Tim Leffel’s Cheapest Destinations

Can You Still Find Travel Bargains in Europe?

With the U.S. dollar sucking wind, it’s getting downright painful for Americans to visit the traditional tourist destinations in Europe. The obvious solutions are to either avoid the continent altogether or head to the countries that are still a relative bargain, such as the ones featured in The World’s Cheapest Destinations.

If you really want to head to Western Europe though, there are ways to make it less painful. I just did a column on this for MSNBC.com titled Help for the battered European travel dollar.

“Above all, plan your trip around the deals instead of trying to find deals that fit your rigid plans. Those who go into the planning process with their options wide open can experience a European vacation without maxing out their credit card. Those who go to the most popular places at the most popular time of year are the ones most likely to feel the sting of the currency exchange rates.”

This was a follow-up to an earlier article on getting a better deal by getting out of the cities in Europe. In a lot of cases, you don’t have to go very far to save 25 to 40 percent on lodging and meals. As Arthur Frommer points out here and here, just staying in the suburbs of a capital instead of in the center can make a huge difference. Go an hour away and you really save bigtime.

If all this sounds a bit desperate, well, a currency drop of 50% combined with record fuel costs makes a little desperation and creative thinking necessary. You need to avoid the herds and be a contrarian traveler to keep from spending your life savings on a trip to Western Europe. One solution is to go in the winter. That may sound crazy, but not if you’re looking for a good value on skiing.

I’m a “path of least resistance” kind of guy though, so I’ll continue to spend most of my leisure travel time in Latin America, where my greenbacks still go a long way…