Tim Leffel's Cheapest Destinations

How the Travel Dollar Fared Last Year

Near the end of 2008 the dollar was flying high as a result of governments piling into treasury bills, so hopefully you took a trip while the getting was good. I took two, getting more soles for my bucks in Peru and getting 14.5 pesos to the dollar in Mexico a year ago, close to a historic high. Turns out that was a very good time to visit Europe, Canada, New Zealand, or South Africa.

Alas, market fundamentals soon crept back in and the party was over. The euro is hovering around 1.5 dollars again (about 2.5% stronger than a year ago) and many other currencies have followed suit. Here’s the bad news first, the countries where the dollar is down the most since the beginning of 2009:

UK -9.7%
Norway -16.6%
Australia -20.8%
New Zealand -19.2%
Botswana -11.4%
Namibia -22.7%
South Africa -21.2%
Brazil -24.7%
Chile -20.5%
Canada -13.6%
Uruguay -19.9%
Peru -7.8%
Indonesia -13.6%

You have to put this all in perspective, of course. Norway was still super-expensive when the dollar was in 16.6% better shape and Indonesia is still a screaming bargain even when your purchasing power decreases a bit.

Here are the countries where the U.S. dollar still ended up strong year-over-year.

Fiji +10.6%
Romania +2.6%
Iceland +3.4% (still a golden time to go there)
Jamaica +8.3%
Dominican Republic +2.3%
Ethiopia +27.6%
Ghana +12.5%
Argentina +10%
Guatemala +7.6%
Nicaragua +5.5%
Kazakhstan +22.6%
Mongolia +12.4%
Vietnam +5.7%

And don’t forget, the countries that either use the dollar or have their currency pegged to the dollar are going to move in lockstep, so exchange rates aren’t an issue. That’s a long list of places, but it includes China, Ecuador, Panama, Belize, Aruba, the Bahamas, Mozambique, Bermuda, Hong Kong, and much of the Persian Gulf. Many of The World’s Cheapest Destinations not listed above were relatively flat for the year, within a range of 5% or less. These include such popular backpacker spots as Thailand, Laos, Nepal, India, Egypt, Morocco, the Czech Republic, Honduras, and Mexico.

Related posts:

1. Fun While It Lasted – a Strong Travel Dollar
2. The State of the Travel Dollar, Summer 2009
3. Where the Travel Bargains Are This Year
4. Don’t Look Now–Your Dollar is Rising
5. Where Your Travel Dollars Are Still Worth Something