USA family holiday - ballpark figure on how much?

[MummyNaomi]

So, we are planning a 2017 USA trip. We will be celebrating our 10th Wedding Anniversary and are planning a trip to NY, Disneyland, Las Vegas and Hawaii on the way home, likely some other destinations surrounding these arears in between. We plan to renew our wedding vows in an Elvis Wedding Chapel in LV for fun!

We are thinking of travelling for 3-4 weeks, with approx. 5-7 days in each location. Hawaii is the bit we will drop if cost is an issue, the other bits are must visits.

We are just locking in our savings plan, but wonder what’s a decent ball park figure?

2 adults, 2 kids (one will be 8, the other will be 5).

Who’s done a similar trip – how much all up (spending money, flights, accommodation, passports, insurance etc) did you end up outlaying overall? I know quite a few BB’ers have done similar trips

I have estimated we can save $30-35K by then – will this be enough? Too Much, not enough?
We are considering taking Nan, so an extra adult (we all travel well together) – would this amount cover her?

Also – time of year – I have been googling, and it looks like Sept/Oct might be a good time (American kids are back in school, weather is pleasant, it’s not a peak travel season etc etc. My other thought is April, however if we go Sept/Oct we have more time to save

So….
1. What’s a realistic amount of $$ to allow
2. How much extra would Nan likely cost?
3. What is the best time of year to travel?
4. Any other advice….?


Naomi

[meow]

I'm not sure, that sounds like a reasonable amount of money but it always depends on the level of accommodation you like and what excursions you want to do I guess.

The only thing I can add is that spring break is in April. We are going to disneyland straight after spring break and I think it'll still be fairly busy but a friend told me her family went in late April and it was fine. So if you do April then plan for disneyland at the end of the month. Otherwise, September would be good.

[RainbowRiver]

No help, but another thing to keep in mind is the $A -> $US conversion might be low (fx it's high at the time)! May impact the amount you need to save as well

[Mum2SweetCs]

Subbing

My bro is getting married in LV this sept so need to think about how much too.

My kids will be 6 and 2

[Livinthedream]

Do you need a week in Vagas?
I don't know that it is the most kid friendly city in the US.
I have heard it is bit seedy the second you step off the strip.

[Janie71]

We have done similar trips and taking out the flights (we travel on staff tickets so pay next to nothing) we have spent about 15-20k. We have stayed in very nice hotels and spent a bit on shopping. So depending on flight costs I think what you are proposing is reasonable!

[Janie71]

Also NY would be good in Sept. We travelled in August last year and were lucky as we just got there as it was coming out of their horrible hot period

[MummyNaomi]

Do you need a week in Vagas?
I don't know that it is the most kid friendly city in the US.
I have heard it is bit seedy the second you step off the strip.

Likely Vegas won't be a full week, but we do plan on spending a day at The Grand Canyon and will be based in LV at this time, there is Circus Circus and quite a few kid activities in fact. Obviously we won't be taking small children out in seedy locations!

Janie71 - how long ago did u visit?

[Janie71]

2013/2012/2010 we travelled to US destinations

[meow]

I was talking to a friend who has taken her 5 year old to Vegas a few times and she says about 3 days is enough and then they run out of good kiddie stuff. So I think with the Grand Canyon too you could fill in 5 days easily. Accommodation is cheap in Vegas too!

[Arcadia]

We went around US for 5 weeks early last year (with a 4 year old and almost 2 year old). 20K would have been our total spend I think.

I didn't like NYC. I found it hard to get around with the pram and the subway. It was freezing though, so we didn't want to walk too much. I also just found it limiting for kids, because they weren't as into the adult things we wanted to do (like 9/11 memorial and empire state building).

My favourite city for the kids was actually Washington DC. They have so many free museums, we were there 2 weeks (for my study) and they were never bored, and DH took them to a different museum every day. There are also great day trips to historic houses etc which was fun.

DO NOT DROP HAWAII. Sorry but if cost is an issue, find savings elsewhere. Hawaii was seriously fun for our family. We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian village. I would go back every year if we had the money. It is also a brilliant way to break up the long trek home.

[meow]

We spent a week in NYC when the kids were about 18 months and 4 and we really enjoyed it. We stayed about 1/2 way between central park and Times Square so we could walk to those and we had a fun time visiting the Natural History Museum, Central Park Zoo, playgrounds in the park, carriage ride around the park, Toys-R-Us and all the bright lights of Times Square. We went up the Rockerfeller Center and the kids weren't loving it but they didn't mind either and we enjoyed the view. We caught the subway once to go down and look the Statue of Liberty and they enjoyed the ride and running around the waterfront. The only real issue for us is that is was really loud and pretty overwhelming so we went out most mornings then spent most the afternoon hanging out in our teeny little 1 bedroom apartment and chilling out.

[MummyNaomi]

DO NOT DROP HAWAII. Sorry but if cost is an issue, find savings elsewhere. Hawaii was seriously fun for our family. We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian village. I would go back every year if we had the money. It is also a brilliant way to break up the long trek home.

Good advice thanks. I do really want to go there, sounds like it would suit everyone's interest

[surprised]

I second the do not drop Hawaii. Where else have you got planned?

I've heard that Las Vegas is pretty seedy full stop, not just off the strip.

How exciting!

[Cassius2]

oh it sounds like it's going to be fun!

One thing to keep in mind is that if Nan comes it might change what type of accommodation you can book. Ie standard rooms might not necessarily accommodate for that many people.

We really enjoyed Las Vegas with our 2 small kids (4 and 1). that said, it really was seedy lol. BUT, we mostly hung out around the strip and ate lots of icecream and mostly, in all honesty enjoyed the SUPER CHEAP accommodation. like, we were paying only US$30 a night for a 4 star fully equipped apartment that was poolside AND it included dinners! you can't beat that value man lol!

I wouldnt drop hawaii either. everyone that i have spoken to that has gone there has just fallen in love with the place. it is also quite affordable (well, as someone booking from the US...what with the US economy what it was in 2012 they were struggling to get people to spend money to go there!).

could it form part of your stopover?

[CoNNiE_Melb]

We spent 3 weeks in the US in March/April last year.

We went to:
LA - Hollywood - Yuck! Dirty, and full of junkies. From there we took a bus to the Grove in Beverly Hills which was a nice day trips.
LA - Anaheim - A beautiful area, and Disneyland was obviously amazing.
Be aware that California is the only state that will not let you travel with kids in a taxi without a car seat, so you'll never to organise transfers with a carseat.
NYC - We LOVED NY, we could have stayed there an extra week, there is so much to do.
Chicago - Was very cold, but we liked it and went to see the Chicago bulls.
Las Vegas - We only went for 2 days and even then we ran out of kid friendly things to do. We stayed at the Vdara, which is a hotel without a casino underneath so we didn't have to walk through a smokey casino to get to our room. Tbh, I won't be going back there again, nothing about it impressed me.
Hawaii - We're not even beach people and yet we loved Hawaii. I agree with the others that you should cut back on others things before cutting Hawaii. There so much to do, and it's great to end the holiday with a bit of relaxation.

I've heard great things about San Francisco, so next time we'll probably drop Chicago and LV for San Fran.

We spent $25k for 2 adults and 1 child so I think $30-35k should be enough for 4-5 of you.