Memory-making family adventures don’t need to be expensive to be unforgettable, but sometimes it can be tricky to figure out how to keep the costs down. After sharing our cost breakdown for our 10-day Washington DC trip for our family of 8, I’ve had a lot of requests to share the numbers for other recent trips. I’ll start with the trip we took in April 2022 when we went drove out from California to Ohio and upstate New York.
The main purpose of the trip to Ohio was to help my parents clean out the house that I grew up in to get it ready to sell. That’s a long way to travel to just do some dirty work, so we decided to make it into a fun family adventure and add in lots of fun along the way. We visited some awesome historical sites along the way from California to Ohio, then headed up to Niagara Falls afterward.
Before our trip we put together a vacation budget. I will share both our budgeted amount and our actual spending on gas, lodging, food, and entertainment. While your family might have a different budget and priorities when it comes to family trips, I hope this article will give you some ideas for making family adventures more affordable.
Gas- $1,248
We drove our 2007 Honda Odyssey which seats all 8 of us, albeit tightly.
My estimate for gas spending was $1,500 based on the calculation below:
~6,000 miles / 18 mpg x $4.50/gal
I try to err on the high side so I am pleasantly surprised when we come in under budget. We probably get closer to 20 miles per gallon and the average price per gallon was less than my estimated average (but coming from California where the current gas prices were well above $5/gallon, an average of $4.50/gallon sounded too good to be true). I would much rather budget too much for a trip and have extra to put toward our next adventure than come in over budget and have to skimp on other budget areas to make it all work.
Divided by eight people, that’s $156/per person. Not bad for a cross country trip!
We came in $252 below budget on gas.
Lodging- $1,207
My budget estimate for accommodations was $1,575.
Our trip included 20 nights. Of those nights, 2 nights were at my brother’s house in Utah (one on each end of the trip), 6 nights were at my parents’ house in Ohio, 1 night was with friends in Columbus, Ohio, and 2 nights with friends in Champaign, Illinois.
That’s half of the nights that we didn’t have to pay for. We are pretty low maintenance guests who don’t mind crashing on the floor. The best part isn’t saving money, it’s that we can stay up late and catch up with friends and family without having to hurry back to a hotel to put kids to bed. It’s a great chance for kids to bond with cousins and family friends.
We did pay for 9 nights of lodging on the road and at our destinations. I booked some of the accommodations ahead of time, so I had some real prices to figure into my total estimate. The others I use the fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants method, which I actually find fun. I’ll explain more on that below.
In Nauvoo, Illinois we stayed at an Airbnb for 3 nights for $447. We were there in the off-season (summer is the big tourist season there), so we found very affordable, wonderful, close accommodations! Airbnbs have a lot going for them for a family like mine because we can all be together in one place (versus a motel where we have to get more than one room). Plus, having a kitchen means we can have home-cooked meals!
The other booking that I made in advance was for Buffalo, New York. We stayed 2 nights in 2 adjoining rooms for a total of $327. This was by far the nicest of the hotel/motel stays of the trip. The place included a nice pool/hot tub and a hot breakfast buffet.
For the nights we were on the road or just stayed one night in a spot, I estimated a cost of $200/night total for 2 rooms. Like with fuel, I like to estimate on the high side of what I would like to spend.
We don’t require a lot when it comes to a place where we’ll be doing nothing but sleeping for a few hours. When we are driving cross country, we usually arrive late, carry in a few sleeping kids and all fall asleep quickly. We shower and leave in the morning and that is all. As long as it seems to be in a safe area, I am not picky. I use google or a travel search engine to find whatever place has the cheapest nightly rate. Since we are getting two rooms, the savings is doubled! I also look at Airbnbs that can accommodate 8, which is sometimes cheaper than two rooms in a motel.
I love the flexibility of not having reservations so if we aren’t tired we can keep going or if something comes up and we need to stop earlier, we don’t need to stress. I also enjoy the “thrill of the chase” if you will. It’s fun to find the best deal by comparing upcoming towns on our route and make reservations just before we arrive.
Lincoln, Nebraska (1 night x 2 rooms) = $117
Richfield, Ohio (1 night x 2 rooms) = $93
Sidney, Nebraska (1 night x 2 rooms) = $111
Ogden, Utah (Airbnb, 1 night) = $113
All of those one night accommodations came in well under the $200 estimate, as I had hoped. All of them were just fine, except the place outside of Cleveland, which ended up being a dump. In the website pictures it showed a lovely pool. In actuality the pool was empty and covered in caution tape. The advertised continental breakfast didn’t exist. One of our rooms smelled terribly of smoke. We were glad it was just for one short night. Other than that our accommodations were either awesome or sufficient.
We came in $368 below budget on lodging.
Food- $405
When I was planning the budget for our trip, I decided that we would just try to stick to our normal food budget. We were gone for 3 weeks in April, so that was the majority of the month anyway.
We definitely “ate out” more than we do at home, but our idea of eating out isn’t very extravagant. We got pizza a couple of times and got sandwiches at a couple of sandwich shops. We also can’t resist the $.75 ice cream cones at Little America, so we stop there on every trip through Wyoming. All that eating out added up to $152
When we stayed with family and friends we usually ate with them. We also ate with some family and friends we visited even though we weren’t staying the night.
Other than that, we brought snacks with us or bought food at grocery stores along the way. Before we left, I prepared snack bags for the kids for each day of the trip that we spent in the car. Each child gets a gallon ziplock bag full of snacks, some fruit, some sweet, some salty, that they can eat throughout the day whenever they want. I usually buy snacks in bulk and divvy them up myself (or have the kids do it) rather than buy all prepackaged foods. That alone saves lots of money!
For meals in the car, we have sandwiches, rolls, or bagels, string cheese, carrot sticks, apples or oranges, and whatever else we have in our snack bags. For meals at Airbnbs, we’ll make spaghetti and salad, taco soup and cornbread, or another easy dinner.
I know for some people the idea of sticking to your normal food budget while on vacation sounds miserable, but for us it really isn’t. We very rarely eat out in our normal life, so none of our kids know any different. With 8 people in our family, the cost of eating out, even just fast food, adds up quickly. For us, the expense is just not worth it.
In the month of April, we spent $629 total on food with $405 of that being the three weeks of our trip. That was right on budget.
Activities- $188
Like I mentioned in the beginning, the main purpose of the trip was to help my parents in Ohio. We figured that while we were driving across the country was a great chance to see some historical sites. Most of the sites we visited were completely free.
Winter Quarters, Nebraska– $0 After attending church, we visited the Mormon Trail Center museum and toured the pioneer cemetery and temple grounds. We drove into downtown Omaha to explore the amazing statues of Pioneer Courage Park.
Nauvoo/Carthage, Illinois– $0 There is so much to see in Nauvoo and it’s all free. We learned about life in the mid-1800s by touring a blacksmith shop, cobbler, print shop, gunsmith shop, bakery, tinsmith, and more. We learned about making barrels, rope, quilts, and carding wool. We took a carriage ride, wagon ride, and ox cart ride. We could have spent a week here, but we packed as much as we could into three days.
Kirtland/Hiram, Ohio– $0 I grew up not far from these historic towns, so I have been there many times. They have restored and added many buildings since I was a kid. It happened to be Easter afternoon when we toured Kirtland (hence the matching Easter outfits in the picture).
Niagara Falls, New York– $73 After finishing all of the hard work at my parents’ house, we headed up to the American side of Niagara Falls. We hiked around to all of the various views of the different falls on the American side. We stopped by a thrift store to get jackets/coats for some of us. We paid $10 for parking and $63 for the Cave of the Winds tour which included a museum, video, elevator ride and walk to where you are splashed by the water and mist. We had hoped to take the Maid of the Mist boat tour but found that the boat hadn’t started running yet; we were just a couple of days too early in the season.
Palmyra, New York– $0 While we were in upstate New York, we saw a few Palmyra historical sites including tours of homes, museums, a printing press, farm, and a nature walk.
COSI Science Museum– $115 I remember going to Columbus’s Center of Science and Industry as a child and I was eager to take my kids there. In order to get the best deal on tickets, I bought a $75 family pass to a (much smaller) science museum here in California that is part of the reciprocal entry program. That pass gave us free entry for 2 adults and 4 children at COSI, so we only had to pay for two additional kids ($40) at the door. Normal COSI entry would have cost our family $180. By buying the reciprocal pass in California, we saved $65, plus we got access to the science museum here in California for a year.
Amish Country of Ohio– $0 Whenever we would have visitors come to Ohio when I was a kid, we would take them to Amish Country. Everyone loves seeing the horses and buggies. I wanted to go into all the quilt shops, too, but no one else really did. We checked out the cheese factory too, but they weren’t working that day. We had lunch at the Weaver farm and furniture store deli. (The cost of lunch was part of our food budget.)
We knew that most of our activities would be free and we had researched the other ones, so we knew exactly how much to budget. We ended up being $146 under budget because the Maid of the Mist wasn’t running yet.
Other Trip Spending $224
I won’t include these random other expenses in our trip total, but I figured I would at least mention them since they are expenses that happened on our trip.
Uhaul $159
As we were helping my parents, we came up with lots and lots of things to donate. My mom had planned on taking car loads to the thrift store, but Mike quickly recognized that with the quantity we would be donating, it would take too much time and manpower to drive back and forth to the thrift store all day. He rented a U-haul for a couple of days so we could be more efficient. We packed it full twice with thrift store donations!
Thrift Store $13
Speaking of the thrift store, we had to buy a few warmer things for Niagara Falls. Our oldest also lost one of her dress shoes (it must have fallen out of the car at one of our stops), so we grabbed her a new pair of shoes for church.
Cabela’s $52
This spending wasn’t related to our trip at all, but we stopped by Cabela’s when we went through Nebraska. It’s always a fun place to walk around. We got some new flashlights, some socks, and a bag.
That covers it!
We spent just over $3,048 in gas, lodging, food, and entertainment for 8 people for 20 days. Per person, that comes out to $381 per person! Of course, staying with family and friends for half of the nights definitely helped keep the cost low.
There are challenges too, with squeezing 8 people into an 8-seater when your crew includes tall teenagers. Sometimes Mike and I take turns sitting in the squashed seats in the back. But if you can manage the tight quarters, a road trip is a great way to have a very affordable family vacation where you can visit lots of different places.
Does your family take road trips? What are some of your favorite places that you have gone?
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We’ve traveled to winter quarters and the Omaha zoo when my husband traveled for work near there. We did St Louis with some really cool free museums and zoo when my husband traveled for work there also. Staying with him in his apartment or hotel that work pays for makes lodging cheap, we like to budget for a meal out everyday and have fun memories of some cool local restaurants. We know where parks to stop for a picnic lunch and play are on the routes to our most frequently traveled trips. We love audio books to make the drive more fun.
Those are great tips! Staying with a spouse whose work is covering the hotel is awesome! We love stopping at parks for lunch and to let the kids move around. And audio books are the best!!