3 flights because cost and time make it more practical. We are also renting a couple of cars and taking buses. When you multiply admission fees times four in can add up. Almost any place you step your foot in in Greece or Turkey cost 5, 10 Euros. Multiply that and it adds up. There are also some activities that can be quite expensive but contribute to the experience such as the ballon ride we will take in Cappadoccia. Talk about an expense.

The biggest budget issue for me is food. I don't really have any idea how to figure that out. I am a total foodie and I have two teenaged boys in addition to a hungry husband. I have pages of good inexpensive restaurant recommendations that I hope will eliminate too many bad experiences.

I have no idea of the income percentage..if I do such a thing I think I will travel aa lot less
I don't travel alone, usually with a friend so we split the money but as a general rule I spend 40 % on hotel, 30% on food and the other 30% on taxis, a bit of shopping, visits..this is not fixed , it depends on the place I visit , in some places I prefer to add a bit more to the hotel.
If I have to cut on something, I always cut on food..it's not my main objective when travelling.

><How do you spend your travel budget?<

Like a drunken sailor.



PS: This has been done before.

OK I'm guessing 10-15% of my annual income spent on travel. That said, I'm single self-supporting and don't have a huge salary to begin with. That's covers two trips per year, everything included.

Like suze, I've never kept a budget. I've kept track of prices just to inform others who are interested. However, I live in NYC so food and travel costs in most places I travel are cheaper than home, so I don't see that as an additional expense.

With one kid in college and another set for next year, we have to budget if we want to travel. Travel costs allotment excluding air fare: 45% room, 35% eating, 15% entertainment & 5% ground transport.

I am afraid to figure out what percent of my annual budget we spend on travel, it would only make me feel guilty.

Regards, Gary

We like B&Bs and smaller family-owned properties and spend about 25% or so on lodgings--including breakfast. Probably about 35% for food and booze. Spend practically nothing on shopping. Spend a good bit on various "active vacation" experiences.

We splurged some on our last trip to Prague and Berlin and did go around 35-40% for lodging. Nice, modern hotels with nice, rooms (interesting rooms in the Berlin hotel), but we didn't enjoy them as much as the B&Bs and smaller hotels.

I don't really budget. After meeting my goal of annual retirement savings the rest goes to travels. And the less I spend on one trip, the more trips I can have.

Of course, convenience comes first, for example, hotel is chosen by proximity to public transportation, the airline by schedule, the tour by its route.

But after trying a first-class tour once, I'm back to budget travel. Didn't feel the spending was justified then.

..I don't know what % of my net income I spend on travel ..I don't have a budget but I do have a daily allowance. In a big city, I always stay centrally in a great neighborhood but as long as it is safe and clean I am not particular. (ie I try to save $$). My time is too valuable to waste commuting and if I am travelling alone, I do not want to travel far to return home from a play, party or restaurant. Meals. I am a coffee and pastry person in the am. I will always have either a nice dinner or lunch..this doesn't necessarily mean expensive just good. The other meal will be a salad or soup. I never scimp on admissions. this is why I am there! example- if I spend 100E on a room, probably 50 on food drink and coffee and 50 on sightseeing and local transport...I spend almost nothing on shoping- just a few souvenirs and sometimes try to buy Xmas or birthday presents to "leave" if I am visiting foreign friends and family.

I could ditto Suze's first post exactly. I'm not a "shopper" at all, and I don't spend on extravagant meals.
In France, I like to rent a car to see the various areas, and since I usually go solo, the car is rather expensive (2 weeks usually). Also, a pet sitter is another big expense!

Very interesting question. I just rapping up the family financial for the year. Have to get back.

Don't really budget but do have a mental "limit" as to what I'll spend on a hotel room..but that varies depending on the property possibilities.

What fun is knowing the % of one's annual income spent on travel without the figures????????????????? You already know there are some people who will LIE about it!