nytraveler

Agree this is not a great idea. There are so many more issues iwth travel than just how can I find a cheap hotel. And for may of them - sights to visit, itineraries, culture, local transit etc - there is no reasosn to divide budget travlers from others.

You can simply ask budget hotel info here - and ignore questions on 3* restaurants if you like.

julies

Katie--

Looks like we were posting at exactly the same time, so I hadn't seen your response when I was typing.

LoveItaly

Hi julies, my thought is that sometimes posters ask a question in a way that does not truly explain what they need. If a poster asks the best way to get from an airport to their hotel others will say taxi's or suggest a certain shuttle bus company. It than turns out the original poster really meant they wanted the least expensive way to get from the airport to their hotel.
Just one example.

GSteed

Hey! I think what many posters want is simply access or information about the lowest price available for any tourist service. My very rich friends are often frugal to the point of foolishness. A few less endowed friends are embarrassed to ask for better prices. Fodor's guide books offer many suggestions about prices. This forum already supplies budget travel information.

janisj

I think it is a pretty unworkable idea. Lots of trips have some budget/penny pinching and some splurge.

having dueling forums for budget Europe and "regular" Europe is silly. Anyone can - and many do - post questions and tips about budget travel in Europe.

Lets quit Balkanizing the forums. The Smart Travel Tips forum gets a 10-15 posts a day - this one gets 20 - 100+ posts an hour, depending on the time of day.

If it ain't broke don't mess it up. Just because something <i>can</i> be done doesn't mean it <i>should</i>

libssmfamily

&quot;I'm interested in communicating with like-minded travelers who are past the backpacking and hostel-staying age but still want to travel economically. Many of us, for varying reasons, prefer not to partake in high end travel to Europe.&quot;

Amen!

yk

I agree it won't work very well. I think a lot of posters here will scrimp on certain things (be it food, or hotel, or transportation) but willing to splurge on others. I consider myself a budget traveler (have stayed at the LSE dorm room in London), yet <u>on the same trip</u>, I ate at a Michelin star restaurant and upgraded myself to Business class.

I think most of the people here just want to have the best value for the $ they paid.

There have been several threads here in the last couple of months titled
How to beat the &euro; in ___
that were started by Fodors' editors. I think those threads were great.

norrisken

&quot;pretty unworkable&quot;, &quot;silly&quot;, &quot;don't mess it up&quot;
Take it easy. The OP made a suggestion not a demand. Let's lighten up and allow all to express their opinions, thoughts, and ideas. If you don't like an idea fine, but spread a little kindness next time.

danon

agree with janisj.
If one starts cutting the post
you could have one for:
families
high end travel
groups of women traveling together
fashion minded travelers
travelers who rent cars
solo travelers
travelers who like big cities
travelers who hate big cities
travelers who hate cities where people smoke
........need one go on?

suze

BAD idea... Sorry but another regular long-time poster who thinks this is NOT a very good idea.

Reason being, the more you dilute and separate into various specialty forums the less participation each one gets.

It's easy enough to talk about budget travel, just title your post with that word. Simply state things in dollar/euro amounts (i.e., rather than ask about a &quot;cheap&quot; hotel, say you need one under 75 euro a night or whatever).

There are many experienced people who post here who may spend a lot more money on their hotel in Paris than I do, or even local residents various places, who may well know of a hidden gem for me in a lower price range.

If you don't want to read about people and their expensive dinner tabs it's easy enough to skip those posts.

suze

&lt;&lt;then maybe a place where we can post our budget tips, ideas, and experiences&gt;&gt;

There already *IS* a place for that! Just go to the newly invented &quot;Smart Travel Tips&quot; forum and start some new topics. That's what Fodor's only recently created it for.

When they took away the Solo Traveler forum that is (but that would be a different gripe from this one!).

floydvic

I think it better to just have the one forum for a particular destination. I am a &quot;budget&quot; traveler. Yes that term means different things to different people. To me it means a limited amount of money that I stretch by using bargain airfares and searching for relatively good deals for lodging and food. I have as a result experienced some of the world's best travel experiences that many in the world will sadly never see. But, I enjoy reading about the adventures of folks who go places I would never enter and often find suggestions or advice that may be applicable to my own travels. I hesittate to ramble on too far but as a guide to what I mean as a budget I used priceline for hotels in London and spent a wee bit more than I might otherwise and did get a fancy (by my standards) Marriott hotel; in Spain I stay at the hostals, in Morocco, Italy, Switzerland at budget hotels plucked from guides (on line and in book form). It was a kick to stand on the tiny balcony of my $50 very basic hotel room in Geneva and look first at the lake and then at the Hilton directly across the street where the rooms didn't have a balcony and only the $450 rooms even had a view of the lake. Of course the dollar has gone south and if I get back to Europe (my last trip was in 2007 to Spain and Morocco) the bargains will take a bit more hunting to find and if and when I do go I will be reading on this forum for ideas to use In summary, I think the forum is fine just as it exists.

amyb

Had to chime in and say that I don't think it'll work either. I think I am a &quot;budget&quot; traveler when I compare myself to my Business Class fare/5-star hotel coworker, but I don't think an $800 coach fare to Rome is bad today, which to some is outrageous. So who's idea of budget do you use?

I also agree with yk, I will scrimp on some things like shuttles or hotel but think nothing of spending a lot of money on a really good dining experience or a once in a lifetime sightseeing experience. So where would I be expected to post?

suze

Katie_H~
If you want to honor this idea, why not just made &quot;Budget Travel&quot; another option on the drop-down submenu of the &quot;Smart Travel Tips&quot; forum that you guys just made. Wouldn't that be the place it belongs in the current set-up? This could provide a place for people interested in budget-only type postings plus get some traffic in an otherwise quiet forum.

FainaAgain

I wonder which category an &quot;affordable hotel&quot; will fit? What is budget for one, luxury for another.

OK, done with the hotel. On to places to see. Where do I go to search museums, budget or regular?

Wait a moment, why is &quot;splurging&quot; regular? Or is it? Confusing

And walking tours don't cost any money. Is it budget or luxury, both or neither?

suze

Julies~ If you haven't already, go read the tread called &quot;5 rules for cutting European travel costs&quot;.

It's VERY funny. Even the self proclaimed budget travelers can't agree about how far they will go to save money. Are you willing to drink warm beer from the supermarket to save money, or do you splurge for a cold one at the corner tavern?

So we can have a separate forum for those who are cheap but willing to pay for cold beer &amp; those who are soooo cheap they'll drink it warm -lol!!!

norrisken

lol, true!

MomDDTravel

I really like reading all the tips because one or two might appeal to me. I would hate to see it in a seperate place.

rex

Thumbs up to the &quot;tags&quot; idea, Katie...

Even better would be the use of human staff to apply tags - - both geographic and &quot;type&quot; (family, budget, romantic, etc) - - since I can virtually guarantee that end-users will do a less-than-stunning of self-tagging.

Thumbs down for the segregation notion.

Best wishes,

Rex

jmw444

Katie h, the &quot;big bucket&quot; approach is what brings me back here to browse again and again. There's always something to discover. Even though I'm addicted to Swiss travel, I don't enjoy visits to the dedicated forum at another website nearly as much as I do this Europe forum. Keep up the good work. jmw