Revising My Winter Travel Plans

The US dollar is strong again. They are clammoring for it in Europe and in Asia. For years already, my travel to Singapore or London for business was simply in and out. I could not afford to be there very long, and you just can't relax when prices are so expensive that you expect someone to charge you to breathe. And, the thought of travelling to Italy for a vacation was just absurd with Holiday Inns and other mediocre hotels easily running in excess of $400 a night. I had limited my travel and my family's travel to some affordable places - we discovered some amazing places in the US like the Florida Keys, the Maine Coast, Utah, Oregon. My few travels abroad for pleasure where to places like Ecuador, which actually uses the dollar as a currency and had not seen the global travel boom, and cooresponding price hikes, that the rest of the world had seen for the last several years.

Now, all of the sudden the dollar is dramatically stronger everywhere but Japan, and the global recession has caused prices to fall dramatically. Decent accomodations appear to be available in cities like Paris for as low as $150. If I look around a little harder and a little further, I believe that I will find still more attractive deals. I still think that London, Moscow and Italy are insanely expensive places to travel, but I can actually see a day in the not too distant future where I may be able to catch my breathe in one of these places without needing to rush out to breathe.