Average Vacation Cost: What Travel Expenses You Can Expect

The average vacation cost for one person is around $1,986 for 1 week, according to BudgetYourTrip.com, but that number will vary depending on where you’re traveling and what time of year you travel. The average cost of a vacation includes transportation, food, hotel accommodations and more. Although many people stress about whether they should enjoy life or save money, vacationing can provide important benefits like creating memories. Understanding the average cost of a vacation can help you make sure that you plan for it in your household budget.

How Much Does A Vacation Cost?

Domestic leisure travel accounted for 2 million trips and $837 billion spent in the U.S. economy in 2022, meaning that it has largely returned to pre-pandemic levels even when adjusted for inflation. The amount that your vacation costs will vary drastically depending on the location, time spent on vacation and your own specific spending habits.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly tracks consumer expenditures, including travel. Here are the 2022 numbers for out-of-town trip expenditures:

Vacation Travel Costs Explained

There are many different categories that make up the average cost of a vacation.

Transportation

One of the biggest vacation expenses is the total transportation cost, including airfare, rental cars and other options like buses and trains. How you get to your vacation destination will have a big impact on the total cost of your travel. If you’re booking airfare during peak travel time, your transportation costs might be way higher than if you are road tripping in the family minivan. If you're trying to vacation on a budget, be extra careful about your transportation costs as they often make up the bulk of your vacation costs.

Lodging

The cost of accommodations for travelers (including hotels, Airbnbs, vacation rentals, hostels and other types of lodging) is another large part of overall vacation and travel costs. With the rising popularity of Airbnb and other vacation rentals, families have more options for lodging on vacation. Staying at a vacation rental may allow you to save money by cooking meals at your vacation rental. On the other hand, many hotels offer complimentary breakfast as part of your room rate and generally don't charge additional cleaning fees. Compare these options to see which may save you money if you are planning a family vacation.

Food And Drink

The cost of food and drink on vacation is a category people might not factor in thoroughly enough. You might be shocked by how much you spend in a day if you're not properly prepared. As we discussed in the previous section, depending on the type of lodging you are staying at, you may be able to save money by buying groceries and cooking them in your condo or vacation rental, instead of eating out for every meal. This might mean that you can save money overall on your vacation, even if it costs more to book a vacation rental instead of a hotel room.

Entertainment

Entertainment can be a big part of your vacation as well, depending on where you go and what you’re planning on doing. After all, part of the reason many people go on vacation is for entertainment. It's important to understand as well that there can be a wide range of costs for entertainment, since there is a big difference in cost between spending your vacation relaxing on the beach and taking the family to Disney World.

5 Tips For Creating A Vacation Budget

Pretty much everyone wants to save money on vacation, and the first step is to create a personalized vacation budget. It can be very easy to overspend on vacation without a budget, so these tips can help you create your vacation budget and stick to it.

1. Determine Your Overall Budget

The first thing to do is understand what you are comfortable spending on all aspects of your vacation combined. Knowing your overall budget can help you build a plan to save up for it. The 50/30/20 rule and cash stuffing are two popular strategies to help you set up an overall budget, where travel and vacation fits in with your other expenses. Opening a travel credit card can be another way to help defray vacation costs.

2. Consider Setting Up A Vacation Fund

Creating a vacation fund in a dedicated savings account can be helpful because money is set aside specifically for the trip each week or month. If you put $50 each week into a high-yield savings account, you would have over $2,600 by the end of a year, plus any interest that you would have earned on your balance. This can be a low-stress way to save money for your vacation.

3. Begin Planning Early

Laying out and sticking to a budget will be easier when some aspects of the vacation are booked and paid for in advance. Planning and booking some parts of your vacation ahead of time can help spread out expenses over time, instead of having the total cost of a vacation due over a week or two. Additionally, some entertainment and other vacation expenses may end up being cheaper if you book them months in advance, rather than waiting until the last minute.

4. Research Your Destination

Another thing that can help in saving money on travel is looking into regional prices of things like gas, food and entertainment in the area you’re planning to vacation in. This can be important since costs in different areas of the country (or world) can vary wildly, and may be drastically different from what you’re used to. Doing a bit of research into your destination can help you plan your budget and get used to the expenses you're likely to encounter.

5. Give Yourself Wiggle Room

Remember that a budget should be treated as more of a guideline than a hard and fast number. This is especially true on a vacation, so it's important to have a bit of a cushion in a vacation budget for unexpected expenses or costs that you may not have considered prior to starting your vacation. Remember that you're on vacation to have fun, so while you don't want to go crazy and blow up your budget, you also shouldn't make yourself miserable on vacation because of an unexpected expense.

Consider giving yourself extra money in your vacation budget for things you might not have thought about, including:

• Hotel resort fees not included in the daily room rate
• Foreign transaction fees (if you're traveling out of the country)
• Parking and valet tips
• Souvenirs
• Spontaneous adventures
• Additional costs due to weather or other delays

6. Use A Budgeting App

Many budgeting apps offer tools and features that help you make planning for a vacation easier. This includes an easy way to monitor progress on spending and savings goals. The Rocket Money^SM app allows for custom budget categories and allows tracking across multiple savings accounts. Consider downloading a budgeting app to help you plan for vacation costs along with your other monthly expenses.

The Bottom Line

No matter what the average vacation costs overall, it’s important to budget so you can enjoy a relatively stress-free trip. There are several ways to help keep your vacation costs down, and building a smart travel budget can lead to priceless memories. If you're getting ready for a vacation, set up an overall budget, plan early and use a budgeting app to help keep your overall costs down.

Consider downloading the Rocket Money app to monitor your spending and even automate how you save for vacation. This will help you budget appropriately for your upcoming trip.