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Dear For Love & Money,
My spouse and I want to travel abroad more, but we're not sure where to start when planning a vacation budget for anything other than an all-inclusive resort. How should we prioritize our travel spending, and what budget-friendly destinations should we consider?
Sincerely,
Almost Adventurers
Dear Almost,
The days of pioneers and seafaring explorers may be over, but many of us still have the wanderlust beating within our chests. The struggle is finding the time, the money, and the courage to bring the adventures of our daydreams to life.
This is why I applaud the intentionality in your letter. You and your spouse have agreed you want to travel abroad more, and I can see from your questions about budgeting and destinations that you are taking it further than just talking. You're making plans.
To help you in this endeavor, I sat down with April Cowan, the owner and senior agent at Travel Passion, an award-winning Kansas City travel agency. Cowan specializes in international travel and was thrilled to hear your interest in her life's passion — exploring our planet.
Cowan's first suggestion is to work with a travel agent. Vacation planning can be labor intensive. It requires hours of research, coordinating schedules, budgets, booking, and if you're not an expert, a lot of hoping your best guesses pay off. Experts like Cowan specialize in certain types of travel and know exactly how to tailor your trip to your dreams.
Whether or not you hire a travel agent, Cowan says there are four key considerations for your travel plans: budget, airfare, destination and experience, and timing.
Budgeting, Cowan says, is not a universal concept. One person might have $2,500, while another has $10,000. Both of these people can enjoy wonderful, if different, Jamaican vacations. The key isn't to make a budget fit your destination but to make your destination fit your budget.
According to Cowan, the best way to do this is to allocate a percentage of your annual income to a dedicated travel account. Set aside monthly payments in a high-yield savings account for your next travel adventure. Cowan recommends splitting your annual allocation into 10 payments so you can spend that money elsewhere for the holidays.
Airfare is often the most expensive part of travel, and much of your planning will revolve around its fluctuating rates. Most destinations will be more expensive in some seasons than others. Flying into large airports will be less expensive than smaller airports. Cowan suggests flying into a large airport and then traveling around your destination country by train.
This is where your dedicated travel account comes in handy. Cowan says to turn on flight alerts for your top 10 dream locations — she uses Google Flights. This way, when a great deal pops up, you can pull the money out of your travel account and book your flights.
Cowan's favorite airfare hack is to get a travel rewards credit card that gives you travel points on purchases. She discourages using these credit cards for expenses you cannot pay off at the end of the month. Instead, she suggests using your travel cards for everyday expenses like utility bills, insurance, and gas.
When selecting a travel credit card, Cowan encourages researching each card's offerings and basing your choice on your travel goals. Some cards may offer better rewards for your preferred destinations.
As for destinations, the ones you choose should depend on the duration of your stay and the experience you'd like to have. This is why Cowan suggests turning on flight alerts for your top 10 travel spots rather than just one.
Knowing what type of experience you prefer is important because a relaxing vacation lounging around a tourism hotspot differs greatly from a cultural immersion experience spent in markets trying local cuisine.
Cowan says most countries have tourist zones with many English speakers and food designed to be palatable for diners unfamiliar with cultural foods. Some people will find these zones relaxing, while others may feel insulated from the country they hoped to explore. Figuring out what type of traveler you are is crucial to planning your dream vacation.
When thinking about timing, the essential factors to consider are how often you want to travel, how much time off you have to use, and how frequently you can afford to travel. The type of travel experience you are looking for matters here as well.
If you want to take a luxurious, high-dollar vacation, saving up for it over two years may be more realistic than trying to go on this kind of trip annually.
You should also think about the duration — a three-day bachelorette trip may not be worth an 8-hour flight to Hawaii when a similar experience is only a few hours away in Cancún.
Finally, I asked Cowan her thoughts on the importance of travel. Her response was as responsible as it was inspiring. Travel should always be a priority but never a burden. If you go into debt over a vacation, you won't return home feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. You'll be even more stressed.
This is why Cowan encourages building travel savings into your monthly budget; this way, you won't be in debt, but you'll still get to go! And going, for Cowan, is an artifact of faith. She contends that living our lives to the fullest requires travel. After all, we have an entire planet to explore.
Rooting for you,
For Love & Money
Looking for advice on how your savings, debt, or another financial challenge is affecting your relationships? Write to For Love & Money using this Google form.
This article was originally published in November 2023.
