will the economic situation affect your travel?

[cookingchick]

A great way to cut costs in Italy is staying in convents! There are hundreds of them that now serve as B&B's. They are often dirt cheap and always clean and safe. Might not be too fancy and most have curfews, but they're also a great cultural experience. You don't have to be Catholic or participate in anything there. And many serve cheap good meals. You can also save money on food by eating in "mom & pop" local restaurants. Bus and train travel is cheaper than car rentals unless you have more than 2 people. And there's cheap airfare if you use Ryanair or other European lines to go from city to city. Read Rick Steves guidebooks for more ideas.

 

Thanks for the tips but I'm not looking to "cut costs"...I'm looking for the dollar to grow a bit stronger before I travel in Europe again. As I said in a previous post...we can afford to go, we just think it's an unwise use of our dollars right now. And, FWIW, staying in a convent would be liking camping to me. When I travel, I want to be pampered. :)

[cookingchick]

We are stocking up on food, driving less, dropped netflix and cutting back however we can and are going to start looking at real estate. We have no debt.

 

Real estate is, I think, a great investment - especially now when it's a buyers market. We've invested in several rental properties and look forward to continuing that trend. We're not making any income from them right now but the rent covers the expenses so that's okay with us. When the homes are paid off, we'll start realizing some income from them and we expect to use that as supplemental income when we retire. DH and I are both very handy so we buy the crappiest houses in the best neighborhoods and do most of the refurbishing ourselves. In the 7 years that we've owned rentals, we've never had one of the properties sit empty longer than 2 months.

[jajohnson]

We recently booked a 2009 Baltic cruise on the Emerald princess and did get sticker shock compared to last year's longer Star Med cruise. However, that did not stop us from keeping the booking (got the aft balcony cabins we wanted). In planning for retirement we have allocated sufficient money to yearly vacations to cover the expense. Actually, I am hoping that many US travelers do stop cruising for economic reasons and that "maybe" the end result will be a price decrease in 2009. At least I can dream for another year and a half <grin >.

[cookingchick]

Two words.

 

Regional Jets.

 

Ten years ago flying in an RJ was a novelty, and us frequent business travelers had nasty names for places like CVG terminal D (Comair) and the such. An RJ would take you from IND to CVG and that was it.

 

Fast forward ten years and a TON of flights are done by RJ. I've RJ'd IND to Washington, DC, or Houston, which is border class idiotic as it's a 3 hour flight.

 

Airlines love RJ's because they are flown by pilots making a third the usual salary and need less crew. Problem is, two or three RJ's equals a BIG jet, so there are more flights, but more delays too (air traffic control)

 

http://jetlagged.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/traffic-jam-in-the-sky/

 

Thank god for RJ's or we'd never get anywhere. We fly out of either Mobile, Gulfport, or Pensacola and without the RJ's the cost would be prohibitive!

[vacationhappy]

We cruise most vacation but had planned a land-based Europe vacation for this upcoming April just to mix it up a bit. However, becasue of the Euro situation, we cancelled in favor of a cruise in the Caribbean. It was just a better value - for the price of the just the airfare for four to Europe, we are flying to Miami and cruising for seven days.

[shashi883]

I don't think I could ever give up my cruise. We go every other year so our plans haven't changed.

[RodneyG]

We were planning a long cruise from Valpariso to Rio this December and when it came time to commit, I decided otherwise

Total cost is over $20k for 3 of us , including flights and spending.

Why did i decide not to go ? Well the threat of recession , the fact that the Rand has weakened against all currencys (I come from south africa) and a general air of uncertainty as well as a loss of business confidence. I have decided to conserve the money spent on the trip "just in case".

We have also bought a substantial residence a year ago and the mortgage rate has gone up . I can afford the holiday but as I say , have decided to pull in my horns and see what happens

If things arent as bad as I think they might be , theres always next year and we can afford even better then. So at the moment it's not a decision whether to cruise thats at issue , it's whether to spend the cash to travel.

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

My DW and I retired two years ago. The current economy will not impact our cruising plans. When we were working we settled for seven-day cruises. Now that we are retired we like the longer cruises and plan on taking a long cruise (12 or more days) every 18 months or so.

 

We recently booked a 2009 European Cruise. While researching the prices, it surprised me that the 2009 fares seem to be less than the 2008 fares. However, this may just be due to early booking discounts and cabin availability. Example: Per the Princess Website, a May 2008 Grand Mediterranean cruise on the Emerald Princess is showing prices of $3255 for a balcony cabin and $3955 for a mini suite. This same cruise in May 2009 on the Ruby Princess is showing prices of $3040 for a balcony and $3815 for a mini suite.

[cruzkitty]

We also cruise once a year (wish it could be more!) and I don't plan on ever giving this up!! Unless, of course, prices go out-of-sight. We have to consider the air-fare, too, but hopefully, ALL of us can continue our beloved cruises!!;)