We managed to stretch our $12,000 European vacation budget to cover first-class plane tickets and a 12-night cruise. Here's how.

08.04.2024 - 01:15 / insider.com / Delta I (I) / Ed Sheeran / Cruises

This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Allie Hubers , a 29-year-old freelance travel writer. It's been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider verified Hubers' expenses.

My husband Luke and I met in college at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota during our sophomore year. We have traveled together over the past 10 years, including trips to Europe, Asia, and Africa, and hopped on cruises around countries like Morocco, Thailand, Malaysia, Croatia, and Italy.

I'm a freelance travel writer, and Luke is a pilot with the US Air Force. He's been flying since he was 16. We both have high levels of wanderlust and traveling together is how we keep our marriage strong.

We allocate a budget to travel every month and our favorite way to travel is cruising. In 2022, we spent a total of $20,000 on cruises. The most expensive trip we went on was a 12-night cruise around Europe.

At the time, Luke had just returned from a months-long deployment, so we wanted to spend some quality time together. We had a $12,000 budget, which included the cruise, first-class airfare, tickets to an Ed Sheeran concert, and hotel stays. We had been saving for this trip for years. Here is a a breakdown of our budget.

Cost of plane tickets: $4,000

We spent $1,200 each on economy tickets with Delta Air Lines from Florida to London. We ended up upgrading to first-class Delta One the night before our flight. The upgrade cost $800 each. We hadn't taken a special trip together for years, so thesplurge was well worth it.

This isn't standard for us, but an enticing upgrade offer was too tempting to turn down.

Cost of concert tickets: $476

Luke and I are big fans of Ed Sheeran. He was playing a set in Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. We snagged general admission tickets for around $116 each.

We both love his song "Tenerife Sea." When we first met in college, we added Tenerife — an island in Spain — to our bucket list. We ended up going to Tenerife during our 12-night cruise, and it was just as beautiful as the song made it out to be.

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We also got tickets for Imagine Dragons at the last minute, and those tickets were $244.

Cost of hotel stays: $621

During our trip, we stayed in four hotels. We spent two nights at The Edition, a five-star hotel near Soho in London. While a night's stay at The Edition costs around $670, we used 60,000 Marriott points each night and didn't have to pay cash.

We also spent a night at The Montcalm East Autograph in London for $350 and our last night at the Renaissance London Heathrow for $111 before flying back to the US.

To attend Ed Sheeran's concert, we spent a night at Newcastle Marriott Hotel Metrocenter, which cost $160. When we returned to London, we spent a