Jul 30, 2008
When the cost of air transportation rises sharply, people tend to favor the destinations where living is cheap
As I reported in this blog on Monday, Roe Gruber's tour company, Escapes Unlimited (tel. 800/243-7227; www.escapesltd.com), has always specialized in the island of Bali, its most popular destination. But when the cost of aviation fuel and -- therefore -- air transportation began to skyrocket, she noted a strange phenomenon, which I discussed with her on my Sunday radio program last weekend. Moving into second place in terms of popularity was Argentina, the least expensive of all destinations within a 12 to 15-hour flight from most of the United States. And today her staff is handling almost as many tour passengers to Buenos Aires as to Bali.
That Buenos Aires is a suitable vacation destination for today's hard-pressed American is a point that one of our readers, Donna Cuervo, made in a response to my recent blog about "staycations". Her remarks are so apt that they should not be missed, as such responses sometimes are. Because her advice may indicate a good choice for your own next vacation trip, I'm reprinting it here:
"If a staycation is what you want, fine, but I would find it really depressing after working a whole year.
"Although I hoped to return to Paris this year and take an apartment for a month, I realized that the exchange rate would take a lot of the joy out of it for me. I'll do that another time - hopefully next year.
"But I won't stay home. If I can't take an expensive vacation, I'll take a cheap vacation. I'm going back to Buenos Aires.
"Doing the math, I find I can have five fine meals in Buenos Aires for the price of one in Paris. A decent apartment in Buenos Aires can be had for less (often a lot less) than $1,000 a month. Go a little over that, and you have something really exciting. In Buenos Aires I can attend the theatre, concerts, etc., in the best seats for low prices. In Paris I would have to sit in the balcony and bring binoculars.
"In Buenos Aires I can actually shop and buy things. In Paris I could only shop for ideas, as actual buying wouldn't make sense with this exchange rate.
"To Buenos Aires, frequent flyer tickets were available at a price of only $37 tax. For Paris, there was no availability for many months.
"While I could take a staycation and see the sights of my own New York area, the real vacation in Buenos Aires will probably be cheaper than staying home. Prices for doing things in New York can be pretty high."
Buenos Aires, anyone? Roe Gruber's Escapes Unlimited takes you there for $759 (plus fuel surcharge), including round-trip air on COPA from Miami, 5 nights at the centrally-located Regis Hotel or similar, breakfast, transfers, and half-day city tour, with extra nights only slightly more. Add $250 from New York, $350 from Los Angeles. And for an extra $122, you can overnight on the way in Panama and take a tour of the Panama Canal.
Escapes Unlimited also goes to several other unusually cheap destinations, charging as little as:
$599 to Ecuador, plus fuel surcharge: Round-trip air on COPA Airlines from Miami, 5 nights at a 3-star hotel, breakfast, transfers, half-day city tour.
$679 to Panama, plus fuel surcharge: Rainforests, beaches, nature, tribes and the Canal. Round-trip air on COPA from Miami, 5 nights at a 3-star hotel, breakfast, sightseeing. Slightly higher from other cities.
$949 to Saigon, plus fuel surcharge: Round-trip air from Los Angeles or San Francisco, with 5 nights' hotel in Saigon, transfers, breakfast daily, and a half-day city tour. Extensions to the Central Highlands, Danang, Hue, Halong Bay, and Hai On, are also available.
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That Buenos Aires is a suitable vacation destination for today's hard-pressed American is a point that one of our readers, Donna Cuervo, made in a response to my recent blog about "staycations". Her remarks are so apt that they should not be missed, as such responses sometimes are. Because her advice may indicate a good choice for your own next vacation trip, I'm reprinting it here:
"If a staycation is what you want, fine, but I would find it really depressing after working a whole year.
"Although I hoped to return to Paris this year and take an apartment for a month, I realized that the exchange rate would take a lot of the joy out of it for me. I'll do that another time - hopefully next year.
"But I won't stay home. If I can't take an expensive vacation, I'll take a cheap vacation. I'm going back to Buenos Aires.
"Doing the math, I find I can have five fine meals in Buenos Aires for the price of one in Paris. A decent apartment in Buenos Aires can be had for less (often a lot less) than $1,000 a month. Go a little over that, and you have something really exciting. In Buenos Aires I can attend the theatre, concerts, etc., in the best seats for low prices. In Paris I would have to sit in the balcony and bring binoculars.
"In Buenos Aires I can actually shop and buy things. In Paris I could only shop for ideas, as actual buying wouldn't make sense with this exchange rate.
"To Buenos Aires, frequent flyer tickets were available at a price of only $37 tax. For Paris, there was no availability for many months.
"While I could take a staycation and see the sights of my own New York area, the real vacation in Buenos Aires will probably be cheaper than staying home. Prices for doing things in New York can be pretty high."
Buenos Aires, anyone? Roe Gruber's Escapes Unlimited takes you there for $759 (plus fuel surcharge), including round-trip air on COPA from Miami, 5 nights at the centrally-located Regis Hotel or similar, breakfast, transfers, and half-day city tour, with extra nights only slightly more. Add $250 from New York, $350 from Los Angeles. And for an extra $122, you can overnight on the way in Panama and take a tour of the Panama Canal.
Escapes Unlimited also goes to several other unusually cheap destinations, charging as little as:
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Labels: argentina, budget travel, ecuador, packages, panama, vietnam
Mar 20, 2008
With tour operators predicting that travel to Europe will fall off sharply, much of their attention has turned to Asia and the South Pacific
Witness the major marketing of three new programs by European specialist, Gate 1 Travel. In widely disseminated press releases, Gate 1 is featuring bargains like $1189 to Bali, air-inclusive from Los Angeles, for a five-night stay there; $1249 to Hong Kong and Bangkok, air-inclusive from Los Angeles, for a six-night stay split between the two cities; and $2,029 to Vietnam, air-inclusive from Los Angeles, for a 10-night escorted stay in Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An, Hue, Halong Bay and Hanoi. Who would have dreamed that a tour operator famed for its city stays in western Europe and cruises along the Rhine, would feature Ho Chi Minh city as the new bargain location? You'll get all the details at www.gate1travel.com.
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Labels: china, thailand, vietnam
Oct 9, 2007
Here's how the Vietnamese themselves explain the (apparent) declining popularity of their country as a tourist destination
I recently wrote about the disappointment that some tour operators to Vietnam have experienced in selling their tours there. More recently, I came across an article in a Vietnamese newspaper that you might find interesting. The writing's atrocious, but it does provide an on-the-ground view of some of the reasons why, according to the piece, up to 70 percent of tourists to Vietnam vow never to return (and, one imagines, dissuades their friends from going once they're home).
There's little new in the article; essentially, it reports tourists being dissatisfied with the usual tricks and touts: enforced shopping excursions, local lack of hygiene, bait-and-switch tactics, etc. Still, given the almost inexplicable industry falloff in Vietnam bookings, it should be read.
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There's little new in the article; essentially, it reports tourists being dissatisfied with the usual tricks and touts: enforced shopping excursions, local lack of hygiene, bait-and-switch tactics, etc. Still, given the almost inexplicable industry falloff in Vietnam bookings, it should be read.
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Labels: vietnam
Sep 7, 2007
Vietnam remains a largely unspoiled and low-cost vacation, and you can enjoy two weeks there for an amazing $945 plus airfare
The decline in American tourism to Vietnam is one of the great mysteries. While nearby China is awash with visitors from the U.S., Vietnam -- with the same low prices and exotic culture -- is a disappointment to most of the tour operators who have ventured to promote it. One of them supplied me with a psychological explanation: that second thoughts about the wisdom of having invaded Iraq are being carried over mentally to Vietnam, where identical doubts prevailed three decades ago. And that the unease over Iraq is therefore affecting travel to Vietnam. Go figure. In the meantime, Canadian tour operators are continuing to offer and sell packages to Vietnam that remain popular and rival the top values of other Asian locations. Gap Adventures, of Toronto (tel. 800/708-7761; www.gapadventures.com), operates a superb two-week itinerary -- 10 nights in hotels, two nights on a sleeper train, one night on an overnight boat -- that begins in Hanoi and Halong Bay and then goes sweeping down that nation's coast along the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea to Hue, Hoi An (custom-made suits here!), Nha Trang, and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). Departures are every week throughout the fall, winter and spring, in groups limited to 15 persons but averaging 10, and including considerable sightseeing, a tour leader, local guides, and more. These are heavily booked by intellectually-curious Americans. The charge is an amazing $695 per person, plus $250 in local payments; to which you add your own international airfare on Vietnam Airlines, booked through www.mobissimo.com, for about $979, round-trip from Los Angeles.
Vietnam. If you have two weeks free in the months ahead -- what's stopping you?
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Labels: vietnam
Jun 14, 2007
Get a suit made in Hoi An (a reason for visiting Vietnam)
If you've thinking about Vietnam and studying the tours there, you've probably seen a two-night or three-night stay assigned to the port city of Hoi An, on the South China Sea. And why is everybody going there? Why is the little-known Hoi An often scheduled for the same length of stay as Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City (the former Saigon)?
It's to permit the American tourist to buy a custom-made suit, or dress, or anything else that can be copied from the pages of Vogue or GQ. Though the picturesque Hoi An has numerous attractions dating from the medieval era (Buddhist temples and shrines, much else), it also boasts nearly 100 tailor shops for the overnight manufacture of custom-made suits, dresses, coats, and shoes, for less than a tenth of what you'd spend in the western world (US$75 for a custom-made suit). Like so many other secondary Asian cities, its decision to specialize in one activity has created a shopping mecca that overwhelms the size of similar industries in the great Asian capitals. You can go there independently, or you book an air-and-land-package from companies like General Tours (look up its offerings in Google).
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It's to permit the American tourist to buy a custom-made suit, or dress, or anything else that can be copied from the pages of Vogue or GQ. Though the picturesque Hoi An has numerous attractions dating from the medieval era (Buddhist temples and shrines, much else), it also boasts nearly 100 tailor shops for the overnight manufacture of custom-made suits, dresses, coats, and shoes, for less than a tenth of what you'd spend in the western world (US$75 for a custom-made suit). Like so many other secondary Asian cities, its decision to specialize in one activity has created a shopping mecca that overwhelms the size of similar industries in the great Asian capitals. You can go there independently, or you book an air-and-land-package from companies like General Tours (look up its offerings in Google).
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Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
