13 secrets for stretching your travel dollar

Crewmember confidential: Tips to minimize costs when traveling abroad

Tripso.com

Subscribe now

Tripso Today: Late-breaking travel news

Past articles by Tripso columnists

Subscribe to Tripso's free newsletters

Tripso Forum: Sound off about your trip

Top slideshows

Getty Images	The Big Apple Long referred to as the center of American business, New York is a melting pot of cultures and landscapes. Take a visual tour of some of the Big Apple’s most famous attractions.
Lonely Planet Images	Hawaiian paradise The Hawaiian Islands are the perfect vacation destination for travelers of all types.
Lonely Planet Images	National spectacles Nearly 400 national parks can be found all across America, and feature breathtaking vistas, rock formations millions of years old, and more.

By James Wysong

Travel columnist

updated 1:42 p.m. ET June 3, 2008

James Wysong
Travel columnist
• Profile
• E-mail
If you haven’t been on an international trip for a while, brace yourself for sticker shock. As many of us know, the dollar is at an all-time low against most currencies and there is not much relief in sight.

Should you call off that overseas vacation? No, hang on. If you are open to a little ingenuity or thriftiness, you could lessen the pain on your bank account.

I guess I am getting old when I can remember such classic guidebooks as "Europe on $5 a Day". Some inflation over time is inevitable, but if you add in the painful weakness of the greenback we are now talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 a day, excluding airfare.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

On some of my recent layovers I made a list of some of my shocking expenses:

London — Gas at $10.45 a gallon.
Rome — A pint of beer $9.75 and no, no entertainment was included.
Spain — A meal of Tapas came to $85 and I was still kind of hungry.
Germany — I paid over $12 for a cappuccino.
Singapore — A whopping $25 for a Singapore Sling.
Zurich — I went to Starbucks to buy a coffee mug for my collection, but when they wanted $33 for one normally priced $7 at home, I decided to pass.

These are real prices, translated into dollars. Granted, there were optional cheaper alternatives, but come on, this is getting a bit ridiculous. So it’s time to change your way of thinking when traveling abroad.

The following are some suggestions on minimizing the red from your bank account and saving a little while you’re overseas. Take them for what they are worth — and best of all, these tips are free.

1. Be mentally ready
Discuss with your traveling party the need for being thrifty in order to enjoy more. Make a game out of saving money or getting a discount and don’t finger Dad as the tightwad. Make it a group effort.

2. Fly to cheaper horizons
Though they are getting fewer and farther between, there are some destinations that are still fairly kind to American currency, such as China, Peru, Buenos Aires, and Vietnam. Do some research and discover some out of the way destination that could lead to a great adventure.

Daily travel blog
Daily postings from ‘the
last honest travel site’
3. Grocery shop
Go to the local supermarket and stock up on food, picnic and sandwich materials, and try to limit your restaurant visits to one a day. Get a room with a refrigerator or better yet, see how much more a kitchenette option would be.