Average room in Manhattan? $320/night

by Iva Skoch on

Manhattan has never exactly been a bargain destination. Over the last decade though, it has become virtually impossible to find a modest and affordable hotel room. Even the “average” chain hotel room–that would go for about $60 anywhere else in the country–goes for $200+ here. Take the Holiday Inn downtown for example. If you were to stay there tonight, it would cost you $179-264, according to their website. Needless to say, there is no champagne awaiting your arrival.

The reason for the steep price hike? Shortage of rooms, according to this New York Times article. Cheap dollar has brought in thousands of tourists with money to spend. But local entrepreneurs in New York are not simply waiting around for the dollar to rebound. New hotel developments will add approximately 3000 rooms to the Manhattan market in 2008. Apparently, it would need at least 10,000 rooms to satisfy the demand.

Whatever happened to charging for hotels by the hour? I mean, how much sleep do you honestly need in New York?

How budget airlines make their money: The art of bumping a 2 cent ticket up to $120

by Neil Woodburn on

So, how do they do it? How do all those European budget airlines make a profit charging less than a Euro per seat?

Last summer, Times journalist Mark Frary decided to find out for himself by purchasing a 1 pence Ryanair ticket from London’s Stansted Airport to Berlin. Sounds like a steal, right? Not exactly. Like so many other deal seekers on budget airlines, Frary ended up paying far more than that initial 1 pence. How his final cost netted out at £61.84 ($121.15) provides fascinating insight into an amazing business plan that is succeeding despite naysayers predicting otherwise.

Interestingly enough, the wild price of Frary’s final bill did not come from the most common source of increased ticket prices on budget airline: baggage fees. This is where the airlines really clean up. Passengers on Ryanair, for example, can check up to three bags. The first, however, costs £5 ($9.80) while each additional bag is £10 ($19.60). In addition, there is a 15 kg (33 lbs.) checked bag allowance. If a passenger exceeds this weight, they pay £5.50 ($10.78) per kilo–which can add up very quickly. And don’t even think of transferring your heavier items to your friend’s baggage at the airport either. Ryanair’s Terms and Conditions clearly state, “No pooling or sharing of baggage allowances is permitted, even within a party traveling on the same reservation.”Frary was smart and kept his baggage to a minimum. He did fall prey to, however, to a variety of other fees and services–some of which can easily be avoided (e.g., don’t order food onboard) while others can not. Despite all this, budget airlines are still a great deal cheaper than normal airlines, providing you have the brains and discipline to avoid be taken advantage of.

The Ticket
The ticket itself: £0.01 (2 cents)
Credit card charge: £ 1.75 ($3.43)
Flight change: £ 24.00 ($47)

Taxes and Fees
Government passenger duty: £ 5.00 ($9.80)
Airport passenger service charge: £ 7.30 ($14.30)
Insurance and wheelchair levy: £ 3.48 ($6.82)

Baggage
Checked in suitcase: £ 7.00 ($13.71)

Food and Drink Onboard
Bottle on water (500ml): £ 1.80 ($3.53)
Pringles and Mars bar: £ 2.60 ($5.09)
Ham and cheese baguette: £ 4.00 ($7.84)

Miscellaneous
Two lottery scratch cards: £ 2.90 ($5.68)

TOTAL £61.84 ($121.15)

A traveler looks at 30

by Catherine Bodry on

I love Peter Pan. I don’t know how many times I’ve thought in my head, “I never never want to grow up! Yuck!” That doesn’t mean I think it’s okay to stomp my feet and throw tantrums, but it’s the other grown-up stuff I don’t like. The past few years it’s been the two-day hangovers (does it get to three and four as I get older?), gray hairs creeping in and little wrinkles at my eyes.

And then there’s the responsibilities: as of Tuesday I’ll officially have a mortgage. I have a well-paying, steady job that allows me to even have a mortgage. (And I’m not complaining about the mortgage — part of being grown-up means not having a desire to pay rent, live with 6 other people, and furnish my living room with that couch we found in the alley). But even though I’m officially a grown-up, my mode of travel hasn’t changed. I’m on a similar budget as I was in my early 20s, so I stay in hostels and cheap guesthouses where the younger folks congregate. Despite the wicked hangovers, I still like to kick it.

Right now I’m contemplating a trip to Central America next winter, because it’s been way too long since I’ve traveled. Even my husband, who most likely wouldn’t be able to join me, agrees that I need to take a trip. The problem? The standard two-week vacation just isn’t for me. I can’t imagine buying a ticket to somewhere far away and not having the time to explore the place I’m going to. I want to learn the language, hike around and really get to know a country. I need a month at a minimum, and several months at best.

So my problem is how to negotiate the very grown-up issues of marriage, my upcoming mortgage, and my well-paying (and boring) job.

I’m lucky in that I just signed my first contract to write for Lonely Planet, so it’s possible that I could make travel-writing a full-time vocation, satiating both my need to travel and to eat (and pay the mortgage). No doubt, it’s what I want to do. But those things take time to get going.
So in order to take that much-needed trip next winter, I’ll likely have to quit my job, leave my sexy artist husband behind, plus have no source of steady income for my kick-ass new crib.

Has anyone out there found a happy medium between being loose, footloose, and financially sound? I could use some advice.

Thanks to YoHandy on Flickr for the photo “Hostel Shotgun.”

CapitalOne: Should I take the plunge?

by Jerry Guo on

I dropped something like $5,000 on my trip to Peru recently. The price was worth it for the experience of hiking Peru’s Incan ruins. My mistake, however, was lugging my Bank of America debit card around. After I got back, I noticed the 3% charge for use of the card overseas.

Justin has written about how most credit cards have a similar charge for use overseas, because of the currency conversion. (His posting was later picked up by the New York Times).

But there are a few cards that do away with this annoying fee, which really builds up. The most well known one is probably Capital One. I was all about to get one for my next trip when I came across this horror story.

One guy transferred $6,000 onto his Capital One card (because his credit limit was only $1,000, and so he restructured it to work as essentially a debit card). It was all fine and dandy, until he tried to use his card in Costa Rica and found out it was flagged for suspicious activity. Apparently you need to have opened the card several months in advance. And he suggests spending generously with it so that your credit limit goes up.

Makes me think twice about getting this card. Maybe the lesson here is get one early, and perhaps get several.

The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Over at Brave New Traveler, Tim Patterson observes that travel is like a drug– there’s usually a high, followed by addiction. Of course, this doesn’t stop many travelers from indulging in real drugs on the road, and Tim’s article provides some great advice for those who choose to do so. He stresses not only safety, but respect, which includes awareness of your host cultural’s values and traditions:

“When I worked in Japan, I soon learned that it was impolite to NOT get fall-down drunk at office parties. However, there is a huge difference between getting fall-down drunk within the boundaries of a specific cultural ritual, and getting fall-down drunk and roaming the streets as a pack of boorish foreigners.”

In addition, it’s important not to let drugs and alcohol obscure your real reasons for traveling. Tim’s article nails it:

“Why are you traveling? To see the world and experience new ideas and new sensations? Well then why are you getting drunk every night at the youth hostel?”

Check out the whole thing here.

Obvious headline allusion explained here.