USA ·Feb 06, 2023

Our 3 Week USA Trip: Exact Cost & Expense Breakdown Revealed!

If you follow us on stories, you’ll know we recently went on an amazing trip halfway around the world to cross some big things off our travel bucket list.

It’s been a dream for a long time to do more of the USA, and while we did have some nightmare weather, the trip was truly something special.

How much does a 3-week USA trip cost from Australia?

Lots of you have asked what we spent altogether, including all the ‘touristy’ things like Disneyland, Vegas and a bunch of national parks. So, we’ve added it all together for you, and the grand total was…$22,546 AUD

Our original estimate was $21K, so we stayed pretty close to budget. This figure includes every single cost of our trip, even the care for our three dogs over the Christmas period!

Short on time? Read this:

Total: $22,546 AUD for a family of three (2 adults, 1 child), 3 weeks in the USA
Flights: $1300 ($433 per person), because we used Qantas points
Accommodation: $5000 (I primarily booked on Booking.com)
Travel insurance, visas and international roaming: $907 (we used SCTI and Airalo)
Activities and attractions: $3600 (Check KLOOK for discounted tickets)
Car hire, extra insurance and fuel: $2700 (we hired through Turo)
Groceries and eating out: $3327 (about $160 per day)
Spending money: $2055
Airport pickup and Ubers/Lyfts: $428
Melbourne Airport parking: $529
Boarding kennels for our three dogs: $2700

Our USA route, in order:

Melbourne, Brisbane, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Las Vegas, Utah, Arizona, Barstow (Route 66), Los Angeles, Brisbane, then home to Melbourne.

Here's the exact cost breakdown of our 3-week USA trip:

Flights: $1300 ($433 per person)

We booked return flights for three from Melbourne to LA via Brisbane with Qantas. Because we used points, we only had to pay the taxes.

Points hacking was new to us, and we didn’t have a heap of frequent flyer points banked up. Want to know how we earned our points so quickly? Read my points hacking blog HERE.

This tip alone saved us $7700!

Lots of people talk about using points for business class seats, but we used ours for economy seats (it takes far fewer points), then put the cash we saved towards accommodation. That meant we could travel sooner.

Accommodation: $5000

Hotel Peppertree & Suites in Anaheim: Click HERE to see prices

Saving money in Anaheim - Best hotel near Disneyland:

While it was tempting to stay at Disneyland, we chose to save the cash and stay off-site, at a hotel very close to Disneyland.

Hotel Peppertree & Suites was the best hotel I found for our family. It saved us a lot, and having a kitchen for the first week helped with our food budget too.

Planning a trip to Disneyland from Australia?

You can see what the Disney portion of the trip cost in our full Disneyland cost breakdown HERE.

Day trips from Anaheim and Lake Powell:

While we were based in Anaheim, we also did day trips to all the hot spots in LA, plus Temecula, San Diego and La Jolla.

While we were based in Lake Powell, we also visited Horseshoe Bend and the Antelope Canyons.

You can see our full day-by-day itinerary HERE.

Travel insurance, visas, & international roaming: $907

We never travel without fully comprehensive travel insurance.

For this trip, we went with Southern Cross Travel Insurance, which we find is the best family travel insurance for families. I love that they insure kids for free with paying adults.

For mobile data, we used King Sims on this trip, but we’ve since discovered eSIMs and now use Airalo.

An eSIM means you don’t have to swap a physical SIM card in and out of your phone, which is way more convenient.

Click to get a quote from SCTI travel insurance

Kids are insured for FREE

Click to purchase a USA eSim

Activities & attractions: $3600

This covered Disneyland (both the original park and California Adventure), ice hockey, basketball, Anaheim 1, Santa Monica Pier, national park entrance fees and a few tours.

The best place to buy Disney tickets?

I’m often asked where to buy Disneyland tickets from Australia. We purchased our Disney tickets directly; however, it is worth checking KLOOK first, as KLOOK often have discounted Disneyland tickets

The best place to buy NBA, hockey and show tickets?

Likewise, I'm asked this. We purchased NBA tickets, etc from Australia on Ticketmaster.

Car hire, extra insurance & fuel: $2700

We saved a lot of money by hiring cars through Turo which is like Airbnb for cars.

This was our first time using Turo, and I’d happily do it again. We had a great experience.

Note: We took out over-and-above car insurance with Turo.

Groceries & eating out: $3327

We spent an average of $160 per day on food. We kept costs down largely thanks to having a kitchen for the whole first week at Hotel Peppertree, and doing a shop at Walmart when we landed.

Spending money: $2055

This amount included the shopping spree in duty-free, and Victorias Secret as well as Disney souvenirs.

Airport pickup at LAX and Ubers/Lyfts: $428

We tried to use Lyft when we needed a taxi, as we found it considerably cheaper than Uber in the USA.

Airport parking at Melbourne Airport: $529

We parked in the closest parking to Melbourne Airport. That said, there are definitely cheaper options around, so if you’re wanting to cut some fat from the budget, you could save money here.

Boarding Kennels: $2700

Caring for our three dogs over the Christmas period wasn’t cheap, but we knew they were well looked after while we were away.

Is a 3-week USA trip with kids worth it?

This trip was a huge expense for us, but we spent considerable time saving and planning for it. Was it worth it?
Absolutely. We made some incredible memories.

Got Q’s for us? We’d love to hear from you! Feel free to drop us a DM.

Kindest,

Kirstin & Tom.

P.S. If you haven't already done so, read our blog post on how we got return flights to the US for $433 pp during the school holidays.

This tip alone saved us $7700, and meant we got to go to Disneyland way earlier than we thought we'd be able to!