dhoffman

Your replies have been great reading. I too am over 60 and have loved my wife and my trips to Europe. I feel we will spend this summer in the states maybe visit Quebec for its 400 year anniversary and wait until 2009 for our European trip. I look forward to Slovenia, Croatia and Bulgaria.

mcnyc

The falling Euro has been a concern for me, but it's a concern I leave in the back of my mind. You see, I take my mom on those European trips. It's a dream of hers to explore as much of Europe while she's mobile, and it is my pleasure to help her towards that goal.

But I did give up my own trip to Europe this past summer because of the rising Euro. I did it because I had planned on taking my mom to Paris for her birthday. And I will continue to give up my own trips if it means my mom can continue to go to Europe without worrying about finances.

Or if I want to keep my own trips to Europe, I will only go to cities where I have friends, so I can stay at their places.

mcnyc

Er, that should have been "my finances" and not just random finances.

Surfergirl

Luimari, tell me about it! We took our son on his first trip to Europe at 13 months (1990 when the dollar vs. the lira, uh, well, kind of like what it is now -- ate a lot of pizza standing up and the extent of our purchases were -- t-shirts). We've taken our son to various cities/countries in Western Europe a grand total of 10 times, so I'm not feeling too much pain about having not been for 2 years now.

Besides, we've been wanting to visit South America for some time and I hear the dollar is still strong in Argentina, and I would like to see the falls. Alternatively, dhoffman's comment about the 400 year anniversary of Quebec is intringing, and they speak French there, kinda-sorta, in that Americanized "chien-chaud" way.

For those of you past 60 and those without kids and/or retired, I am secretly jealous of all of you. I hope, like Tennyson, my husband and I will continue to travel, to "sail beyond the sunset ... of all the western stars until [we] die. . . to touch the Happy Isles . . . to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

mari5

We don't think the dollar will get any better soon....perhaps worse, and my husband and I don't have time to "wait for it to improve" Did not travel overseas in 2007~~first year we have missed in a LONG time! Knee replacement,complications, and finally "fixed" ,(we hope) l0 days ago.
Not getting any younger..time moving fast, so it looks like we'll be making plans soon. Can't decide where. Have been most places in Europe (lived 5 years overseas,..Lisbon and Dakar Senegal,,) Have never been to Scandinavia.. To Italy 4 times, but not Sicily which is high on our list, as is Brittany (though we know France pretty well).
We really don't like what the dollar is doing...and we'll probably do a little "adjusting"...whatever that means &gt

Seamus

2007 was the first year in several that I did not trod European soil. A visit to Buenos Aires was the very agreeable substitute, but the exchange rate was not the only or even primary motivation. For 2008 there is a Paris visit promised to my niece when she finishes high school, and I cannot imagine going back on that promise as she has been looking forward to the trip for years. We will just do more eating on the street or in the apartment, cut some corners here and there as possible but I really want her to enjoy the trip without having to pinch pennies, so will just have to suck it up and do the best as I can.

ira

Hi DH,

We are going this May. I have not seen Paris for almost 3 years.

We shall reduce our meals at starred restos, save a few E/nite on our hotels, perhaps save a few E by not training to another site.

OR maybe not.

>...we will spend this summer in the states ....and wait until 2009 for our European trip. <

Do you know something that we don't?

The USD is going to rise against the E in 2009?

marginal_margiela

Once again, I agree with Patrick. My recent trip to Berlin for 8 days was MUCH MUCH cheaper than a stay in NYC for the same time period.

One way I cut costs in Berlin was to shop at the grocery store in the Friedrichstrasse Bahnhof. A coffee and big sweet roll was only 4E. The buffet breakfast at my hotel was 20E. This saved me 128E by eating my breakfast in the train station instead of the hotel.

I also took the TXL bus from Tegel to my hotel (Melia), which was 2E. A taxi would have been 20E. The bus was fast, clean, and efficient.

Thingorjus

Nlingenfel

I give up other things that are no longer important to me. Fancy hair styles, new (one wear) clothes for a special event, eating out often and new home items, that I did not need in the first place. If I had this sense at 20,30,40. I wouldn't have to think about it now. But, older and wiser to what's important.
And seeing the world is important to me now.

Travelnut

Last January, the rate was about 1.32; currently it is about 1.47.

2000€ last January was $2640
2000€ this January will be $2940
$300 extra isn't enough to make me avoid my favorite vacation spots. That's about $30/day more, easy enough to adjust somewhere.

NeoPatrick

mm, carrying "our" stories a little further, that 4 euro big sweet roll and coffee would have cost you at least $6 or $7 in NYC, and forget a "buffet breakfast" in a New York hotel, but you could have easily spent 20euro ($30 US) for a CONTINENTAL breakfast in many NYC hotels. Yes, you hit a bargain!

ParrotMom

We are retirees and this was the first time we have run into no $$ in Europe. Yes, our t/a cruises have previously taken us to Portugal, France, Italy and Spain and had never had a problem exchanging/charging items until the Çanary Islands.. Åre we naive.. maybe..but it won't stop us...but we will be much more cautious..

Travelnut

I would never expect a foreign country to accept US$, whether or not some are known to do so. Even if they do, it does not mean it was traded at a good exchange rate.

NeoPatrick

ParrotMom, with all due respect, when you travel with a cruise and they take you to "places to shop" then of course those places are set up to take US dollars. After all they need to pay the cruiseship their payback for bringing you in to shop there anyway. But you would not go off the "beaten track" much of anywhere in Europe and expect an average shop or restaurant to accept US dollars, any more than you'd expect your local US grocery to cheerfully accept euros from foreign travelers for payment.

I think your comment about only getting x amount of euros for $100 does indeed show that you are "naive" -- sorry, but you asked.
They are two different currencies and the numerical relationship between them may vary one way or another, but your post seemed to indicate that if you gave them $100 US, you'd hope to get at least that many of their units back. Gee, if you were in Japan and gave them $100, they'd give you more than 11,000 Japanese Yen. Does this mean everything would be really cheap there? Not at all. They are two totally different currencies, just like the euro and the dollar.

cafegoddess

I cannot give up Europe or traveling. I work a lot but I also want to play a lot.

d_claude_bear

We are "spending" the month of May (2008) in Paris and wish the euro/dollar conversion rate were better, but . . .

We paid for half of the apartment rental last May (one year in advance) when the conversion rate was a little better and have FF tickets, so at least that part of the cost is not affected by the dollar's decline.

On our previous trips to Paris we seldom took taxis (walked or took the metro/bus) and avoided the priciest restaurants. I don't see doing anything different this time, except paying more for doing it. And I am very confident we will think it is worth it!

melissa19

Actually, it's the British pound that's giving me headaches. We were planning a summer '08 trip to Yorkshire, but with the pound more than double the dollar, it seems more and more unlikely. Waaaah!

dawnnoelm

dhoffman -

We actually have airfare on Airfrance to use - due to a change in our trip we made last year - it is enough to get us from LAX to Europe and I believe we are just going to "eat" the tickets...it is going to KILL me -- but to "use" the tickets will end up costing us a few thousand to go to Europe again...

janisj

I can see it now - a whole boatload of cruisers expecting to use $.

I took a friend to the UK and he could never figure out why he couldn't just use "real money".

Sometimes its arrogance, sometimes its just naivety

Jane196

After a serious health scare in July cancelled our September trip to Ireland, we have decided to go as soon as my DH got the OK. So now it's off to Paris once again in March. Enjoy Europe while you can. That's our motto.