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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I took my children to Spain last summer for 2 weeks and the whole trip cost less than a Bethany rental, flight included.[/quote]

This is not believable.

Well, I guess if you rent a massive house in Bethany and a tiny place in the middle of nowhere in Spain. And I agree that Spain is cheaper overall, but flights would basically make the costs break even.

There’s no need to exaggerate to prove your point. It just makes you look ridiculous. [/quote]

That probably isn't far off.

I just looked and the average weekly rental for a 3 bedroom Bethany house is 4300 per week.  Flights to Spain next summer are about $750.  Food is far cheaper as are accommodations (2 bedroom in central Madrid during the summer is 1500-2500 for 2 weeks).  I bet it would be cheaper to go to Spain for 2 weeks.[/quote]

Where are you seeing $750?  I just checked and iAd to mad for 6/25-7/5, the cheapest is $807 but requires an 18 hour flight in exonomy!  Reasonable flight times are $1051 for economy.  So I think if you are talking about a family of 4, you need at least 2 weeks vacation to make Europe more affordable plus need to be willing to fly economy red eye.

Also, I’m no longer psyched about renting apartments in anticipation in any place since I saw a new thing about the number of people who have secret cameras in those places and are uploading videos to the dark web.  Particularly with my teen girls…..I’m really creeped out by the idea that someone could be filming them.  We’ve also found that the mattresses in rental apartments are so cheap no one gets a decent nights sleep.  I’ll compromise on a lot when traveling but everyone is just so cranky after sleeping on bad mattresses plus my husbands back will actually go out — so that  is a priority for me.  
Obviously those are preferences for us but I feel like all the people who are saying Europe is so much cheaper are comparing apples and oranges, or ignoring some significant compromises you have to make in order for Europe to be cheaper.

I agree food, activities, train tickets are all way cheaper in Europe.  Hotel prices vary widely depending on where you are.  Like London is pretty comparable to DC prices, and I think Madrid was maybe more, at least in summer.  Small towns tend to be cheaper but that’s true here too.  I guess the difference is that small town Spain or Italy is more interesting than a random small town in most of America.  [/quote]

I see under 700 on Air Canada and Lufthansa/United flights.  Of course, those leave Monday and come back on a Thursday.  So 16 days.

The point isn't whether your particular itinerary with the specifics you want is cheaper,, it is whether in general overseas travel is competitive with domestic travel.  And using the example of 2 weeks in Spain (generally) versus 2 weeks in Bethany Beach, I think it is safe to say that it is competitive in price (if not cheaper) to travel overseas.  Is that because the US is overpriced or is it because overseas is just cheap?[/quote]

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.[/quote]

Plenty of people can.  Teachers/professors with summers off.  People who have flexibility to work remotely full-time or permission to do so for a few weeks of the year.  People who own their own business.  People in tech/private sector firms who have "unlimited PTO" but you need to keep working even while on vacation. And you forget that there's a good chunk of SAHMs and SAHDs too who don't work at least partially so they can be "there for their kids" during the summer.

I worked in academia. All the professors I knew were on 12 month contracts. They are researching/writing/useless meetings maybe teaching a class. I'm 49 and work for a large nonprofit (have also worked for the gov't). Husband is an attorney. I feel like I know a broad base of working professionals and most aren't taking long vacations like this during the summer. Sounds like there are a lot of lucky people. Guess I have not figured out how to do this. I do know teachers and SAHPs. These folks aren't taking 2 week trips to Spain because their partners don't have the same kind of schedule, or they don't have the $$ for these kinds of trips. One does take her kids for multiple trips to her parents beach house in Jersey. There is also the crowd who own a house in Bethany/NC/wherever. These folks may do a Europe trip in addition, but they aren't worried about the budget.

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