Dreaming about your next vacation? Consider using a travel credit card to pay

My 2020 travel plans were a bust, but I’m still dreaming about all the places I’ll go once it’s safer to get on the road again — and I’m not alone.

According to the American Express Travel: Global Travel Trends Report, 76% of travelers are creating their destination wish list for future travel, even though they might not be able to travel yet.

If you count yourself among those people, it's probably exciting to think about all of the places you plan on visiting. You may be planning a long-overdue trip to visit family or finally rescheduling a getaway with your significant other.

While you’re creating your destination wish list, you should also consider how you plan to pay for a vacation. The cost of travel can add up, and 61% of survey respondents plan to spend more than they normally would on a trip this year, since they couldn’t travel in 2020.

Using the right credit card can save you a great deal of money on travel and allow you to benefit from robust benefits, like airport lounge access and dining credits.

Below, we break down the best travel credit cards that can take your next vacation from basic to luxurious.

Best overall

Runner-Up

Best welcome bonus

Best for luxury travel

Best for no annual fee

Best for low interest

Dreaming about future travel can be exciting, but paying for a vacation can take some of the fun out of it. If you use one of the travel cards mentioned above, you can earn lucrative rewards that can offset the cost. And if you choose a premium travel card, you can save money on flights, hotels and food with annual travel or dining credits — helping you lower your total bill but hold on to the good memories.

To determine which cards will put the most money back in your pocket, CNBC Select evaluated 35 popular travel credit cards offered by major banks, financial companies and credit unions that allow anyone to join. We compared each card on a range of features, including travel rewards (points and miles), annual fee, welcome bonus, introductory and standard APR, one-time perks, annual perks, redemption rates, as well as factors such as required credit and customer reviews when available.

CNBC Select teamed up with location intelligence firm Esri. The company’s data development team provided the most up-to-date and comprehensive consumer spending data based on the 2019 Consumer Expenditure Surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can read more about their methodology here.

Esri’s data team created a sample annual budget of approximately $22,126 in retail spending. The budget includes six main categories: groceries ($5,174), gas ($2,218), dining out ($3,675), travel ($2,244), utilities ($4,862) and general purchases ($3,953). General purchases include items such as housekeeping supplies, clothing, personal care products, prescription drugs and vitamins, and other vehicle expenses.

We then estimated how much the average consumer would redeem over the course of a year, two years and five years, assuming they would attempt to maximize their rewards potential by earning all welcome bonuses offered and using the card for all applicable purchases. All rewards total estimations are net the annual fee and assume that you are paying your credit card balance on time and in full each month so as not to incur interest charges.

It’s important to note the value of a point or mile varies from card to card and based on how you redeem them. When we calculated the estimated returns, we assumed that cardholders are redeeming points/miles for a typical maximum value of 1 cent per point or mile. (Extreme optimizers might be able to achieve more value.)

Our final picks are weighted heavily toward the highest five-year returns, since it’s generally wise to hold onto a credit card for years. This method also avoids giving an unfair advantage to cards with large welcome bonuses.

While the five-year estimates we’ve included are derived from a budget similar to the average American’s spending, you may earn a higher or lower return depending on your travel habits.