should we go to europe in september?
 

We just got back from a wonderful trip to Italy, but were hit with Euro shock. Every time we'd ask for 250 Euros from the ATM, we'd be debited about $400. It was unbelievable. Yet we're good travelers and managed to do 2 weeks for $5000. We're booked for a flight to Amsterdam in September, then going to Belgium, Paris and Provence. This will be about 4 weeks. Is anyone else reconsidering their travel plans due to the sinking dollar??

If you have the money, go. If you don't, don't go. I'm not letting Euro sticker shock bother me. I'm calculating and if it's in the budget, we do it. You only live once. I'm firmly middle-aged. If I don't go now when I do have the money and the mobility, there is no guarantee I'll get to go later.

We're going in September. We'll be in Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Venice and Munich.

The sinking dollar is sad, but I leave on April 21 for Europe, May 27, and again on September 2. All airfare and most hotels are booked. If you compare other popular vacation spots with those in Europe, it's not that much more expensive.

Go if you want, but if you got a new job you could earn back the extra money you spent, and have less time to vacation in the future, which should hold down expenses.

Sorry, fra Diavolo, I have no idea what you're talking about. Why would I want a new job???

$5000 for 2 weeks! You call yourself a good traveler! I hope there were 6 of you for that amount! As far as $400 for 250 Euros,do the math. That is what it converts to. You are worrying about a couple of dollars after spending $2500/wk! Get a grip!

There very well might have been 5 of them... I know I am going to be happy with 5,000.00 for 6 of us for 10 nights in paris not including airfare!

francegirl

I think Fr suggested that you get a new higher-paying job. Normally, when you get a new job, you get zero vacation time the first year, then 1 week the second, and 2 for about the next 10 years or so. Therefore the first year you have more $$$ and no time to go to Europe & spend it.

To cut doen costs in France:

Rent a Gite in October through May for 1 week or more in the countryside - but not Provence where rents (and everything else too) are higher. You can get a pretty good Gite for 350E or less per week - much less expensive than hotels. We've rented about 30 different Gites - several of them multiple times.

Eat most of your meals at the gite.

Stu Dudley

To put this in perspective:
Whining about $5,000 in 2 weeks.
Questioning $10,000 for 4 weeks in 6 months.

That's $15,000/year for vacations, coupled with a desire for the "good old days" when it would only have been $10,000/year.

Some people don't MAKE $15,000 in the entire year. I wouldn't complain too much if I were you, particularly in a public forum.

"Some people don't MAKE $15,000 in the entire year. I wouldn't complain too much if I were you, particularly in a public forum."



So what if some people make 15,000 a year? Some make hundreds of thousands..
Is money another " politically correct" subject one should avoid in order not to offend ????

danon - I sort of had the same reaction...

Now, what were those French whining about when Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake!"?

She never said that

Stu Dudley

re the "let them eat cake" quote
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/dub...antoinette.htm

francegirl--I don't think the exchange rate is likely to improve much any time soon, so if you can afford the month-long trip you have planned in September, I'd say go for it. It sounds like a great trip.

a recent thread on beating the Euro in Paris/France
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35117058