What It Actually Costs to Take Those Once-in-a-lifetime Trips

Everyone who loves to travel has their own list of can’t-miss, once-in-a-lifetime trips.

Whether they’re bucket-list worthy destinations like the whitewashed homes of Santorini over the turquoise Aegean or do-before-you-die expeditions like summiting Mount Everest, they are extraordinary experiences that promise to change your life.

According to the travel planning and booking site TripAdvisor, however, crossing these items off the bucket list can be an expensive venture.

A trip to the top of Everest, for example, routinely costs upwards of $45,000. There’s the price of alpine equipment and oxygen tanks, and the cost of hiring a Sherpa. Add in training, food, and flights to Nepal, and it’s easy to see how a two-month journey can get expensive quickly. And while the Himalayan peak is not be on TripAdvisor’s TripIndex, but it gives you an idea of how quickly these things can add up.

On average, the cost of the top 10 most popular life-changing adventures is about $5,000 for two travelers. By factoring in an upscale hotel stay, round-trip airfare, taxi rides, a day tour, and meals, TripAdvisor and research firm Kantar TNS were able to identify an approximate price tag for ever vacation.

“Those on a tighter budget can book a [trip to] Angkor Wat or the Grand Canyon for about $3,000,” said TripAdvisor’s senior director of communications Brooke Ferencsik.

Fortunately, these “once-in-a-lifetime” trips, for many visitors, are really just that: a one-time cost, for a transformative, unforgettable experience you can carry with you until your savings account recovers.