logos999

I paid $71 for a very nice room, newly renovated in New York in december. Looks like many people that post here havn't been traveling a lot. Anyway..

mlgb

A village in Vietnam, or visiting the Great Wall of China and Beijing, or at the beach in Thailand, or visiting Macchu Picchu, or an African Safari, or an apartment at Punta del Este Uraguay in season, or golfing in New Zealand.

My point is that there is a lot more to "culture", food and experience than Europe.

travelme

I am going to Spain for a week next month and I dont plan on spending too much money, dollars or euro.
I was lucky to be able to rent an apartment in Malaga through a friend for 5 nights for a grand sum of 30 euro a night! I dont know if this will ever happen again but I decided to take advantage of this opportunity. My partner and I love to cook so we will go to the market and cook a dinner or two. We will eat 10 euro meals for lunch which includes 3 courses usually.We probably wont spend more than 20 euro each for dinner. We will take the train(AVE) to Madrid for $40. I found a internet special at a Tryp Hotel for two nights that will on cost 120 euro or 180 euro. So this trip is short and we really wont spend too much money despite the lousy exchange rate. I am thinking about less than $1000 including meals and lodging for two for a week. I dont think that is too bad.
Last year we went to Ireland for a week. The exchange rate was better at that time . 1,32 if I recall correctly. AH the good old days. We found reasonable lodging but found eating out really expensive. It was hard to find a lunch for less than 15 euro. But it was worth it for sure. I love Irish food!
Portugal is another option and probably the least expensive in all Europe.

danon

a nice room in NYC for 70 dollars?

people's idea of "nice" must vary hugely !

isabel

Yes please share where that $71 a room night in NYC is, I'd love to know. Seriously

And while I feel julies pain about things costing more than they did a few years ago in Europe I still think Europe is a tremendous bargain compared to most travel in the US. This March I am going on a trip to Charleston, Savannah and St Augustine, instead of the trip I originally planned to Rome - it was a timing thing, not a money issue that made me decide to stay in the US. But I certainly figured I'd save a bit. Then I tried to book hotels. My god, I have never spent the kind of money on any European hotel (incuding central London and Paris during high season) that you need to spend to get a hotel in the historic district of those cities in March. And they are not large "world class" cities. And I am just so lucky to have friends/relatives in NYC and Boston or I'd rarely be able to afford to go there.

Travel to most worthwhile places costs more than we think it should, but Europe, even with a poor exchange rate, is no worse than much of the US and has so very much to offer that I just feel sorry for people who can't rationalize the cost to go. Oh well, less crowds for those of us who do go.

logos999

$71 quite easy, you start from the bus terminal and anything within a 20min ride is o.k. Been to a nice "Red roof" that has just reopened. . I could also tell you were to get a nice room 2 stops from Tokyo central station or downtown Paris for $50. The Paris thing I've already posted... Also can do Prague for $30 and I'm not the one that stays in dirty places.

jacketwatch

Markrosy: Again we are all enitled to our opinions. The OP stated his. It would be nice to accept it w/o hammering his presumed "class" position in life, whatever that may be. Thank you for a more detailed explanation of your POV.

travelme

Isabel, when are you going to Savannah? I was going to go this weekend but I thought that I'd save the $$$ to spend in Spain. Anyway, I saw many properties for aproximately $120 in the historic section of the city. Check Travelocity and Orbitz.
Yes, our major US are expensive for lodging but not the in other cities.There are bargains out there. You have to look.

Nikki

I started traveling to Europe on a regular basis in 2000. I was thrilled that it seemed such a bargain compared to the US, and for several years I took advantage of that. Now it is, as stated earlier, about 84% more expensive when paying for a European trip in dollars than it was in 2000. So now it isn't such a bargain at all. I feel fortunate that I caught that period of time and was able to take a few trips at the much more favorable rate, and it is easy to see how such an increase would put somebody off of European travel.

isabel

It's not the 'bargain' it was in 2000-2003, but I still fell in most cases you get more for your money (even after converting, but obviously less so now) than in the US. In the US I usually stay at budget chain motels - clean, but no charm and the locations are not good. Budget lodging in Europe tends to be 'quaint' little places, in great locations. Budget food in the us tends to be greasy hamburgers whereas in Italy it's fresh delicious pizza or in France a panini, etc. Just overall better. That's a generalization, you can get a great slice of wonderful pizza in NYC for $2, but overall, in general - harder to eat good tasting food on the cheap in the US. Same with transportation - more convenient, inexpensive train and bus connections between places than can be found here.

travelme - I'm going to those cities in March, which I understand is high season, that's why I used the example of Paris and London at high season. I do know that if I were to go some other time it would be less.

Tim_and_Liz

I consider myself quite good at math and do not understand the 84% number being thrown around.

Even if we consider an exchange rate of 1.5$/E now and 0.9$/E in 2000, (even though the Euro was not being used then), that is only an increase of 67%.

?

amyb

I'm a bit baffled by the 87% too.

I recently opted not to attend a three-day conference in Miami in May because air, hotel and conference fees would equal what 8 days in Paris is costing me [air, hotel (split with sister) and sight/museum fees] a month earlier. I guess it's all relative?

Nikki

I did not do the math, I used the figure given earlier. However, my memory is that when I first got a credit card statement in euros, the exchange rate was substantially lower than 90 dollars per euro. And checking now, I see that in 2000, the lowest rate was 0.8252 dollars per euro.

dilen

The cost of Europe is too much for me right now. So I've been going to Asia the last 2 years. Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and China. So my money goes further even though the airfare is more. At least when I get there I can really enjoy myself - eating good food - drinks -sightseeing - hire car with driver - and even shopping. The last few trips to Europe I couldn't afford any shopping. Not that it's that important, but it's fun. I'm glad I did a lot of European travel when the dollar was better.

Johnmango

My experience in Venice is different.

The first time we were in Venice in 2003 we stayed at a hotel and ate out everyday and yes, it was pricy.

Last year we went back and stayed at an apartment instead. Instead of paying 170euro (for 2) for a small hotel room, we paid ~250euro for a 2-bedroom apartment for 4, so it was 125euro for 2 people.

Since there was a kitchen and we were there 5 days we didn't feel like eating out every night. A couple of times we went to the market and was pleasantly surprised at how much cheaper it is to buy food and have a home-cooked meal! I remember getting large shrimps for 4 people (for ~3-4 euros) and getting fresh pasta at a shop close to the apartment, and I made a roasted red pepper pesto with shrimps thrown on top. the meal costed about ~10 euros for 4 people!!

I would not want to do that everyday, afterall we are on vacations. But honestly I do get tired of eating out everyday. Having a home-cooked meal during vacation is so much more relaxing!

missypie

There is such value in planning a trip very carefully. STUDY the prices of things, whereever you go. Almost all of us have a threshold where something is so costly that it just isn't fun anymore...the threshold varies with each person, but almost all of us have it.

Before every trip to Disneyworld, I have my husband look at on-line menus a few times, so he won't be shocked out of his brain at the prices once he gets there. When planning a trip to Europe, look at the price of the activities you're "on the fence" about. Will paying $15 a person zap all the fun out of that small musuem? We live near the Gaylord Texan and my husband kept wanting to go to the Ice exhibit. I just couldn't handle paying $20 per person for something I'd walk though in 15 minutes.

I will say that when we were in Italy in 2006, we were very very cost conscious when choosing restaurants and had bad meal after bad meal. When we went to Barcelona in 2007, I decided to be willing to spend a bit more money, and we had terrific meals. I bet for the 5 of us, the total cost was only $300-400, but it made so much difference in the quality of our experience.

markrosy

What does confuse me is the fact that in the reverse situation - we should be flooding to the states shouting about what a cheap destination it is - I have just chosen The Abacos over Cape Cod as I still need a bank loan to afford the rentals on Cape Cod - we have always found eating out well in the states to be quoted price for quoted price very similar to the UK but in the states we are expected to pay the staff costs in the form of an insane 25% tip. That makes eating out at good quality restaurants slightly more expensive in the states but it is of course VERY difficult to compare like with like.

One area where the States always wins for Brits is clothing which is very much cheaper than in the UK.

I still am trying to get to the bottom of what is being said above - is it US travellers can't afford the cost of European travel or is it that it has become relatively more expensive which naffs you off and encourages you not to come?

BTW There is a lot more to Italy than the overcrowded, architectural mess Rome has become. As I said before much of the rest of Italy has far lower living costs, is closer to recession than much of the rest of the West and probably needs your tourist income far more than Rome. Whether the incease is 17% or 84% - you could save more than enough offset the rate movements by staying away from the tourist traps.

tcreath

markrosy, you post an interesting question and I can obviously only speak for myself but with the rising costs in airfare (which seems to currently be up by about 30-35% from previous years) and the poor exchange rate Europe is not as affordable for us right now. We would like to go to Europe for a short week this fall, and I have been pricing airfare, but I don't know if I can justify spending $1700 or $1800 just for the airfare for a 6 night trip. We love apartments so lodging isn't really an issue, but all in all it makes for a very expensive week. Of course I can't complain because I am also going to Europe (back to Germany) for a week in April, but we used the last of our FF miles for the tickets. We used to travel to Europe twice a year, but I don't think that's going to be a reality any more unless things start to change.

Tracy

WillTravel

First, if you get a cheap airfare, that really takes the edge off the total price. What good is it to me if Argentina is half as expensive as Italy, if it costs twice as much to get there? (I'm not saying this is exactly correct, but just using an example.)

I was considering going to NYC with my daughter for spring break. As it turns out, we got airfare to Europe that is approximately the same price as NYC. And for accommodations, we have perfectly acceptable hotels with ensuite rooms that will work out to about 65 Euros per night, including good breakfasts. I am doubtful we would have achieved this in NYC.

One advantage NYC has is that the jetlag is much easier, and the flight time is shorter. And to be fair, if we had gone to San Francisco instead, we might have achieved something equivalent with hotel rooms, and the airfare would have been about $150 cheaper.

svicious22

"Faux frescoes"? I'll take that as a cheap shot at me and say it is utterly irrelevant. Just because I DON'T dig slumming in a one star hotel for $200+ a night and DON'T think it's worth my time researching affordable rural Italian pensions and then drinking only the house wine and eating picnic lunches for two meals a day in order to be able to afford Italy these days does NOT mean I want to go to Vegas and view substitute glitz of European inspiration.

And if you consider a 3 star hotel over-indulgent and constituting lavish service, then perhaps you would enjoy a camping forum more than this one.