Are You Canceling Your Vacation This Year?

Check this out:

According to the annual Yahoo! HotJobs vacation survey, 51% of respondents said they plan to skip taking a vacation this year, opting to save money instead.

They don't say what the "normal" level is (for all I know, the average over the past 10 years has been 51%) but the implication in the article is that more people than usual are skipping vacations because of the poor economy. The article also lists how to spend less on vacations in case you're interested.

We went to Disney last year, so that was our "once every other year or so big trip." This year we're doing more of what I'd consider a "normal" set of vacations for us -- traveling to see family in Ohio and Pennsylvania and going to Chicago for a few days in the early fall. Both are driving trips for us and while they will be more expensive than prior years because of gas prices, we never considered giving them up to save money. We have a good distance between what we make and what we spend, so we have the flexibility to do what we'd like even though prices are up a bit.

How about you? Anyone out there eliminating (or at least cutting back) on their vacation because you'd prefer to save the money instead?

Comments

[Tiggy]

We're skipping a vaca this summer and putting the money instead into our "oil" fund for next winter. With oil prices already double last year's price and still rising, we're putting away every penny we can.

[Rod Ferguson]

Not here. My wife and I already take a pretty cheap vacation (camping for two weeks in the middle of nowhere) so there is no need to cut back on the trip.

[David]

We're taking a pretty expensive vacation this year but it's all by train and boat and we locked in our price months ago so we aren't really affected by the gas crisis.

[Traciatim]

We don't usually take extravagant vacations. Mostly it's either a few long weekends camping, just a shopping trip to a nearby (IE, under a day drive) larger city, or possibly visiting family.

[Eric]

We are taking a cheap vacation this year to Florida. My aunt has a beach house so lodging is real cheap. We are very thankful for it. Our cruise was our splurge last year. We'll save for the next one.

[Angeline]

Most of our vacations consist of long weekends camping/canoeing/fishing...or visiting family a few hours away in either VA or TN...we stay with them to keep costs down, but sometimes we'll splurge and go somewhere with a nice B&B for a night. So...while we do a lot of driving to get where we're going, these mini-vacations are something we look forward to so we don't cut them out.

[Holly]

We never really take expensive vacations. It doesn't fit into our budget. I guess when our son gets older, we'll have to try to squeeze something in for his sake.

Our vacations now = driving 12 hours (one way) to see family twice each year, on holidays. Gas won't impact that.

[Debra]

We always save ahead for every vacation, usually a year or more. But since we have been doing this for a while, we do take a vacation each year. We average about $3000-4000 per year and take cruises or go somewhere where it is all invlusive. Because we book many months in advance, we get really good prices and the only gas we spend is the six mile round trip drive to the airport and airport parking.

It was really hard to start the vacation savings program, but once you are used to it, it is really a nice way not to have nasty surprises. My commute to and from work has become more expensive, so I do try to economize on trips in the car. Helps the vacation fund stay where I want it to be.

Good luck to everyone out there who is struggling with these stupid gas prices.

[Anitra]

We cut out our usual week-long stay with friends in AZ (we'd fly) this year, and added a two-day trip to NYC (a 3-4 hour drive) with family. We did it more to conserve our vacation time than our money.

[Stephen]

My girlfriend and I are taking an extravagant vacation in January to the Bahamas. However, we've both been saving money every week towards the trip for the past year and have added extra expenses into our budget.

[SUSAN]

Last year we stayed home and banked our vacation $ for this year. This year we're flying to San Diego. The airfare & condo are already paid for, so although the gas will hurt, it won't be too horrible.

We did bank our "economic stimulus check" to use toward our oil bill this year.

[Kevin]

I doubt we'll do anything this summer, but that's more a product of looming trips to Cape Cod next summer and possibly Ireland next summer/fall. Not to mention possibly moving next spring, that will be a lot of money we're shelling out, so we're trying to save as much as we can right now.

[Richard]

Yep, we were planning beach trip that's an 8 hour drive. We're nixing it since gas prices are out of control. Plenty to do around the house instead.

[Mike Hunt]

Wife and I take many vacations but these are long weekends usually. For 1 week+ vacations it's been about 4 per year... we'll have to start to cut back.

-Mike

[rwh]

We're locked in psychologically for a driving trip out west this summer and a ski trip next winter. After that, we may have to scale back or eliminate the summer trip next year and limit ourselves to one trip to the water park and a few biking, canoeing and camping trips near home. Our kids are teenagers and we want to do as much as we can with them before they leave the nest, but heat bills are going up, as is college tuition.

[Financial Goal]

I will be making a trip to the local museum and park for vacation this year instead of taking a long road trip. With gas and airline fares going up, we thought it would be fine just to stay local and use the money we normally save up for vacations on other things.

[Shorty]

We're still taking our long-planned five-year-anniversary trip to Hawaii in the fall. It's fully funded via our income tax return and our tax rebate (thanks Uncle Sam!), along with frequent flier miles for the flights. However, we'll probably scale back our dining and excursion budgets, though.

[Julia]

I'll actually be on the most expensive vacation I've been on since 2000. Usually I can use miles and hotel points to stay places very inexpensively. Two weeks in Hawaii cost nothing in airfare and only 2 night stays and 1 week of rental car. This time we're going to Japan to take advantage of some airline upgrades. The tickets and hotels will be somewhat expensive, especially with the value of the dollar, but hey, our house is paid off this year. We've definitely got the money for it.