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Whenever I see someone posting about how hated Americans are abroad I know immediately they don't actually travel much.
Agree. We spent a month each in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain and everyone was lovely and friendly. Never experienced any resentment. Many locals thought we were from England, in fact.
We stayed in very nice historic hotels that were cheaper than in the U. S. The flights were very reasonable too, like $800 round trip.
I just checked flights from Quito to San Diego...$400, so not bad at all.
But in retirement, we have the luxury of time, unlike while working.
I’d argue that Paris’ reputation for being expensive is the actual anecdote.Lots of folks feel like it’s a place where it’s worth splurging on a higher end property and the free market meets those needs well. The free market also provides options that are far, far less. Median hotel night price in Paris from a couple sources I found is about 150 euros a night. And plenty of good options with clean rooms and AC are decidedly under that 150 mark.
No, you talking about the hotel you stayed on your visit to make a point about hotel pricing of a city is the very definition of anecdote. Statistics on hotel prices for cities are all over the board depending on your source, but looking at price on Booking.com the majority of hotels in central Paris on their site fall in the 200-250 Euro range, which is not relatively cheap by any stretch.
No, you talking about the hotel you stayed on your visit to make a point about hotel pricing of a city is the very definition of anecdote. Statistics on hotel prices for cities are all over the board depending on your source, but looking at price on Booking.com the majority of hotels in central Paris on their site fall in the 200-250 Euro range, which is not relatively cheap by any stretch.
Now you’re changing the parameters to ‘central’ Paris when there are an infinite number of options a metro stop or two away that are far far less than expensive the Opera or Vendome area. Many of which are in charming stereotypical Paris neighborhoods that will provide a delightful stay and be far less frantic than amid peak tourist horde.
Nope, I'm talking anywhere inside the Peripherique which includes all the arrondissements including many outlying cheaper ghetto areas, and obviously encompasses areas a metro stop or two away from the main tourist area. What do you stay out in Nanterre and take the RER into town every day?
Put their map to include that you get a price spread where most of the hotels are over 200 euros per night:
Also = we're staying in midtown Manhattan for $180 later this month, that personal anecdote doesn't make Manhattan relatively cheap either.
Usa is a vast country and there is plenty to see that would keep someone busy for lifetime if you are a nature lover and into hiking. I would like to visit other countries some day but for now, I want to get the essentials out of the way from USA. But it has been a daunting task due to size of our country.
Usa is a vast country and there is plenty to see that would keep someone busy for lifetime if you are a nature lover and into hiking. I would like to visit other countries some day but for now, I want to get the essentials out of the way from USA. But it has been a daunting task due to size of our country.
Perhaps that is a cultural difference as many young people here think the opposite. They want to do essential overseas travelling and see the world, saying that when they are old they can see their own country thoroughly.
Trouble is we get hooked on overseas travel. We just booked for South Africa for next year. So glad we can travel again after the past two years.
One thing I would add is traveling here is becoming more and more expensive at popular attractions. I was just looking at hotels for Yellowstone and Yosemite for next year, and these places are charging $300-$400 per night. Moreover, some of these places get booked a year in advance! And I am not even talking about fiver star places. These are just mid-class hotels. So, planning a trip to these places is like running a rat race.
I wouldn’t be surprised if more people would travel overseas instead of traveling in USA just because overseas travel might actually turn out to be cheaper!
One thing I would add is traveling here is becoming more and more expensive at popular attractions. I was just looking at hotels for Yellowstone and Yosemite for next year, and these places are charging $300-$400 per night. Moreover, some of these places get booked a year in advance! And I am not even talking about fiver star places. These are just mid-class hotels. So, planning a trip to these places is like running a rat race.
I wouldn’t be surprised if more people would travel overseas instead of traveling in USA just because overseas travel might actually turn out to be cheaper!
Summer hotel prices in Jackson Hole/Grand Tetons are worse than you’d find in the poshest part of Switzerland. It’s summer camp for American billionaires. Yosemite is close enough to San Francisco to be a popular driving destination for a lot of folks there with high household incomes and the free market sets lodging prices accordingly.
The problem is that many popular US National Parks are then surrounded by national forest of BLM land. This limits the amount of new lodging that can be built near the park and many prime parks like the Grand Canyon also have water rights issues that additional limiting expansion. And as interest in the National Parks has exploded over the past 10-15 years, there simply hasn’t been enough private land where additional lodging can be build nearby, and since we’re a free market capitalist country and all, the hotels that are there have been able to significantly increase prices because of that high demand.
We’ve actually done okay on the past two years of national parks trips through a combination of making refundable reservations during big covid spikes when not many people were thinking about travel and throwing a bunch of chain hotel points at a reservation.
I literally made hotel reservations for Sedona for May 2021 the night I got my second covid vaccine shot at the end of March that year and right before vaccine availability opened up for pretty much everyone. About $200/night. By the time we actually got to Sedona, the walk-up rate for a similar room was $500/night.
The Spousal Unit is talking Grand Tetons next year. The number of Hilton points it’s going to require to ‘buy down’ the cost of that trip could get me an overwater bungalow in French Polynesia instead.
Alas, at this point, I can’t talk him into the far cheaper Dolomites or Pyrenees instead.
Summer hotel prices in Jackson Hole/Grand Tetons are worse than you’d find in the poshest part of Switzerland. It’s summer camp for American billionaires. Yosemite is close enough to San Francisco to be a popular driving destination for a lot of folks there with high household incomes and the free market sets lodging prices accordingly.
The problem is that many popular US National Parks are then surrounded by national forest of BLM land. This limits the amount of new lodging that can be built near the park and many prime parks like the Grand Canyon also have water rights issues that additional limiting expansion. And as interest in the National Parks has exploded over the past 10-15 years, there simply hasn’t been enough private land where additional lodging can be build nearby, and since we’re a free market capitalist country and all, the hotels that are there have been able to significantly increase prices because of that high demand.
We’ve actually done okay on the past two years of national parks trips through a combination of making refundable reservations during big covid spikes when not many people were thinking about travel and throwing a bunch of chain hotel points at a reservation.
I literally made hotel reservations for Sedona for May 2021 the night I got my second covid vaccine shot at the end of March that year and right before vaccine availability opened up for pretty much everyone. About $200/night. By the time we actually got to Sedona, the walk-up rate for a similar room was $500/night.
The Spousal Unit is talking Grand Tetons next year. The number of Hilton points it’s going to require to ‘buy down’ the cost of that trip could get me an overwater bungalow in French Polynesia instead.
Alas, at this point, I can’t talk him into the far cheaper Dolomites or Pyrenees instead.
Just visited Grand Teton and Yellowstone for the latter's 150th anniversary. Cost of a motel room with spotty WiFi in Jackson was insane--$320/night including taxes. And this was one of the cheapest lodgings we could find within Jackson.
In contrast, one can get a room at the Stovepipe Wells Village Hotel inside the underrated Death Valley National Park for $144/night (+taxes).
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