I know you are laughing, but that is our total limit for 2 people due to unanticipated recent bills and home repairs. We would still like to get away and are planning to go somewhere in September in either the US or Caribbean. We will be traveling from Chicago and can be gone up to 8 days. We are a young couple, late 20s, no children and are interested in relaxing with no worries. We are not into roughing it, camping, or fishing. We atually prefer a beach or resort vacation with lots of relaxing, sunning, and golf playing with some night life.

Anyone have suggestions for this budget? we have also posted on the caribbean board and are hopeful you will come through. I know there are deals out there for $500/person, I just need to find them!

Dear Budget Traveler:

Remember, you get what you pay for so...send me the money FIRST and I will get back to you!

(It's a joke for BT. Grouchy people need not reply. Thanks)

Happy Planning and Researching!
Oaktown

Dear Budget Traveler

I know there may be some specials for 3-4 day cruises around that price for 2 people. Probably to the Bahamas. (not one of my favorite destinations). How about Florida? You two could probably get there for around $1000 dollars for 2. Last year me & hubby went to Orlando for $700.00. That was Air/Hotel. We stayed off-site. That did not include the rental car. There are always deals to Florida for that price or less. How about Myrtle Beach? I've never been, but you could probably get there for around that price. Oh, I have a place I know you could spend less than $1,000. Vegas. We went this year stayed at the Aladdin (newest resort) spent $600.00 air/hotel for 4 days (during the week). There's plenty to do in Vegas besides gambling. We are not big gamblers, but go for the shows, rides, food, and sites. The different hotels are Beautiful to see!! (were from Michigan)
Good luck!

Here's a try that includes Southwest airlines and Priceline.

Southwest currently has round-trip airfare from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale for $259 for two people. (To get that price, I selected non-stops between Chicago and Ft. Lauderdale, leaving Sunday afternoon, 9/9, and returning Saturday night, 9/15.)

If you go to http://www.biddingfortravel.com and look at the Miami/So. Florida hotel thread, you'll see that people have gotten 2.5* hotels in Ft. Lauderdale for about $30/night, and they've gotten 3* hotels in Ft. Lauderdale for $45-$55/night on Priceline. If you opted to bid on the 2.5* hotels, with taxes and Priceline fees thrown in, you might get six nights' hotel for maybe around $230.

Elsewhere on the Web site mentioned above, someone got a $15/day compact rental car in Ft. Lauderdale from Priceline. So that's $90/6 days, not including taxes and fees.

So using Southwest for your airfare and Priceline for hotel/car, you could probably cover all those expenses for around $600 for 6 days of vacation--not too bad. If you think you can get by on $400 for your food, golf, and nightlife, that'd get you in for $1,000.

You could cut the vacation to 4-5 days if you wanted to save on the hotel/car expense, freeing up more money for food/golf/nightlife.

And it's possible you could beat the Southwest airfare by using Priceline to bid on your airfare. The downside to this would be that you might end up getting routed in a way that might cost you precious hours of vacation time--the Southwest flights I mentioned were non-stops.

The other caveat is that with Priceline, you can't select a specific hotel--you just bid on the class of hotel and the Priceline zone. And there's no guarantee that you could duplicate the prices that I mentioned above for hotel and car--then again, it's possible you could start bidding lower and get them for less money, too. Too many variables with Priceline bidding to predict exactly what will happen.

Usual disclaimers apply--no vested interest in your using Priceline or the Web site mentioned above, no guarantee that Priceline will get you the things you want at the prices you bid, yadda, yadda.

Anyway, I'll be interested in seeing what others have to say. This is always a fun exercise, and someone will probably come up with something really creative that stands out from the rest.

Let us know what you decide to do!

Consider heading north to Canada. Your money will go further with the exchange rate. Plus it's a great country to visit, with plenty to do and see.

Budget Traveler,
You should check out Travelzoo.com
There are plenty of vacation packages there that will be in your budget. Have Fun!

My family offered me the same challenge, and I planned a trip for the four of us to visit South Beach in Miami.

Flights from Chicago were about $200 round trip. We stayed on the Strip at a funky little hotel (not elaborate but certainly pleasant) for around $100 a night (reserved on Hoteldiscounts.com). And there were plenty available for lower prices.

We did not rent a car, and ate mostly just sandwiches at the beach. Plenty to walk around and see without incurring incremental cost (although beach chair rentals at $7 a pop were costs we wish we could have avoided).

I don't think you could stretch the dollars to eight days, but you could come close.

Also - when I was in college we did a spring break package to Freeport in the Bahamas for something crazy like $250 a person. We had to get ourselves to Miami, but it was still a phenomenal deal. Not sure it would hold appeal to me at this age, but you could probably find something! Check the Apple Vacations site for "last minute deals" that might hold something interesting.

Budget -- here's a tip for future postings:

Seeking suggestions is fine, but please do *some* homework yourself! "Find me" and "hopefully you will come through" isn't the way to treat the great people on this site.

OFFICIAL INTERNET NOTICE TO: Working Girl

Dear Working Girl:

You have been coached and trained about the Fodors.com "culture".

You have boldly insisted on ignoring nuances about the above stated culture.

Here, it is important that you not "make up the rules for others".

Working Girl, I regret to inform you that you have been terminated. Your care and concern for others shows that this "job" may not be a match for you.

Good Luck
"The Internet"

p.s. (LOL, it's tongue in cheek for those lookin' to spar)

Hey
Me & hubby and daughter went to Orlando Florida last year for 4 days via Northwest Airlines for $820.00 for air/hotel at the Quality Inn. This did not include Disney passes. This did include rental car - Alamo compact car.
We went through Northwest World Vacations. We flew from Detroit. Monday-Thursday. Had a blast!! Northwest World Vacations phone #-1-800-800-1504.
Let us know what you decide.. Hope you have luck...

I browsed for a couple of minutes in the "packages" listings at Expedia and found plenty of air/hotel packages in places like Miami or Las Vegas or Tampa for Sept. in your price range. Gambling and green fees extra, I suppose.

But if it were us, I'd think seriously about driving to Charleston or Savannah, around 900 mi. each way, with an overnight en route in someplace like Nashville or Memphis. That saves the airfare, it ought to be a fun drive (if you like that sort of thing) and you have a car to tool around in in these wonderful areas. Just a thought.

Working Girl-Someone steal your lunch or what?? Better take your metamucil honey.

Budget-Have you thought about the Keys? Don't know where you are flying from, but Southwest was running some great fares into Fort Lauderdale, rent an economy car and drive down. There are some clean budget hotels, Fairfield Inn, Hampton, Comfort Suites on Roosevelt in Key West. So, you are a little far from Duval but hey at least you are in Key West. Also, saw US Air had some deals going. Check their websites, hotwire, cheaptickets.com etc.

Thanks for the input so far. Don't think we could do a driving vacation. If couped up in the car together for more than 300 miles, there could be bodily injury to my husband perpetrated by me (just kidding) Any way, as I said we are VERY limited and our budget includes food and entertainment as well as hotel and air. However, hubby is traveling to New York on business next month and then on to Philadelphia and back. After that we may have enough FF miles to get 2 domestic tickets. That being said, we may look into a 4 or 5 day cruise from Florida so that food etc. will be included and we like knowing the price up front with our budget! If you have any further suggestions, please continue to post them. Thanks!

BT - Another thought. Fly to NewOrleans,(it's about a 700 mile drive) take cruise from there. There are a few smaller ship that sail from NO. Clean, good food, good service - just not as new and gigantic as some ships. Most ships out of NO do Cozumel, Cancun. Just remember, if you've never been on a cruise before, the cheap rooms don't have a window, but the idea is to get out of the room and party and/or relax anyway. Good luck - I'm usually the champagne taste with beer budget myself, so I know how you feel!

Another way to find out how far your money will take you: Go to Yahoo Travel, then to "Dream Maps". You can choose where you're departing from and how much you want to spend per person, and it'll show you all the places you can fly (or drive) within that amount of money. Of course then you'd have to look up hotels, but you'd be surprised at the different places you can fly for a reasonable amount!

Budget Traveler, hon, why would you want to go the the Caribbean during hurricaine season? On the other hand, prices will be low.