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When we “slow travel” on our own, finding and booking our own accommodations and arranging all our own travel, we work with a maximum budget of $5K per month ($60K CAD annually) all in: living space, transportation, food and drink, LOTS of entertainment, and discretionary purchases – plus gifts to family on special occasions, and health insurance. That has been enough to allow us to live in and experience several parts of Canada and the United States, as well as Germany, Austria, northern Italy, England, and Mexico. It works out to about $83 CAD per person per day, funded from our private and government pensions.

In the period post-Covid, we’ve begun to pull money from investments (largely the proceeds of the sale of our home and retirement condo) to fund more expensive travel options. Whether it was Covid isolation that reinforced our desire to see the wider world, or just that we’re not getting any younger and our window for independent travel is getting shorter, we’re resolved to do as much as we can in the next 10 years – while still maintaining enough of a cushion to allow us to settle somewhere permanent should that need arise.

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To that end, I’ve been reviewing our last few cruise and escorted tour purchases to determine where we get the most value for our money. There’s no question that when we plan (and cook, and tour) it all ourselves, that’s the most economical option, but we’ve found that for some destinations the experts can give us a more enriching experience.

I looked specifically at our post-Covid “over budget” travels, ranging from least to most expensive per day, hoping it will help us decide what gave us the most enjoyment (=value).

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Mini-vacation in Victoria, September 2023, 5 days/4 nights. $220 CAD per person per day staying in a 3 star hotel and eating most meals in restaurants, doing only no-cost activities. Episode 432. It could easily have jumped to $300/day had we toured sites with admission fees, and not been treated to pre-dinner drinks by generous friends – which would bring it to the same daily cost as our Alaskan cruise! In fact, choosing a 4 or 5 star hotel in Victoria would have put us into the $400 CAD/pp per day range or higher. Bottom line: this trip was truly priceless for having been done with my best friend.

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Holland America Alaskan cruise, August 2023, 8 days. $308 CAD per person per day in an ocean-view cabin, no flights. We purchased a drink package, upgraded wifi, and excursions. We enjoyed it, but at 3.5 times our normal budget, I feel like I could have created a better experience myself. We definitely drank more than we ever would travelling on our own, but that doesn’t necessarily justify the price. The attraction, of course, was Alaska itself. Without a car, an expense we’d be constantly pro-rating, Alaska by plane or train would have cost just as much. That cruise’s blogs begin here: Episode 424

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UPCOMING: Mexico/Hawaii Holland America circle cruise, January 2024, 24 days. $315 CAD per person per day in a balcony cabin, no flights (we’ve booked them on points to and from our embarkation point in San Diego), but again drinks, wifi, and an excursion on each of the Hawaiian islands. Given the cost of flights to Hawaii, the current price of nice hotel rooms, the “detour” to Mexico, and the excursions we’ve booked, this is not a trip we’d likely do on our own for much less than the cruise cost. The bonus is only having to unpack once while getting to visit multiple places.

UPCOMING: Transatlantic repositioning cruise on the Regal Princess to Southampton UK, plus 2 nights in London to catch ABBA Voyage (the holographic experience), April 2024, 20 days. $340 CAD per person per day including three cruise excursions, economy class flights, hotel stays in both Fort Lauderdale and London, ABBA tickets, and a projected off-cruise food allowance of $100CAD/day (thank you, London pub prices!)

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UPCOMING: Vancouver Island self-guided tour with friends, July 2024, 11 days. Estimated at $350 CAD per person per day including ferry, car rental, lots of interesting hotels, and both culinary and outdoor experiences. This is pretty close to the price of the escorted bus tours Ted and I have done, but with better hotels and food, a car instead of a bus, and a decidedly unprofessional tour guide (me!).

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Senior Discovery Ireland tour, May 2023, 16 days. $385 CAD per person per day including economy flights. Actually, probably about $10/day more to cover those few meals not included on the tour. This specific tour was somewhat disappointing; I think Ted and I could have toured the country on our own much more economically, and – by booking a few independent tour guides – have learned almost as much. Our Ireland blogs begin here: Episode 407

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Viking Grand European River Cruise (with extensions in Brugge and Prague), November 2022, 22 days. $411 CAD per person per day including economy class flights. No extra drink or excursion costs, because that’s all included, as are all meals. To be fair, this cruise was actually free, but I’ve shown what it would have cost had we not had a large cruise voucher from Viking for the “inconvenience” of our re-routed World Cruise. We chose to use our “savings” to upgrade to business class flights, so in the end we paid the equivalent of $280 CAD/pp per day out of pocket. Ted and I did book an extra private tour to Vimy Ridge from Brugge, and shared the cost of another with friends in Prague. This was a cruise we’d done before, at a different time of year and without the extensions, so we already knew we’d be getting good value for our money. While we’ve lived in Europe for short periods on our own, the professionally guided excursions and the ability to see a variety of cities and countries in a relatively short time and in Viking comfort makes river cruising one of our favourite ways to travel. That trip’s blogs begin here: Episode 347

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Viking World Cruise, December 2021-May 2022, 1. $482 CAD per person per day including business class flights, and truly all-inclusive. Honestly, this was the best travel experience we’ve ever had, and we both agree it was worth every single penny we spent on it. The blogs of our 137 days on the Viking Star begin here: Episode 145

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UPCOMING: Viking “Christmas On The Rhine”, December 2023, 8 days. $564 CAD/pp per day including economy airfare, airport transfers, and all meals and excursions (including one optional cultural event in Mannheim). Ever increasing international airfares significantly increase the daily prorated cost on short cruises like this one.

UPCOMING: Viking World Cruise, December 2024-May 2025. $638 CAD per person per day including business class flights, airport transfers, Visa service, luggage forwarding, excursion credits of $2600CAD/$2000USD each, on-board credits of $2600 CAD/$2K USD each, meals and specialty dining, all beverages including alcohol, self-serve laundry, and Manulife cancellation insurance. Three years (2021 to 2024) have made a huge difference in travel costs worldwide. This world cruise is 1.5 times as expensive per day as our previous one. That said, if we had 6 times as much money as we actually have, I’d be on a Viking World Cruise or equivalent for half of every year; the food, entertainment, lectures, and tours are all a giant cut above what we do on our own.

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That brings us to the tour we’ve just completed: Senior Discovery Tours to Morocco, October 2023, 15 days. $405 CAD per person per day including door-to-door transfers, economy flights, all tours, and those meals and excursions that we had to supplement on our own, plus tips for our local guide and driver. As a once-in-a-lifetime destination, we felt that a a group tour was the way to go and would give us good value for our money, somewhere in between our self-guided life and the all-inclusive luxury of Viking.

Sadly, our 2023 experiences in Ireland and Morocco have confirmed that when we next book a group tour, it will not be with Senior Discovery, whose post-Covid performance has not lived up to the expectations that their earlier tours created.

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BOTTOM LINE: Every time we deviate from our regular “slow travel” routine, we increase our daily spend by anywhere from 3 to 8 (yikes!) times. Clearly, we can’t do that all the time and still have enough left over to live independently once we can no longer travel.

Part of our planning strategy is reviewing our finances every single month, wherever we are in the world, as well as doing an annual overview to ensure that we’re not dipping below our baseline investment principle comfort level. That comfort level is different for everyone, of course; factors like projected lifespan, general health, and the cost of healthcare/housing in the place one intends to settle play a huge part in determining the magic number.

For us, “value” also refers to what each travel experience adds to our quality of life. Some great experiences are almost free and yet priceless, some very pricey. We’re trying to balance value for money at the same time as balancing the time we expect to have left for travelling with all the places we’d still like to see, and the people with whom we’d like to see them.

At the same time, we’re learning that in most cases you get what you pay for.

One of the Facebook groups I belong to is called “GoWithLess”. In our case, that has come to mean fewer possessions, less luggage, less “stuff” – as opposed to less money.

Money can’t buy happiness of course, but since we’re fortunate enough already to be really happy just being together, money can buy us some pretty neat places in which to enjoy that togetherness.