Tim Leffel's Cheapest Destinations

Cheap Travel USA – Lexington, KY

If you know anything about Lexington, Kentucky, then two things come to mind: thoroughbred horses and fine bourbon whiskey. Both have a heavy whiff of old money about them, but you can enjoy them on the cheap when you visit Lexington.

This is one of my favorite small cities and I wrote a family travel piece about it a few years ago that I still like: Where Bourbon, Betting, and Breeding are a Family Affair.

Small cities in general are a better deal than large ones, but Lexington has more to offer than most. It’s got one of the most beautiful horse race tracks in the country—Keeneland. Since this is breeding area central for horses, you get the best of the best racing here, without all the media hype and overcrowding of the Kentucky Derby down the road in Louisville. Races run at certain times in the fall and spring, so go here for the schedule. It only costs $5 to get into these hallowed grounds, programs are $2, and you can make $2 bets all day long and not lose your shirt. You can get a beer at the track or, of course, some good bourbon.

Speaking of such, only one of the bourbon distilleries in the area (Woodford Reserve–$5 and worth it) charges for a tour and in the past few years they’ve all been able to start offering samples. Four Roses is right outside of town. There’s a whole Bourbon Trail of these places stretching through the countryside around Lexington and Bardstown. To visit them you ride through some beautiful countryside.

There are two Pete Dye golf course and there’s one Reese Jones golf course, with greens fees that will leave a California golfer smiling big. There’s a great state park system throughout Kentucky, with good prices on cabins, if you want to spend some time in nature.

Here’s a list of 70 free things to do in Lexington. These include the 734-acre Raven Run Nature Sanctuary, the University of Kentucky Art Museum, and the gravesite of Daniel Boone.

Hotel rates are usually a bargain in this city unless there’s a special event going on in town. When I pulled up Hotwire rates for this coming weekend, 13 of the 14 hotels they had listed were under $100 a night, including a 3-star with a pool and gym for $59. If you’re driving, you can usually find great coupon deals at the rest stops and visitors’ centers.

Bourbon, gambling, nice scenery, a pretty downtown, good prices—what else do you want? Find it at the info-packed Lexington Tourism site.

[top flickr photo from David Paul Ohmer]

Cities That Travelers Hate

Lonely Planet has a piece on 9 cities travelers hate, based on feedback from readers.

I won’t steal their thunder by posting them all here, but I agree with some more than others. I lived in a suburb of Seoul for a year and while I’ll agree that there’s not much soul in Seoul, it does have a great subway system (with announcements in English even!), some fun markets, and good food—until you live there long enough to get sick of it that is. There are certainly worse places to be…

…like Detroit! Can you imagine being the head of tourism for Detroit? You’d have to be a real masochist to take that job. But hey, if you have a rock band or are an artist who needs studio space, I hear you can pick up a house there right now for less than the price of a used gas-guzzling SUV.

Madras/Chennai is a real shithole. No doubt about that.

Chetumal is not great, but again I’ve seen far worse. I think it’s just a sucky place to hang out when you’d rather be in Belize or Tulum.

I haven’t made it to San Salvador yet. But everything I’ve heard backs this up: “Widely acknowledged as the grubbiest of the Central American capitals.”

Guide to Real Estate in Latin America

A few weeks back Transitions Abroad posted this article of mine: Real Estate in Latin America.

In my humble opinion this is the best region to put your money into if you’re going to buy a house, condo, or piece of land anytime soon, especially if you’re old enough (and have enough verifiable income) to take advantage of the incentives some countries throw at you. In some cases you only have to be 45 and be able to prove you can earn $1,000 a month from outside their country—pretty easy if you’re a freelancer, a business owner, or a pensioner. And apart from a few bubble zones (Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, northern Pacific Costa Rica for a start), the prices are really attractive.

I just came back from Ecuador, where the prices on some of the real estate ads were almost laughable. Like a 90-acre farm outside Cuenca with a 3-bedroom house and a caretaker’s cottage for $90,000. Another was 128 acres with a fruit orchard and a spring-fed stream for $68,000. For another $32K you could build a nice house with a great view. I saw 2-bedroom condos advertised in nice parts of Quito for under $60,000—one was on the 18th floor with a panoramic view from the balcony. These weren’t isolated cases either. See that photo at the top from Cuenca? Renovated lofts in that building start at $45,000.

Anyway, check out the article for details on where the best deals are and why it makes sense. There are resources at the end to follow up on specifics.

Airline Fees in Europe

SmarterTravel has published a series of great tables to help passengers figure out how much they’ll get reamed by various airlines in extra fees and frequent flyer fees to redeem “free” tickets. Now they’ve got a guide to airline fees in Europe. While we gripe and moan about all the fees we get socked with on domestic flights, some of those pale in comparison to what you’ll pay if you fly to or within the Tiffany’s-priced continent known as Europe. This is on top of all the fuel surcharges most hit you with to cross the Atlantic—one of the many factors leading to a sharp decline in tourism to Europe this past year. (Down by 1/3 in many popular destinations, far worse than other regions.)

You’ll get pickpocketed by all these airlines in some way after you pay your fare, but some hit you worse than others.Most allow one bag free when you fly across the Atlantic. For the second bag, it may cost you more than you paid for the bag itself: $55 USAir, $60 Virgin Atlantic, $50 Delta, $50 Continental, $60 British Airways, $50 Aer Lingus. A lot of the European airlines still let you check two bags as part of the ticket though (TAP, Swiss, Scandinavian), so check the chart and keep that in mind when comparing prices.

If your bag is overweight, then you start hitting the platinum level of add-on fees and that weight limit can be lower than on U.S. domestic flights, so pack light. Budget airlines are anything but budget when it comes to this category. Here’s EasyJet’s: “total combined checked baggage 21-50 kilos: £9 per kilo.” So if your combined baggage is 66 pounds (30 kilos), you’ll pay 81 pounds extra one-way. Today that’s $134, on a ticket that may have cost half that. Ouch!

Unfortunately, this chart leaves out a lot of nasty extra charges that are pure profit for the carriers. RyanAir is known as the king of fees, but many travelers I’ve met who use the airline for weekend getaways only get really worked up about one of them: a charge to pay with a credit or debit card online. RyanAir charges a “booking fee” of £10 per person that’s unavoidable unless you have their own branded credit card or pay $5 to use a less secure debit card. So if you’re a family of 4, it’s over $120 round-trip just to give them your money. The scary one is forgetting to check in online, which costs you another £5, but if you don’t do it you’ll get to the airport and pay an outrageous £40 per person each way (£80 round trip). Here’s a good link to how to get around the gotcha fees in Europe.

Here’s a direct link to the chart.

Travel Prices in Ecuador

Ecuador has been in all three editions of The World’s Cheapest Destinations book and is a backpacker favorite for good reason. You can do and see a whole lot in a country that’s pretty compact and the weather is quite pleasant year round in many areas. I just spent a great two weeks there and it was fantastic all around. You can spend a small fortune in Ecuador if you want (see the previous post on the Galapagos), but you don’t have to. This is one of the best values in the whole hemisphere.

Ecuador is the kind of place where you can walk out of your hotel with $10 in your pocket and go get a haircut, take a taxi ride or a few buses, eat a filling meal, and have a beer or two. You’ll come back with change still jingling in your pocket.

Here are some sample costs for travelers in Ecuador. (All in U.S. dollars, which is what they use also.)

Taxi from the airport to Quito Old Town – $8
Taxi from Quito Old Town to airport – $5.50
Quito Trolley bus ride – 25 cents
Gondola ride in Quito to 4,100 meters altitude and back – $8

Hour of internet access – 50 cents to $1
Phone call to U.S. from a cabina – 10 to 20 cents a minute

Beer in a bar or restaurant – 75 cents to $2.50 (the latter often a liter bottle)
Soda in a bar or restaurant – $1 to 1.50
Meal of the day lunch – $1.50 to $3.50 (three courses and usually something to drink)
Pizza slice with a soda $1.50, pizza slice with a beer $1.80
Giant helping of french fries with a hot dog on top – $1-$1.50

Haircut in a salon – $2.50
One hour massage in a salon – $10-$15
Admission to most museums and sites – $1 to $3.50

Wool hat or pair of wool gloves in Otavalo market – $1.50-$2
Leather purse that would cost you $200 at home – $30-$50

Hostel bed in Quito – $7-$13
Basic Quito hotel room with private bath, maid service, bkfst., hot water – $15 to $35
3-star equivalent hotel – $30 to $75 (cheaper outside the cities)

Overnight bus Quito to Cuenca – $9-$12
Return internal flight Quito to Cuenca – $110-$138
Return internal flight Quito to Galapagos – $320-$380 (residents pay less)

Biggest rip-off: Mailing a postcard – $2 (USA) to $2.25 (UK)

Related posts:
Cheapest places to live: Ecuador
Travel prices in Honduras
Travel prices in Hungary
Czech Price Check
Travel prices in Peru
A buck or less in Mexico City