Spending money for 2 weeks in America

Q_ueeny

Hi Guys ,

I know this question has been answered a million times and I have read old threads but they are a few years old and don't really relate very much to my holidays.

I have never been to America before so I have no idea how much I will spend so I was hoping anyone that has had a similar holidays may be able to help

Im going to LA for 5 nights , Las Vegas for 6 nights and staying another 4 nights but haven't decided where (stay in Vegas , go to San Deigo or back to LA)

Flights , hotel in LA , Hotel in Vegas and Tickets to a 3 day event in LA (This will take up 3 full days so little or no other spending on these days bar food and drink) are all paid for already

So my question is this , Will I have enough in $4000 for one person? This will be used for car hire (between 3 people), Hotel for the last 3 nights in any one of the 3 places mentioned above , Food , Drink , a small tattoo and shopping. We may go to 1 or 2 shows. Writing all this I don't think ill have enough!

Any insight or information is greatly received!

keithclancy

Q_ueeny wrote: »

Hi Guys ,

I know this question has been answered a million times and I have read old threads but they are a few years old and don't really relate very much to my holidays.

I have never been to America before so I have no idea how much I will spend so I was hoping anyone that has had a similar holidays may be able to help

Im going to LA for 5 nights , Las Vegas for 6 nights and staying another 4 nights but haven't decided where (stay in Vegas , go to San Deigo or back to LA)

Flights , hotel in LA , Hotel in Vegas and Tickets to a 3 day event in LA (This will take up 3 full days so little or no other spending on these days bar food and drink) are all paid for already

So my question is this , Will I have enough in $4000 for one person? This will be used for car hire (between 3 people), Hotel for the last 3 nights in any one of the 3 places mentioned above , Food , Drink , a small tattoo and shopping. We may go to 1 or 2 shows. Writing all this I don't think ill have enough!

Any insight or information is greatly received!

Your better off setting a budget and sticking to it rather than the other way around :pac:

ProudDUB

Car hire and hotel bills are not spending money. They are the essentials. Why not figure out what you will be spending on them first? Then you'll know how much you have for fun spending. Add in the cost of petrol too, as you will be doing a lot of driving. Make sure your quotes cover insurance too.

Eating out in the US is a lot cheaper than it is here, so that shouldn't break the bank, as long as you aren't eating filet mignon every night.

You haven't said what you plan on shopping for...clothes, electronics, or just souvenirs for the family? Perhaps if you did, people could give you ideas of where to go and what to buy. 6-9 days in Las Vegas is A LOT. That could really break the bank. What do you plan on doing when you are there....gambling, clubbing, seeing shows, shopping, or road trips to the likes of the Hoover Dam & the Grand Canyon? Again, if you gave a few more deets, people could give you more info.

athtrasna

Factor in tips as well. 15-20% in a restaurant, as well as tips in bars, in the casinos in Vegas, taxi drivers, doorman/bellboy...they really add up

iusedtoknow

athtrasna wrote: »

Factor in tips as well. 15-20% in a restaurant, as well as tips in bars, in the casinos in Vegas, taxi drivers, doorman/bellboy...they really add up

In California and Vegas 20% us standard tip.

If it's a dive bar and you're getting a beer $1 a drink is pretty standard
If you're drink cocktails that you ordered at a bar...$2
If you're drinking cocktails along with table service...$3 or $4 a drink

bellboy...$1
Bags to your room....$2 a bag and never less than $5 in total.

Q_ueeny

ProudDUB wrote: »

Car hire and hotel bills are not spending money. They are the essentials. Why not figure out what you will be spending on them first? Then you'll know how much you have for fun spending. Add in the cost of petrol too, as you will be doing a lot of driving. Make sure your quotes cover insurance too.

Eating out in the US is a lot cheaper than it is here, so that shouldn't break the bank, as long as you aren't eating filet mignon every night.

You haven't said what you plan on shopping for...clothes, electronics, or just souvenirs for the family? Perhaps if you did, people could give you ideas of where to go and what to buy. 6-9 days in Las Vegas is A LOT. That could really break the bank. What do you plan on doing when you are there....gambling, clubbing, seeing shows, shopping, or road trips to the likes of the Hoover Dam & the Grand Canyon? Again, if you gave a few more deets, people could give you more info.

This makes a lot of sense , thank you!

Doing research on-line I have averaged the following

3 star hotel in San Diego for 4 nights - $260 (triple room pp)
Car hire for 9 days - $200 (again 1/3 as we will be sharing this cost)
Helicopter Ride over the Grand Canyon - $350
Gas - I have no idea how much this is going to be!
So my total budget here for these is $1000. I know that's above what I said but they are only rough figures.

I will be eating out breakfast, lunch and dinner out every day. I will want to dine is upmarket places for some of the nights but I'm easy going on breakfast and lunch. I think $900 should cover 14 days of food but again if some one can shed some light on this I would be grateful.

So this leaves me with approx $2100 for a few shows and shopping and nights out. Shopping will consist of clothes, shoes , some souvenirs for the family and maybe a nice bag and watch for myself!

How does all this sound?

athtrasna

I would budget at least $100 a day for food to factor in tips

ProudDUB

$900 is just $64 per day. You can do it, but only if you are careful and you budget well.

Breakfast - Find the nearest IHOP or cheap diner and pig out for a tenner. Eat the hotels free continental brekkie, if they offer one. A lot do. Stuff a new bananas & muffins into your bag to snack on during the day.

Lunch - Grab a sambo or a burrito somewhere. Shouldn't be all that hard or expensive.

Dinner - Find where the nearest Applebees, TGI Fridays, Olive Garden etc etc restaurants are and have dinner there. They are chains of restaurants that are in all the cities. They are not haute cuisine by any stretch of the imagination, but they will be filling and relatively cheap. Vegas is going to be tough, especially with all the tipping that goes on. Research who has the best deals for all you can eat buffets. You aren't going to be doing much fine dining if that is your budget. I'd up it to 1000 per day and just buy a cheaper watch. You certainly won't be doing much drinking or clubbing, on that kind of money.

Car - Find out what car you will be driving and what miles to the gallon it gets. (Stay away from gas guzzling SUV's.) Google current gas prices in CA & NV. Use Google maps to calculate your mileage. That should give you an idea of what you'll expect to pay on petrol. There are websites and apps out there that let you calculate your travel costs when doing long road trips. Dunno what they are, but that is why God invented Google.

Hotels - Have a look at Priceline. If you find a deal, have a look at the reviews on TripaAdvisor before you book. Make sure your hotels give you free parking. A lot of them can charge up to $30 per day to park there. See if you can sign up for reward programs now. Some of the larger hotel chains (Hilton, Sheraton, Doubletree etc) let you have one night free, after just 5-7 nights. Also check if resort fees are included in the upfront price you are quoted. Vegas can be particularly bad for stinging people on these.

Q_ueeny

ProudDUB wrote: »

$900 is just $64 per day. You can do it, but only if you are careful and you budget well.

Breakfast - Find the nearest IHOP or cheap diner and pig out for a tenner. Eat the hotels free continental brekkie, if they offer one. A lot do. Stuff a new bananas & muffins into your bag to snack on during the day.

Lunch - Grab a sambo or a burrito somewhere. Shouldn't be all that hard or expensive.

Dinner - Find where the nearest Applebees, TGI Fridays, Olive Garden etc etc restaurants are and have dinner there. They are chains of restaurants that are in all the cities. They are not haute cuisine by any stretch of the imagination, but they will be filling and relatively cheap. Vegas is going to be tough, especially with all the tipping that goes on. Research who has the best deals for all you can eat buffets. You aren't going to be doing much fine dining if that is your budget. I'd up it to 1000 per day and just buy a cheaper watch. You certainly won't be doing much drinking or clubbing, on that kind of money.

Car - Find out what car you will be driving and what miles to the gallon it gets. (Stay away from gas guzzling SUV's.) Google current gas prices in CA & NV. Use Google maps to calculate your mileage. That should give you an idea of what you'll expect to pay on petrol. There are websites and apps out there that let you calculate your travel costs when doing long road trips. Dunno what they are, but that is why God invented Google.

Hotels - Have a look at Priceline. If you find a deal, have a look at the reviews on TripaAdvisor before you book. Make sure your hotels give you free parking. A lot of them can charge up to $30 per day to park there. See if you can sign up for reward programs now. Some of the larger hotel chains (Hilton, Sheraton, Doubletree etc) let you have one night free, after just 5-7 nights. Also check if resort fees are included in the upfront price you are quoted. Vegas can be particularly bad for stinging people on these.

Thank you for all this info. Very helpful. I will Google gas prices and use Google maps to calculate how much it will cost us , very good idea. I do like eating nice food so I will also rethink the food budget aswell.

All hotels we have paid for already have the resort fee included as we made sure of that at the time of booking. Also the price I had above for a hotel for the last few nights had this factored in aswell.

Never even thought of parking and paying for this!

Thanks again!

ProudDUB

No problem...check for free wifi too. A lot of hotels will charge you for internet access, so check on that if you need to be connected to the internet while you are there.

iusedtoknow

Q_ueeny wrote: »

Thank you for all this info. Very helpful. I will Google gas prices and use Google maps to calculate how much it will cost us , very good idea. I do like eating nice food so I will also rethink the food budget aswell.

All hotels we have paid for already have the resort fee included as we made sure of that at the time of booking. Also the price I had above for a hotel for the last few nights had this factored in aswell.

Never even thought of parking and paying for this!

Thanks again!

Gas is currently running around $3.80 -> $4 a gallon. Stay away from Shell..they are most expensive.

As for food "nice food" can run up to $80 a person, not including tip depending on where you eat, especially in Vegas - even middle of the road, not bad but not great can be in the 40's.

LA is great for food - download an app called "yelp", it will give you the best (and often not most expensive) restaurants around you with reviews by people.

ceadaoin.

iusedtoknow wrote: »

Gas is currently running around $3.80 -> $4 a gallon. Stay away from Shell..they are most expensive.

As for food "nice food" can run up to $80 a person, not including tip depending on where you eat, especially in Vegas - even middle of the road, not bad but not great can be in the 40's.

LA is great for food - download an app called "yelp", it will give you the best (and often not most expensive) restaurants around you with reviews by people.

I would say you can eat good food for quite cheap in Vegas if you venture off the strip a bit. Dinner for 2 adults and a child in a nice non strip restaurant for us including a couple of glasses of wine and coffees usually comes to about $60-$80 total plus tip. The only difference is if you go to one of the chains you get a ton of food for roughly the same price that you can box up and takeaway if you want to really stretch it out.