Our Family Travel Budget Breakdown: What 9 Months of Long-Term Travel Actually Cost

One of the biggest questions I get about our Baby Trip – the nine months we spent travelling through Canada and Europe – is how much it all cost. I was curious about this too!

So I tracked every dollar and can now pull back the curtain and reveal our full family travel budget.

From July 2025 to March 2026, my family and I travelled through Toronto, France and the UK, plus spent a week in Spain. We were a family of four (myself, my husband Colin, our daughter Baby C, and our dog Ellie) and practiced slow travel, spending 4-10 weeks in each base.

Before leaving on our trip, I did a lot of research to figure out realistic long-term travel costs. I put together estimates for each category – accommodation, transportation, daily spending, etc. – and also estimated how much I thought we’d earn during our travels.

And, spoiler alert, my estimates were so wrong! We spent way more than I thought we would and more than I’ve seen other travelling families report online.

But luckily, we also earned more than I thought we would. And because we had saved up and were tracking our expenses along the way, we knew we were blowing past our estimates and were (mostly) comfortable with the additional spending.

Below I’m going to walk you through our real travel budget example – every dollar we spent during our nine month family trip. I know when I was researching, it was so helpful to see budget breakdowns like this and know what real families were spending.

I’ll talk about my predictions ahead of time, reveal our big total, and then break it down by category and by location, plus give you monthly and daily averages.

Then I’ll share tips for how you can plan out your own long-term travel budget, including ways to do a family trip cheaper than we did and mistakes we made that you can learn from!

A quick note before I open up our wallets: This Baby Trip was a huge bucket list item for us and something we’ve been dreaming about and saving towards for years. While some of the numbers below are large, please know they were not spent lightly.

The family travel budget I predicted vs reality

For years I’ve been researching costs and trying to guess how much this Baby Trip would cost us. I ran my final numbers about six months before we took off and as you can see below, I was pretty off!

Where we were under-budget:

• Transportation: Thanks to points and miles, we were able to save big on our flights. And slow travel meant we didn’t take too many trains or rent a car very often.
• Moving & storage: Affordable movers who worked quickly and a promotion for two free months at our storage locker helped us save in this category.

Where we were over-budget:

• Toronto: Despite having free rent and access to a car in Toronto (thanks to my parents), we still managed to spend a ton of money on food during our 10 weeks in the city.
• Europe: We spent $18,000 more than I thought we would in Europe (!!!). That’s mostly due to spending four months in the UK (not the original plan) with its higher cost of living and eating out way more than I thought we would.

The BIG total: How much does long-term travel cost?

So how much did we spend on our nine month Baby Trip? Our final total was $76,841 CAD ($56,168 USD, €47,673, £41,510).

Here’s how much we spent per month, per day and per adult:

• $8538 CAD ($6253 USD, €5322, £4630) per month
  • $4269 CAD ($3127 USD, €2661, £2315) per adult per month
• $285 CAD ($209 USD, €118, £155) per day
  • $142 CAD ($104 USD, €89, £77) per adult per day

If you count Baby C as a full person’s share, you can divide the costs three ways for a total of $2846 CAD ($2084 USD, €1774, £1543) per person per month or $95 CAD ($69 USD, €59, £51) per person per day.

If you want to remove the 10 weeks we spent in Toronto from the big total, since our accommodation and transportation were mostly covered, the total spent on our 6-ish months in Europe was $69,007 CAD ($50,442 USD, €42,813, £37,278).

Which breaks down to:

• $11,501 CAD ($8424 USD, €7169, £6237) per month
  • $5751 CAD ($4212 USD, €3585, £3119) per adult per month
• $383 CAD ($281 USD, €239, £208) per day
  • $192 CAD ($141 USD, €120, £104) per adult per day

Even breaking it all down, I still can’t believe we spent that much.

But when I think of the expensive cities where we lived, the comfortable apartments we stayed in and all of the eating out we did, those long-term travel costs start to make sense.

So let’s get into exactly what we spent our $76,841 on:

Long-haul transportation costs: $3261 CAD

$3261 CAD = $2384 USD, €2023, £1762

Below is what we spent on long-haul transportation. By that, I mean flights, car rentals and trains, but not day-to-day transport like bus/subway tickets, gas fill-ups, Ubers, etc.

Flights from Toronto to Paris: $329 CAD

$329 CAD = $240 USD, €204, £178

$329 to get three people, two checked bags, carry-ons and a dog from Canada to Europe? It’s true! And it’s all thanks to AMEX points.

We used AMEX points, which we’ve been collecting for a few years, to purchase our three one-way flights. We only had to pay the pet fee ($100) and taxes ($229) out of pocket.

The AMEX points saved us a ton of money as one-way flights from Toronto to Paris, especially at the tail-end of summer, are not cheap!

Rental cars for 9 days in France: $834 CAD

$834 CAD = $610 USD, €517, £451

We rented a car two separate times during our two months in France. We rented our first car for two days to visit Loire Valley castles. That cost us $432.

Our second rental car was to drive from Orleans through Normandy and up to Calais. We had that car for seven days and it cost us $402.

On paper, that second rental sounds like a much better deal; cheaper for more days. But it was actually a giant pain! We rented an electric car and spent so much time, money and stress finding and using charging ports.

I actually think that electric car cost us more in the end, as the charging stations weren’t cheap. But all of our charging/gas expenses are counted under daily spending.

Pet taxi & train from France to UK: $823 CAD

$823 CAD = $602 USD, €511, £445

I need to write an entire post about bringing your dog from mainland Europe to the UK because it is a process, especially if you don’t have your own car.

In the end, we found the best route was to hire a special pet taxi to pick us up in Calais, France, drive us onto the Euro Tunnel (Le Shuttle) train that goes through the English Channel, and drop us off in Folkestone, UK.

The price for the taxi and train for three humans, a dog and all of our luggage was $823.

Flights from London to Malaga & back: $560 CAD

$560 CAD = $409 USD, €347, £303

We celebrated Baby C’s first birthday in Malaga, Spain where we reunited with three of her grandparents and two family friends.

We were in Brighton at the time and flew from London Gatwick to Malaga. We flew with Vueling and paid $560 for two seats (we had Baby C on our laps), two carry-on bags, and upgrades to a row near the front.

PS: These were round-trip flights whereas our other flights were one-ways.

Flights from London to Vancouver: $715 CAD

$715 CAD = $523 USD, €444, £386

For our final big flight home, we once again used AMEX points to cover the majority of the cost of three one-way flights, two checked bags and carry-ons.

The $715 we had to pay out of pocket was for the pet fee, taxes, and some baggage fees and seat selection.

This was another one where the AMEX points were a huge money saver. We would have spent close to $1000 per person for our flights and bags if we didn’t have points, so only paying $715 total was a huge win.

Accommodation in Europe costs: $36,950 CAD

$36,950 CAD = $27,009 USD, €22,924, £19,961

Accommodation was definitely our biggest long-term travel cost (though daily spending wasn’t too far behind). Despite travelling in the off-season and getting monthly-stay discounts on Airbnb, we spent a lot on our lodging.

That mostly came down to the fact that we spent over four months in the UK, with 9 weeks of that in London. The UK is a very expensive place to stay, especially in big cities like London.

We had four long-term bases in Europe: Orleans, France (6 weeks); London, UK (5 weeks); Brighton, UK (8.5 weeks); and back to London, UK (4 weeks). We also had a few short stays that were 3-7 nights long in between our longer bases.

At each of our long-term bases we rented an apartment in a walkable and vibrant part of the city. The apartments were modern, 1-2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, separate living/dining and kitchen areas, and as spacious as we could afford. They also had to be baby and pet-friendly.

We booked all of our apartments on Airbnb, so they came fully-furnished and with everything we’d need to live: internet, electricity, hot water, appliances, etc. We also stayed more than 28 days, which got us monthly discounts on Airbnb.

Let’s break down our European accommodation costs:

16 nights of short stays in France and England: $2370 CAD

$2370 CAD = $1732 USD, €1470, £1280

We had four short stays in France and England in between our long-term bases. These cost us:

• $803 for 3 nights in Paris, France
• $729 for 7 nights in Normandy, France
• $349 for 3 nights in Calais, France
• $489 for 3 nights in Folkestone, UK

Obviously Paris was the most expensive place to stay. It was also the smallest place we stayed. And even worse, we only ended up staying two of the three nights we paid for because a train strike caused us to leave early.

We got great deals for our stays in Normandy and Calais. Because we had a rental car, we stayed in a smaller town in Normandy outside of the city centre, which was quite affordable.

In Calais we were still within walking distance of the city centre, but it’s just a cheaper place to visit so our apartment didn’t cost as much as in other places.

6 weeks in Orleans, France: $5476 CAD

$5476 CAD = $4003 USD, €3397, £2958

We spent the first six weeks of our Baby Trip (or 44 nights, to be exact) in Orleans, France. I loved living in Orleans and really enjoyed our French apartment.

For $5476 (or $124/night), we stayed in a large two bedroom apartment with a huge living and dining room. The bathroom was separated (toilet in one room, shower in the other) and the kitchen was quite modern.

I especially loved the huge windows that opened out onto the street and how we were within walking distance of just about everything in Orleans.

Of course, Orleans isn’t Paris, so we were never going to pay Paris prices. But it is the gateway to the Loire Valley and there was plenty to do in Orleans and lots of delicious things to eat, so I’m glad we chose to live there.

5 weeks in Brixton, London: $8316 CAD

$8316 CAD = $6079 USD, €5159, £4492

From Orleans we road tripped through Normandy, Calais and Folkestone before arriving in our new home in London. We lived in the Brixton neighbourhood of London for five weeks (36 nights).

I absolutely loved living in Brixton with all of the incredible food and easy transit connections around London. Our apartment was just down the street from Brixton Village, so we were eating very well.

Our apartment was a one bedroom that was bright, modern and artistically furnished. It wasn’t overly spacious but we didn’t feel too cramped either. I liked the long kitchen space, skylight and that we had our own private patio.

At $8316 for five weeks, or $231/night, Brixton was tied for our most expensive stay. But that’s what it costs to live in London!

8.5 weeks in Brighton, UK: $13,009 CAD

$13,009 CAD = $9509 USD, €8071, £7028

The longest stay of our trip was in Brighton, UK where we stayed for 8.5 weeks (60 nights). Brighton is just an hour south of London by train and right on the water.

I loved living in Brighton! It was such a walkable city with incredible restaurants, cafes, street art, and a very cool beach. We had a great time getting to know Brighton during our two months there.

We lived in North Laine, a trendy neighbourhood in central Brighton right by the train station and full of eateries and independent shops.

Our apartment was spread across two floors and had two spacious bedrooms, one bathroom, and one lounge room with kitchen, living and dining spaces.

We paid $13,009 total, or $217/night, for our Brighton apartment. While cheaper than the nightly rate in London, it was still on the high end because we had the second bedroom and were in such a great location.

Our share of one week in Malaga, Spain: $1070 CAD

$1070 CAD = $728 USD, €664, £578

While living in Brighton, we actually flew off for a week in Malaga, Spain to celebrate Baby C’s first birthday. Unfortunately, this did mean we were double paying for our accommodation in Brighton and our accommodation in Malaga.

In Malaga, we split an Airbnb in the historic centre with four other family members who had flown in for the big birthday. The apartment was very modern and luxurious with four bedrooms and three bathrooms.

Our share of the Airbnb was $1070 for the week or $153/night. We definitely could’ve paid less if we booked a smaller place or stayed farther out of town, but we were very happy with our apartment and fine to spend a bit more on it.

PS: The total cost of the 4 bed/3 bath apartment for seven nights was $3218, so depending on how many people you have and how you decide to split the costs, you could pay more or less than we did.

4 weeks in Spitalfields, London: $6709 CAD

$6709 CAD = $4904 USD, €4162, £3624

For the final long-term base of our Baby Trip, we decided to return to London. Only this time, we stayed north of the Thames in the East London neighbourhood of Spitalfields.

Like Brixton, Spitalfields was a great place to be for its epic food scene and transit connections around London. I really loved the street art, city farm and weekend markets too!

Our apartment in Spitalfields was, unfortunately, my least favourite of our long-term bases. But it wasn’t awful by any means! We had just stayed in some great places before it.

We were in a one bedroom apartment with a large lounge, modern kitchen and big windows. The downsides were the cramped bathroom, uncomfortable bed and couch, and three flights of stairs we had to walk up.

For this apartment, we paid $6709 total, or $231/night, for our 4 week (29 night) stay. Both of our London stays (Brixton and Spitalfields) wound up being $231/night, proving London is an expensive place to stay.

Our average accommodation travel budget breakdown:

I thought it would be interesting to break down our accommodation costs even more to get monthly and daily averages.

For six months in Europe, our average monthly accommodation cost was $6158 CAD per month ($4501 USD, €3821, £3327). Remember that this is for Airbnb apartments with 1-2 bedrooms in walkable city centres in France and the UK.

Our daily average for accommodation in Europe was $205 CAD per night ($150 USD, €127, £111). That seems very high compared to when I first started thinking about this trip way back in 2021 and thought we’d spend $50/night!

I also wanted to look at how much more expensive it was for us to stay in the UK compared to France. Here are the daily averages to compare:

• France: $129/day ($94 USD, €80, £70)
• UK: $223/day ($163 USD, €138, £120)

So it was almost $100 more per day for us to stay in the UK versus France. Obviously we picked very high cost of living places in the UK, like London, and less popular places, like Orleans, in France.

It would have been a different story if we lived in a small country town in the middle of England vs living in Paris!

Our total daily spending in Europe: $23,485 CAD

$23,485 CAD = $17,167 USD, €14,570, £12,687

Besides accommodation and transportation, our other big category was daily spending. This includes everything such as groceries, eating out, local transport, attractions, souvenirs, shopping, medical, personal items, etc.

For day-to-day spending, we used a no-fee credit card that functioned like a bank card. We would transfer Canadian dollars onto it, spend it in Europe without worrying about currency conversion fees, and top up when we needed to.

(PS: If you’re a fellow Canadian wondering where you can get this card, it’s the Wealthsimple chequing account Mastercard. We’ve used Wealthsimple for years for our investments and travel spending, and really like it. You can check out Wealthsimple here with my referral link.)

The $23,485 we spent over six months averages out to $3914 CAD per month ($2861 USD, €2428, £2114) or $130 CAD per day ($95 USD, €81, £70). Which still seems like a ton of money!

I’m surprised that we spent as much as we did but I can see how we got there. Especially in Brighton and London, where we were surrounded by such good food, we did a lot of eating out.

And with the poor exchange rate from Canadian dollars to British pounds, it’s easy to see how a simple meal out for three could cost us $150+ CAD.

Recurring monthly travel expenses: $2180 CAD

$2180 CAD = $1594 USD, €1351, £1178

We had three recurring monthly expenses while we were away from Vancouver that don’t quite fall into any of the categories above, so they got their own category.

Phone bills: $925 CAD

$925 CAD = $677 USD, €575, £501

Colin and I decided to keep our Canadian numbers and switch to a provider with a good international plan.

While a bit pricier than our old plan or just using an eSIM, it was so handy to have our Canadian phone numbers for all of the two-factor authentication you have to do these days.

The total cost for both of our phone plans for the entire nine months was $925.

That worked out to $39.20/person/month on our old Canadian plans (which we kept while we were in Toronto for two months) and then $54.88/person/month on the new international plan we started when we headed to Europe.

Life insurance: $277 CAD

$277 CAD = $203 USD, €172, £150

Colin and I kept up our life insurance plans while we were travelling. Over the nine months we paid a total of $277, which averages out to $15/person/month.

Storage: $978 CAD

$978 CAD = $716 USD, €608, £529

When we left Vancouver for our Baby Trip, we gave up the lease on our apartment, sold/donated/packed most of our stuff, and put the rest into a storage locker.

We paid $163 per month for our storage locker. But because of a promotion, we were able to get a few months free and only ended up paying for six months of storage.

So our total storage cost for the nine months we were away was $978.

One-off travel expenses: $3131 CAD

$3131 CAD = $2287 USD, €1943, £1691

We also had a few one-off expenses that not every travelling family will have to pay. So I’ve listed them here in a separate category.

Moving: $1725 CAD

$1725 CAD = $1263 USD, €1072, £934

As I mentioned, when we left Vancouver for our Baby Trip, we gave up our lease, moved out of our apartment and put some of our stuff in storage. So we paid for movers ($600) and cleaners ($315).

When we returned to Vancouver, we found a new place to live and had to pay to move our stuff out of the storage locker. This time we spent $815 on the movers and fees to book the elevator in our new building.

Vet visits: $581 CAD

$581 CAD = $425 USD, €361, £314

Because we brought our dog with us to Europe, we had to go to a number of vet appointments.

We first brought her to a vet in Vancouver before we left to make sure she was fit to fly ($162). Before we left Toronto, we took her to another vet to sign her EU health certificate and pick up some medication ($214).

In Orleans, Colin brought Ellie to the vet to get her an updated rabies shot ($114). And in Calais, we had one final vet visit to administer the tapeworm treatment she needed to cross into the UK ($91).

France visa applications: $825 CAD

$825 CAD = $604 USD, €513, £447

I get into all of the details about our French visa chaos in this Substack post but the bottom line is we spent a lot of money and jumped through a lot of hoops to apply for long-stay tourist visas for France but our applications were rejected.

So that’s $825 we just kissed goodbye!

Special category for our 10 weeks in Toronto: $7834 CAD

$7834 CAD = $5726 USD, €4860, £4232

I wanted to create a special category for our spending in Toronto, because it looked a bit different from the rest of our trip. We spent the first 10 weeks of our Baby Trip in Toronto because that’s where I’m from and where most of my friends and family live.

So we didn’t do a ton of sightseeing in Toronto (besides when my mother-in-law came to visit and we had our Toronto CityPASSes) and we stayed with my parents rent-free, which was a huge game changer to our accommodation budget.

We were also able to borrow my parents’ car when we needed it, so didn’t have to spend money on car rentals. Just some gas fill-ups and a few transit tickets. They also fed us lots of free meals!

If you have to pay for accommodation, transportation and all of your meals, your 10 weeks in Toronto will look very different than ours. So to not skew the averages, I’m keeping Toronto as a separate, outlier category.

But I did still want to include Toronto in my travel budget breakdown because it contributed to our total spend and it’s a great comparison if you also have some discounted accommodation planned for your own big trip.

Okay, let’s get into the details:

Flights from Vancouver to Toronto: $472 CAD

$472 CAD = $345 USD, €293, £255

We only paid $472 total for our flights from Vancouver to Toronto. That’s three one-way flight tickets (Baby C got her own seat), three checked bags, carry-ons and a pet in cabin.

The reason it was so cheap is that we used points to pay for most of our flights.

We’ve racked up More Rewards points through years of online grocery shopping and were able to put them all towards our flights, only having to pay the pet fee, taxes and baggage out of pocket.

Accommodation: $1309 CAD

$1309 CAD = $957 USD, €812, £707

As I mentioned above, we got to stay at my parents’ place in Toronto for free (thank you, dad & Ali!). We had an entire basement suite to ourselves with a big bedroom, tons of living space, our own kitchen and our own bathroom.

We did go out of town a few times, but most of those were free stays for us too. We went to my friend’s cottage in Kawartha Lakes for a weekend and to my cousin’s home near Huntsville for a few nights.

And when we stayed at the Marriott in Niagara Falls, my mother-in-law picked up the tab!

The only time we paid for accommodation in Toronto was a four night stay at an Airbnb on the Danforth. We wanted to experience a different side of Toronto and have a little family getaway, so booked ourselves a $1309 vacation from our vacation.

Daily spending over 10 weeks: $5137 CAD

$5137 CAD = $3755 USD, €3187, £2775

I tracked our daily spending during our 10 weeks in Toronto and came up with $5137 total. But when I look at the numbers for September, they seem too low, so there’s a good chance I’m off by $1000 or so.

Because accommodation and transportation were mostly covered, our daily spending really came down to food. Even then, we ate a lot of meals with my parents, who almost never let us pay for household groceries.

Our daily spending also included filling up gas, public transport tickets, personal items, minimal groceries and baby supplies (diapers, etc.). But really, it was mostly eating out!

What can I say? Toronto has a great food scene! Check out my Toronto itinerary, which is mostly based around food, to see all the delicious-ness I’m talking about.

One-off expenses: $916 CAD

$916 CAD = $670 USD, €568, £495

There were three bigger purchases we made that don’t quite count as daily spending, so I’ve listed them here under one-off expenses. They were:

• $430 for a king size mattress and frame. We decided to splurge on a new bed so we’d be comfortable sleeping at my parents’ and I think it was the right call. Future guests have also been able to use it after we left!
• $178 for Bluejays tickets. Colin and his mom went to a game while she was in town and they had a blast.
• $308 on gift cards that we gave my parents at the end of the summer to thank them for generously hosting us!

Could you do a 9-month family trip cheaper?

Absolutely! I would not consider our trip budget family travel (though I wouldn’t say it was luxury either). There are lots of ways you and your family could travel for nine months much cheaper than we did.

To save money on your family trip, you could:

• Choose lower cost of living places: We lived in expensive cities, like London and Brighton, for over four months. This sky-rocketed our accommodation costs.
• Stay in smaller/shared apartments: We prioritized larger, private spaces, but you could save a lot of money if you were comfortable staying in a studio or a room in someone’s home.
• Stay farther out of town: We wanted to stay centrally so we could walk or quickly transit everywhere and have lots of restaurants, cafes and activities on our doorstep. If you’re happy to drive or take longer transit routes into the city, you could save a lot staying in the suburbs.
• Stay for longer: While we did save money by getting the monthly discount on Airbnb, staying even longer would save you even more. You would minimize travel costs and possibly be able to rent something locally, which would be cheaper than Airbnb.
• Eat out less: We ate out a lot and in high cost of living cities. An easy way to cut back your family trip budget would be to buy your own local groceries and cook, limiting your eating out to once or twice a week.

Our 5 biggest travel budget mistakes

In no particular order, here were five things we did that lost us money:

1) Leaving Paris a day early (or going to Paris at all)

We flew into Paris from Toronto and decided to give ourselves three nights to recoup before moving onto our long-term base in Orleans.

But we ended up leaving Paris a night early because of train strikes, meaning we paid for a night in Paris we didn’t use and had to pay for an extra night in Orleans.

I actually think we should’ve gone straight to Orleans and not bothered stopping in Paris. It was more disruptive to have to unpack into a tiny place in Paris for just two nights and Orleans was only 90 minutes away by train.

2) Applying for our France visas

Of course, we didn’t know that our applications were going to get rejected. But looking back, it was a huge waste of time, energy and money to apply for those visas.

Not only did we spend almost $1000 applying, but we spent tons of time filling out forms, collecting paperwork and going to our appointment. And the visa office didn’t return our passports until one business day before our flight left, which was very stressful!

We also had to completely rework our entire trip, which led to us going to the UK, which was a very expensive decision.

3) Renting an electric car in France

While our electric car rental seemed like a great deal when we booked it, plus a way to be more environmentally friendly, it ended up causing us a lot of stress and costing us lots of money.

We quickly learned that our car could only go an hour or two before needing to be charged, and that many of the chargers around France aren’t usable by visitors. So we spent ages trying to find chargers, and had to factor charging time into our itinerary.

The charging stations were also quite pricy, so I’m not sure that going electric really saved us any money.

4) Paying lots in Brighton while we were away in Spain:

When we went to Spain for a week during our two month stay in Brighton, our dog, Ellie, stayed behind in the UK.

We originally thought we’d have a sitter come and stay at our Brighton place with her, but we ended up sending Ellie to a local sitter’s house instead.

So we not only had to pay for the dog sitter but we also continued paying for our Brighton place that sat empty for a week while paying for the Airbnb we stayed at in Spain.

5) Spending lots of time in expensive England

By the far the biggest long-term travel cost for us was choosing to spend over four months (128 days, to be precise) living in England.

As I showed above, our accommodation costs were much higher in England. We also spent more money on public transport and eating out, both of which were more costly in big cities using British pounds.

I don’t know if I’d actually consider this a mistake, since I don’t regret spending so much time in the UK. But it sure did cost us a lot!

Our 5 biggest travel budget wins

Luckily, we had a lot of money wins along the way. Here are five things we did that saved us money:

1) Using points for our flights

Using AMEX and More Reward points for our flights from Vancouver to Toronto, Toronto to Paris and London to Vancouver was a huge money saver for us.

As shown above, we only had to pay a few hundred dollars to cover taxes, pet fees and baggage, thanks to our points. If we had to pay for our flights in cash, it would’ve cost us thousands!

2) Saving up for this trip since 2021

When we sold our condo in 2021, we put a chunk of money aside for the Baby Trip we knew we’d go on one day in the future.

And we continued contributing to that fund up until we welcomed Baby C into the world in January 2025, leaving on our trip five months later.

With four years, we were able to save a very good chunk of change to help offset our long-term travel costs. Even better, we actually came back home with about 65% of that money because we only needed to use part of it on the trip.

We’ve now put that money towards our other savings goals, including future trips!

3) Staying in places for more than 28 days

We stayed in all of our long-term bases for at least 28 days so that we could take advantage of monthly discounts on Airbnb.

If you didn’t know, most Airbnb listings will offer weekly and monthly discounts. Sometimes the monthly discounts are significant; our Spitalfields monthly rental was discounted by $3536 – which is more than 30% off!

Not only did travelling slowly and staying in each place work best for our family, but it also worked best for our wallets.

4) Travelling in the off-season

We were in Europe from mid-September until mid-March, skipping the busy summer season when Europe is hot, crowded and overpriced.

Travelling in the off-season allowed us to take advantage of better prices. Accommodation discounts were huge; our same apartment in Brighton would’ve cost us $2500 more per month if we booked a summer stay rather than a winter one.

We were also able to save money on some attractions that offered winter pricing and enjoy places with smaller crowds.

5) Baby C was free everywhere

One of the many wonderful things about travelling with an infant is they are free nearly everywhere. We never had to pay for Baby C to enter an attraction, ride public transport, or visit a museum.

She slept in our room, so we didn’t need to pay for a second bedroom for her. And she mostly ate off of our plates, so we rarely ordered an extra meal.

Bonus: Teaspoon of Adventure did really well!

Another huge boon to our family travel budget was Teaspoon of Adventure, this little blog of mine, helping to make some serious income.

Because I knew I’d be in my first year of parenthood and we’d be travelling full time, I didn’t think I’d be able to earn much money. When I was doing the math to figure out our trip budget, I was quite conservative in my income estimate.

But I’m very proud to say I actually earned 2.5 times more than I thought I would. And that’s all thanks to readers like you, so THANK YOU!!

Final thoughts on our 9 month family travel budget

Spending $76,841 on one trip – albeit a nine month trip for a family of three – is a giant pill to swallow. It would be an understatement to say we spent a lot of money; much more than I thought we would.

I know there are long-term travellers and full time travelling families who spend way less than we did. We definitely could have done this trip cheaper if we had stayed in lower cost of living places, moved even slower and ate out way less.

And while it would have been great to save more money, I don’t regret the choices we made for this trip. Yes, we spent more than I thought we would, but we also earned way more than I thought we would.

We had our eyes on the budget the whole time and consciously made choices that we knew would cost us more money, like living in England for four months and eating out almost daily.

But this was our once in a lifetime trip! Colin is never going to have 15 months off work again. Baby C is never going to be this little and portable. Four months might be the longest we ever get to live in England.

So if this is our one chance to live in Brighton and eat at every great restaurant, splurge on living in a cool neighbourhood in London or castle-hop in France, then I’m so glad we “blew the budget” and made the most of it.

I enjoyed every day of our Baby Trip and have no major regrets about how we spent our family travel budget. So whether $76,841 for nine months of travel seems like a lot or a little to you, it worked for us.

I’d love to know what you think of our family travel budget breakdown and what long-term travel costs you’re adding up for your own big trip!

Leave a comment below or connect with me on Substack where I share more personal reflections and behind the scenes travel moments.