Yes, traveling in the off season is always good bet. We went to Vienna 4 years go and the R/T airfare was $398 (including taxes)!! Don't think I'll get that again.

Would have to go to Greece in the off-season as I hate hot weather.

Biloburgler -- Iceland? I've heard it's outrageously expensive. I know they've had a hard time financially recently - but could their prices have gone down enough to make it a good deal?

if you stay off the flipper and stay in B&B probably the lowest cost you have seen in past ten years. But ok still a bit pricy

Turkey is a great value with tons of interesting sights but Romania is even less expensive. I've been to both in the last year, you may click my name to find both trip reports.

P_M - Just started reading your trip Report to Romania. fascinating. Did you all complain to your tour company about the Coroana Hotel in Brasov?

What was the price of this tour?

Hi kenav, thank you for your nice words about my report. I have not sent my feedback to the tour company yet, as I faced a serious health problem within days of my return from Romania. (my health problem had nothing to do with my trip) I am much better now and I do intend to fill out my survery, in fact thanks for reminding me of that. I will search for the survey in my emails now.

The price was somewhere around $1,500 including the local payment, however that included an extra charge for a single room. The single supplement charge is optional, you can pay the lower rate and they will set you up with a roommate of your same gender.

P_M - I just finished your wonderful report. Got an urge to drink some liquid fat.

Very scary medical stuff you went through. Are you out of the woods? Did they ever find out exactly what your problem was (is)?

Best to you.

Hi again kenav, thank you for asking. By the grace of God I did not have cancer!! Once they ruled out cancer they thought it was parasites so they were going to test me further and try to treat it with medication. But things took an ugly turn as I developed pneumonia and started coughing up weird stuff. They did surgery on 9/4 to remove th upper lobe of my right lung. This lobe I lost is about half the lung. The subsequent pathology reports revealed a serious bacterial infection. It was already too late to treat this infection with meds as it was out of control so the surgery was necessary. Additionally the lung had adhered to my chest wall which made the surgery last 7 hours instead of 3 hours as planned.

I just returned to work yesterday and while I'm not feeling 100% well yet, I'm much better. Mentally I feel like a million bucks!! Finding out you don't have cancer is better than winning the lottery. :-)

I like Transylvania more than the rest of Romania and prices do fall off there as well

bilboburgler - Where did you go in Transylvania? Did you go with a group or independently? Where did you fly into?

We stayed in Portugal 100m from the beach for E650 for a week in a three bedroom, two bath apartment. And in central Lisbon for E95 a night in a wonderful studio apartment with air and a washing machine. This in August.

Sher - What beach/area were you near? How did you find this apt.?

We found the apartment on owner's direct. But they do not advertise all year round.
This beach is in Salir do Porto. It is on the opposite side of the cove from San Martinho do Porto.
Salir only has about 700 people and it is less than two hours north of Lisbon. Obidos is about 15km away.
I do have the email of the owners and if you are interested they said to just pass it along.
The only problem is that you cannot see the house if the listing is down. Maybe they can send you pictures.
It is actually a very large looking house from the outside but has four apartments in it. It is really fairly new.
Sherry

The first level had two bedrooms and a bath with tub and shower. Also a large lounge with a nice sized kitchen including a washing machine but no dishwasher.
The second floor had a lounge, bedroom with twin beds, bathroom with shower and a balcony with sea views.

I am bringing this to the top as someone contacted me with a request for information about this property but when I tried sending you the owner's address it bounced back as undeliverable from your email address.

So, I wanted to try to give you the information some other way. The address of the owner is

[email protected]

Good luck. This is a very nice property. I hope this catches your eye and you can contact them directly.

<<Ditto to Turkey.>>

Another ditto for Turkey. Istanbul is in Europe but you can take a ferry across the Bosporus and visit Asia Minor.

Buenos Aries is nice too but I don't know what the air fare is.

Why is Prague so expensive? Airfare going to mostly.

Thinking of a trip in the first week of September.

Cheaper to go to Spain, where you have more daylight and warmer weather. But been to Spain whereas never been to the CR.

Prague is also very expensive there. Its so expensive that many Czechs don't visit. It's all those tourists!

Some cities where you can get great deals: Vienna, Berlin, Madrid.

Venice in the off-season can be fairly reasonable. It's not that hard to get a well-located 3* single for 45-50 Euros/night. There are a few good food deals, and you can also go to the supermarkets.

I know it doesn't suit everyone, but I've been finding Mexico to be a great option. Lots of culture, architecture, and the arts. Of course so many things are cheaply priced for tourists from developed countries. I love Mexico City in the same way I love Rome, but it's so much cheaper for me to visit.

Recently got back from Venice and found it very very expensive. The food! OMG! So even if you got a good room deal, the food (not too good) was the killer.

WillTravel - What well located 3* hotel in Venice are you talking about? 45-50 Euros/night per person or per room?

Both Portugal and Greece offer good values if you stay in small family owned hotles and eat at the local tavernas.