Traveling internationally is cheaper than domestic travel

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Who can take 16 days to travel, especially when you have school age kids. They have activities/camps/etc. even during the summer. Are you in the DC area? Most people I know do not take vacations this long unless they are pre-kids / post-kids / DINKS.

I'm going to Peru with my DS15 and DD11 in late June/early July, for about 17 days. No camp is better than that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We aren’t too heavy into the credit card/points game, but spouse and I recently got United Chase cards. With sign-on bonuses, we were able to get roundtrip tickets to Florence, Italy. The travel is for summer 2026 and we booked last month. These flights are priced in dollars at $1200 on TAP, with a stop in Portugal, and at $1700 nonstop on United. The flights for us our 40,000 United points each way for our family of four. We had our own United points, which combined with the sign-on bonuses, gave us free flights. The flights are now 70,000 points, so while it felt insane to book a summer 2026 flight in November, it looks like it saved us- though maybe the price will drop again?

To be clear, are you flying on the nonstop IAD-Rome, or on TAP to Florence with a stop in Lisbon? Pretty sure United doesn't fly to Florence (it's a very small airport).

I got it mixed up. Flying nonstop on United to Venice. Most of vacation is in Florence/Tuscany.

Nice, that's a very new flight- until earlier this year the only place in Italy you could fly to nonstop from the DC region was Rome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People could have such extraordinary vacations in the South Pacific - Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu - for less than the cost of renting a beach house in Bethany or Rehoboth or the Outer Banks in August.

For more informed people, the US isn't competing these days. Lame and expensive. There are far better opportunities and experiences overseas than what the US tourism industry is offering at these price levels.

But doesn’t this only make sense if you can take several weeks of vacation at a time? Flying around the world for a one week vacation doesn’t seem economical, comfortable, or good for the environment., I think the issue is that most Americans just can’t afford to take off 2-3 weeks at a time. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a vacation longer than 10 days. I’m not the type to rent a house in rehobeth for a month but the people I know that do that do it specifically so that one or both spouses can drive back and forth to DC for work meetings as needed.

Well, that's a choice Americans have made. Many other countries value time. Meanwhile, American have chosen this system, where you can't even travel for longer than a few days.

This is a choice, no matter if you like Democrats or Republicans. This is what we chose for ourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People could have such extraordinary vacations in the South Pacific - Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu - for less than the cost of renting a beach house in Bethany or Rehoboth or the Outer Banks in August.

For more informed people, the US isn't competing these days. Lame and expensive. There are far better opportunities and experiences overseas than what the US tourism industry is offering at these price levels.

Seems there are now ridiculous posts. The flights to these locations are never inexpensive unless you know some secret. They are routinely like $1700 - $2000 flights per person.

They aren't business travel destinations (which creates volume that brings down average prices) and you usually are connecting twice (if flying from the DMV).

Flights to mainland Asia are much cheaper because they are heavily trafficked routes...and then costs in places like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia are absurdly low for meals, hotels, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People could have such extraordinary vacations in the South Pacific - Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu - for less than the cost of renting a beach house in Bethany or Rehoboth or the Outer Banks in August.

For more informed people, the US isn't competing these days. Lame and expensive. There are far better opportunities and experiences overseas than what the US tourism industry is offering at these price levels.

Seems there are now ridiculous posts. The flights to these locations are never inexpensive unless you know some secret. They are routinely like $1700 - $2000 flights per person.

They aren't business travel destinations (which creates volume that brings down average prices) and you usually are connecting twice (if flying from the DMV).

Flights to mainland Asia are much cheaper because they are heavily trafficked routes...and then costs in places like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia are absurdly low for meals, hotels, etc.

Have you rented a house in the Delaware beaches or the Outer Banks in July or August?

There are seriously better options at these price points - including Asia and the South Pacific.

[Anonymous]

not really, its a wash because we only fly businss class for flights over 5 hours which is a must

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People could have such extraordinary vacations in the South Pacific - Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu - for less than the cost of renting a beach house in Bethany or Rehoboth or the Outer Banks in August.

For more informed people, the US isn't competing these days. Lame and expensive. There are far better opportunities and experiences overseas than what the US tourism industry is offering at these price levels.

Seems there are now ridiculous posts. The flights to these locations are never inexpensive unless you know some secret. They are routinely like $1700 - $2000 flights per person.

They aren't business travel destinations (which creates volume that brings down average prices) and you usually are connecting twice (if flying from the DMV).

Flights to mainland Asia are much cheaper because they are heavily trafficked routes...and then costs in places like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia are absurdly low for meals, hotels, etc.

Have you rented a house in the Delaware beaches or the Outer Banks in July or August?

There are seriously better options at these price points - including Asia and the South Pacific.

Earlier information about Delaware rentals was posted- $4300 for a week in peak summer for a 3BR house. Would love to see a full apples to apples comparison including all costs- flights (or driving costs, including reasonable wear/tear on car), rental/hotel, food, activities for a family of 4. Let's split the difference and say for a... 12 day trip? Maybe 6-7 days at a beach or lake/mountain, 5 days in a city?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People could have such extraordinary vacations in the South Pacific - Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu - for less than the cost of renting a beach house in Bethany or Rehoboth or the Outer Banks in August.

For more informed people, the US isn't competing these days. Lame and expensive. There are far better opportunities and experiences overseas than what the US tourism industry is offering at these price levels.

You have to factor in flight times and jet lag, also when we flew to asia last year it was 30k for a round-trip flight round trip on qatar air, no way we are suffering in economy

Same with europe when we flight to europe, flights were about 13k

family of 4

[Anonymous]

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.

[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.

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?

Younger children. This wouldn't work for this time period with high school students. But it was only 2 weeks off of work. I have done it many times. Summer would be easier, but I'm not doing Thailand in the summer as it is horrendously hot.

[Anonymous]

Different populations though. The same people going to Ocean City are not the adventurous type who go to Peru, Thailand or even Europe. My in-laws think Europe is dangerous and difficult so they drag us to the beach.

Plenty of people take off two weeks for work. I don’t see the issue. For Europe I prefer 9 days though.

Everything in the US has gotten very expensive after Covid. I can’t get over hotel prices. I just stayed downtown in Paris for under $200 a night. Try that in NYC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Different populations though. The same people going to Ocean City are not the adventurous type who go to Peru, Thailand or even Europe. My in-laws think Europe is dangerous and difficult so they drag us to the beach.

Plenty of people take off two weeks for work. I don’t see the issue. For Europe I prefer 9 days though.

Everything in the US has gotten very expensive after Covid. I can’t get over hotel prices. I just stayed downtown in Paris for under $200 a night. Try that in NYC.

Yes exactly. Folks going to Bethany want to go to Bethany. It isn't a money issue, it is just what they want to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People could have such extraordinary vacations in the South Pacific - Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu - for less than the cost of renting a beach house in Bethany or Rehoboth or the Outer Banks in August.

For more informed people, the US isn't competing these days. Lame and expensive. There are far better opportunities and experiences overseas than what the US tourism industry is offering at these price levels.

A cheapo ticket to Fiji is going to be in the $700-900 range (before taxes). I'm not getting 4 people to Fiji (and staying there) for less than a week in Rehoboth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People could have such extraordinary vacations in the South Pacific - Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu - for less than the cost of renting a beach house in Bethany or Rehoboth or the Outer Banks in August.

For more informed people, the US isn't competing these days. Lame and expensive. There are far better opportunities and experiences overseas than what the US tourism industry is offering at these price levels.

Seems there are now ridiculous posts. The flights to these locations are never inexpensive unless you know some secret. They are routinely like $1700 - $2000 flights per person.

They aren't business travel destinations (which creates volume that brings down average prices) and you usually are connecting twice (if flying from the DMV).

Flights to mainland Asia are much cheaper because they are heavily trafficked routes...and then costs in places like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia are absurdly low for meals, hotels, etc.

Have you rented a house in the Delaware beaches or the Outer Banks in July or August?

There are seriously better options at these price points - including Asia and the South Pacific.

Yeah...and it averages around $4300/week...versus nearly $8,000 just to get your family of 4 to the South Pacific in coach.

Asia is a completely different story, so I agree there.

All that said, maybe the poster who mentioned the South Pacific lives in LA...so sure, then it's cheaper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People could have such extraordinary vacations in the South Pacific - Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu - for less than the cost of renting a beach house in Bethany or Rehoboth or the Outer Banks in August.

For more informed people, the US isn't competing these days. Lame and expensive. There are far better opportunities and experiences overseas than what the US tourism industry is offering at these price levels.

Seems there are now ridiculous posts. The flights to these locations are never inexpensive unless you know some secret. They are routinely like $1700 - $2000 flights per person.

They aren't business travel destinations (which creates volume that brings down average prices) and you usually are connecting twice (if flying from the DMV).

Flights to mainland Asia are much cheaper because they are heavily trafficked routes...and then costs in places like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia are absurdly low for meals, hotels, etc.

Have you rented a house in the Delaware beaches or the Outer Banks in July or August?

There are seriously better options at these price points - including Asia and the South Pacific.

Yeah...and it averages around $4300/week...versus nearly $8,000 just to get your family of 4 to the South Pacific in coach.

Asia is a completely different story, so I agree there.

All that said, maybe the poster who mentioned the South Pacific lives in LA...so sure, then it's cheaper.

The South Pacific is an extreme example of a distant destination with few flights, but it certainly doesn't need to cost you 8000$ to get your family to 4 to East Asian destinations like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Just set up price alerts, and jump when the ticket prices are 1000$ or below. It's fairly easy to do if you don't mind an extra connecting stop or aren't picky about the dates. And then your expenses overseas are far lower than in the USA if you don't pick 5 star everything.