mingtsainy

Paris and most of western Europe are very expensive to travel to during the summer. Where would be an inexpensive place to go?

Moscow? Turkey? Greece?

kenderina

Inexpensive ? Europe ? Summer ? I think those words doesn't match !!!
Now seriously , any Eastern country is cheaper than the western ones but that doesn't mean they are really cheap in summer

Patty

Amy

I'd start looking outside of Europe, myself; Peru, for example, is inexpensive and has gorgeous weather during July and August. (You can see some pix here: http://community.webshots.com/user/missalg)

I'm going to China this year, partly because I've always wanted to go, but partly because it's cheaper than travelling in Europe for me right now.

Intrepid1

Compared to the others..I'd say probably Greece.

m_kingdom2

Prague is exceptionally cheap.

However, as a rule of thumb, cities are always more expensive than smaller, more rural/seaside places. For instance, I found Barcelona only marginally less expensive than London, but Bilbao was markedly cheaper.

Athens I never found to be particularly cheap, again because it's a capital city. Now I believe Estonia is a bargain.

rdkr

rather depend on the cost of your flight. Portugal is very good value.
Rich,
www.franceinfocus.net/vlc22.html
Photos of our travels around Europe.

BTilke

Depends on just HOW cheap you want things to be.
Even more expensive places like France, Germany and Austria can be surprisingly inexpensive once you go off the beaten trails. In France, for example, there are great deals on little auberges and cottages in the Limousin and Auvergne. In Austria, ditto for the lesser known parts of the Steiermark and in some of the winter ski resorts. In Germany, Munsterland is lovely and quite inexpensive, a great place to rent bikes (it's mostly flat) and go through the small towns, visiting the "water castles" and gardens.
A car serves you better than mass transit for these spots, but again, careful searching can get you some good prices and if there are three or more of you, having a car to tour these areas could be cost-effective.

JamesA

If you are looking at Europe then Eastern and south east Europe would be cheaper than Western Europe, but there are plenty of other places to go in the world that are much much cheaper, South America is one example and also of course Asia where to can get very good accommodation and restaurants way way cheaper than Europe, it depends what you are looking for.

LoveItaly

Hi mingtsainy. Have you thought of Slovenia? It is the beautiful little country that borders Italy on the east. It is between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps. It is very inexpensive compared to the other western European countries. Beautiful scenery etc.

coccinelle

We found Portugal a bargain after France.

Bedar

I think Prague WAS exceptionally cheap. Two years ago we paid about $110 a night for a nice but not fancy hotel. Since my daughter was going there this April, I looked up that hotel for her and found that it had quadrupled !! in price. Even tho' they are not yet using the euro, they seem to have adjusted the prices to reflect their new membership in the EU.

Seamus

Timely question - the exchange rate is killing us all! This month's T&L carries a feature about "Best places to beat the weak dollar" and suggests Bali, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Marrakech, Oaxaca and Queenstown.
Moscow is far from cheap, and is not a very attractive or even safe travel destination right now anyway. The place is a public health nightmare, and is basically run by thugs.
Can't comment on Greece, have no experience traveling there.
Agree that Prague used to be a bargain, though the chain hotels have always been expesnsive there. Things overall have gotten pricier in Prague, though you can still find some bargains if you look. If you want to go to Prague sometime, probably better to go now because it will likely only get more expensive.
Turkey is my current choice. I didn't select it based on cost alone, but it is turning out to be quite a good deal - helped in great part by snagging a FF ticket, but also got a great hotel deal through an online booker, www.gtahotels.com. That in addition to all the great reports I've had from friends who have visited have me really excited about going.

MrAmazed

Romania!

WillTravel

I just read the other day that Armenia is exceptionally cheap. But getting there from North America is not, so far as I can tell.

I'd look for where you can get the cheapest airplane ticket and then go from there.

JamesA

Many asian currencies are very favourable to the USD and they are cheap anyway. You still get the same for your buck now as years back and hotels, restaurants and transport prices have hardly moved, Singapore and Hong Kong are expensive compared to others, but you can still get a 4 star hotel even in Singapore for about USD 80, in Kuala Lumpur about 40-50, in Bangkok a top hotel like the Marriott Resort on the River about $ 95, the Novotel in Chiang Mai costs about $45, Sofitels from under $50, but a normal vacation hotel 3 star about $40 , anything air conditioned with mini bar, tv, swimming pool, restaurants etc from around 25 up to 40, B&B and guesthouses from $10 .
Just helped collegues book for Santiago Chile and Buesnos Aires, both about $50 for hotels suitable for business travellers.
We did Croatia and greece a couple of years back and it was a lot cheaper than more west. Eastern Europe has bargains but it seems prices are going up.
It really depends what you want, if you want to see the Eiffel Tower then I guess you have to accept what you will pay for accommodation, but the further off the beaten track the cheaper it would be.

LoveItaly

Hello migtsaiy, I suggested Slovania to you and lo and behold in the travel section of the San Francisco Chronical is an article on Slovania (as they said, not to be confused with Slovakia).

The website for the SF Chronical is www.sfgate.com. Upper left hand click on "Todays Chronical". Then scroll down to you get to the title "Travel" You will see the article about Slovania. Whereever you go, have a wonderful summer vacation.

h2babe

The May edition for Budget Travel suggested *cheap* Europe this summer by offering alternatives like Krakow, Bratislava, Slovenia, Kiev, Serbia, and Lithuania. The title was: "Will the next Prague please stand up?"

kswl

Just returned from Tokyo via deeply discounted promotional fares and $95 priceline hotel (very nice, great location). Cheaper than London, except for taxis. Public transport negotiable, although far from ease of tube system, but taxis are the killer. In 10 days we spent about $250 on taxis, and this was with the majority of city travel by JR or metro. If you can avoid midday plans in one part of the city and dinner reservations at the opposite end (poor planning on my part) you should be able to visit this interesting city far cheaper than London or Paris---if you are able to get a good fare.

JamesA

I think Tokyo is rated as 'the' most expensive place? Intertesting though to get that hotel for USD 95. Japanese tourists are very high spend in other parts of Asia, it must be a real bargain for them! I've just booked for a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur at USD 29.50 for a twin good 3 star hotel ( that I guess is about 16 English pounds or roughly 40 Euro)

orval

A lot of my French friends travel to Croatia on their summer holidays.