What I'm spending on travel in 2026 as a travel blogger (who doesn't travel full time)

Lengthy title aside, I'm really interested in the financial side of travel and wanted to put this blog post together to share how much I end up spending on travel throughout 2026. While I'm not a full time travel blogger, it is my favourite pastime and all of my annual leave is spent on trips and holidays! 

I'm writing this intro in January after reading a similar blog post from my friend Laura, and I wanted to put together my own little version. Mine will look slightly different, as I'm going to update month by month as I book, pay for and actually go on all my 2026 trips. I know talking about money is taboo for some people, but I'm fascinated and I know there's plenty of nosy people out there just like me...

Also, a little caveat to say I'm including the full cost spent between me and my wife, as we of course share everything between us. At the end of the year I'll split it in half and see what we each ended up spending! I'm also not including the amount we add to our travel savings pots each month, as I'll include that money when it actually gets spent. Hopefully that makes sense, and without further ado let's get into what I'm spending on travel throughout 2026 as a travel blogger who (sadly) works full time.

What I spent on travel in January 2026

January was a month without any physical travel, as it often is for many people. But that's not to say money didn't get spent on travel! Here's what I paid out towards my all time favourite hobby of seeing the world...

£350 - cruise top-up payment. We booked our 2026 cruise with Marella and paid a deposit at the time; we then had to make a January payment before we pay the remainder of the balance in February. We were very lucky to get money towards our honeymoon as wedding gifts, so this came out of that pot.

£25 - cottage holiday deposit. We're going on a UK cottage break in December with my wife's family and I was in charge of the booking, so I paid out for the deposit to book this in.

£90 - new suitcases. My wife and I usually only travel with hand luggage, but for our cruise and our trip to Turkey this year we've got a much bigger luggage allowance so we needed to get some suitcases which we could fill with clothes and check in! I got our new ones from Tripp (in the January sale) which is my Dad's go-to brand so I know they're good.

£120 - deposit for a weekend break to Paris for my birthday in July. This was in fact easyJet credit we had from cancelling a trip last year, so technically free... #girlmaths 

January 2026 total: £585 

What I spent on travel in February 2026

Again, we didn't actually do any travelling in February - my wife did go to visit her parents, but I'm not counting that in this travel spending round up. We're really itching to go away at this point, so we're counting down the days to our cruise! Here's what we spent on travel in February 2026...

£4440.24 - final cruise balance. I think February will win as the highest spending month when it comes to travel... The majority of this payment has been sitting in the bank gaining interest since last year as a lot of it was made up from leftover wedding savings and our really lovely monetary gifts from family and guests. So, the cruise is paid off and we're SO excited!

February 2026 total: £4440.24

What I spent on travel in March 2026

Another month with no *actual* travel, other than a work trip to London, and I'm SO excited to be getting really close to our cruise in May! Here's everything we spent on travel in March 2026...

£5.59 - sparkly top for our cruise. I wasn't sure whether to include things like clothes in this post, but at the end of the day I wouldn't have bought this top if it wasn't for our upcoming cruise; I picked up a sequinned t-shirt on Vinted, originally by 'et vous', and I can't wait to style it.

£17.79 - Maya Deluxe evening dress. Again, this is for our upcoming cruise and was a brand new unworn STEAL from Vinted! It's by the brand Maya Deluxe, and it's a stunning burgundy sequinned number that will really complement my wife's suit for the one formal night of our itinerary! 

£207.38 - Disneyland Paris tickets. In January we booked a mini break to Paris for my birthday in July, and of course we're going to Disney! We opted for the 2 park, 1 day tickets which came in at £103.69 per person - booked through attractiontix. I'm soooooooo excited.

£61.07 - cruise insurance. I am a firm believer in travel insurance, everybody should have it - and for a Marella cruise, you literally have to. You need to submit your policy number as part of your passenger information, so I made sure to get this sorted this month. We went with Leisure Guard, which was the best quote I found via Compare the Market.

£143 - trains to Guildford. We're taking a trip down south in June for my brother in law's birthday, and I've been keeping an eye out for tickets to become available; they finally did, so we booked them this month and saved over £60 using the Two Together railcard discount - so we'll definitely have had our money's worth with just this one trip!

March 2026 total: £434.83

What I spent on travel in April 2026

£43.48 - Disneyland accessories. As mentioned we're off to Disneyland Paris in July, and I'll be making the most of it! I ordered some ears, my outfit, my wife's t shirt and some other little accessories to make the day even more magical.

£341 - hotel in Guildford. For the aforementioned birthday bash down in Guilford, we of course need somewhere to stay; I booked our hotel through booking.com - we're staying Friday, Saturday and Sunday so I didn't think the price was too bad in the end!

£320 - holiday clothes shopping. We're not usually people who go out and buy a whole new wardrobe for a trip, but with our cruise being our honeymoon (and not our typical style of holiday) we had some gaps to fill. This covered everything from stocking up on basic t shirts to buying a velour Juicy Couture tracksuit for 90s night... all of the clothes will be worn again during the summer and on future trips, too, but I wanted to count them here. I've also included things like skincare, SPF, a new portable charger and so on.

£45 - dry cleaning and alterations. Our cruise has a formal night (of course) and we needed to get my wife's wedding suit dry cleaned and pressed, and the dress I bought off vinted needed taking up as I didn't realise I'd bought it from the 'tall' range... oops!

£38 - deposit for a trip to Iceland. We've actually just booked a 3 night trip to Iceland with our besties in February; for the past couple of years, we've had a little savings pot between the four of us, each putting in a fiver per week. We've previously used the money for a trip to York, a night at the darts, and a trip to Lithuania. We're increasing the savings to £10 each per week, and this is more or less paying for our holiday to Iceland. The deposit was £19pp so I've included mine and my wife's here.

April 2026 total: £787.48

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this total climbs throughout the year and working out what a travel blogger really spends on travel in a year!