Tim Leffel's Cheapest Destinations

The Opportunistic Traveler

In the book Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune, I stress the substantial financial savings you can get by being a contrarian traveler.

“Have you ever bought a calendar on January 1? Have you ever bought a dozen roses on February 15? Christmas candy on December 26? A bathing suit in September? A leather coat in March?”

These rhetorical questions lead to a discussion about bargains to be had by adjusting timing and seasons, but they can also be applied to destinations that are out of favor, the pariah destinations I covered in this Transitions Abroad article back when everyone was worried about SARS, bird flu, and bombings in Amman and Casablanca. Seems like ancient history now, doesn’t it?

Well, different time, different scare. Now we’ve got a double-whammy in Mexico, with swine flu added to the cartel shoot-em-ups in the border regions. (There are cases in the U.S. and Canada too.) Trips to Thailand have been canceled by the plane load, the second time this has happened after protests shut things down in Bangkok. There are still good odds that Bolivia will erupt into some kind of civil war at any time. An apartment building was smoking in Istanbul yesterday after police fought with left-wing militants. Just try reading the Africa news on any day of the week without hearing about some violence resulting from actions of dictators and warlords. And always I get a Bob Marley song stuck in my head: “So much trouble in the world…”

For the intrepid traveler who can read a map, however, these are opportunities. You’ll have a great time without the crowds in Nicaragua or Colombia just because the tour bus types still have old images stuck in their heads. If you go to Thailand right now you will find the best hotel deals in a decade. The Mexican peso is at 13.7 to the dollar today and will probably weaken some more in the coming month. (It has dropped as low as 15.4). Heck, Conde Nast Traveler even clued its readers in on this perception issue lately with Bad Reputation, Great Destination.

I’m not saying rush headlong into danger—here is a good collection of links to travel warnings and news sources, including the Come Back Alive site. But Ciudad Juarez has nothing to do with Tulum and the political troubles in Bangkok are not likely to play out on Phi Phi Island or among the ruins of Sukothai. I don’t recall ever reading about a travel warning being issued for Cappadocia or Petra.

One of my best travel experiences ever was when my wife and I flew into Indonesia right after a major coup, when buildings were on fire in the capital and our flight in had exactly three other people on it. We slept at the airport, caught an early flight out to Sulawesi, and saw few signs of any trouble during the two months we were island-hopping. But man oh man did we make out like bandits. It took us five weeks to spend $350, despite staying at hotels that would normally be out of our backpacker price range and eating at restaurants where we looked out of place in our shoestring travelers outfits. It was the opportunity of a lifetime and we suddenly felt rich. We could have filled a whole cargo container with unbelievable handicraft buys.

Some readers have called me out on this attitude in the past, saying its exploitative to take advantage of a crisis, but I’ll side with the shopkeepers, hotel owners, and restauranteurs on this one. Believe me, they’ll be very glad to see you when everyone else is staying away.