Traveling internationally is cheaper than domestic travel

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This obviously depends on location. For example, I can definitely take a New England road trip staying in cheap hotels and eating inexpensive food more cheaply than any trip to Europe could possibly be.

Plane tickets— even “cheap ones”— to Europe are expensive, compared to driving your own car to many destinations in the US.

As a kid, my family would spend two days driving across the country to stay with family. The only lodging we paid for was one night in a hotel each way. We could not have afforded to all fly to Europe (or anywhere).

Food is a wash. You can eat cheaply in both places. But have you priced out road trip hotels lately? Hundreds a night for what would have been $85 six dollars ago. For crappy chains. Doesn't take long for the expenses to even out. If you'r road tripping for a week and not camping, I'd suspect Europe would still be cheaper.

We went to Williamsburg and Norfolk a couple of times last year and paid from about $90-$130 a night at hotels including breakfast. Even in NYC Times Square, I find decent hotels for ~$200 or per night with advance planning. Maybe I could find them cheaply in Europe, too, but the flights are still there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This obviously depends on location. For example, I can definitely take a New England road trip staying in cheap hotels and eating inexpensive food more cheaply than any trip to Europe could possibly be.

Plane tickets— even “cheap ones”— to Europe are expensive, compared to driving your own car to many destinations in the US.

As a kid, my family would spend two days driving across the country to stay with family. The only lodging we paid for was one night in a hotel each way. We could not have afforded to all fly to Europe (or anywhere).

Food is a wash. You can eat cheaply in both places. But have you priced out road trip hotels lately? Hundreds a night for what would have been $85 six dollars ago. For crappy chains. Doesn't take long for the expenses to even out. If you'r road tripping for a week and not camping, I'd suspect Europe would still be cheaper.

We went to Williamsburg and Norfolk a couple of times last year and paid from about $90-$130 a night at hotels including breakfast. Even in NYC Times Square, I find decent hotels for ~$200 or per night with advance planning. Maybe I could find them cheaply in Europe, too, but the flights are still there.

Not in 2025- you can't get a room at a place rated better than 4.0 on Google Maps anywhere in Manhattan south of 59th St for under $400. In midtown $500 is the minimum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This obviously depends on location. For example, I can definitely take a New England road trip staying in cheap hotels and eating inexpensive food more cheaply than any trip to Europe could possibly be.

Plane tickets— even “cheap ones”— to Europe are expensive, compared to driving your own car to many destinations in the US.

As a kid, my family would spend two days driving across the country to stay with family. The only lodging we paid for was one night in a hotel each way. We could not have afforded to all fly to Europe (or anywhere).

Food is a wash. You can eat cheaply in both places. But have you priced out road trip hotels lately? Hundreds a night for what would have been $85 six dollars ago. For crappy chains. Doesn't take long for the expenses to even out. If you'r road tripping for a week and not camping, I'd suspect Europe would still be cheaper.

We went to Williamsburg and Norfolk a couple of times last year and paid from about $90-$130 a night at hotels including breakfast. Even in NYC Times Square, I find decent hotels for ~$200 or per night with advance planning. Maybe I could find them cheaply in Europe, too, but the flights are still there.

Not in 2025- you can't get a room at a place rated better than 4.0 on Google Maps anywhere in Manhattan south of 59th St for under $400. In midtown $500 is the minimum.

With a shared bathroom you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not pp. But those who don't think it is believable obviously don't know how to budget travel. Sure, if you refuse to have any flexibility, that will be true. But I have done many trips to Europe for less than $3k for my small family. It just takes some work. I did one trip to Japan for 3 people over cherry blossom season for only $2500; found a great flight, biggest other expense was the train pass. I have saved tons of money by going to Thailand for 3 weeks. Flights were about $2k total (fly on Thanksgiving or Christmas day), but rooms were only about $40 for amazing local places. Definitely came back to more in my bank account than had I stayed home.

The reason people don't have flexibility is the school schedule. If you are flying over christmas day, okay, how are you staying there for 3 weeks?

Thank you! I am side-eyeing the Japan for 3 for $2,500. Is one under the age of 2? How many days?

It was 6 days over spring break. I had been waiting for a good deal to somewhere. I had lots of trackers working for me. Then $500 tickets to Tokyo popped up. I bought them instantly (3 of them). There was only one night of a decent hotel in our price range (under $150) in kyoto because of cherry blossom season. Most of the time we stayed in Tokyo. But we never changed our hours, so we could get to everything super early when it was empty. On one day, we took the fast train to Kyoto at around 5am, checked our bags into the train station to not lose time in storing them, and just stayed the one night we found. Then we took a late night train back to Tokyo. Getting up super early (on our regular time schedule) allowed us to see all the major sites without anyone else there. You name it and we probably did it.

That’s amazing and I think you got super lucky. Which flight tracker did you use and were those direct flights?
I’ve never really used those flight trackers — is there a way to track like business class or premium economy? There’s no way my husband would fly to Asia in economy. He’d be unable to walk for a full week after that, I think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This obviously depends on location. For example, I can definitely take a New England road trip staying in cheap hotels and eating inexpensive food more cheaply than any trip to Europe could possibly be.

Plane tickets— even “cheap ones”— to Europe are expensive, compared to driving your own car to many destinations in the US.

As a kid, my family would spend two days driving across the country to stay with family. The only lodging we paid for was one night in a hotel each way. We could not have afforded to all fly to Europe (or anywhere).

Food is a wash. You can eat cheaply in both places. But have you priced out road trip hotels lately? Hundreds a night for what would have been $85 six dollars ago. For crappy chains. Doesn't take long for the expenses to even out. If you'r road tripping for a week and not camping, I'd suspect Europe would still be cheaper.

We went to Williamsburg and Norfolk a couple of times last year and paid from about $90-$130 a night at hotels including breakfast. Even in NYC Times Square, I find decent hotels for ~$200 or per night with advance planning. Maybe I could find them cheaply in Europe, too, but the flights are still there.

Not in 2025- you can't get a room at a place rated better than 4.0 on Google Maps anywhere in Manhattan south of 59th St for under $400. In midtown $500 is the minimum.

With a shared bathroom you can.

WTF is this that's not a regular hotel room then. You have to majorly qualify a statement like that from the beginning.

[Anonymous]

I think this whole thread is based on a flawed premise that people who are vacationing in places like rehobeth are doing so because they think it’s cheaper than Europe. Most people I know that rent places in rehobeth do so after their annual or biannual Europe trip. They rent the rehobeth house and work remotely and drive back for meetings while their kids go to the beach or go to Funland. Or they are doing it to share rental cost with extended family. I’m always shocked by how much rentals on eastern shore cost but I recognize they fit a very specific need for a specific type of “vacation.”

But there’s no way driving to western PA and staying jn some Hampton inn type places is more expensive than flying your family abroad and staying in comparable accommodations there. Flying to someplace like California or Colorado using SWA get away fares and free companion passes also probably cheaper for a family of 4 for a trip of less than 2 weeks.

I feel like these threads always have a judgemental tone — you stupid rubes vacationing in the U.S. because you don’t know how cheap it is to go elsewhere. But when you dig in, it’s easy to see why the “cheap” international travel doesn’t work for most American families who have limited vacation time, and only specific times when they can take it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this whole thread is based on a flawed premise that people who are vacationing in places like rehobeth are doing so because they think it’s cheaper than Europe. Most people I know that rent places in rehobeth do so after their annual or biannual Europe trip. They rent the rehobeth house and work remotely and drive back for meetings while their kids go to the beach or go to Funland. Or they are doing it to share rental cost with extended family. I’m always shocked by how much rentals on eastern shore cost but I recognize they fit a very specific need for a specific type of “vacation.”

But there’s no way driving to western PA and staying jn some Hampton inn type places is more expensive than flying your family abroad and staying in comparable accommodations there. Flying to someplace like California or Colorado using SWA get away fares and free companion passes also probably cheaper for a family of 4 for a trip of less than 2 weeks.

I feel like these threads always have a judgemental tone — you stupid rubes vacationing in the U.S. because you don’t know how cheap it is to go elsewhere. But when you dig in, it’s easy to see why the “cheap” international travel doesn’t work for most American families who have limited vacation time, and only specific times when they can take it.

+1

The attraction of Rehoboth is convenience / proximity. If proximity isn't a factor, Rehoboth isn't competing with Spain. The added cost of airfare is worth it to be spending 9 days in Andalucia vs. Bethany.

[Anonymous]

It's all crappy now and that includes Europe. As young broke people we went to Madrid for a week and stayed at the Westin Palace Hotel which was gorgeous, for cheap. Last time we went to Madrid a couple years ago we paid a lot more for a depressing hotel. Same in the US as someone pointed out: the more modest chains are still $200+. Personally not a fan of travel anymore because the costs are too high and do not get you something quality and nice, and as I am getting older I'd like to stay at a hotel at least as nice as my home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids preferred vacation in the US because it has all modern amenities.

Have you been to Europe?

Anonymous wrote: Europe is also dangerous

Have you been to the US?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This obviously depends on location. For example, I can definitely take a New England road trip staying in cheap hotels and eating inexpensive food more cheaply than any trip to Europe could possibly be.

Plane tickets— even “cheap ones”— to Europe are expensive, compared to driving your own car to many destinations in the US.

As a kid, my family would spend two days driving across the country to stay with family. The only lodging we paid for was one night in a hotel each way. We could not have afforded to all fly to Europe (or anywhere).

Food is a wash. You can eat cheaply in both places. But have you priced out road trip hotels lately? Hundreds a night for what would have been $85 six dollars ago. For crappy chains. Doesn't take long for the expenses to even out. If you'r road tripping for a week and not camping, I'd suspect Europe would still be cheaper.

We went to Williamsburg and Norfolk a couple of times last year and paid from about $90-$130 a night at hotels including breakfast. Even in NYC Times Square, I find decent hotels for ~$200 or per night with advance planning. Maybe I could find them cheaply in Europe, too, but the flights are still there.

Not in 2025- you can't get a room at a place rated better than 4.0 on Google Maps anywhere in Manhattan south of 59th St for under $400. In midtown $500 is the minimum.

With a shared bathroom you can.

That sounds fantastic 🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just paid the same to fly to FL as it would cost to go to Spain.

My non stop to Sao Paulo was $50 more than my flight home to Michigan for Christmas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This obviously depends on location. For example, I can definitely take a New England road trip staying in cheap hotels and eating inexpensive food more cheaply than any trip to Europe could possibly be.

Plane tickets— even “cheap ones”— to Europe are expensive, compared to driving your own car to many destinations in the US.

As a kid, my family would spend two days driving across the country to stay with family. The only lodging we paid for was one night in a hotel each way. We could not have afforded to all fly to Europe (or anywhere).

Food is a wash. You can eat cheaply in both places. But have you priced out road trip hotels lately? Hundreds a night for what would have been $85 six dollars ago. For crappy chains. Doesn't take long for the expenses to even out. If you'r road tripping for a week and not camping, I'd suspect Europe would still be cheaper.

We went to Williamsburg and Norfolk a couple of times last year and paid from about $90-$130 a night at hotels including breakfast. Even in NYC Times Square, I find decent hotels for ~$200 or per night with advance planning. Maybe I could find them cheaply in Europe, too, but the flights are still there.

Not in 2025- you can't get a room at a place rated better than 4.0 on Google Maps anywhere in Manhattan south of 59th St for under $400. In midtown $500 is the minimum.

With a shared bathroom you can.

WTF is this that's not a regular hotel room then. You have to majorly qualify a statement like that from the beginning.

Hahaha, OMG. Sure, you can find cheap hotels in Manhattan! They are called hostels!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why people think you have to be rich to travel internationally. If you visited other countries, you would realize the most expensive country in the world is America. In Europe, the costs of food, hotels, and transportation is cheaper than America. In Asia, you can get a five start hotel at Marriott for like $100 per night. Even in wealthy places like Singapore, restaurant food is like a quarter of the cost compared to America.

This is patently false. We were in Switzerland last summer and food is much more expensive than in the US. I’m talking even the lone McDonalds in Lucerne. What are you smoking?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not pp. But those who don't think it is believable obviously don't know how to budget travel. Sure, if you refuse to have any flexibility, that will be true. But I have done many trips to Europe for less than $3k for my small family. It just takes some work. I did one trip to Japan for 3 people over cherry blossom season for only $2500; found a great flight, biggest other expense was the train pass. I have saved tons of money by going to Thailand for 3 weeks. Flights were about $2k total (fly on Thanksgiving or Christmas day), but rooms were only about $40 for amazing local places. Definitely came back to more in my bank account than had I stayed home.

You made money on your vacation?

Hey, sex sells! When in Rome…

[Anonymous]

I don’t care. As a child I spent a significant amount of time traveling abroad and while it was fine, I would have been just as happy traveling domestically.

Call me a rube but I enjoy skiing out west, Disney, beach vacations on the east coast, and quick trips to NYC. I’ve done a lot of international trips and feel little need to take elaborate trips to Europe with kids. The extensive international travel now comes across to me as though they are trying too hard. I have nothing to prove.