Most Americans refuse to surrender their summer vacation even as travel costs climb to multi-year highs. A new survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults by luggage-shipping company LugLess found that despite rising travel costs, such as airfare and baggage fees, vacation remains a priority for most Americans, with only 13% planning to skip a trip entirely this year. For the remaining majority, getting away has become something closer to a financial obligation than a discretionary splurge.
Vacation as a protected expense
Going on vacation is non-negotiable for 60% of respondents, though 41% of that group say they will scale back their plans to stay within budget. The pattern reflects what travel researchers have been tracking across a range of surveys this summer: Americans are not abandoning leisure travel so much as restructuring everything around it.
Among Americans traveling less this year, nearly half, 46%, say the reason is simple: they need to save money. Yet the response to that pressure is rarely outright cancellation. Twenty-seven percent of respondents have cut the total number of trips they take, and 16% have switched to a cheaper destination.
That willingness to restructure spending to preserve travel plans underscores how deeply the annual vacation has embedded itself in the American household as a near-fixed cost, a shift that connects to broader research on how leisure spending priorities have realigned for millions of families navigating stretched budgets.
Affordability is reshaping where and how people go
An Experian survey of more than 1,000 consumers conducted in June 2026 found that two-thirds of Americans, 67%, find travel less affordable this summer compared to 2025. Fuel prices play a role, as domestic road trips remain the most popular mode of summer travel, cited by 43% of respondents.
A separate report from the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) found that travelers are finding creative ways to stretch their budgets by choosing destinations closer to home, reconsidering their mode of transportation, and seeking hotels with amenities like complimentary breakfast and loyalty rewards to help offset costs, even as 57% of Americans say travel costs more now than last year and 56% still plan to take a summer trip.
When asked where they are cutting back to fund those trips, respondents said they would reduce spending on shopping (43%), dining out (39%), and entertainment (26%) before scaling back on their hotel stay (24%).
Deloitte’s survey of 4,003 Americans, fielded from April 2 to April 9, 2026, found that only 45% of respondents are planning vacations with stays in paid lodging, the lowest in the last six years. Travel incidence is down across all income levels but is most pronounced among households earning less than $100,000 per year, falling eight percentage points year-over-year.
Travelers who go are spending more, not less
The income skew in the traveler pool is producing a counterintuitive spending signal. Those who decide to travel seem largely unwilling to make significant compromises to rein in budgets.
Travelers surveyed by Deloitte anticipate spending an average of $4,069 on their longest summer trip, up 17% from 2025. About one in four travelers plan to significantly raise trip budgets, up five percentage points from last year, driven largely by higher airline and lodging prices.
Across multiple surveys, consumers are not abandoning vacations but are becoming more selective about which destinations earn their time and dollars. The trend of younger travelers reshaping destination choices based on cultural signals is adding another layer of selectivity on top of purely financial calculations.
Baggage fees and logistics now part of the calculus
LugLess co-CEO Audrey Kohout said Americans are “becoming much more intentional about how they spend so they don’t have to sacrifice their vacations,” describing the trip as something they protect, cutting everyday expenses, rethinking airline choices, and looking for ways to avoid unnecessary fees.
The broader picture that emerges across multiple surveys is of an American traveling public reshaping summer vacation plans, choosing shorter journeys, more affordable destinations, and value-focused hotels instead of automatically abandoning their holidays. Baggage fees, fuel surcharges, and accommodation inflation are changing the math of getting there, but for most households, getting there remains non-negotiable.
