Bargain Travel: U.S. Dollars Go Further in Europe

The famous walking area of Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain: get more bang for your bucks. Photo by Dennis Cox/WorldViews

I just returned last night from a week in Europe (more about that in subsequent posts) and found my euros going much further than on my previous trips there.

And I don’t mean going further out of my pocket, but into my pocket. Spain, which I left yesterday morning, was dirt cheap. My wallet was still stuffed with euro notes when I flew out.

A year ago, one U.S. dollar would get you about .73 euros to spend when traveling in Europe. Looked at another way, Americans would have to ante up 1.364 U.S. dollars to get one euro in exchange.

So for every admission or food item or souvenir costing 3 euros, Americans would have to pay the equivalent of $4.

Now, as of this writing, one U.S. dollar… Continue reading →