Destinations Travel Suggestions for a Strong Dollar

With the financial markets crashing around the world, far less attention has been paid to the state of the U.S. dollar during the past few months. As banks have failed and stocks have fallen, the resulting fear and uncertainty has resulted in investors around the globe attempting to place more of their liquid assets in what they perceive to be the safest of the world's currencies, namely the Japanese Yen and the U.S. Dollar. (Considering its massive federal deficit and the state of its banking industry, why such investors would still flock to the dollar is, indeed, an interesting question, but not a question I will attempt to answer here, for Extravigator.com .) Suffice it to a say that, as a consequence of the global financial crisis, the U.S. Dollar and the Japanese Yen have recently become increasingly strong and, in the process, this has created a wide variety of travel bargains around the world for Extravigator.com's readers in the U.S.A. and in Japan.

The New York Times published two articles this weekend which discuss how dramatically and how quickly things have changed in this regard:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/travel/26holiday.html?pagewanted=2&ref=travel

and

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/business/25currency.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Just as an example, consider the following excerpt from the first article cited above:

"The dollar is up more than 40 percent against the South African rand compared with a year ago, making luxury safaris and Cape Town’s high-season hotel rates more affordable. Rooms at the St. James, a seaside Cape Town retreat overlooking Kalk Bay start at 2,600 rand a night in the high season, which means guests would pay about $260 at 10.01 rand to the dollar. A year ago, a room at the same price would have been about $380. Look for last-minute safari deals like the one on CC Africa’s offers page, www.safariasap.com, a nine-day adventure visiting the Cradle of Humankind area and the Madikwe Private Game Reserve for 17,748 rand or roughly $1,777, down from 19,778 rand.

Even perennially expensive London is beginning to look more attractive. Two upscale, centrally located hotels in the British capital — the Metropolitan and the Halkin — are offering rooms that are almost £200 off their rack rates when booked online. A City room at the Metropolitan (where you might run into Prince William at the Met Bar) can be reserved for £169 not including taxes (or about $290 at $1.73 to the pound), compared with the normal rate of £375, while a double room at the Halkin is going for £199, down from around £390. Details at www.metropolitan.como.bz and www.halkin.como.bz.

Perhaps most dramatically, Iceland, considered among the most expensive countries in Europe, has seen its currency plummet to almost half its value against the dollar in the past year, making Reykjavik look like a pretty good holiday destination for travelers who don’t mind the cold.

“Anything you buy in Iceland is pretty much at half price,” said Einar Gustavsson, a spokesman for the Iceland Tourist Board.

The devaluation of the krona is making Reykjavik’s hotels, once considered prohibitively expensive, more affordable, if not dirt cheap, especially if bought as part of the attractive airline-and-hotel weekend packages now being offered on the Web, some for a total cost of less than $1,000. Check out Special Offers at www.icelandair.com for details.

And if Iceland in winter sounds too cold, consider that one of its more unusual attractions, the Blue Lagoon, the popular geothermally warmed pool just outside the capital, is downright cheap. Admission to the Lagoon is just 2,300 krona (a little over $20 at 112.53 krona to the dollar). (Pay just 15,000 more for access to the “exclusive bath and lounge” with private changing rooms, a fireplace and private indoor lagoon.) Meanwhile, Mountain Guides (www.mountainguides.is) is offering a three-hour trek on the Solheimajokull Glacier, including a stop on the way back to see the waterfalls of Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss. The price is 14,900 krona. (Guides instruct trekkers on how to use necessary ice equipment like crampons.)"

If you look at the bar chart in the article from which the above excerpt was taken, you'll find that, for example, the U.S. Dollar has increased in value by 87% against the Icelandic Krona since October, 2007!

With all of the above as background, the new hot topic of discussion here might be "Travel Suggestions for a Strong Dollar" rather than "Travel Suggestions for a Weak Dollar" which, up until now, has been a popular discussion topic here on Extravigator.com .