joslin2

OK, I know it is almost impossible. But is there anywhere we can outside the U.S. that is beautiful and safe and under $1500 per person, including airfare?? We live in Houston, and want to go this summer for about 5-7 days. Seriously....

abram

If you break down your five day budget into $500 per person for airfare and $200 per night for a hotel, that would leave you $200 per day for food and sightseeing. That seems doable to me--I'd suggest that you look into places in Mexico, since you want to go outside the US.

SAnParis2

It is not at all impossible but it is dependent several variables. How flexible are you in your ability to plan ? What are you really interested in ? Do flights have to be direct ? How do you feel about 'spartan' places to stay ? What about food ? Are you willing to cook for yourself ? Etc. You haven't really given us much to work with. My first choice would be Puerto Rico. But no one can really answer your question (the answers are endless) until you advise as to what your expectations really are.

suze

Sure, you can easily go to Mexico for that budget.

lifelist

It depends on your style of travel. Airfare makes up a lot of the cost, but once there, what kind of hotel or activities you want to do will drive the rest of your budget.

You could probably do budget trips to South America. I'm thinking Buenos Aires, Peru, Costa Rica, etc.

For example, Peru is very cheap. You could fly into Quito, then onward to Cusco. Rooms and food are cheap in Peru, as are tours to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. I paid $37 a night for a good hotel room in Cusco. A week would be enough time to fly to Cusco, tour the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, and fly back to Houston. Not enough time for the Inca Trail, though.

Try the latin america forum for suggestions. The dollar goes far down there.

suze

Dec/Jan issue of Budget Travel has a blurb about Mexican beach destinations with nonstop flights from the U.S.

All featured are offered from Houston including: Acapulco, Cancun, Cozumel, Ixtapa-Zihuat, Los Cabos, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta.

msteacher

The key will be airfare. Surf around the internet and see what kind of deals you can find on flights for the days you want to travel. Wherever you can find a cheap flight to, you can probably also find reasonably priced hotels adn entertainment.

DebitNM

You have replies on the other threads you started on same subject.

Deb

yk

That's actually a pretty good amount of money!

Since you're in Houston, you should be able to find nonstop flights on CO to pretty much anywhere w/i US for $400 or less.

If you use Priceline for hotels, chances are you can get a 4* for $100/n.

That leaves you $1500 for 7 days of food and attractions and transportation.

You can either go to a city w/good transportation so you don't have to spend $ on rental cars. But one can usually get decent rental deals for 1-week rental, or try Priceline/Hotwire for rental car.

The big question is: where's a good place to go in summer??? But since you live in houston, i guess any place in summer is better than Houston.

how about Seattle, or Vancouver, or Boston, or San Francisco, or San Diego...

Gardyloo

There are any number of Alaska cruises from Seattle or Vancouver that have outside cabins available for under $1000 per person for 7-day cruises. Airfare is around $350, so ought to fit comfortably in your budget, excursions and extras notwithstanding.

There are also some fairly inexpensive Caribbean cruises, even a couple leaving from Galveston, but not so sure about the weather in July - could be hurricane season.

One other thought was flying to some place like Spokane or Billings, getting a car, and driving up to Banff/Jasper for a few days. Same goes for flying into someplace in Maine or Vermont and getting a car and going over to Quebec City, then down the St. Laurence to the Gaspé Peninsula - beautiful, plenty of practice for your French language skills, and distinctly foreign without being hugely distant. (Fly into some town in the US near the border to save big bucks on airfare due to Canadian taxes etc. - try Burlington VT.)

qwovadis

www.bookit.com Cancun or PDC

AI packages best value

qwovadis

www.skyauction.com

tons of stuff within your budget

select "packages"

qwovadis

www.caravan.com Awesome CR tour $995

BetsyG

Where do you want to go? What part of the summer are you talking about? I would not go to Mexico in August -September because of hurricane season. Worry-free travel seems to have good package prices to Mexico.

karameli

Are you willing to do some research? If so, then I'd say you can go almost anywhere (save for Asia/Australia) for the week! Honestly. Assuming you're sharing your hotel room, set your airfare budget at $700 per person and your hotel budget at $150/night (for six nights). That leaves $700 for food, or $100/day -- ask the locals where they eat and this will be easy to pull off.

suze

The entire country of Mexico is not effected by hurricane season. It's more likely on the Caribbean side, Cancun coast. While summer is hot and humid at most of the beach resort destinations, not so up in the mountains in the colonial cities.

sf7307

There are plenty of hurricanes on the west side of Mexico (beaches, don't know about mountains)

FainaAgain

If you can take a cruise, check out Carnival and Royal Caribbean out of Galveston, TX - can you drive up to the port?

suze

Puerto Vallarta has had only one hurricane in the past 50+ years. Even that one hit up at San Blas. PV itself is somewhat protected by the Bay of Banderas, the largest bay on that coast.

sf7307

All I can add is plan a trip to Mexico during hurricane season at your own risk

http://tinyurl.com/6fzjt4