You are probably bombarded with ‘travel deals’ on a daily basis. Cruise lines and timeshare properties are the most aggressive to get you to participate. Lately, some credit card companies have been pushing travel promotions to gather points on your card. For younger couples, these opportunities are worth the effort/risk. They are affordable and often offer good value. Just know that visitors paying ‘full fair’, will always get the best rooms, seats and views. Quite often such offers are attached to some kind of presentation (which is never just one hour long) or a hidden ‘service’ fee that was in the small print. These fees often offset the ‘savings’ and it is no longer a bargain!
Our family does not have the luxury to simply pack up and go. We have limited vacation time from work, limited funds for travel and a number of schedules to accommodate. As a result, it has become a practice to determine our next destination(s) while on our existing jaunt. This gives us the better part of a year to plan, save and research. For example, we took all our vacation time at once from work to go to Africa. It is simply too far to go for a week. The next year we split vacation time and went to the Cayman Islands for a week in spring and New England for a week in the fall.
Choosing a destination is often the most difficult but most fun part! We do not worry about airfares, hotels, rental cars, etc., at this point. Just nailing down a preferred destination is the goal. Once established, we use an itinerary builder such as Travety or Travaa to get the ball rolling. A simple Excel Sheet will do the trick as well:
There are a ton of travel budget sheets through a Google search. Pending on your accounting skills, select one to populate as you go along. Be generous with incidentals – those expenses you cannot determine to the penny. They add up quickly and can lead to a heavy credit card bill on your return! Here is one resource for a Travel Budget Worksheet.
Quick Tips
1) Share the Family Itinerary with a ‘guardian’ at home in case something happens. If you have friends traveling with you, share it with their loved ones as well.
2) Even if not necessary, advise you bank of your travel destinations and away dates. You do not want to have your card refused or blocked while in a foreign place.
3) Use a dedicated credit card where you can – it is safer and easy to replace in a short amount of time.
4) Take a few singles and fivers with you. It makes for amazing tips in countries not using the Dollar.
5) Involve the kids in budget planning. It gives them ‘buy-in’ and an understanding of financial choices that have to be made.