A different point of view. I save on lodging because I try to stay in private homes when I can. I don't splurge on fancy restaurants very often. Like above I eat to live not the other way. I splurge on Airfare buying coach to be able to upgrade to business class with my FF miles. I find that flying from Calif and being 6'5" 210 lbs I can sleep in B Class and find that I arrive in the AM ready to go with a good nights sleep. I use a combination of trains, public trans and rental cars. I like to drive through the country sides in some areas. I pick up a coffee cup from each country/major city as my souvenir (about $5 each). I have shelves going around the walls in my house displaying them. I take a lot of pictures (used to take slides). I really enjoy looking at them between trips. Spend money on museums etc. <BR>When I rent a car I have to get one that has leg room for me so don't save much there. <BR>

Save - airfare. I'm only going to sleep, anyway, so the amount of booze and type of food they'll give me is irrelevant. Splurge - food. If in France, we always allot one night for a Michelin-starred restaurant. We make our own lunches from local groceries (the absolute BEST food on the run). Splurge - lodging. Love to stay in a castle hotel anywhere, or a romantic gasthaus, or a unique B&B. Price is not the object, but atmosphere is. Otherwise, we're happy to stay in gasthauses, B&B's and farmhouses to save for the special overnighters. We're renting a huge house in Scotland this fall that sleeps 16; Chopin stayed there for a time. Save - sightseeing costs. We're strictly do-it-yourself types; no tours, no cabs. Get lost, find a festival. Ask questions, make a friend. Make no reservations, stumble onto a pension with bell-wearing livestock, draft horses and poultry in the back yard, HUGE bedroom and bathroom, breakfasts that last until dinner, and the nicest farm family in Germany. That's the beauty of travel.

I try to save on airfare/hotels, also. Do not want to share a bathroom,tho. I don't shop, except for artist's sketches; oils or watercolors. Usually something small that I can roll into a papertowel spool. If I see something outstanding that's handmade, I usually go for it. As for dept. stores, never. (Except Fortnum & Mason)

For me, this topic collides with a previous topic "what details do you obsess about". I hadn't answered that posting because I couldn't exactly isolate any ONE thing I obsess about - I obsess about everything! But this topic brought it into focus for me. <BR> <BR>I approach a trip as a "zero sum" game. We have XXX number of dollars to spend - I'm going to eke everything last thing out of that (assuming some things as minimums/givens - such as bathrooms in hotel rooms, etc). <BR> <BR>It's like a big game of debits and credits. <BR> <BR>Generally speaking I save on accommodation/airfare/car and splurge on restaurants. But that's over simplifying. Accommodation, for example. We usually rent a villa on a weekly basis (a great cost savings, actually, but we do it because we prefer it - not for the economy). I'll compare dozens of properties and negotiate hard with the agency/owner. Whatever I "save" goes in the "credit" column. (You'd be amazed at how negotiable villa rental rates are - although to be fair we travel in the "shoulder" seasons). For airfare and cars, if we're not using points (which aren't as generous in Canada) I usually go with the cheapest price - but "splurge" a little. For example, I'll book us with a charter airline, but upgrade to business class. Several Canadian charters offer business class - which is really only big, comfy seats and bigger portions of awful food - but all we want is the big seats (usually $100USD extra). That goes into the "credit" column, as it means we arrive at our destination rested and don't waste the first day. If business class isn't available, we get to the airport 3 hours early, and camp at the desk to be the first in line for bulkhead seating (more leg room). <BR> <BR>Similarly with rental cars - I'll shop incessantly for the best rate on a mid sized vehicle - again, the "credit" goes into the pot. Upon arrival, I hope desperately for an upgrade - which happens more often than not - for the simple reason that many Canadian charters fly into secondary airports/terminals in major centers and their inventory of cars is spotty - they never "downgrade" you! <BR> <BR>So……..we're arrived at our destination; we have these mental "credits" built up via airfare, accommodation, and car savings - BRING ON THE FOOD. <BR> <BR>We splurge on restaurants. We've been known to walk right past incredibly interesting tourist-y type things to dine. All of the above research regarding accommodation, airfares and rental cars PALES in comparison to the amount of research I do for restaurants. <BR> <BR>By no means are the restaurants we go to always the most expensive - often they're the best deal in town. But our focus is food - and if a particular restaurant serves the best "pasta with truffles" and it's ridiculously priced, we don't think twice (after all, we have our "credits" built up!) One caution though - I've been known to spend the same "credit" two or three times - as in "well, we saved $200 on the car rental so I'll just have that pasta with truffles" - but it was worth it! <BR>

We like to go to the countries that offer the most for our money (i.e. Mexico, Costa Rica, Portugal). I keep a mental inventory of those places and wait for incredible airfares then snap them up. We stay in the cheapest room at top of the line accomodations at those places. (I think of a vacation as a fantasy - an excape from the everyday.) For instance, in Costa Rica a room at Villa Caletas, the most luxurious place ever, we paid $120 a night, compared to friends who paid $650 a night on Maui. I venture to say we had the nicer place. We never eat at overpriced restaurants, rather we prefer a good local diner with native speaking people. We snapped up a deal from Renaissance Cruises for $1200 a person (including airfare) cruising from Athens to Istanbul, with three nights in a 5 star hotel in both cities. We booked an inside cabin and got upgraded to a balcony cabin for free. In Athens we just had a drink at the hotel rooftop bar to see the Acropolis at night and had dinner in a neighborhood restaurant for $5.00 each. In Istanbul we found great local restaurants for a pittance. We do bring back souvenirs, but just little things which are unique to the area. I would like to add my own question to this thread: where do you think are the most exotic, yet economical places in the world?

What an interesting thread! <BR> <BR>For me - SAVE: airfares, transport, accommodation and shopping. No frills airline, local buses, cheapest possible room, and no souvenirs or presents. <BR> <BR>SPLURGE: eating and drinking. I want to have every meal 'out' when I'm on holiday, and I want to stop for a beer or a drink whenever I want to. <BR> <BR>I'll not be doing this in the summer, when I'll be living in Greece on a budget of £200 per month (not including accommodation). It will be picnic meals all the way for me! Any hints/tips re keeping costs down would be greatly appreciated!

We travel in the spring (shoulder season) as airfares are somewhat less. We don't scrimp on transportation in/out to the airports - we use driver pick up type services or taxi's - never public transportation. This is not a luxury to us, luggage, and public transport do not mix in my estimation! We frequently rent apartments which are more roomy than hotel rooms in general with added plus of kitchen for breakfasts and snacks. We do eat out but not in gourmet places! We'd rather eat in local type cafe's etc. where the local people eat, it's far more fun then dining with lots of other tourists and considerably cheaper! When we rent a car it's an automatic - no scrimping there, it's comfort over $$ at some point. Actually, frequently we vote for comfort over money if the amounts are not too extreme. We never buy much, just a few small things, frequently something I can wear as I find that sort of keepsake more fun later on. We do splurge on theater tickets in London and will usually see 3/4 shows when there, but we usually will eat dinner in our apt. beforehand as a compromise to the expensive theater tickets. <BR> <BR>I think, as noted already, everyone approaches this from a different angle, what is important to me is not important to someone else, and vice versa. We'd never stay where we shared a bath for instance. We also tone down our dining out, and other activities at home in order to be able to afford trips abroad. It's all prioities.

It's so interesting to see what peoples priorities are. For us, we usually save by staying in charming 2 star/family style hotels or B & B's, every night except maybe 1 or 2, when we may splurge on a "higher end" hotel with say, a spa, or indoor pool or something, but we can never afford more then 2 nights in the fancy places, and really a lot of times we enjoy the 2 stars more! <BR>Same with food, we really save on eating out but usually plan a night or two of "splurge meals" mostly we consume street food, or eat big lunches and snack for dinner.As far as shopping goes, I really don't do any, I collect books or those tourist guides that have lovely pictures and narritives of sights we've seen. I guess our biggest splurge is just doing stuff. <BR>I will never balk at spending over $100.00 or whatever on say, gondola rides in Venice, taking a private guided tour, paying the entrance fees to a million historic sights and getting the full tour. I would rather scrimp on other things to get the full range of experience.

Ditto what Thyra just wrote above. Although I probably spend a little bit more shopping. <BR>I've given serious consideration to the gondola in Venice and have decided once I am there--whever that will be--that I will definitley splurge on that. It is the experience after all. <BR>Way above s.fowler noted she usually pays a little more for a hotel when she is in London. I learned that the hard way. While the $100 a night hotel was OK, it was grim and it made me feel bad, as in, oh geesh, we can't do better than this, after all the years we have worked. Well, who needs that. If $40 a night more (or so) gets rid of that feeling in London, when everything else is such a delight, then it will be money well spent.

I almost always go for the lowest priced accomodations I can find that meet my criteria for location and cleanliness. This has usually resulted in $50 to $100 in Europe (as low as $30 in Switzerland) and $30-60 in the U.S. I take the lowest airfare I can get for the date, with no concern for the airline name. I go light on food spending too but do like to splurge once or twice (about $50-80 for two). I don't do much shopping, but I do like to bring back at least one nice item from each trip and a few smaller ones (always under $200 for the most expensive). I check out from the library 75% of the travel guides I use. <BR> <BR>I do not care at all about most sightseeing costs. If I really want to see or do it, then I will because I don't like regrets. Being a photographer, I spend a lot on film and processing (as much as $350 for processing alone with a big trip), but I buy my film through a discount photography store.

In the "SAVE" column: <BR>*Airfares -- I use frequent flier miles, travel in the off-season, get last-minute weekend sale fares, always fly coach, and wait for sales. <BR>*Hotels -- I do a TON of research beforehand and the time invested always pays off big in savings. Generally stay in smaller places rather than huge chain hotels (unless there's some kind of a promotional rate). Check websites, guidebooks, travel boards (like this one), call discount booking services, and then call the hotel directly. Priorities are location and private bath and that's about it. <BR>*Transportation -- If renting a car, I check all the websites of the various car rental agencies and compare rates, plus I call all of them, and check on any available discounts. I always rent the smallest size available and end up getting upgraded. In areas that are well-served by public transportation, I use that rather than renting a car. <BR>*Shopping: I'm not a big shopper. I usually try to bring back at least one souvenir/memento of each trip -- sometimes it's a piece of pottery and sometimes it's as small as a refrigerator magnet. I usually spend less than $50 total on souvenirs from each trip, rarely more. <BR>*Dessert: I rarely order dessert with dinner -- if I'm craving something sweet I'd rather stop at a local bakery or ice cream or chocolate shop and get something to take out, which is usually not only less expensive but better than a lot of restaurant desserts. <BR> <BR>In the "Splurge" column: <BR>*Guidebooks: I get as many as I want, usually 2 or 3 before each trip -- this adds immensely to my enjoyment of planning the trip and also is usually well worth the money because I get more out of each place. <BR>*Photos: I take as many as I want and don't worry about it any more. <BR>*Tours/excursions/guides: I will always pay extra to get a guided tour of a particular site rather than self-guided. I find that it adds immeasurably to my enjoyment and memory of the place. Also, in major cities, I find it is usually worth it to take a half-day tour to get my bearings and see the major sites, then go back later to see what I want in more detail. <BR>*Postcards -- I love sending postcards to friends and family and usually send at least a dozen on each trip. <BR>*Food -- I don't mind splurging on one "nice" meal every day (usually dinner, with wine). To me this is part of being on vacation.

Save: <BR>Most things, because I'd much rather take two trips staying in modest hotels and sitting in second class on trains than take one trip in greater luxury. For me, the trip is generally not about amenities, although I do have *some* standards (e.g., no flea-bag hotels in sleazy areas). Also, I actually enjoy getting food at shops and markets, so I don't regard that as a hardship. <BR> <BR>Splurge: <BR>Guidebooks and travel literature -- I read them for fun as well as trip preparation, and then I lend them to my friends who are planning trips. <BR> <BR>Museums and sightseeing -- I'm always amazed when people who stay at four-star hotels tell me they didn't go to some museum because "it costs too much."

Oops, I left out the most important splurge: chocolate.

Save: fly on points almost all the time, book villa's directly if they have their own website and save big time! Prepare many meals at the villa ourselves. Put away 50.00-100.00 a week for 6 months or so and that's a little extra mad money for extra extravagances! <BR>Splurge: Stay in 3 -5 star hotels or villas, always try to find a small piece of art to remember the trip by ( this is where the mad money comes in!) <BR>Research great restuarants and go to as many as possible! After visiting great museums, buy their art books, great for the coffee table and extremley enjoyable to sit down with back home and relive your tour through them. Buy shoes, especially in Italy! This time we are bringing an extra suitcase for them! Take lots of photos. Never say no to gelato!

We are firmly in the camp of scrimp at home and enjoy life when away. Just how many days do you think you'll have in these places? In the past, we found that too many days in wonderful settings had been wrecked by noisy or uncomfortable or infested or inconvenient accommodations the night before. It's true, all you do there is sleep (or not) but that's a big deal when you're eight or nine hours zoned out or knackered from forced marches the prior day and facing the autobahn the next. So we tend to go for 3 stars or the equivalent, especially in bigger cities. Amen to the idea of spending more for a hotel in London as opposed to the grim alternatives. (That said, we are big fans of the Accor chain on the continent - Ibis and Mercure and the like - comfortable, clean, and there's usually one around, and not budget-busters by any means.) Also we stay in cute suburbs of big cities when practical, at much reduced cost, more room, and then ride the commuter trains like everyone else. Parking fees in cities on top of high rental car costs can be a real money suck. <BR> <BR>We could probably number our total meals at multiple rosette-y restaurants on one hand, but there are places and times where NOT having the birthday meal at Tour D'Argent or the Pig's nose for breakfast at Simpson's in the Strand (well, not really but it used to be on the menu) means missing a rare opportunity. We go for small, local, or wacky when we can, also we will go out of our way for road food in France, and will do anything to avoid road food in Germany or Spain. Remember, too…beer is food. <BR> <BR>We hold shopping to pretty low levels, frankly because most things we see can be had cheaper in the US and schlepping stuff is only slightly less trouble than shipping it home from most places. Most purchases are flat, soft, foldable, readable, or, again, wacky, like a wonderful reproduction of a Victorian travel poster showing maps of Cornwall and Italy and commenting that they sort of look alike and therefore have lots in common and you should visit Cornwall instead of Tuscany. Right. Oh, and hardware and home furnishing shops. There's sooo much cool stuff there. <BR> <BR>Definitely we travel in shoulder and off seasons, use TISS or other consolidators/bucket shops, and try to save on airfare by use of FF miles, but one 10 hour flight in business class will convert you. We "splurge" if you want to call it that on car hire, going for a somewhat larger rig than mini-sized, more out of safety concerns than comfort, but that's a side benefit. Oh, and we always go to the movies, even if we don't understand the sound track. That's where the locals are, and it's fun to watch them watching the film. Cool snack bars, too (also a place to scrimp at mealtime.) <BR>

Save: BEFORE vacation!! <BR> <BR>Couple of key things for me: <BR> <BR>I love planning for my trip by talking to people and reading about the "destination of the year" usually 6-8 months before I actually go (this has led to a couple of anti-climactic vacations, to be honest, but I had fun planning) which makes it really pretty easy to save because I find out about "just one more place we have to go" along the way and force myself to forgo Chinese take-out a night or two to add to the vacation stash. I also try to have a pretty good idea of what I want to do and what it will cost before I leave (ex. musuems or plays that are on my "must see" list) so that I have somewhat of a plan and don't have to worry too much about what I spend on food, taxis, etc. That way I can enjoy great meals within reason (maybe splurge once every couple of days on something really nice but otherwise, whatever is good and local -- including easy and inexpensive bakery lunches, etc), and make sure to get a few key nice gifts (thank you's for the dog-sitter, etc.) and a couple of things to remember the experience by. Keeping a journal (buy a travel journal specifically for your trip before you leave!) is a great way to spend what would have been shopping time and it also helps to preserve the memories you want to recall more vividly down the road. Unless snow globes are your thing, this really beats the tourist traps readily available to people looking for "something little to help us remember (XXName of place we went). Save room in the journal to add pictures to that mix -- I buy film at home (Wal-Mart or Sam's) and keep an eye out for coupons to the best developing places -- and you have a personal recollection full of once in a lifetime memories! Beats slides any day of the week. <BR> <BR>Hope that adds a little to the mix -- great ideas from so many people!!

We sort of set a budget and then fit the trip details to the budget. That means if we save big on airfare, we can stay somewhere more expensive (although we like to stick around $100 night) and splurge on restaurants, maybe a bigger car if we're driving, or an extra couple of days. I try to use my Starwood or Marriott points if I can find a cool deal, otherwise we stay at 2-3 star hotels. So far I have had better luck getting cheap airfare and earning miles than using miles for travel to Europe. We don't shop a lot. I'd rather see and do things. I guess if I had to pick the first option for a splurge, it would be on restaurants.

Quicksilver--a photo of the Hippy Toast poster made it into our Paris album (on a page with other photos of amusing signs, etc.)! There was a Quick two blocks from our hotel, and every time we passed the poster in the window, we'd crack up.

In Scotland and Ireland we traveled by coach (bus). But I spend money on the hotels in big cities, especially those on the nights of arrival and departure. I like comfort and safety. We did B&b's in smaller towns. We ate good meals 2 or 3 nights in a row then a cheese, bread, fruit and wine night in the room. We never skimped on the chance for a REALLY good meal. We bought a great crystal decanter in Dublin but not Waterford ( we liked it better) ANd we bought alot of eastern european wine along the way for the evening, cheap and good!

I enjoy reading what everyone does because it just shows we all have our own priorities. I actually save all year so I can splurge on a nice 4+ or 5 star hotel. Since I was informed about the starwood program I have been saving and saving to get a room or a suite in a luxury hotel. <BR> I probably save on food. I dont usually go anywhere fancy and end up having breakfast and dinner with a light snack in between. I also hardly rent a car or take a cab and just try to walk everywhere.