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What vacation? We haven't been on a family vacation yet.

If we do flights we used to figure about $1k pp with hotel food and activities (skiing etc) for about a 5-7 day trip. It seemed like trying to make the trip change much we always arrived at a similar number.

We went to NYC with LO for 4 days and spent around $2K on flights and hotel (LO had her own seat on the flight, though).

I think it's hard to pinpoint a number since it's so location dependent. And obviously, if you have to fly it's going to really increase the number. I usually do a lot of comparison on sites like Kayak or Trip advisor to get an idea of prices within a particular city for the amenities we want and then narrow it down from there. Just offhand though, I would say that 5-7 days with flights and accommodation is probably between $2000-2500.

An idea for you is to look up Costco Travel (or some other similar warehouse travel program). I've found them to be extremely competitive. We've paid just under $3000 for flights, rental car, park tickets, condo, etc for a 5 day trip to Walt Disney World.

Other years, we spend $3000 on flights alone to visit family.

Vacations are so expensive!! We haven't been on a "real" vacation yet. All of our vacations have been at our parents houses (They both live in areas near the beach). I'd say we spend under $500 when we stay with family and drive. If we had to pay for flights, rent a place, a car, get transportation and eat, we would spend $2500.

Oh man, I don’t think these answers are going to be particularly helpful! Spend whatever you are comfortable with. Where are you flying from, generally?

Last winter we flew from Boston to Florida and it was $1600 for 3 people, so there is NO WAY we could do any vacation for under $2k. We flew to FL and took a 7-night cruise and the cruise was cheaper than the airfare to get there. Honestly, I don’t think we could fly anywhere and stay in a hotel for less than $2k, unless it was a super short flight for a weekend.

Airfare just is what it is. We ballpark about $300/night for hotel, because once you add on taxes, surcharges, wifi fees, maybe a bit of room service, whatever, it generally is about that much. Food is another $200 or so per day – often it is less than that, but sometimes it’s more.

For a 5-7 day vacation for a family of 3, we generally spend about $4-5k.

@petitenoisette: we stayed here but it was just me and DH, no kids

http://www.sjcourtyard.com/default-en.html

I would recommend! Right on the beach, great pools and hot tubs, great food on site, casino on site (if your into that) and easy access to major highways. About 10 mins from airport

I think a month's mortgage sounds about right for hotel for a week!

We are West Coast and we alternate between 4-5 days at Lake Tahoe and Hawaii and honestly, aside from the airfare the cost differential wasn't that huge, so we would rather suck it up and go to Hawaii. Even cheaper deals are to be had in Mexico but we get lazy and like nonstop flights. We usually spend between $450-600 a ticket and then we try to shoot for a condo or hotel that doesn't cost more than $300 a night. We usually score a night or two free at a Starwood property (Sheraton or Westin) to offset costs but that won't work now with a kid who needs his own sleeping space. Now we always look for condos or places with suites. Condos make things cheaper for food anyway. We are doing Maui as a lap infant in a little over a week since we figure it's just going to be more expensive from here on out.

Yikes! Flying anywhere in the northern hemisphere from Australia is so expensive. We budget at least $3k for flights alone and that is with a lap infant! Hence why we've kept holidays local. But I'm suffering severe wanderlust and so this whole thing is really tough! I think I'll just have to shelve travel plans until LO is old enough to be a bit more independent!