Trip to Thailand vs Greece vs Peru?
 

Hey everyone, I know all of these countries are different. My wife's and my biggest concern is our budget. We have $1500 allocated for plane tickets and $1500-2K allocated for room/eat/transportation/activities so $3k total for 2 weeks. We are budget to mid-range travelers, we do mostly inexpensive activities because we are mostly into nature (hiking) and beach and experiencing culture. Our travel date depends on the country we choose. Sept for Greece, November for Thai and Peru. Where would our dollar stretch the most with what we have saved?

How do the plane ticket prices compare from your home to each destination?

They all cost the same at $1500?

All three places have a lot to offer in terms of culture. I have spent a lot of in both Peru and Thailand and would say that they are both on a par in terms of cost i.e. Great value in terms of accomodation and food. I would describe my mine and I as "budget to mid range travellers" and for those two countries I would budget $75-100 per day to cover, travel, accomodation, food entrance fees (I.e. Pretty much everything with ten exception of shopping for souvenirs - which we don't do anyway)

This amount would cover decent en suite accomodation in nice Guesthouses and hotels. Check www.booking.com for rates. We eat well, mostly in small local places, sometimes markets, sometimes street stalls. Bus travel is cheap in both countries, airfares are cheap in Thailand, more expensive in Peru.

Years since I have travelled in greece so can't really comment.

As for dates, November would be a great time for Thailand and most of SE Asia but for Peru, I would try to visit May to September to be more sure of the weather. For specific advice on any of these countries, best to ask on the asia or South America forums.

I would look at your plane tickets first. If you are flying from the States, then to Thailand might be the most expensive - depending on your dates. To Greece and Peru, again, depending on dates could be easily affordable.
In terms of your destinations. I think Thailand and Peru will be your cheapest options for accommodations/activities, etc.

Where do you live? There are a lot of cheap fares to Europe these days, at least from the US east coast, look at WOW and Norwegian and Virgin. Once you get to Europe there are plenty of cheap onward flights, see skyscanner.com, Ryanair and Easyjet.

Greece can be cheap, so can Portugal and some parts of eastern Europe. Go to lonelyplanet.com and use their destination sections to check costs.

E.g. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/greece/money-costs

If you are on the west coast it may be cheaper to reach Asia.

My first question would be whether the airfare budget is $1500 per person.

When you write $1500 for airfare and then $1500 for everything else, it kinda sounds like it is for both of you combined. If that is the case, I think your budget for airfare may be too low to cover both of you.

It's very easy for one person to be talking about per person while someone else is talking about the total for 2 people.

>>your budget for airfare may be too low to cover both of you.<<

Not IMO/IME. There are lots of budget carriers -- not posh and you have to pay for food on board (or bring your own) but WOW, Norwegian, Icelandair, etc have very good fares. thursdaysd gives several good suggestions. Stick to inexpensive countries and Europe is definitely doable. Sometimes if you hit a sale easyJet fares can be just the taxes/fees or a few $/£/€ more.

You can have an opinion janisj and I can have one as well, but the fact is unless the OP specifies whether the number being thrown out are per person or for both of them, no one can really be confident that their 'opinion' is very likely to be correct.

Let's say the $1500 airfare is for both of them. Is the other $1500 for both of them? To cover 2 weeks of all expenses from arrival to departure?

Just taking a wild guess based on the OP's handle of can2187, he may be talking about CAD rather than USD. If that is the case, do you think $100 CAD/ 66.60 Euro per day will be enough for both of them in Greece? I certainly do not. Even if it is $100 USD/90.93 Euro, I don't believe it would be enough for 2 people.

Regarding airfare, if the $1500 is for both of them, then it makes a big difference depending on where they are flying from. Again, not specified. You aren't going to get a return flight from the west coast of the USA or Canada to Athens for $750 each USD or CAD. Even for $1500 per person will be hard to find for September.

The OP states that their budget is their biggest concern. I think it is reasonable therefore to ask them to make clear exactly what they are talking about and for readers to not ASSUME they know what was meant.

"We have $1500 allocated for plane tickets" . The key word is ticketS.

Well, crellston, tickets plural can simply mean return tickets. I travel solo and I certainly use it that way. But the OP seems to have deserted us.

Maybe, Thursdaysd, I would always use the term return ticket. We may never know....

On another travel forum which shall remain nameless, when you click on a person's profile page, you can see when they last visited the forum.

What this does is let you see if someone has returned since posting a question and is therefore likely to have read the responses.

There are a lot of people who seem to post in forums, do return and read responses but never even acknowledge having read the responses. That may be bad manners but at least if you can see they did return, you don't feel your time was entirely wasted responding to them.

There are also people who post on a forum as if it were a chat room. They expect instant answers and when they don't get them, they leave and never return. LOL

Re return tickets, I would only use 'tickets' plural if referring to more than 1 person. I would never say, 'I bought return tickets' if I were travelling solo. I would say, 'I bought a return ticket.'

I might say "I bought a return ticket". But I would also say "I bought my tickets for the next trip" - although they are rarely actually return tickets.

I'd say, 'I bought my ticket for the next trip', whether it was a one way or a return ticket.

But then, I never buy a second ticket ahead of time if you know what I mean. Ticket to A, never a ticket to anywhere else since I don't know when I will want to leave A and move on.

Anyway, it has been 5 days now since the OP posted and no sign so far of his return to even acknowledge having read the responses.

You can get a double room in thailand for 20-30$/day easily. Food is also very cheap starting at 1-2$ per meal. The first time i went, i would spend around 1k a month there, but i'd opt foro sleeping in hostels.