It all depends on what one is looking for and what style of travel/accommodations one wishes to experience. I think many of our ex-Canada excursions have been in the range of $5k-$10k per week over the past 15 years.

• Our 2 or 3 week 5 star African safari in 2017 was in the range of $40-50k including air fare.
• I think our Sandals experiences in early 2025 in St. Lucia (1 week) and Grenada (1 week) was in the range of $15-20k USD, not including air fare
• Our upcoming 2026 family Hawaii trip with a 3 bed 3 bath VRBO condo will run about $1200USD/day just for accommodations.

I don't keep records of our ex-country spend on a historical basis but I think I can say it has been in the range of $35-70k per year. In a different forum, I saw a thread that suggested a month in Florida could be $35-50k 'all in' in a condo.

 

don't keep records of our ex-country spend on a historical basis but I think I can say it has been in the range of $35-70k per year.

Wow, but I was talking about being traveling for 6 months per year for $60k. With the prices you've listed, that's more like $40k for less than a month.

 

How long is a piece of string? It depends on how you travel, where you travel, how long you are out each time. And how you mix travel. Are you spontaneous travellers or does every day have to be planned prior to blast off?

Our travel has included a one star inexpensive home stay in Vietnam all the way to six star resorts. I spent my business live with lots of structured travel. Not so in retirement. We go carry on ten days or ten weeks. Nov/Dec trip to Mexico is to a place we have been several times. Chill time. Our eight week trip to Malaysia in Feb March....one night in Kuala Lumpur booked, three nights in a Penang hotel that we are familiar with, five nights at small Thai resort, and a final night at an airport hotel in KL before flying home. The middle part....will be done on the fly.

We started with nine months when we retired, Included last minute one way flight to Porto, on to Rome for a last minute cruise. We did four last minute cruise buy, including the TA. Portugal, Italy, Safari, two week car rental in South Africa, back to Euope (Italy). After the TA we had three days in FLA and then flew to Costa Rica where we had rented a condo for a month. Slow travelers!

Travel costs can be fluid. One year were at the end of our travels in Sicily when we scored a last minute balcony cabin in Rome-Barcelona cruise that had fabulous one way cruise air home on BA...with only one stop in London. On two of our SE Asia trips we picked up air to Australia. So, five weeks in Thailand was not expensive relative to four weeks in Australia....it averages out.

We had no home for our first nine month trip so our home costs consisted on heated/secured storage for our PODS container...I think about $300. month. That was it. Huge difference because of our previous monthly costs to operate a home.

Time is an issue. I would prefer to travel for three months a time. DW prefers two. Fine. And, my DB pension benefit gives us sixty days max out of country medical, ie we can do multiple 50-58 day trips and we have done so in many years. This is a huge beneft now we are in our 70's and DW has had some previous medical issues.

I think that you need to plan a trip (s) and work out how you like to travel, etc. My recommendation would be to avoid per trip medical in favour of an annual plan if your travel often. And shop, ask questions, don't assume. And forget about buying it from a TA.

One more thing. We tend to deal direct when we and we shop non NA websites. We have purchased several Mexical AI hotel stays through a UK company, TUI. One of the largest travel agents in the world.

My spouse cracked two vertabrae in KL prior to getting the flight to Australia. We had planned two week OZ and two weeks driving in NZ. Instead we picked up 21 day Oz/NZ cruise from Sydney. The US online discount cruise agent that we have used a number of times gave us a price. I called RCI in Sydney. They gave me a price. 32 percent less...same ship, same itinerary, same balcony cabin. We have had similar savings several times booing in country domestic air in Greece, Turkey, and Argentina compared to popular NA web sites.

We paid $370 night in Nov/Dec for 10 nights at the Riu Palace Pacifico last year. We have stayed several times before. This year, same time, same room type the fare was $550. So we passed. Westjet is gouging customers on some Mexico routes so you need to cheery pick.

It takes a lot of research and keyboarding. At least it does for us. We have only had one that we did not like. The Philippines. But, because we only booked a few nights in advance we cut our losses and flew to Thailand for the balance of the planned three week stay.

 

The above posts cover it. I would only add James that I find it easier to separately budget (estimate) airfare and then a daily cost (meals, activities, accomodations).

 

The cost of our trips has been all over the map. We have done a few trips that were more expensive like @AltaRed mentioned above, but our travel is typically more modest. We spend very little time in our hotel so 5* luxury is more or less a waste for us. That being said, we always want to very close to where we want to explore so we will spend more for location. We like walking out the door of the hotel in the morning and beginning our day of exploring. A flop & drop to somewhere like a Caribbean island is of course different.

As @ian mentioned, the cost of travel varies significantly by your choice of destination and your flexibility. I remember back around 2017 we stopped at a travel agency who was advertising 4 day getaways to New York City. That was on a Monday night. That Friday we left for Rome for 12 days. We like going somewhere different all the time and make sure to take advantage of great deals. It is understandable that this approach is very difficult when work, kids or larger groups are involved.

For retirement, our plan is for a couple trips a year ranging from 2 to 6 weeks each. Travel costs have definitely gone up the last few years so we have been revising our planned annual travel spend upwards. Based on current plan, prices, the way we travel and our flexibility, we are budgeting 30k to 40k per year for travel. It would be nice if travel prices would ease off a little.

 

There have been times, as above, when it was less expensive to go overseas than go to parts of Canada.

We went to Morocco last year for five weeks. Our AC r/t airfare from Calgary to Cassablanca was slightly more that the r/t AC airfare to Montreal. Sale price. This is not an uncommon occurance especially if you are traveling in a shoulder season.

Also, consider air routings. We very seldom fly out of the same city that with flew into.

We spent six weeks in Portugal. It was less expensive for us to start our trip and fly into Madeira (from Toronto) on TAP than it was to fly to Lisbon even though we changed planes in Lisbon! It was even less expensive to fly home non stop from Faro on Transit vs TAP. The TAP fare back to Canada from Faro was less than TAP fare from Lisbon to Toronto even though the plane stopped in Lisbon.

You will no doubt find some travel pricing anomolies if you start research on your own trips.

 

Same as others, depends on the trip. I've stayed at 5 star all inclusives and done weeks in the southern states on road trips. Cost varies so much depending on acitivities, lodging and luxuries you take in.

For budgeting estimates it's best to plan out your trips knowing the things you like/want and go from there. For example, I'm planning some fly-in fishing trips in next few years with an average cost of $6-8K per 5 days. Simple to estimate because most everything is all included.

 

Posts so far demonstrate travel costs (budgets) can be anything one wants it to be, within the reality realm of affordability and desire. Thus to respond to post #1, there is no answer to the question, except ultimately what the OP wants to do, or can afford to do, or be willing to spend to do.

I might suggest that for those in mid-life looking to want to travel post-retirement to some degree, there might be certain high level assumptions to make:
1. Assume that whatever one is not spending today on employment related items (commuting, clothing, EI and CPP contributions) will be spent on travel, i.e. no change in monthly 'spend'
2. To the extent 1. may be practical, consider a budget where 25-40% of one's cash flow spend will be on travel related expenses to perhaps age 80.

Travel costs may stay relatively constant subject to inflation throughout 20-30 years of retirement but spent in different ways. Early on, travel may be more frequent in terms of number of days but at lower cost per day than later on when physical desire and ability start to wane and comfort/luxury becomes more important. It is easier to hike/camp/RV/3 star it when 60-70 than it is when >75. It is easier to be more physical and adventurous in early retirement than later when the body cannot take it and may need intervention, health or otherwise. Travel insurance is more available and less costly than it is post 75, and in many cases impossible to obtain post 80. One may no longer be able to rent a car in many countries post 80. Travel ex-Canada may essentially cease post 80 for most Canadians, or at least be closer to home.

Anecdotes: Snowbirders we know started selling their ex-Canada properties in their 70s and no one we know over 80 any longer has an ex-Canada property. No one we know can any longer afford (or perhaps get) travel insurance post-80. Two couples we know in late 70s experienced serious health issues in 2025 while out-of-country. One case was a snowbirder in Arizona early this year, and another was in Europe in Aug on a river cruise and spent almost 6 weeks in a German hospital with two surgeries.

Added: From a personal standpoint, spouse and I are assuming no ex-Canada travel beyond age 80....with possible exceptions of short trips of one week or less at a time to mainland USA. I am not sure Hawaii will be on the list post-80 due to distance if a medivac was necessary.

 

Last time we were in Costa Rica we met friends in Cocoa Beach. His wife had to rent the car. He was over 70, she was under 70. Rental agency said no to over 70's.

Be very careful to understand you travel insurance policy....and specifially what activities the carrier considers a risk and will exclude from coverage.

Ditto auto rentals. Some vehicles can be excluded from credit card insurance coverage based on type, value, etc. and of course age.

We did our first trip without renting cars. Our itinerary in Portugal allowed us to use rail for 90 percent of our trip, short bus for the balance. But...we had toured Portugal by car on previous trips. It was a very nice change. Rental car rates were very high at that time. Just about all of our previous rental cars in Italy, Turkey, Greece, and Spain/Portugal have been one way rentals.

 

Thanks everyone and I understand that travel cost can be from very cheap to very expensive, like everything else, but then that doesn't bring any value to the discussion as the answer can be "anything". It's like asking what's a reasonable price for decently eating out at the restaurant and answering you've already spent from $10 to $1000 to eat at a restaurant... Well, yeah, but what's the reasonable average when someone wants to eat as many times as possible at restaurants for what's usually a reasonable price for a decent meal? The definition of "reasonable price for a decent meal" will be a matter of debate, but that's the point and at least it certainly removes the extremes.

I mean, I get that at some point in retirement if you are lucky enough to be in the situation of having extra money, you can pay for more expensive travels where everything is taking care of. My wife's parents are nearing mid-80s so they started doing that. But before their 80s, they'd do all the planning. Now in the 80s they've just bought a 2-week trip in Eastern Europe for $15k, that includes everything, and no planning to do.

Maybe it wasn't clear, but I'm looking at what can be the most "reasonable" (low average cost, but for a decent quality for retirees) cost so that the amount of travel abroad (meaning it requires to fly out) can be maximized (6 months per year), most likely in early retirement during our 50s, 60s, early 70s.

I've done plenty of road trips and camping, but to me that's vacation, not travel, so that's why I'm looking specifically at travel where you have you buy a flight ticket and then you need to pay for accommodation. And not necessarily 100% eating at restaurants as sometimes you can just do some little cooking.

My travel costs have never been all over the place because I never had budget for truly expensive luxury travel and anyways I don't know how could I end up paying more than $500/day for 2 when I've never seen the need the pay for more than $200 daily average for accommodation and for more than $200 daily average to eat and for more than $100 daily average for transportation and activities. But I haven't done a lot of Europe yet other than being at family's place. I know that in Greece I could rent a car for less than $30 a day, and I once did Ireland for $5000 for two weeks (flight, accommodation, restaurants, car rental, and activities included, for 2 people). Then I did 3 weeks in Indonesia and 3 weeks in Vietnam which each cost less than $6000. Traveling in most Asian countries is certainly very cheap, only the flight cost is expensive and that's why I'd certainly prefer long stays as it reduces the total cost of flight.

I'm currently doing my most expensive travel ever for my wife's 40th birthday in Japan and so far we're in for a $12k budget for 4 weeks for 2 adults and 2 children under 5. Accommodation is averaging $150 a day, yet sometimes we've paid up to $350 per night, while currently we're in what is actually a luxury micro condo for 2 nights for $200/night and it's minutes of walk from everything, the accommodation includes a huge bedroom for the kids, a complete kitchen (we use the refrigerator to store some snacks for kids and morning breakfast when kids can't wait), a washing machine, a luxury bathroom with heated bath. And the previous place was actually similar but for $120/night in Tokyo. We're taking public transport, but also renting a car for 1 week for $1,000, and we're also taking the Shinkansen (high speed train) where we recently traveled 450 km in 2h30 for $270 for 2 adult tickets. Eating in restaurant costs between $30 to $50 for 2 adults (with some extra food or kid's meals) and yet yesterday for less than $50 we got a huge bowl of fresh raw seafood including different fresh raw fishes.

So basically, for 4 weeks in Japan for 2 adults and 2 children under 5, where we move very often (every 1-2 nights, other than the 4 nights when we arrived and the 4 nights before leaving), the accommodation is averaging $150 (25 nights), so that's already $3,750. Food so far is about $120 per day, so that's another $3,000. Adding the $1,000 car rental, the $3,000 flight cost for 3 seats. So we're now at $10,750. Which leaves us with about $50 a day for other means of transportation (train, Shinkansen) and activities to sum up to $12k for 4 weeks in Japan for 2 adults and 2 children under 5. Which turns out to be $480/day when including all costs, or $360/day when removing the flight cost.

So if I compare my estimate of $60k for 6 months of travel (180 days), that's averaging $333/day including flight cost, which is below the current cost of our travel in Japan, but we're with 2 young kids and we move often (if we had more time, like when retired, then we'd stay longer at each place, reducing the transportation cost). Also, in 6 months, we'd buy only 2 flights, staying 3 months at each country, so assuming the leftover is $56k, that's $311/day without flight cost which isn't that far from the current $360/day for our travel in Japan with 2 kids. But then I guess that Japan is less expensive than Europe...

So maybe the reasonable cost for 6 months of traveling as retirees is more like $75k.

 

Maybe it wasn't clear, but I'm looking at what can be the most "reasonable" (low average cost, but for a decent quality for retirees) cost so that the amount of travel abroad (meaning it requires to fly out) can be maximized (6 months per year), most likely in early retirement during our 50s, 60s, early 70s.

I gather this is still many years away for your retirement and many costs will change by then. Probably best to reverse budget these trips seeing that you are very likely to have a significant surplus of money when retired. IOW, when you retire, pick your destinations and see how long you can stay each year with the assets you have at that point in time.

 

Our cost of travel has certainly increased more than the rate of inflation since covid. Ups and downs. Our experience

Canada: Domestic air, accommodation, rental cars, and meals up considerably. Well above our supposed rate of inflation.

Europe: Air is equal to or less than inflation to MAJOR hubs. Depends where you happen to live. Food and accommodation higher than our inflation rate.

SE Asia: Air is way up. Partly because the number of seats available was cut by 30 percent. Starting to come down a little. Accommodation is up

Mexico: AIr is up well over the rate of inflation. Unless you cherry pick. Westjet are bandits! ZIH and PVR up over rate of inflation. No idea about Cancun. Accommodation up. We cherry pick our air, hold for 48 hours while we confirm accommodation!

Central/South America: no personal experience since covid.

Australia: no personal experience since covid.

USA: No idea. Last time we were in the US, other than changing planes in IAH, SEA, SFO, was 2013. Zero US travel plans.

Cruises: No post covid booking experience but numerous pre covid but lots of shopping over the past two years. Fares have gone up considerably, well above inflation. My take is 30-60 percent depending on itinerary. Not near as many good late booking (3-45 days out) deals.

Not scientific. Just our observations/experiences.

 

Yeah, huge increase in Southeast Asia travel costs (airfare).

There has been extremely high inflation in travel costs since the pandemic, one of the things I'm most unhappy about. I used to travel all over the place pre-2020 but now I find I just can't afford international travel, as easily. I would estimate the inflation in travel costs to be at least 15% annualized over 5 years.

@MrBlackhill this also creates a problem for your longer term retirement planning. We have no idea what kind of inflation will happen in travel costs. Even if you learn of today's costs, what good does that do you? If we get anything like 10% to 15% inflation rate, ongoing, in travel costs ... there's no point in making plans now.

 

In the past we have also paid attention to currency. We delayed out RSA and safari trip by a year for various reasons.

We dealt directly with the safari company in RSA because we were unhappy with our so called local 'safari specialist' TA.

That delay saved us about 15 percent, attributable to currency, for our five week stay in Africa

 

Reading all these posts I feel like a Scrooge.

Many of our trips abroad were with medical conferences. We would stay over after the conference for another 1-3 weeks to see the country. The nature of my practice was such that more than 3 weeks would make my work intolerable when returning. The longest 3 1/2 weeks were for India and Australia. At age 83 I have China left in our bucket list. My other half is not that keen. She will be quite content to go to South Africa every 2-3 years to see the family. After the plane fare the cost is very modest as we live with family, and they drive us around. Restaurant food is of very high quality and inexpensive when compared to Canada.

This is in addition to our yearly 1-2 week trip to Mexico in the winter.

 

This is in addition to our yearly 1-2 week trip to Mexico in the winter.

What part of Mexico do you recommend?

Now that I've stopped traveling to the US, I'm looking for other warm destinations. I'm a solo traveller and am looking for somewhere extremely safe. Any suggestions?

 

We are planning a 12-14 month round the world trip in a couple years. With 3 kids, so not quite a retirement. I am expecting it to cost between 100-130K. Current itinerary stops (likely to change) include Spain, Croatia, Turkey, Morocco, Austria/Switzerland, Tahiti. We should be able to do the majority of the flights in business class. We've had friends do a similar sabatical year with 2 kids with a crazier itinerary. And have 2 sets of friends doing it this year (both with 2 kids). Same kind of pricing.

So a 5-6month trip for 2 people without kids would probably be 40-60K especially if you add in random tours and more eating out. Less if you just go one place and rent like a local.

 

I seem to recall that the Star Alliance air group had an unlimited around the world air fare offer. It could be purchased in country from any Star Alliance member.

Two things stuck out in my mind. The first…you had to go one direction, no doubling back.

The second was uneven in country pricing. At the time I read it the best place to buy it was in Norway (I think) even if one had to fly there to purchase the pass. We were looking at this a number of years ago.

 

The biggest factor since his retirement over a decade maybe two away is likely to be the loonie’s purchasing power.

 

Neighbours of ours bought a condo in/around Huatulco, MX where they enjoy both the local and ex-pat scene for 3-4 months each winter. As @diharv says, it really depends on what one wishes to do in MX. Most flock to PV, Mazatlan, Cabo san Lucas, Cancun, Playa del Carmen et al. One place that is relatively quiet is La Paz north of Cabo san Lucas and is popular with some American ex-pats.

 

We go to Mexico at least once a year. For the past few years always 2-3 weeks in Nov/Dec, including this year. Most often PVR or Zihuatanejo. Once or twice we went back again in March. Just depends if and where we have snowbirded elsewhere. We were in PV in mid Dec two years ago. Just in time for the Guadalupe festival and to catch the Xmas decorations and the parade! It was fun. We stayed downtown for few days after being in Nuevo for a few weeks.

Our best trip...six weeks up the Pacific Coast. Huatlulco, Puerto Escondido, Acapulco, Zihautanejo, Puerta Vallarta, Neuvo Vallarta. Wanted to keep going north but covid arrived and we were adviced to fly home.

By bus, stopping whereever and for as long as we felt like it. Why bus? AIr would involve going through that hell hole Mexico City airport and take as long. Buses had business class like seats and we got to see the scenery.

Never a problem. We only booked 2 nights in Acapulco but like it and our oceaniside hotel se much that we stayed for 6 nights. Very happy to see that Westjet is flying into Puerto Escondido. We preferred it to Hualutlco.

 

I intend to slow travel a lot starting next quarter in South America, one-way only and return TBD. "Slow" is the keyword here, to keep the monthly stay costs to a minimum. If you travel a few times in a given month, possibly very different $ outcome than slow traveling. I plan to spend 4-6K/month and travel 4-6months/year.

 

SO true. We tend to be slow travellers. We might reserve for two nights but if we like it we will stay for a week, sometimes longer. If not, we pack up and leave.
It is the beauty of spontaneous travel. The second advantage is being able to snap up attractive last minute travel offers.

If we are going to Europe for 7 or eight weeks we may not have plans for 2 or 3 of those weeks. So we might fly in to Athens, Rome, Paris, etc but have a return ticket fare home from London. Why London? Because we know that we can reach London inexpensively by low cost air from anywhere in Europe. Last time we did this we ended up in Cyprus for two weeks.

We punctuated our nine month post retirement trip with a month long January condo rental in Costa Rica. Our son flew down and joined us for a week. And there were a few 8-10 day cruises.

We will be spending 8 weeks in Malaysia/Thailand this week. We know from past experience that we will spend at least 5 days in each of serveral locations. Not exactly sure which locations yet but we have been there often enought to know that is what we will do.

Your expenses will always be higher if you expect to eat and live like you do at home. It can work that way but only if you are willing to spend large amounts of money. Follow the practice of the locals, avoid eating in the tourist area. One of the most enjoyable lunches we had was sitting on the side/back step of a church building opposite the Pantheon. With two sandwiches, a pastry, and a litre of red orange juice that we purchased from the mercato one block behind, off the main drag. Or a picnic lunch that we had sitting at the park behind York Cathedral that my spouse bought at M&S while I was at the train museum.

 

@MrBlackhill this also creates a problem for your longer term retirement planning. We have no idea what kind of inflation will happen in travel costs. Even if you learn of today's costs, what good does that do you? If we get anything like 10% to 15% inflation rate, ongoing, in travel costs ... there's no point in making plans now.

I gather this is still many years away for your retirement and many costs will change by then. Probably best to reverse budget these trips seeing that you are very likely to have a significant surplus of money when retired. IOW, when you retire, pick your destinations and see how long you can stay each year with the assets you have at that point in time.

Yes, definitely, if travel inflation goes up faster than the overall inflation, it's definitely a factor as my retirement spending plan is currently based on a 3% inflation over the next 15-20 years.

It's mostly a curiosity I had during my current travel as I love so much traveling, but actually my retirement budget plan for travel is about $25k/year, so certainly not 6 months of travel, but maybe 3 months would be nice. But we could certainly pay ourselves a 6-month travel upon celebration of the start of our retirement.

And again, so many things can change. I like to say that every 5 years my life changes so much and my therefore my plans change so much, but then I also like to assess multiple scenarios and what-if.

Given your question is for travel plans that are well into the future, you could plan a phantom trip. Pick a destination that suits you as well as accommodations and spending that fits your personal style of travel. You can then apply a reasonable inflation rate and you’ll have your answer.

Travel style is quite personal and varies greatly between individuals/couples. Will be interesting to hear what you come up with.

Yes, that would be an interesting exercise. I'd have to do many phantom travel budgeting though as the goal is to travel to many different countries which all have different prices. So I'd have to try to detail pricing for 2-3 countries in Central/South America, then 3-4 countries in Europe, then 2-3 countries in Middle East, 2-3 Asian countries, 2-3 countries in Africa.

Out of curiosity, I've just described my traveling style to an AI. For a 3-month travel in a single country, I've let it pick countries around the world, and it listed a $15k+ budget for countries like Vietnam, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Malaysia, Egypt, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Poland, Georgia, then a $20k+ budget for countries like Portugal, Turkey, Romania, Czech Republic, Argentina, Hungary, Chile, Brazil, China, then $25k+ for Costa Rica, Croatia, Greece, Germany, South Africa, Kenya, then $30k+ for Japan, Italy, Spain, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Australia, Austria, New Zealand, Tanzania, Singapore, then $35k+ for France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, then $40k+ for Switzerland.

The biggest factor since his retirement over a decade maybe two away is likely to be the loonie’s purchasing power.

Yes, that's definitely a good point.

I intend to slow travel a lot starting next quarter in South America, one-way only and return TBD. "Slow" is the keyword here, to keep the monthly stay costs to a minimum. If you travel a few times in a given month, possibly very different $ outcome than slow traveling. I plan to spend 4-6K/month and travel 4-6months/year.

Yes, that would be our intent too, being able to simply enjoy the place, the culture, the locals.

We're currently in Japan for 4 weeks, the longest I've ever been in vacation, and we're visiting only a tiny part of Japan, and we've tried our best to not overload our days as we're with two kids under 5, and yet we feel like we're skipping so much, and we've had to book 11 different accommodations for a total of 25 nights.

With that in mind, it feels like even traveling for 3 months in a country is actually a bare minimum to be able to fully enjoy the country.

Out of curiosity, I've asked AI for an idea of how long can feel "enough" (the feeling that you've seen the major places while enjoying the local culture) for slow travelers to enjoy different countries:

1-2 months: Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Bolivia, Portugal, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Georgia, Switzerland, Denmark, Croatia, Greece, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Morocco, Poland, Peru

3-4 months: Japan, Italy, Spain, France, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Turkey, South Africa, UK, Germany, New Zealand

5+ months: India, China, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Indonesia

 

Yes, that would be an interesting exercise. I'd have to do many phantom travel budgeting though as the goal is to travel to many different countries which all have different prices. So I'd have to try to detail pricing for 2-3 countries in Central/South America, then 3-4 countries in Europe, then 2-3 countries in Middle East, 2-3 Asian countries, 2-3 countries in Africa.

Out of curiosity, I've just described my traveling style to an AI. For a 3-month travel in a single country, I've let it pick countries around the world, and it listed a $15k+ budget for countries like Vietnam, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Malaysia, Egypt, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Poland, Georgia, then a $20k+ budget for countries like Portugal, Turkey, Romania, Czech Republic, Argentina, Hungary, Chile, Brazil, China, then $25k+ for Costa Rica, Croatia, Greece, Germany, South Africa, Kenya, then $30k+ for Japan, Italy, Spain, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Australia, Austria, New Zealand, Tanzania, Singapore, then $35k+ for France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, then $40k+ for Switzerland.

That’s pretty slick if it’s somewhat accurate. How much information did you provide? Was that for your family of four? Would be interesting to pick one or two and price it out.

 

@MrBlackhill I am quite curious as to how AI determined amount of time needed for each country. All of this is subjective but intersting indeed. My longest travel has been just over a month due to work. For me a month was not enough for me to feel like I had fully immersed myself in the culture. Does oneover the entire country or should one only pick a couple of places and spend more time? I think it could be possible to spend an entire month or more in certain cities and still be wanting more. I would like to explore AI trravel planning further so I may try to do a deep dive when time allows. I have used it for some initial planning for shorter stints but only to get ideas of what may pique my interest, air and accommodation costs, etc.

 

@MrBlackhill I am quite curious as to how AI determined amount of time needed for each country. All of this is subjective but intersting indeed.

It is definitely subjective for sure, and the AI simply provides predictive answers based on all available data it was trained on which includes many travel blogs amongst other sources.

I could spend months discovering only my very own city of Montreal, every nice neighborhood, local shops, cafés, restaurants, microbreweries, events, festivals, museums, theaters and other pieces of art and culture. But our time on this Earth is unfortunately very limited, so we have to pick a limited time box, and usually smaller countries and/or less diverse countries are advised smaller duration for travel as opposed to bigger countries and/or more diverse countries.

As I always say, I could live 10 lives of fully spending all of my time doing whatever I wish and I'd still argue that's not enough free time for me to discover everything I'm interested in discovering.

 

We have been travelling in retirement for 14 years. And many shorter trips pre retirement with and without children. At any one time we typically have 2 trips booked, ie at least one way air, and are working on a third.

IMHO the only way you will start to understand your likes, dislikes, and costs is after you have been on two or three trips, and got into your travel groove and travel routine. Even then be prepared for bumps along the way. Understanding shoulder seasons, busy seasons, crowds.

And spend time on research, routings etc-on line and books like Lonely Planet, shopped, and have made a point of speaking to others on your travels who are doing the same thing. And perhaps do what I do...once we have a basic trip planned I see what I can add on at a small incremental cost.

Otherwise it is all academic.

Unless you plan to buy a package, a tour, from a TA and be done with it. In which case your costs will be fairly straighforward to determine.

 

We have been travelling in retirement for 14 years. And many shorter trips pre retirement. At any one time we typically have 2 trips booked, ie at least one way air, and are working on a third.

IMHO the only way you will start to understand your likes, dislikes, and costs is after you have been on two or three trips, and got into your travel groove and travel routine. Even then be prepared for bumps along the way. Understanding shoulder seasons, busy seasons, crowds.

And spend time on research, routings etc-on line and books like Lonely Planet, shopped, and have made a point of speaking to others on your travels who are doing the same thing. And perhaps do what I do...once we have a basic trip planned I see what I can add on at a small incremental cost.

Otherwise it is all acamdemic.

Unless you plan to buy a package, a tour, and be done with it.

I was pleasantly surprised that even a 1 day excursion where everything is planned and transportation was provided, alot was seen as long one is travelling in a compact country. Canada is not compact. Italy or France is more compact, meaning alot of contrasting historical/geography can be seen within a 100 km. radius or alot less. But most definitely that requires for the person to accustomed to alot of walking once getting off a van/bus. I disagree with anyone working their butt off during a career and saving most of their foreign/rigorous travel in retirement.

Extensive travel which isn't just lying around on beaches, ship decks, does mean to be in fairly good health and be actively mobile for more than an hr. /several hrs./day: walking.in order to access places. Ancient towns/cities aren't/still aren't built for wheelchairs/walkers.

 

$120/night in Tokyo? It must during Nov. or a non-peak period.

We're traveling in October. The cheapest accommodations we found throughout our trip were in Tokyo. Always less than $150 per night in fully renovated / recent apartments with all amenities. About 30 minutes of public transport from the Tokyo station but Tokyo is big, you could sleep in the exact city center and end up having to do 45 minutes public transport to get to an interesting touristic area. It depends which area of the city you want to visit.

However if you have very young children, it can be complex.

In Asian countries, our kids would eat the rice. It's cheap and always available, and the kids never refuse rice. Then you sure have to figure out which protein they'll eat and get some vegetables for them.

Speaking of which, we've just ate the best meals we've had in a very long time and the price was... barely $15 for the main course. All local, all organic, most ingredients fresh from his very own garden. Feels like we've stumbled upon a hidden gem.

 

Pretty much my thinking...we shall see though...but to your reply, I could see some go-go spending years until early 70s and then slowing down a bit, at least international travel.

The last few years have been an anomaly. Welcomed for me leading into retirement in 2026.
We'll see how folks react when they don't get double-digit returns every year.
Certainly not counting on that here.