How to plan an affordable European vacation

• A weak U.S. dollar can make a European vacation or traveling anywhere abroad very expensive.

• Planning your European vacation in advance can allow you to book all the elements at the same time—air, hotel, rental car, etc. in U.S. dollars to avoid currency fluctuations. You can save an average of $240 by bundling your travel services together.

• You can get hit with hefty ATM fees, like a currency conversion fee. Pay for as much as you can upfront, in dollars, before you leave.

• Let your credit card company know that you’re planning a European vacation. International charges could lead to fraud alerts.

• Traveler’s checks are always a good option as they are more secure than cash and offer better budget control than credit cards.

• Look for cities and countries that haven’t adopted the Euro yet—like Prague, Budapest, or Croatia.

• In South America, check out Argentina—prices are about one-third cheaper than they are in the U.S. But don’t forget that their seasons are flipped.

• In Asia, look for places where the dollar is strongest. Thailand has a good mix of big cities and smaller islands.
• Bali offers good food, friendly people, and luxury hotels for significantly lower prices.

CYNTHIA: Hi, I'm Cynthia Guaba for howdini.com. If you've priced a European vacation recently in U.S. dollars, you're probably still reeling from sticker shock. Can a soft drink really cost ten dollars? Actually, you can afford to travel abroad if you know what to look for. And here to help us is Genevieve Brown, Senior Editor at Travelocity. Everyone knows the U.S. dollar is weak. And to travel overseas, you know, it makes it even more expensive. Please give us some tips!

GENEVIEVE: Okay. So if you want to take that European vacation, you have to do a few things that's going to help you keep the prices in check. So, first thing's first: book all of your elements of your European vacation at the same time. So that would be your airfare, your hotel, maybe even a rental car if you're going to be doing some exploring. Book them at the same time, pay for them upfront in U.S. dollars. What that does, is it lets you know that you could stay within a certain budget, and it makes you immune to currency fluctuations because you've already paid for your vacation. Also, bundling all the elements of a vacation together yields really great savings; you get access to savings that you can't get when you book things a la carte, so to speak. We found out it saves about 240 dollars on average, and in some cases, it saves a lot more than that. So right off the bat, you want to be saving as much money as you can because once you get on the ground, in your European destination, that's when things can reall add up. So the trick is save money, even before you leave.

CYNTHIA: Are there some European cities or countries that are less expensive than others?

GENEVIEVE: There are. You want to look for European cities and countries that are not yet on the euro, because our dollar will go a little further in those destinations. So, for a great city vacation, think about Prague, a beautiful city. For something a little bit off the beaten path, maybe Budapest; wonderful place to visit. And if you're looking for something on the coast, the coast of Croatia is a great place to visit and has a really island-y feel.

CYNTHIA: And what about South America or Central America; any tips to travel to those places?

GENEVIEVE: You know, look at a place like Argentina, specifically Buenos Aires is a beautiful city, and prices are about one third of what they are here in the United States. They're known for their steak; for their amazing Argentinean wines; for their beautiful leather. Everything had, and at a lot less of a cost than you would pay for here in the states. One thing to keep in mind, when you're visiting South America: their seasons are flipped with ours. So our summer is their winter; our spring is their fall; et cetera, et cetera.

CYNTHIA: And what about Asia? Any deals if you travel to China, Japan, India?

GENEVIEVE: Again, look for the places where our currency is the strongest. One place I think is fantastic bargain is Thailand. And it gives you the best of both worlds. You could fly into Bangkok and spend a few days exploring that amazing city, get great deals on food and shopping galore, really great. Then take a quick flight to one of their many islands. I particularly love the island Koh Samui. It's a beautiful beach town with great restaurants and just really up-scale, luxury hotels. Another place in Asia to consider is Bali in Indonesia. Wonderful people, wonderful food, and luxury hotels that can be had at a fraction of the cost that they are here in the United States.

CYNTHIA: When you say a fraction, what do you mean?

GENEVIEVE: Talking about properties like the Four Seasons, which might run eight hundred, a thousand dollars a night here in the United States, running about four hundred dollars a night there. Now, I understand four hundred dollars is still a lot of money, that's one of the highest end properties. You can have hotel stays for as little fifty, sixty dollars a night, food for as little as three to four dollars a day. You really cannot beat the value of going there.

CYNTHIA: What about using ATM machines overseas?

GENEVIEVE: You can get charged, not only to use your card, like you do sometimes here in the United States, but also a currency conversion fee, which is basically the work it takes for the bank to exchange the currency of the country that you’re in back into U.S dollars. So not every bank does it; it’s definitely worth checking out, and that’s another reason to pay for everything that you possibly can in U.S dollars before you leave for your trip, just to avoid that fee. If you’re planning on using your credit card abroad, you definitely want to let your credit card company know that you’re traveling outside the United States. If they see a charge come up from a different country, it may alert their fraud department, and then they would shut off access to your credit card. And that’s a predicament we do not want to get ourselves in when we’re traveling overseas and need access to that credit card company.

CYNTHIA: Are we better off using traveler’s checks instead of bringing credit cards?

GENEVIEVE: That’s definitely an option for some people, and it’s a better option than carrying around a ton of cash with you that you could possibly lose because they’re more secure. Another great thing about traveler’s checks: it motivates you to really keep track of how much money you’re spending, which can sometimes get out of control on a credit card.

CYNTHIA: Genevieve, thank you very much. I’m Cynthia Guaba for howdini.com.