Most expensive holiday!

Quazzie

Whats been your most expensive holiday?

Me and my OH went to Aruba in January for our honeymoon and in total for 18 days it cost us

Flgihts €1350
Hotel $6500
Spending money $4500

It was our honeymoon so we didn't mind spending this as its somewhere we both loved and it really was first class (except the flights). The hotel was fabulous and the staff were obliging on any request we had. I'd never pay that amount of money on a holiday again but as a once off it was well worth it.

I'm curious though as to whether or not people actually spend this money regularly on a holiday. like I said for me it was a once in a lifetime thing but we met people (american) who do it three or four times a year.

Does anyone in Ireland spend that much?

Ponster

Those Americans weren't your average workers when you consider how few holidays they get to actually leave the country and enjoy other countries (2/3 weeks).

I think that the most I ever spent was this summer and that came to €3000 for 2 people, 3 weeks in Mexico & USA.

$4500 seems like a lot of spending money for Aruba when your hotel is paid for IMO.

preddy

10k for 2 of us on a 3 week trip which included

1 week in cape town + day tours

4 nights on safari including airport pickup that was a 3 hour drive! and meals

10 nights in Legends Hotel in Mauritius (OMG wat a place) All inclusive - all food and drink paid for! - Oh how we made use of that feature

+ 1000 spending money

Quazzie

Ponster wrote: »

Those Americans weren't your average workers when you consider how few holidays they get to actually leave the country and enjoy other countries (2/3 weeks).

I think that the most I ever spent was this summer and that came to €3000 for 2 people, 3 weeks in Mexico & USA.

$4500 seems like a lot of spending money for Aruba when your hotel is paid for IMO.

Honeymoon. We done a lot of drinking, lounging, watersports. trips etc. basically everything that was on offer we done it. and often more than once. like I said once in a lifetime so we went for broke.

ncmc

It would take a lot for me to pay more than €4000 for flights/accomodation/car hire and then about €2000 spending money for two of us. If you are willing to book all the aspects seperately yourself and do a lot of scouring the net, you should be able to get a pretty amazing 2 week holiday for €4000 or less. This year we are going to California, Vegas, Grand Canyon and we have managed to bring it in at €3600 for 16 nights by booking everything ourselves.

Ouch, that honeymoon ended up costing you €9k, I could never justify that, especially for what is essentially a beach holiday. But each to their own, I'm glad you enjoyed it and if it was worth that money to you, then that is all that matters. In my experience, people are shocked at how much we spend on our holiday, so I think most people go down the more budget route.

Quazzie

Well I consider that my one BIG expensive holiday in life. My reasoning was that I'll only ever have one honeymoon so might aswell do it big style. For me it seems a ridiculously large amount of money to spend on any holiday (although for what it was I consider it worth it). I just find it too unbelievable that people spend that amount regularly

Gran Hermano

We normally spend about €3k each on our main summer holiday,
typically to either the Caribbean or Indian Ocean.

I don't think it's a crazy amount - some people are happy spending
mad money on their cars, others are happy urinating their money
away nightly on silly amounts of beer in Irish pubs.

I will also extend business trips to give me a break when away with work
and book myself city-breaks or some winter sun.

It's down to lifestyle choice, some people like to work hard and play hard.

ncmc

Gran Hermano wrote: »

We normally spend about €3k each on our main summer holiday,
typically to either the Caribbean or Indian Ocean.

I don't think it's a crazy amount - some people are happy spending
mad money on their cars, others are happy urinating their money
away nightly on silly amounts of beer in Irish pubs.

I will also extend business trips to give me a break when away with work
and book myself city-breaks or some winter sun.

It's down to lifestyle choice, some people like to work hard and play hard.

I totally agree with this, we are not big earners but we go on two holidays a year, one biggie as I've mentioned before and usually a city break for 4-5 nights. The amount of people that comment on how much we spend on holidays but these are the same people that smoke 20 fags a day and spend €100-150 per week on drink. Me and my husband don't go out drinking much and we don't smoke. I sacrifice a lot to save for these holidays, like I said, we don't go out a lot and I don't spend a lot of money on clothes. To me this is a sacrifice worth making to have an amazing holiday to look forward to. I'd rather spend my hard earned cash on a holiday and have wonderful memories than on going out getting smashed and not remembering anything about it!

OP, I hope you don't think I was criticising the amount you spent on your honeymoon, reading back over my post, I could see how it could be misconstrued. I would never judge anyone for what they spend on a holiday, especially a honeymoon. Compared to my wages, my holidays take up quite a chunk of my disposable income so it would be rich of me to criticise others!

Just a quick one about the amount of Americans on these holidays, I think only a very small % of Americans go on these expensive holidays. Times are very tight in the US and the vast majority of Americans travel within their own country (I once heard that only 5% of Americans have passports). It must be remembered that a lot of Americans only get two weeks holidays a year, so it isn't feasable for them to take more than a week at a time. Also if they fly lets say to Europe, they have huge flight costs and a very weak dollar to contend with.

hunnybunny

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Whats been your most expensive holiday?

Me and my OH went to Aruba in January for our honeymoon and in total for 18 days it cost us

Flgihts €1350
Hotel $6500
Spending money $4500

It was our honeymoon so we didn't mind spending this as its somewhere we both loved and it really was first class (except the flights). The hotel was fabulous and the staff were obliging on any request we had. I'd never pay that amount of money on a holiday again but as a once off it was well worth it.

I'm curious though as to whether or not people actually spend this money regularly on a holiday. like I said for me it was a once in a lifetime thing but we met people (american) who do it three or four times a year.

Does anyone in Ireland spend that much?

You know what. You are dead right to spend that much on your honey moon!
When I think of the absurd amount of money people spend on their weddings and getting into debt?. I mean your wedding is just one day! Its up to the person I know but I know who I d rather spend the money on.

Screw the big wedding! I intend on getting married in a registry office or in a small ceremony abroad AND absolutely and utterly spoiling myself and my partner on honey moon! Cuba or somewhere equally as far off and out of the ordinary package holiday.

I mean the weddings about you so why shouldn t you be utterly indulgent about your honeymoon?

SuperStarHoney

Agree with the posters above, we spend an awful lot of our disposable income on holidays and try to fit in a minimum of three to four a year. It's our one big indulgence and IMO a much better thing to be indulging yourself on than drink, fancy cars, designer clothes etc.

Our most expensive holiday was our honeymoon to South Africa for 11 nights and Mauritius for 7 nights, came to around €8k. Can't remember exactly how much spending money was on top of this but not that much as SA is so cheap and we were fully inclusive in Mauritius.

In hindsight Mauritius for us wasn't worth the money, just wasn't our cup of tea but absolutely loved SA and would definitely spend the money again to go back.

Quazzie

hunnybunny wrote: »

You know what. You are dead right to spend that much on your honey moon!
When I think of the absurd amount of money people spend on their weddings and getting into debt?. I mean your wedding is just one day! Its up to the person I know but I know who I d rather spend the money on.

Screw the big wedding! I intend on getting married in a registry office or in a small ceremony abroad AND absolutely and utterly spoiling myself and my partner on honey moon! Cuba or somewhere equally as far off and out of the ordinary package holiday.

I mean the weddings about you so why shouldn t you be utterly indulgent about your honeymoon?

my think exactly. We were extremely lucky that her parents paid for the majority of the wedding as she is their only daughter so they had arrangements maid for it all along. Our circumstances meant that the honeymoon was the only major thing we had to pay for so we went for it. I don't regret it for a minute. It was realyl luxurious, heavenly even. The hotel was like something you'd see on the tv but never expect to experience yourself.

For the record I agree with you ncmc about the amount of holidays I just think for me personally I might just go for a lower budget.

whippet

I took a 5 week holiday for my honeymoon .. it was much more expensive than the actual wedding .. the way we wanted it.

Hong Kong, Oz, New Zealand and Thiland .. including spending money it cost about €16K for the two of us. Was it worth it ? of course, memories that will last a life time and experiences that will never be repeated (unless I win the lotto!!). 5 star all the way!!

mark_jmc

My wife and I tend to spend quite a bit on holidays. when we got married 2 years ago we spent about 9k on our honeymoon. We spent 2 nights in the peninsula hotel in hong kong, then flew to sydney for 2 nites, then onto new zealand- we hired a car and toured the south island for 10 days, we then flew on to fiji and spent 6 days on a remote island 2 hours by boat. On the way home we stopped off in LA on the way home. Last year we went to thailand we spent 3nights in bangkok and then flew up to the north and spent 4 days treking near the border with laos and burma. We then flew to ko samui and spent 7 days there. The entire trip cost about 2200 each

This year we went to south africa. Flew into Jo'burg and spent 1 night there, had a rough&tumble safari booked with drifters africa and spent 5 days on the way to and in and aorund kruger. After safari flew to port elizabeth, hired a car and spent 4 days driving along the south coast to cape town. Spent 2 nights in cape town before flying home. Total cost for this trip was 2400 each, including all flights, accomodation, cost of car hire, cost of safari, all meals on safari. We always organise our own holidays- much much cheaper than going through a travel agency.
Thinking of going to uganda and rwanda next year.
As a previous poster said some people can drink or smoke their money away we choose to spend it on holidays. However if the mortgage increases much more....

zefer

Myself and the OH are going to HK and Bali this year on holidays and it is costing €3400 for trip (flights,hotel, transfers) for us both + probably about €1000 each spending money..
But can't wait for it!

whippet

mark_jmc wrote: »

We spent 2 nights in the peninsula hotel in hong kong,

what a smashing hotel !!!! I stayed for 4 nights and could have stayed for much longer. Perfect first stop on a honeymoon .. did you treat yourself to the Rolls Royce Transfer ? again a once in a lifetime treat!

Zaph

Probably about €5k travelling around California and Las Vegas a few years ago. I'd imagine the 3 friends I was with probably spent about the same each.

boardsie08

Over 10k in Lanzarote for 3 people around 5yrs ago.

We stayed in the Princess Yaiza hotel in Playa Blanca for two weeks. Wasn't even full board either, just B&B.

Flights/accomm was around 6k the rest was eating out, spending money, shopping etc..

Was it worth it?

Hmmm.. not really, though the hotel was 5* it wasn't out of this world amazing or anything..

In comparison we're going to Dubai later on this year - 3 of us, flights and accomm for just 3k. Though by the time shopping and spending is done, total will prob be closer to 5/6k

ncmc

mark_jmc wrote: »

My wife and I tend to spend quite a bit on holidays. when we got married 2 years ago we spent about 9k on our honeymoon. We spent 2 nights in the peninsula hotel in hong kong, then flew to sydney for 2 nites, then onto new zealand- we hired a car and toured the south island for 10 days, we then flew on to fiji and spent 6 days on a remote island 2 hours by boat. On the way home we stopped off in LA on the way home. Last year we went to thailand we spent 3nights in bangkok and then flew up to the north and spent 4 days treking near the border with laos and burma. We then flew to ko samui and spent 7 days there. The entire trip cost about 2200 each

This year we went to south africa. Flew into Jo'burg and spent 1 night there, had a rough&tumble safari booked with drifters africa and spent 5 days on the way to and in and aorund kruger. After safari flew to port elizabeth, hired a car and spent 4 days driving along the south coast to cape town. Spent 2 nights in cape town before flying home. Total cost for this trip was 2400 each, including all flights, accomodation, cost of car hire, cost of safari, all meals on safari. We always organise our own holidays- much much cheaper than going through a travel agency.
Thinking of going to uganda and rwanda next year.
As a previous poster said some people can drink or smoke their money away we choose to spend it on holidays. However if the mortgage increases much more....

Can I come on holiday with you next year????

mark_jmc

haha NP!
it could be youghal if baby making plans are successful:p

ncmc

mark_jmc wrote: »

haha NP!
it could be youghal if baby making plans are successful:p

Oh I don't know, you could come over all Angelina Jolie and tour Rwanda with a baby kaboose strapped to your back!