Budgeting for Vacations

This post will probably be a bit rambling. I hate budgeting for vacations. Case in point: while budgeting for our upcoming trip to Costa Rica I started nickel and diming it. I had us taking the El to the airport instead of a taxi. However, our flight leaves at 6 am (ouch ouch ouch!) and comes back at 10:30 pm (and we have to work the next day). The $70 for taxis both ways will be well worth it at those hours as opposed to walking to the El at 4 am. Then I had us bringing snacks with us instead of getting an overpriced lunch in the airport. I also think I underbudgeted on gas and insurance for our rental car so we haven't even left on the trip and I'm pissed we're over budget.

I work much better with a vague idea of what we'd like to spend (or what we plan to spend after booking hotels and flights) in mind and if we go over by a couple hundred, that's okay. The extra $300 we might spend is worth it compared to feeling like I need to account for every penny for 10 days. I also hate to feel restricted if we come up on something really cool to do or to buy or to go out to eat. After all, when's the next time I'll be back?

One thing I need to work on in advance is budgeting for activities. I tend to underbudget in this category. We tend to do a lot of activities on our trips and they really add up quickly. For instance next week in Costa Rica we're doing whitewater rafting, canyoning, hot springs, a zipline, and ATVing that are all costly. Plus some inexpensive nature hikes. That's $1000 right there.

Another category that tends to sneak up on me is travel within a destination. One would think that the big flight to Rio would have been the real expense (well ours were covered by air miles). But then we had a flight Rio to Buenos Aires round-trip for $800. Then a flight Rio to Salvador round-trip for $600. Then round-trip car transportation to Buzios for $300. That's nearly as much as tickets from Chicago to Rio would be. We're running into the same thing with our potential trip to Thailand. Flights within Thailand are pretty cheap but if we want to go to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, it's $800 for 2 tickets.