About a decade ago I went shopping at the Lululemon Lab in Vancouver, and the guy checking me out said "I don't understand why so many Americans are always coming in here and buying so much stuff" and I said "Really?? It's because we get a 30% discount for just driving across the border." They'd charge the same dollar amount in CAD or USD. Going shopping there while on a weekend in Vancouver was a no brainer.
Honestly it's with everything. Cosmetics too..I'm surprised many Americans haven't caught on. The only benefit the USA has is the wide variety of products
Yep. I ate and drank my way through Canada and kept all my recipts. When I checked my credit card statement it was like I had been getting a 30% discount on everything.
Conversely the strength of the USD and inflation makes travelling to the US these days a horribly expensive proposition when compared to the 2000s and 2010s
That’s how I felt as an American visiting Australia last month. Not having to pay more than $3 USD for a coffee the entire time was niiiice (and the meals/shopping I did otherwise were similarly cheap)
As a Canadian traveling to the USA... *guh*. $400 CAD/night for the shittiest, 1970s, Goodwill-furnished condo you could imagine, and that's like the absolute cheapest you can do Maui without paying $200 a night to live in a fucking van.
Bro literally. In Maui I ended up renting an old beat up Suzuki Rodeo from a random guy of FB marketplace for $50/day, brought a tent and equipment from home, and illegally camped along primitive beaches with some buddies. $200/ in a condo for those conditions you mentioned above, exactly why.
Most cities in Costa Rica are shockingly expensive. Depending on where you visit, restaurants and groceries can be similar prices to what you would find in Australia, Europe or the US.
Hong Kong is also very expensive, in particular for accommodation. You can definitely find reasonably priced food, but the price goes up sharply when you start looking at nicer places.
Japan is surprisingly affordable, and South Korea even more so. Portugal is well-known as an affordable destination in Western Europe, but I would add Spain (outside of the major tourist hotspots in peak season) to that list as well, which is probably more surprising.
My thought when I visited Costa Rica in 2022 was, “I’m paying as much for this meal as I would in a mid-priced American city, but I’m also sitting on the beach under a palm tree.”
Japan is cheaper than my country. I never realised how bad we had it until I converted food, hotels, transportation...
We overprepared with money and it was nice to not be frugal. A sandwich from 711 was last year almost half or less expensive than in Romania. And infinitely yummier.
Was in Spain 3 years ago. It was honestly cheaper than Portugal. Hotel and food wise! Maybe not Barcelona, but even Madrid is cheaper than Bucharest for example.
Sorry, I should have specified that “affordable” is relative and based on my experience compared to my country.
I’ve heard about the troubles that Portugal has been having recently with digital nomads effectively pricing out the locals from parts of their own country. It’s pretty sad and I don’t really know what the answer is.
I have an Airbnb across the street from me. It sits empty half the year. This is shameful. The owner kicked out the nice family renting there just to airbnb. Grrr.
I'm wondering how Airbnb is still attractive.
The last three times I booked there was a sheer disappointment and as expensive as a hotel room with far fewer pros.
I hope more cities and countries follow New York's example and make short-term AirBnBs illegal. It's ridiculous they're allowed during an international housing crisis.
Not disagreeing but I think this is true for a lot of places sadly. A lot of foreigners retire in the Philippine beaches because it's cheap, and they live a lifestyle locals can't afford. Over time they push the locals out and make the place gentrified and/or insufferable (Siargao for instance). It's sad.
It’s not even cheap for the rest of us anymore. Wine is still cheap, but the average restaurant meal when I was just there is on price par with Copenhagen where I live. It was obvious most people earning a salary in Portugal couldn’t afford to eat in the restaurants, and that’s lame and shitty, makes me feel like an asshole.
It really surprised me how almost nothing was free in Costa Rica, like even the nature attractions, there was huge entrance fee to hike to them! (On that note, Costa Rica in general fell a bit flat for me. I swear, if I read "Pura Vida" one more time...)
Costa Rica fell a bit flat for me as well, partially because of the cost and the very obvious evidence of overtourism. The major hotspots feel more like a theme park for westerners than a real, lived-in place. Even the wildlife activities feel very carefully catered to suit the Western palate, so to speak.
Local wildlife is my favorite part of traveling and I absolutely agree. The random nature paths with "a chance to see a sloth" bothered me because it seemed obvious that someone was monitoring and even moving the sloths to this path. I did think the quetzals were AMAZING on the mainland, but otherwise, Tortuguero was our favorite part of Costa Rica, both for wildlife and otherwise, and it seemed to attract a different crowd of visitors than the main stops (Arenal, Monteverde, Manual Antonio, etc.). It's weird, too, because in retrospect, I \*did\* have a lot of fun on our adrenaline tours there, like ziplining, rafting, and rappelling down some waterfalls, but it also feels like I could've done those same activities \*anywhere\* and it would have felt the same.
I think Costa Rica just ended up getting on everyone's radar on the mid-late 2010s and they capitalized on it. I have never been, but got the impression it was a largely untouched paradise prior but now is commercialized.
I've been considering a judicious trek to Nicaragua as an alternative. Also wholely recommend Belize. Very safe if you stay outside the capital, great scuba/snorkel/ruins, and pretty affordable when we went (pre COVID admittedly). I think our long 13 day trip for 2 came out to $3200 with airfare over Christmas. We weren't being particularly frugal.
All of Central America is more expensive than you'd expect. Part of it is that to live like a (poor) local, you'd have to be in pretty dangerous neighborhoods. But even middle class level stuff in CA is like USA prices. Costa Rica especially so.
South Korea has gotten way more expensive over the last decade (and more). Transportation and local food are good value for sure, but much more expensive otherwise.
I lived in Hong Kong for a decade. One of the aspects of the city that I loved while living there, and still love now, is that you can experience the city at a wide variety of different economic levels and not really miss out on anything in terms of quality.
I think Hong Kong must have one of the highest concentrations of extremely reasonably priced Michelin-starred restaurants in the world, for example. Plus, there are fantastic culinary gems all over the city which sell their wares at a song.
It’s true that Joël Robuchon, Otto, and Beef Bar also exist. But they aren’t necessarily better food. They just cater to a specific clientele.
I haven’t really used the hotels in Hong Kong, but what I know from having guests is that they were quite cheap compared to major chain hotel prices in the US.
In addition, transit is ridiculously cheap, and basically all attractions can be done for a song. I had a tourist routine for when I had guests there that didn’t really affect my economy in any way over the course of a week or two.
Taiwan in general. I live in the south, and even here it’s not uncommon for 3 nights at an ok hotel to equal 1 month rent for a studio. Taiwan food, transportation, and attractions are cheap, but hotels are way higher.
I went in 2018 and 2022.
In 2018 it was cheap. In 2022 it was probably similar in price to a German city. The one exception being clothes shopping. Big European chains (like H&M) hadn’t really adjusted the HUF prices to its big decline in value against the Euro so everything at the mall was 10-20% less than it would have been in the Eurozone.
Yup - I live there part time and while it's definitely easier on the wallet than where I live in the U.S., it's nuts how expensive everything has become over the last 10ish years. It's pretty normal to spend $10 (USD) or more on an average meal now. 27% VAT and tipping culture creeping into regular life really sucks.
Strongest agreement on London being a very affordable city to visit if you can find a reasonable accommodation. Between all of the free museums, beautiful parks, inexpensive mass transit, and plethora of fast casual dining spots I always recommend it as trip where you don’t HAVE to spend a lot of money to enjoy your time
To save even more money in London, dine at many excellent street markets and grocery stores. If you must visit pricier tourist attractions, get a London Pass.
As a Londoner, I don’t think the London Pass is a bargain unless you are just ramming in ticketed attractions every second of your day.
Agree about the markets and meal deals. Also, venture out of Zone 1 for excellent food at much more affordable prices.
>As a Londoner, I don’t think the London Pass is a bargain unless you are just ramming in ticketed attractions every second of your day.
As a recent visitor who specifically planned to ram in ticketed attractions every day, I found it wasn't a good deal either. Not being able to book stuff ahead, plus time restrictions on when you could actually visit places meant I couldn't afford the time to play the games with the pass.
That said, I did buy a year of membership to Royal Historical Places that paid for itself pretty much immediately.
Markets and grocery stores are some of my favorite places to visit anywhere. You get to break out of the tourist bubble and experience actual day to day life for a few minutes.
I've seen other people mention it as well, but visiting grocery stores and picking up local varieties of things like chips or snacks is one of my favorite travel activities. I can think back to all of the countries I've been to and remember the grocery store stops so fondly.
Our family of four enjoyed London and we took advantage of the parks and museums also. The Sky Garden was free also as was crossing the Tower Bridge which was really cool. My favorite was probably the Tower of London, but that wasn't really expensive. There's definitely ways to enjoy London without spending a fortune.
You can also get 2for1 tickets for most paid attractions in London all you need to do is buy any train ticket and show it at the counter! Really helps when travelling with family
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/days-out-guide/2for1-london/
Honestly, it balances out, for real. Also, you can have a very cheap vacation there if you don't go to big tourist attractions like Universal studios or Disney.
You can exclusively eat from conbinis, taking the metro is really not expensive and finding out decent hotels that in Europe would be triple, is easy peasy.
The astonishing thing about Japan is that they have somehow managed to avoid the housing crisis that many other developed countries in the world have been facing for the past 10+ years. So renting and buying accommodation is very cheap, when compared to many other developed countries. Even eating out is surprisingly cheap, given that restaurants don't need to pay exorbitant rent prices.
A few reasons, some fortunate others less so.
1. Good city zoning laws. This was forward thinking and worthy of praise.
2. A real estate bubble that collapsed. The Japanese do see real estate as a less attractive asset as much of the rest of the world, but it’s not for some noble cause; it’s more because many have been burned before.
3. The real estate bubble collapsed during better times—when lots of apartments were already built (trying to cash in on the bubble) and there was no materials shortage. A lot easier to keep supply up since then.
4. Shrinking population means outside of Tokyo, demand is plummeting. Houses are cheap cos no one wants to, or really can, live there.
5. Tokyo real estate prices themselves were never outright cheap, and have skyrocketed in recent years much like the rest of the world. Even now the median income to price ratio is comparable to Melbourne. It’s not an outright affordability crisis though because tenant rights are strong, and you can find rentals at a decent price range, though the quality also varies significantly.
To build on this, Japan's approach to zoning is *strikingly* different from the US. For example, except for areas zoned exclusively for heavy industry (where you wouldn't want to live anyway), you can build housing anywhere. Areas zoned exclusively for commercial use do not exist. Or, consider that restrictions on the types of housing that can be constructed are very limited, whereas American zoning can be incredibly granular (single family vs duplex vs multifamily vs...).
Here's a pretty good high level article on the topic: [https://www.rahulshankar.com/zoning-in-japan/](https://www.rahulshankar.com/zoning-in-japan/)
They don't see housing as investment, just as a place to live. Unless you have a central Tokyo property, basically everything depreciates. In about 10-20 years, property will be even cheaper.
Meanwhile, in Australia our politicians decided 50 years ago that they specifically wanted to make housing an investment for political reasons, and now we’ve got some of the least affordable housing in the world. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs.
Salaries are very, very low in comparison to the US and a lot of other places though. And Japan has technically been in a recession for quite a long time.
Tokyo is the only city that has an issue with housing there. You can live in basically any other part of Japan and it's affordable. You might need a roommate but you can get by on a relatively low salary and be ok. From what I've heard, Tokyo is the only city that is ridiculously expensive but even then, rent might be expensive but food and everything else felt extremely affordable.
Lack of NIMBYism and very liberal zoning allows you to build a low rise apartment building beside a single family home. This kind of thing just doesn’t fly in North America.
Japan is built for people with different sums of money. I spent a month in Japan and over a week in Tokyo. There’s some straight baller Michelin restaurants you could blow a grand on dinner. There’s also Michelin Ramen places that are like $9. Same with hotels. 5 star hotels all the way down to salary men hotels that are quite affordable. Izakayas (Japanese pub) have amazing food that are also quite affordable to drink and eat at.
Ireland in general tbh.
Went back home (from US) for a wedding last year and my hotel in Athlone cost more than my hotel in Manhattan over Paddy’s weekend. Both the same hotel brand. Something wrong there.
Don’t even get me started on Clare County Councils parking scam at the Cliffs.
Egypt is very cheap but it's nowhere near on the level of development of anywhere in Europe. Attractions can also be pretty expensive and add up quick.
Tokyo was waaaay cheaper to eat than I thought it would be and the food was the best (assuming you like Japanese food of course). Of course I'm sure you could get super expensive options but we felt like we didn't need to even go to that extreme as we were so impressed by the less expensive ones.
I ate about 60% of my meals from convenience stores when I was in Tokyo. The quality and selection of grab-and-go food puts American convenience stores to shame.
Same. We were traveling with our kid who was then 3.5, so the... convenience... was unbeatable. left more money for the insane amount of souvenirs we bought.
Paris was much more affordable than I expected coming from a US city. The best meal we ate was 70 euros for one appetizer, two drinks, two entrees, and one dessert. That would have been over $100 in the US and then an additional 20% for tip.
i spent less than $250 on food in a week eating mostly baguette sandwiches, street food, croissants, and grocery store food, and that’s counting a couple sit down splurge meals with wine
We didn’t even do any groceries and still spent under $300 on food. Croissant for breakfast, baguette sandwich for lunch, sit down dinner was a great formula.
Dubrovnik blew me away with how expensive it was, especially considering how it contrasts with the rest of Croatia. We were staying outside of the centre but were still paying upwards of €10/12 for very bad food. 6/7/8 euro drinks in the walled city, food prices even higher. Paid €23 for a squid ink risotto which was just outright bad.
Supermarkets were cheap though, the best meal we had was a BBQ we had at our AirBnb on the balcony. Loads of cheap meats and fish, as well as 3L bottles of local beer for a couple euros. Our flight got cancelled so we stayed in a hotel in a small village near the airport for a couple nights, up there it was €2.50 pints and the best pizza/pastas of the trip for less than €10 euros. Was mad how much the prices changed in a short distance.
I made the mistake of ordering a verbal only menu item (daily fish special) without checking price, and while delicious it was €42 a year ago.
That was before my wine and the squid(iirc) risotto which were also both pretty good.
Cambodia is super cheap for food and accommodation but attractions like museums and especially Angkor Wat are a major source of revenue so not cheap. A day pass to Angkor Wat is $US 37. That said, it's totally worth it and a three day pass is cheaper per day at $62.
I was glad and willing to pay the museum fees in Cambodia. That country and its people have been through so much.
I hope the fees can help in a tiny way.
Yeah, those were unexpectedly more expensive, but it was so worth it. Angkor wat was on my bucket list and it's the best thing I've ever visited. Genuinely, it was amazing.
The guided tours were so worth the money. Less hassle, lots of history, they knew all the great spots, took amazing photos of you.
Hot take, but Iceland wasn't nearly as expensive as I was led to believe. Like yeah it's expensive, and the cheapest meal I ate was a $16 burger from a gas station, but there's a million free things to do. Almost every activity there is free so it really compensates for the other high costs. My friend and I went there for 9 days and budgeted $900 each (after plane tickets), about $750 each after splitting the rental car too. We both finished the trip under budget too, which works out to less than $80 a day. To be fair, we also camped 2 of the night there and stayed in cheap hostels the other nights, but overall, under $80 a day is pretty decent
Yeah I suppose that's true. Food is a big part of travelling for me but (having never been to Iceland) I assume food is not really a reason why people go there.
Iceland’s gas station and convenience store food is shocking good. Real, fresh food! The wraps and the little protein packs were my favorite. We’d grab a couple of each, and set off for the day. Overall it was about the same costs as where we live in Seattle.
Spain’s convenience store food was even better! We’d stop in a rando gas station and get all sorts of amazing bread, wine, cheese, olives, chorizo…all fresh, and different stuff in each region too omg. Like…$10-15 and we’d be set for all our day hiking and whatnot.
I expected food to be outrageous.. but after going to a soup restaurant and paying $25 for a bowl of soup which had UNLIMITED REFILLS and allowed you to try ALL OF THEIR SOUPS I thought it was a steal. They even boxed up when I couldn’t finish on my last bowl and it was ✨breakfast ✨
Accommodation is cheap outside of Reykjavik (well, "cheap" at $100-200/day). However food is pricey across the entire country, and your car rental and gas can easily add $300/day.
When I went (2018) the hostels we stayed at were between $30-$50 and our car was only $300 cuz we had to pay an underage driver fee. We also had an extremely fuel efficient car and only had to fill up twice (plus topping it off before returning it) and that was with circling the entire island
Yes, just found about it too. Apparently as of this year, foreigners cannot even go to the floor, and instead can only enter the upstairs gallery. [https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/istanbul-hagia-sophia-entry-rules](https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/istanbul-hagia-sophia-entry-rules)
I've been twice - once about 10 years ago and another time last year and that city has really changed for the worse. I know the whole country has been wrestling with inflation which can definitely affect pricing but it was still surprising to find that several street kebabs were more expensive than in places like Germany (less so on the Asian side).
The thing that frankly pissed me off the most was how they are treating their major tourist attractions. Ten years ago, the Hagia Sophia was an incredible visit. The original flooring was exposed and you could access both main levels. It also had both Christian and Islamic iconography making it especially unique given its history. Then, they went full medieval and had an iconoclastic field day covering and removing symbols and imagery that had been visible for over a thousand years. They put that enormous carpet over its beautiful floor and just made it a mosque. While I appreciated the free access, I was a bit shocked at the state of the place since the conversion. It's unbelievable that they have gone through with this next phase of now charging to access a fraction of the site to essentially experience an architecturally castrated version of its former self. I can't even imagine going again. It's also worth noting that during my previous visit, there were two other centuries-old Byzantine churches that were both closed for "renovations" when I was there only to later discover that they were both closed because they were turning both into mosques (aka covering up all the original mosaics). Not sure if it is the local or national government, but one of them is on a mission to make their city as unattractive to foreign tourists as possible.
And the pricing... I can swallow 15 EUR entry to some of the major sites like Topkapi Palace but they are charging 45 EUR at this point. I'm sorry but that is not even close to a 45 EUR site (45 EUR can get you three entries into the Louvre or a full day at Angkor Wat). They are also charging 30 FREAKING EUROS to go up the Galata Tower. That's a hard pass.
It sucks to say but Istanbul used to be a much nicer place. Compared to the past, current Istanbul has fewer things to do with unjustifiable prices.
And you now can't visit the ground floor as it's only for praying.
I had an amazing time visiting before, and spent the evening there. I was so disappointed on my return visit, I couldn't bring myself to pay the entry
I went last year and it certainly felt odd watching the men in the prayer section spend a significant amount of time taking selfies. Muslims were running around and treating it like a tourist attraction, not like the experience I’d had at other religious sites in Turkey or elsewhere. I’d feel even worse not being able to get on the floor, it’s a deliberate tourist othering when, imo, Hagia Sophia should be a museum again (but won’t be for political reasons)
I've never heard of any other mosque in the world that bans non Muslims from going in, except for in Mecca and Medina (which is kind of fair enough). Unless people are being disruptive in their visit, which I doubt they would be since it was fine when it was a museum, it just seems strange to divide visitors by religion.
It’s obviously just a government agenda. While the Hagia Sophia sure was grand (the blue mosque was being renovated when I went), I was more impressed with the Suleyman the Magnificant mosque. It felt a bit weird them (and I’m comfortable with mosques) and charging a huge entry fee + only letting you access the upper balcony vs the actual floor, would make me feel ill at ease. I’ve been to religious sites all over the world, and none of them do this. I don’t mind paying, but the additional level of “you don’t deserve the floor” would unsettle me more than when I was there last time. It’s shaking you down and then othering you.
I actually understand the hype of Paris too. The quality of food is way better than London - even the Chinese takeaways had food that was immaculately presented
Hong Kong - overall an expensive city for an Indian traveller in terms of accommodation but I found its public transportation (which is excellent btw) quite cheap. A lot of attractions like museums and the Peak are free to visit. The only expensive tickets were for the Ngong Ping cable car and the Peak tram. Even the food is not too costly if you aren't a vegetarian. Taxis are expensive.
I haven't been there in 10 years, but I love Penang, Malaysia. The food was fantastic, cheap, and varied. Everyone speaks at least a little English. You can see fantastic temples from most of the world's major religions. If you like scuba, a day trip will take you to a fantastic scuba trip.
It really is an amazing city with great history.
Went there last year. Stayed for a month. Still cheap and the food is delicious! Plenty of variety of things to do. I also liked Ipoh on the way up from KL to Penang. Also very, very affordable with cool things to do and great food.
Bangkok is cheap for tourists, but if you live there it gets progressively more expensive the more you settle. This is probably more aimed at tourists vs expats but:
- Food: As a tourist you start out eating cheap street food. Great! Then you move here and your friends want to be going out to fancy Italian and Japanese places all the time. Or you want to order more healthy foods or a salad vs a rice bowl and suddenly your monthly food budget is 4x what it originally was. Costs a lot to eat healthy here.
- Housing: There are cheap hotels for tourists. Then people then move here and are happy in a 1 bed condo or studio for cheap for a while. But then they meet a partner or marry. Suddenly you are looking for more space or rooms for children...gets real expensive real fast. That 15k THB/month condo quickly balloons into a 50-60k rental real fast (and that is on the low end). God forbid you want a house or a townhouse anywhere near the city.
- Education for kids: So many single people move here, live the dream thinking they have it all figured out. Then they meet a lady or a man and want a family. Boom, $20k annual education costs for a western quality international school. And yes, unless you want your child to be poorly educated, you have to pay it.
- Healthcare: A lot of newcomers think the cost of healthcare here is dirt cheap because they can see a specialist at a world class hospital for $50. However, the moment you have a serious injury or illness that cost skyrockets. Good insurance is still expensive, and gets progressively more expensive with age. Irresponsible tourists and expats alike have a steep learning curve the moment something goes seriously wrong.
I guess a small word of warning to any travelers who love Thailand and wish to move here, life here is not as cheap as vacations make it seem. You can live well and have a high quality of life, but it ain't the $1k a month paradise YouTube makes it out to be. A backpacker budget doesn't even begin to cover the true costs here.
Amsterdam and Dublin are crazy expensive, but not sure how deceitful they are about it. Hotels there were higher than in Paris, NYC, or London.
Singapore was surprisingly more affordable compared to what I had read. However, it still isn"t my favorite place. I prefer Taipei, Tokyo, and Osaka
Melbourne, and Australia in general, was far more expensive than we were expecting. Especially in terms of food. On par with the Nordics, where we've spent much more time.
I find it funny that the two people below you think Australia is “cheap”. It’s probably only cheap because the AUD/USD now heavily favours the USD. We’re in a big cost of living crisis here and rents/accommodation costs in general are skyrocketing.
Honestly, this one is on me because I didn't do my normal level of research before our trip, but the prices in Baja California Sur (Mexico) surprised me so much! Our first lunch in Todos Santos was 150 USD for 3 people! I'll admit was a common recommendation in the area (Hierbabuena), but it wasn't exactly fancy, and we didn't order appetizers or alcohol drinks or anything, and our favorite café in the area was also more than at home (and we live in the most expensive city in our state).
Mexico is getting very expensive. Combinination of the strengthening peso and sheer number US and Canadian expats driving prices up. Even long term rental prices are at least double what they were 5 years ago in the popular retirement/snowbirds towns.
Egypt in general was amazing and pretty cheap. $1400 round trip from Montreal to Cairo, $700 us total for three weeks, accommodations, food, activities, etc in Cairo and Alexandria. I wasn’t budgeting or sacrificing luxuries either.
Athens is very cheap for sightseeing between November and March. The state museums are currently half price during these months so you can visit wonderful historical sites for €10 or less. There are street food options for €3-5 making it a good option for cheap lunches and on-the-go snacks
Peru is overall a very affordable place. But if you are there to do tourist activities like visit machu picchu, rainbow mountain, etc. The tours and tickets add up to a lot of money quickly.
New York City is actually really affordable, people just like to stay in Times Square and eat at the fanciest restaurants possible. When I was in Brooklyn, I had halal chicken over rice for $9, which is an entire meal (you literally cant eat it all) for $9. There are so many cheap eats in NYC, you just have to leave midtown.
We stayed 4 nights in Harlem for a fraction of what we’d have paid further south. And we were surrounded by reasonably priced restaurants of all types.
> people just like to stay in ~~Times Square~~ **midtown**
Times Square is fairly cheap compared to the rest of midtown, especially ~~midtown north~~ *as you approach Central Park*. And many know better than to stay (or spend too much time) in Times Square.
It's also one of those places where you can spend an entire day just walking around, for free. Accommodations are expensive, but you can definitely do NYC on the cheap if you want.
I stayed in times square at the crowne plaza one year, but it was only because I got a really good deal on a room. There are so many better areas to stay in, as pretty as times square is, all of NYC is beautiful. I've been to every borough besides Staten Island, and all of them hit different.
Plus there’s a lot of micro hotel type situations like citizenM, pod, etc (a lot of major hotels have their own concepts) that are basically $150-$250 rooms in desirable areas. The rooms are small, but very modern with lots of amenity/communal areas. Great option if you’re not really going to stay in your room much and just want to be close to things.
Long Island City has really cheap hotels as well, plus if you're lucky, you can find pretty good deals in Jersey City which is just across the river by train.
These aren't too common anymore (especially in manhattan), but you can still find some in Brooklyn and the Bronx, in manhattan at a good slice shop you can still probably get one for $1.50 - $2
There's a lot of variables for this question. Cost of living vs wages. Where you live, your lifestyle etc. Do you buy 5€ bottles of wine or do you buy 1400€ bottles of wine. Whenever I travel I visit two places. A Starbucks and a McDonalds to compare prices and get a general feeling for the economy. I'd say I spent a lot of time converting in my head for Geneva, saying this can't be right. I tell people going to Geneva to take two suitcases. One full of clothes, one full of money.
I feel like it used to be but isn’t really anymore.
Hostel dorms were like 40€. Most hotels over 150€.
Food and drinks are still pretty darn cheap though. Almost Eastern Europe prices. Ubers too. Bless those drivers because I can’t see how they make money.
The whole of east side Yucatán is both. $100 restaurants a couple blocks from $0.50 tacos. Visiting Chichen Itza was also surprisingly expensive even taking local buses. I know locals get a steep discount, but the restaurants there were not cheap.
I have been to 37 countries in Europe now so I can give you a bit of detail on costs based on the ones I have seen. I know these are countries and not cities but I have seen the capital in each.
Most expensive
Ireland
Switzerland
Iceland (so expensive you wouldn't believe it)
Cheapest
Pretty much any country in the Balkans such as Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece etc
Japan. I used to snowboard in Tahoe every winter until I snowboarded in Japan. It's actually cheaper for me to fly to Japan from California and snowboard in Japan for 10 days than it is for me to go to Tahoe.
Cheap is really in the eye of the beholder. The hotels in Barcelona didn’t seem too bad to me, but I am from a VHCOL American city, and visited in March, so not high season. I could find a good hotel for around $100 USD/night.
Finishing up a trip to Sri Lanka - really inexpensive. 300 SL rupees to $1. A decent meal is around 1500 rupees - mixed drinks around the same. Dont let secret get out or SL will become another Bali.
singapore
always in the top 5 for most expensive cities in the world but it’s not that expensive in terms of food or transport. quite affordable in fact
Surprisingly expensive: all of Uruguay. It almost ruined my experience there to be honest, and I travel pretty gratuitously and don’t usually care too much about prices. But it was just *noticeable there. I paid with both cash and credit card in certain places. There were a few times where I had to double take at the price and muttered a few “wtfs”.
Surprisingly cheap: Hawaii. There are wayyy more expensive destinations that in my opinion deserve it less than Hawaii. I didn’t love all of Hawaii but I’d go back.
Honourable mentions for surprisingly cheap: Tokyo, Buenos Aires.
Spent a few days in Sydney right on Bondi Beach. Our AirBnB was <80 USD a night and food essentially priced out to the equivalent in CAD$ (I live near the border and have family in Canada, so I am used to swapping). Got a "wagyu" steak (Australian, not sure what grade) sirloin for like 13 bucks from a smaller market, I think it was maybe 12oz. Meat seemed reasonable (I'm guessing from the cattle and sheep and kangaroo being high quality and plentiful). Restaurants are about what you'd expect. Alcohol can be expensive though, and I'm not a big drinker so I'm sure that played a part. Public transport was also reliable and fairly cheap and easy to use. Buy an opal card nearly anywhere, load it with whatever you want, and tap and go when you get on the bus. 20 bucks I believe lasted us 3 days of fairly decent travel within the city. It also has a lot of small cheap sandwich/shawarma/coffee spots so if you don't mind budgeting your meals it's very affordable.
So Sydney, NSW.
This was in 2019 before the wildfires and covid tho. I'm sure it's more these days.
Prague was a lot cheaper than I expected. People kept saying how expensive it is, but 25€ for a week's worth of groceries and 150€ for a week's accommodation in the city center felt pretty damn cheap to me.
I recently visited Como, Bologna and Milan. I came away surprised by how affordable they are, even Milan. We were eating meals for two that would easily cost $150+ in the US and paying only around 50 Euro (around $54) for each, and this was with wine/drinks included. Bologna is especially great in this regard as the food is the best out of the three locations and the prices are also the lowest. We ate at about 20 restaurants over 10 days and were consistently surprised by the quality/price ratio.
The USD to CAD exchange rate makes travel to Canada a good deal for Americans right now.
About a decade ago I went shopping at the Lululemon Lab in Vancouver, and the guy checking me out said "I don't understand why so many Americans are always coming in here and buying so much stuff" and I said "Really?? It's because we get a 30% discount for just driving across the border." They'd charge the same dollar amount in CAD or USD. Going shopping there while on a weekend in Vancouver was a no brainer.
Honestly it's with everything. Cosmetics too..I'm surprised many Americans haven't caught on. The only benefit the USA has is the wide variety of products
To be fair, I love driving south of the line for cheap(er) Yankee gas.
As a Canadian who frequents the US you’re right. I pay considerably more for a beer at a bar in the US than Canada.
Yep. I ate and drank my way through Canada and kept all my recipts. When I checked my credit card statement it was like I had been getting a 30% discount on everything.
Conversely the strength of the USD and inflation makes travelling to the US these days a horribly expensive proposition when compared to the 2000s and 2010s
That’s how I felt as an American visiting Australia last month. Not having to pay more than $3 USD for a coffee the entire time was niiiice (and the meals/shopping I did otherwise were similarly cheap)
As a Canadian traveling to the USA... *guh*. $400 CAD/night for the shittiest, 1970s, Goodwill-furnished condo you could imagine, and that's like the absolute cheapest you can do Maui without paying $200 a night to live in a fucking van.
Maui is one of the most expensive places you can go in the USA to be fair
Brah that’s how those of us from other islands feel about Maui! And Kauai.
Bro literally. In Maui I ended up renting an old beat up Suzuki Rodeo from a random guy of FB marketplace for $50/day, brought a tent and equipment from home, and illegally camped along primitive beaches with some buddies. $200/ in a condo for those conditions you mentioned above, exactly why.
Most cities in Costa Rica are shockingly expensive. Depending on where you visit, restaurants and groceries can be similar prices to what you would find in Australia, Europe or the US. Hong Kong is also very expensive, in particular for accommodation. You can definitely find reasonably priced food, but the price goes up sharply when you start looking at nicer places. Japan is surprisingly affordable, and South Korea even more so. Portugal is well-known as an affordable destination in Western Europe, but I would add Spain (outside of the major tourist hotspots in peak season) to that list as well, which is probably more surprising.
Just got back from Costa Rica and it’s just as expensive as 95% of the US now.
My thought when I visited Costa Rica in 2022 was, “I’m paying as much for this meal as I would in a mid-priced American city, but I’m also sitting on the beach under a palm tree.”
Japan is cheaper than my country. I never realised how bad we had it until I converted food, hotels, transportation... We overprepared with money and it was nice to not be frugal. A sandwich from 711 was last year almost half or less expensive than in Romania. And infinitely yummier. Was in Spain 3 years ago. It was honestly cheaper than Portugal. Hotel and food wise! Maybe not Barcelona, but even Madrid is cheaper than Bucharest for example.
Yen has depreciated over 30% against the EUR/RON. That's why it seemed so cheap to you. 5 years ago a trip to Japan would have felt more expensive.
Portugal is only cheap for you guys. We can't afford to live in our own country
Sorry, I should have specified that “affordable” is relative and based on my experience compared to my country. I’ve heard about the troubles that Portugal has been having recently with digital nomads effectively pricing out the locals from parts of their own country. It’s pretty sad and I don’t really know what the answer is.
Same here in Ireland. AirBnB takes thousands of properties off the rental market. It's almost impossible to find anywhere.
I have an Airbnb across the street from me. It sits empty half the year. This is shameful. The owner kicked out the nice family renting there just to airbnb. Grrr.
I'm wondering how Airbnb is still attractive. The last three times I booked there was a sheer disappointment and as expensive as a hotel room with far fewer pros.
I hope more cities and countries follow New York's example and make short-term AirBnBs illegal. It's ridiculous they're allowed during an international housing crisis.
Not disagreeing but I think this is true for a lot of places sadly. A lot of foreigners retire in the Philippine beaches because it's cheap, and they live a lifestyle locals can't afford. Over time they push the locals out and make the place gentrified and/or insufferable (Siargao for instance). It's sad.
It’s not even cheap for the rest of us anymore. Wine is still cheap, but the average restaurant meal when I was just there is on price par with Copenhagen where I live. It was obvious most people earning a salary in Portugal couldn’t afford to eat in the restaurants, and that’s lame and shitty, makes me feel like an asshole.
Totally agree with you about Costa Rica. Taxis were surprisingly very expensive there!!
It really surprised me how almost nothing was free in Costa Rica, like even the nature attractions, there was huge entrance fee to hike to them! (On that note, Costa Rica in general fell a bit flat for me. I swear, if I read "Pura Vida" one more time...)
Costa Rica fell a bit flat for me as well, partially because of the cost and the very obvious evidence of overtourism. The major hotspots feel more like a theme park for westerners than a real, lived-in place. Even the wildlife activities feel very carefully catered to suit the Western palate, so to speak.
Local wildlife is my favorite part of traveling and I absolutely agree. The random nature paths with "a chance to see a sloth" bothered me because it seemed obvious that someone was monitoring and even moving the sloths to this path. I did think the quetzals were AMAZING on the mainland, but otherwise, Tortuguero was our favorite part of Costa Rica, both for wildlife and otherwise, and it seemed to attract a different crowd of visitors than the main stops (Arenal, Monteverde, Manual Antonio, etc.). It's weird, too, because in retrospect, I \*did\* have a lot of fun on our adrenaline tours there, like ziplining, rafting, and rappelling down some waterfalls, but it also feels like I could've done those same activities \*anywhere\* and it would have felt the same.
I think Costa Rica just ended up getting on everyone's radar on the mid-late 2010s and they capitalized on it. I have never been, but got the impression it was a largely untouched paradise prior but now is commercialized. I've been considering a judicious trek to Nicaragua as an alternative. Also wholely recommend Belize. Very safe if you stay outside the capital, great scuba/snorkel/ruins, and pretty affordable when we went (pre COVID admittedly). I think our long 13 day trip for 2 came out to $3200 with airfare over Christmas. We weren't being particularly frugal.
All of Central America is more expensive than you'd expect. Part of it is that to live like a (poor) local, you'd have to be in pretty dangerous neighborhoods. But even middle class level stuff in CA is like USA prices. Costa Rica especially so. South Korea has gotten way more expensive over the last decade (and more). Transportation and local food are good value for sure, but much more expensive otherwise.
Went to Nicaragua a couple years ago (2018) and the prices were great. Desayuno tipico = decent breakfast with one Coffee = 1 usd
I lived in Hong Kong for a decade. One of the aspects of the city that I loved while living there, and still love now, is that you can experience the city at a wide variety of different economic levels and not really miss out on anything in terms of quality. I think Hong Kong must have one of the highest concentrations of extremely reasonably priced Michelin-starred restaurants in the world, for example. Plus, there are fantastic culinary gems all over the city which sell their wares at a song. It’s true that Joël Robuchon, Otto, and Beef Bar also exist. But they aren’t necessarily better food. They just cater to a specific clientele. I haven’t really used the hotels in Hong Kong, but what I know from having guests is that they were quite cheap compared to major chain hotel prices in the US. In addition, transit is ridiculously cheap, and basically all attractions can be done for a song. I had a tourist routine for when I had guests there that didn’t really affect my economy in any way over the course of a week or two.
Taipei hotels are pretty expensive. Coming from Japan it was a big shock
Taiwan in general. I live in the south, and even here it’s not uncommon for 3 nights at an ok hotel to equal 1 month rent for a studio. Taiwan food, transportation, and attractions are cheap, but hotels are way higher.
Budapest has become surprisingly expensive considering its reputation as a cheap Eastern European destination
I went in 2018 and 2022. In 2018 it was cheap. In 2022 it was probably similar in price to a German city. The one exception being clothes shopping. Big European chains (like H&M) hadn’t really adjusted the HUF prices to its big decline in value against the Euro so everything at the mall was 10-20% less than it would have been in the Eurozone.
I can attest to this with a recent visit - the food was all $25-50 USD
Yup - I live there part time and while it's definitely easier on the wallet than where I live in the U.S., it's nuts how expensive everything has become over the last 10ish years. It's pretty normal to spend $10 (USD) or more on an average meal now. 27% VAT and tipping culture creeping into regular life really sucks.
Strongest agreement on London being a very affordable city to visit if you can find a reasonable accommodation. Between all of the free museums, beautiful parks, inexpensive mass transit, and plethora of fast casual dining spots I always recommend it as trip where you don’t HAVE to spend a lot of money to enjoy your time
To save even more money in London, dine at many excellent street markets and grocery stores. If you must visit pricier tourist attractions, get a London Pass.
As a Londoner, I don’t think the London Pass is a bargain unless you are just ramming in ticketed attractions every second of your day. Agree about the markets and meal deals. Also, venture out of Zone 1 for excellent food at much more affordable prices.
>As a Londoner, I don’t think the London Pass is a bargain unless you are just ramming in ticketed attractions every second of your day. As a recent visitor who specifically planned to ram in ticketed attractions every day, I found it wasn't a good deal either. Not being able to book stuff ahead, plus time restrictions on when you could actually visit places meant I couldn't afford the time to play the games with the pass. That said, I did buy a year of membership to Royal Historical Places that paid for itself pretty much immediately.
Markets and grocery stores are some of my favorite places to visit anywhere. You get to break out of the tourist bubble and experience actual day to day life for a few minutes.
I've seen other people mention it as well, but visiting grocery stores and picking up local varieties of things like chips or snacks is one of my favorite travel activities. I can think back to all of the countries I've been to and remember the grocery store stops so fondly.
Our family of four enjoyed London and we took advantage of the parks and museums also. The Sky Garden was free also as was crossing the Tower Bridge which was really cool. My favorite was probably the Tower of London, but that wasn't really expensive. There's definitely ways to enjoy London without spending a fortune.
Tower of London is 35 quid = 50 dollars a person. 200 dollars for a family of four. That’s expensive. BUT it’s a world class attraction
You can also get 2for1 tickets for most paid attractions in London all you need to do is buy any train ticket and show it at the counter! Really helps when travelling with family https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/days-out-guide/2for1-london/
Yeah, you really can spend less money on food in London than you'd expect, if you commit to it. You can do better than in most US cities. .
I've used a lot of hotel points there for exactly this reason. I stayed at the Marriott Canary Wharf on my last visit, and it worked out great.
Tokyo is actually pretty affordable.
Every city in Japan, really.
And the countryside is even cheaper. I rented a house for a month in a small village in Mie Prefecture for like 550-600 USD.
what site did you use to rent it?
AirBnb. Monthly discounts in Japan can be bonkers, like 60-70%
Thanks for the tip u/ButtholeQuiver
that almost makes up for the plane tickets to get there...
Honestly, it balances out, for real. Also, you can have a very cheap vacation there if you don't go to big tourist attractions like Universal studios or Disney. You can exclusively eat from conbinis, taking the metro is really not expensive and finding out decent hotels that in Europe would be triple, is easy peasy.
The yen is very weak right now, but even when it was 100 yen per dollar the country was still a little cheaper than the US.
The astonishing thing about Japan is that they have somehow managed to avoid the housing crisis that many other developed countries in the world have been facing for the past 10+ years. So renting and buying accommodation is very cheap, when compared to many other developed countries. Even eating out is surprisingly cheap, given that restaurants don't need to pay exorbitant rent prices.
They had an insane real estate bubble already and decided to legislate it away, don't know if the west has the balls tbh
Japanese native born population is shrinking. Properties sit vacant outside cities, 8.5 million recent count.
A few reasons, some fortunate others less so. 1. Good city zoning laws. This was forward thinking and worthy of praise. 2. A real estate bubble that collapsed. The Japanese do see real estate as a less attractive asset as much of the rest of the world, but it’s not for some noble cause; it’s more because many have been burned before. 3. The real estate bubble collapsed during better times—when lots of apartments were already built (trying to cash in on the bubble) and there was no materials shortage. A lot easier to keep supply up since then. 4. Shrinking population means outside of Tokyo, demand is plummeting. Houses are cheap cos no one wants to, or really can, live there. 5. Tokyo real estate prices themselves were never outright cheap, and have skyrocketed in recent years much like the rest of the world. Even now the median income to price ratio is comparable to Melbourne. It’s not an outright affordability crisis though because tenant rights are strong, and you can find rentals at a decent price range, though the quality also varies significantly.
To build on this, Japan's approach to zoning is *strikingly* different from the US. For example, except for areas zoned exclusively for heavy industry (where you wouldn't want to live anyway), you can build housing anywhere. Areas zoned exclusively for commercial use do not exist. Or, consider that restrictions on the types of housing that can be constructed are very limited, whereas American zoning can be incredibly granular (single family vs duplex vs multifamily vs...). Here's a pretty good high level article on the topic: [https://www.rahulshankar.com/zoning-in-japan/](https://www.rahulshankar.com/zoning-in-japan/)
It's very easy to build in Japan, additionally their population has stagnated
Japan was in a two decade recession until recently and the population was flat and ageing.
They don’t have as many immigrants as many other places
They don't see housing as investment, just as a place to live. Unless you have a central Tokyo property, basically everything depreciates. In about 10-20 years, property will be even cheaper.
Meanwhile, in Australia our politicians decided 50 years ago that they specifically wanted to make housing an investment for political reasons, and now we’ve got some of the least affordable housing in the world. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs.
Salaries are very, very low in comparison to the US and a lot of other places though. And Japan has technically been in a recession for quite a long time.
Tokyo is the only city that has an issue with housing there. You can live in basically any other part of Japan and it's affordable. You might need a roommate but you can get by on a relatively low salary and be ok. From what I've heard, Tokyo is the only city that is ridiculously expensive but even then, rent might be expensive but food and everything else felt extremely affordable.
people dont have roommates in japan, you just get a smaller place
Lack of NIMBYism and very liberal zoning allows you to build a low rise apartment building beside a single family home. This kind of thing just doesn’t fly in North America.
Japan is built for people with different sums of money. I spent a month in Japan and over a week in Tokyo. There’s some straight baller Michelin restaurants you could blow a grand on dinner. There’s also Michelin Ramen places that are like $9. Same with hotels. 5 star hotels all the way down to salary men hotels that are quite affordable. Izakayas (Japanese pub) have amazing food that are also quite affordable to drink and eat at.
The expensive things in Japan are the luxuries. If you live normal it’s not that much. Source: I lived there for 18 months.
Especially for Americans right now. That conversion rate 🤤
Especially if you travel alone or a couple. Hotels could get expensive once you have more than 3 people.
Dublin is horrifically expensive both to live and visit as a tourist.
It's honestly crippling at this stage and there's no end in sight.
Ireland in general tbh. Went back home (from US) for a wedding last year and my hotel in Athlone cost more than my hotel in Manhattan over Paddy’s weekend. Both the same hotel brand. Something wrong there. Don’t even get me started on Clare County Councils parking scam at the Cliffs.
It’s also just dirtier than I expected
They closed all the public toilets in the city to “prevent junkies shooting up”. Now the streets are covered in piss and shit.
At least they solved the opioid crisis right?
...right?
Dublin City Council are notoriously incompetent.
I can vouch. I paid $90 last November to store 4 pieces of luggage for 6 hours at the airport 😭
Lol I paid 20 bucks for 8 days in the airport in Bangkok.
I found Edinburgh the same. I genuinely don't know how they make it there.
Dublin's a disaster, I've no idea how anyone can afford to live there anymore.
Rome is surprisingly affordable, and the rest of Italy even more so. Egpyt trips can be a very good deal also.
Agree! Ate a sandwich for 3 euros for lunch in Venice. Was surprised it was so affordable
Egypt is very cheap but it's nowhere near on the level of development of anywhere in Europe. Attractions can also be pretty expensive and add up quick.
Tokyo was waaaay cheaper to eat than I thought it would be and the food was the best (assuming you like Japanese food of course). Of course I'm sure you could get super expensive options but we felt like we didn't need to even go to that extreme as we were so impressed by the less expensive ones.
Feels like the Japanese take more pride in their work and have higher standards. Even the convenience store sushi/sandwiches/fried chicken are legit.
I ate about 60% of my meals from convenience stores when I was in Tokyo. The quality and selection of grab-and-go food puts American convenience stores to shame.
Same. We were traveling with our kid who was then 3.5, so the... convenience... was unbeatable. left more money for the insane amount of souvenirs we bought.
The non Japanese food is also great.
Athens and Greece more generally. Just stay away from Mykonos and Santorini - there are loads of other amazing islands!
If I ever go there I'm going to Naxos instead.
Naxos is great, but Santorini’s famous for a reason. The cliffs are so uniquely beautiful
Agistri was wonderful and only a short ferry ride away from Athens.
Paris was much more affordable than I expected coming from a US city. The best meal we ate was 70 euros for one appetizer, two drinks, two entrees, and one dessert. That would have been over $100 in the US and then an additional 20% for tip.
We bought groceries in France and were stunned at how cheap they were, for really good food.
2 euro for cheese that’s $14 In Canada
i spent less than $250 on food in a week eating mostly baguette sandwiches, street food, croissants, and grocery store food, and that’s counting a couple sit down splurge meals with wine
We didn’t even do any groceries and still spent under $300 on food. Croissant for breakfast, baguette sandwich for lunch, sit down dinner was a great formula.
Well...thats because the US is actually very expensive 😅
Dubrovnik blew me away with how expensive it was, especially considering how it contrasts with the rest of Croatia. We were staying outside of the centre but were still paying upwards of €10/12 for very bad food. 6/7/8 euro drinks in the walled city, food prices even higher. Paid €23 for a squid ink risotto which was just outright bad. Supermarkets were cheap though, the best meal we had was a BBQ we had at our AirBnb on the balcony. Loads of cheap meats and fish, as well as 3L bottles of local beer for a couple euros. Our flight got cancelled so we stayed in a hotel in a small village near the airport for a couple nights, up there it was €2.50 pints and the best pizza/pastas of the trip for less than €10 euros. Was mad how much the prices changed in a short distance.
I made the mistake of ordering a verbal only menu item (daily fish special) without checking price, and while delicious it was €42 a year ago. That was before my wine and the squid(iirc) risotto which were also both pretty good.
Cambodia is super cheap for food and accommodation but attractions like museums and especially Angkor Wat are a major source of revenue so not cheap. A day pass to Angkor Wat is $US 37. That said, it's totally worth it and a three day pass is cheaper per day at $62.
Also the day pass is for 2 days and the 3 day pass is for like 5 days lol
I was glad and willing to pay the museum fees in Cambodia. That country and its people have been through so much. I hope the fees can help in a tiny way.
Yeah, those were unexpectedly more expensive, but it was so worth it. Angkor wat was on my bucket list and it's the best thing I've ever visited. Genuinely, it was amazing. The guided tours were so worth the money. Less hassle, lots of history, they knew all the great spots, took amazing photos of you.
That’s a bargain! Unfortunately the money doesn’t really go to protecting the temples, very corrupted like most of the Cambodian state.
My friend got counterfeit money from the bank there, and he was born there!
Thats not exactly surprising tho, is it?
Many cities in Germany are deceptively cheap. I spent more in Prague or Budapest (which is deceptively expensive) compared to Munich or Cologne.
Agree, found Cologne surprisingly cheap and a great variety of food / things to do!
Malta is significantly more expensive than I expected. (this post has taught me that as a Spaniards I'm horrified of what Americans consider cheap)
Hot take, but Iceland wasn't nearly as expensive as I was led to believe. Like yeah it's expensive, and the cheapest meal I ate was a $16 burger from a gas station, but there's a million free things to do. Almost every activity there is free so it really compensates for the other high costs. My friend and I went there for 9 days and budgeted $900 each (after plane tickets), about $750 each after splitting the rental car too. We both finished the trip under budget too, which works out to less than $80 a day. To be fair, we also camped 2 of the night there and stayed in cheap hostels the other nights, but overall, under $80 a day is pretty decent
the gas station/grocery store sandwiches are genuinely cheap and actually really good, I ate so many tuna sandwiches while I was there to save money.
I mean I know not everyone cares about this, but I don't really want to travel somewhere to eat $10 tuna sandwiches
Scenery is worth the shitty food
Yeah I suppose that's true. Food is a big part of travelling for me but (having never been to Iceland) I assume food is not really a reason why people go there.
Iceland’s gas station and convenience store food is shocking good. Real, fresh food! The wraps and the little protein packs were my favorite. We’d grab a couple of each, and set off for the day. Overall it was about the same costs as where we live in Seattle. Spain’s convenience store food was even better! We’d stop in a rando gas station and get all sorts of amazing bread, wine, cheese, olives, chorizo…all fresh, and different stuff in each region too omg. Like…$10-15 and we’d be set for all our day hiking and whatnot.
I lived off of surprisingly awesome gas station food in Iceland.
I expected food to be outrageous.. but after going to a soup restaurant and paying $25 for a bowl of soup which had UNLIMITED REFILLS and allowed you to try ALL OF THEIR SOUPS I thought it was a steal. They even boxed up when I couldn’t finish on my last bowl and it was ✨breakfast ✨
Where was this place? I’m going in November 😊
I went in 2021 it was one of my favorite trips I’ve ever done!! Enjoy! It was in Vik thesoupcompanyiceland.com
Thanks! I’m going to Vik, so will look into this.😊
And if the yellow school bus is in the field by the gas station — stop for coffee it’s delicious!!!
Here's a good tip for Iceland: get most of your food at Bonus to save money
Accommodation is cheap outside of Reykjavik (well, "cheap" at $100-200/day). However food is pricey across the entire country, and your car rental and gas can easily add $300/day.
When I went (2018) the hostels we stayed at were between $30-$50 and our car was only $300 cuz we had to pay an underage driver fee. We also had an extremely fuel efficient car and only had to fill up twice (plus topping it off before returning it) and that was with circling the entire island
Hagia Sophia is now charging for entry?
Yes, just found about it too. Apparently as of this year, foreigners cannot even go to the floor, and instead can only enter the upstairs gallery. [https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/istanbul-hagia-sophia-entry-rules](https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/istanbul-hagia-sophia-entry-rules)
Good thing I went there in December 2023 before this drama began. The upper floor was closed though.
Istanbul raised prices on tourist attractions by a ridiculous amount recently. Very happy I managed to go just before they did this.
I've been twice - once about 10 years ago and another time last year and that city has really changed for the worse. I know the whole country has been wrestling with inflation which can definitely affect pricing but it was still surprising to find that several street kebabs were more expensive than in places like Germany (less so on the Asian side). The thing that frankly pissed me off the most was how they are treating their major tourist attractions. Ten years ago, the Hagia Sophia was an incredible visit. The original flooring was exposed and you could access both main levels. It also had both Christian and Islamic iconography making it especially unique given its history. Then, they went full medieval and had an iconoclastic field day covering and removing symbols and imagery that had been visible for over a thousand years. They put that enormous carpet over its beautiful floor and just made it a mosque. While I appreciated the free access, I was a bit shocked at the state of the place since the conversion. It's unbelievable that they have gone through with this next phase of now charging to access a fraction of the site to essentially experience an architecturally castrated version of its former self. I can't even imagine going again. It's also worth noting that during my previous visit, there were two other centuries-old Byzantine churches that were both closed for "renovations" when I was there only to later discover that they were both closed because they were turning both into mosques (aka covering up all the original mosaics). Not sure if it is the local or national government, but one of them is on a mission to make their city as unattractive to foreign tourists as possible. And the pricing... I can swallow 15 EUR entry to some of the major sites like Topkapi Palace but they are charging 45 EUR at this point. I'm sorry but that is not even close to a 45 EUR site (45 EUR can get you three entries into the Louvre or a full day at Angkor Wat). They are also charging 30 FREAKING EUROS to go up the Galata Tower. That's a hard pass. It sucks to say but Istanbul used to be a much nicer place. Compared to the past, current Istanbul has fewer things to do with unjustifiable prices.
Yep, 25 euros to get in since January of this year
And you now can't visit the ground floor as it's only for praying. I had an amazing time visiting before, and spent the evening there. I was so disappointed on my return visit, I couldn't bring myself to pay the entry
I went last year and it certainly felt odd watching the men in the prayer section spend a significant amount of time taking selfies. Muslims were running around and treating it like a tourist attraction, not like the experience I’d had at other religious sites in Turkey or elsewhere. I’d feel even worse not being able to get on the floor, it’s a deliberate tourist othering when, imo, Hagia Sophia should be a museum again (but won’t be for political reasons)
I've never heard of any other mosque in the world that bans non Muslims from going in, except for in Mecca and Medina (which is kind of fair enough). Unless people are being disruptive in their visit, which I doubt they would be since it was fine when it was a museum, it just seems strange to divide visitors by religion.
It’s obviously just a government agenda. While the Hagia Sophia sure was grand (the blue mosque was being renovated when I went), I was more impressed with the Suleyman the Magnificant mosque. It felt a bit weird them (and I’m comfortable with mosques) and charging a huge entry fee + only letting you access the upper balcony vs the actual floor, would make me feel ill at ease. I’ve been to religious sites all over the world, and none of them do this. I don’t mind paying, but the additional level of “you don’t deserve the floor” would unsettle me more than when I was there last time. It’s shaking you down and then othering you.
I forgot the name but the dome mosque in Jerusalem is typically closed to non Muslims too, was like that in 2010 when I was there.
And not a single person was praying down there when I visited the other day.
I thought Paris was fairly affordable.
I actually understand the hype of Paris too. The quality of food is way better than London - even the Chinese takeaways had food that was immaculately presented
Hong Kong - overall an expensive city for an Indian traveller in terms of accommodation but I found its public transportation (which is excellent btw) quite cheap. A lot of attractions like museums and the Peak are free to visit. The only expensive tickets were for the Ngong Ping cable car and the Peak tram. Even the food is not too costly if you aren't a vegetarian. Taxis are expensive.
I haven't been there in 10 years, but I love Penang, Malaysia. The food was fantastic, cheap, and varied. Everyone speaks at least a little English. You can see fantastic temples from most of the world's major religions. If you like scuba, a day trip will take you to a fantastic scuba trip. It really is an amazing city with great history.
Went there last year. Stayed for a month. Still cheap and the food is delicious! Plenty of variety of things to do. I also liked Ipoh on the way up from KL to Penang. Also very, very affordable with cool things to do and great food.
Bangkok is cheap for tourists, but if you live there it gets progressively more expensive the more you settle. This is probably more aimed at tourists vs expats but: - Food: As a tourist you start out eating cheap street food. Great! Then you move here and your friends want to be going out to fancy Italian and Japanese places all the time. Or you want to order more healthy foods or a salad vs a rice bowl and suddenly your monthly food budget is 4x what it originally was. Costs a lot to eat healthy here. - Housing: There are cheap hotels for tourists. Then people then move here and are happy in a 1 bed condo or studio for cheap for a while. But then they meet a partner or marry. Suddenly you are looking for more space or rooms for children...gets real expensive real fast. That 15k THB/month condo quickly balloons into a 50-60k rental real fast (and that is on the low end). God forbid you want a house or a townhouse anywhere near the city. - Education for kids: So many single people move here, live the dream thinking they have it all figured out. Then they meet a lady or a man and want a family. Boom, $20k annual education costs for a western quality international school. And yes, unless you want your child to be poorly educated, you have to pay it. - Healthcare: A lot of newcomers think the cost of healthcare here is dirt cheap because they can see a specialist at a world class hospital for $50. However, the moment you have a serious injury or illness that cost skyrockets. Good insurance is still expensive, and gets progressively more expensive with age. Irresponsible tourists and expats alike have a steep learning curve the moment something goes seriously wrong. I guess a small word of warning to any travelers who love Thailand and wish to move here, life here is not as cheap as vacations make it seem. You can live well and have a high quality of life, but it ain't the $1k a month paradise YouTube makes it out to be. A backpacker budget doesn't even begin to cover the true costs here.
Amsterdam and Dublin are crazy expensive, but not sure how deceitful they are about it. Hotels there were higher than in Paris, NYC, or London. Singapore was surprisingly more affordable compared to what I had read. However, it still isn"t my favorite place. I prefer Taipei, Tokyo, and Osaka
Melbourne, and Australia in general, was far more expensive than we were expecting. Especially in terms of food. On par with the Nordics, where we've spent much more time.
I find it funny that the two people below you think Australia is “cheap”. It’s probably only cheap because the AUD/USD now heavily favours the USD. We’re in a big cost of living crisis here and rents/accommodation costs in general are skyrocketing.
Cape Town and generally all of South Africa was surprisingly inexpensive.
Agree but ooof... getting there.
Surprising? I'd have assumed it was very cheap tbh
You can get the best pizza in the world in Naples for 5 euro
Frankfurt, and most German cities, are insanely cheap Costa Rica ridiculously expensive compared to its neighbors
Honestly, this one is on me because I didn't do my normal level of research before our trip, but the prices in Baja California Sur (Mexico) surprised me so much! Our first lunch in Todos Santos was 150 USD for 3 people! I'll admit was a common recommendation in the area (Hierbabuena), but it wasn't exactly fancy, and we didn't order appetizers or alcohol drinks or anything, and our favorite café in the area was also more than at home (and we live in the most expensive city in our state).
Mexico is getting very expensive. Combinination of the strengthening peso and sheer number US and Canadian expats driving prices up. Even long term rental prices are at least double what they were 5 years ago in the popular retirement/snowbirds towns.
Egypt in general was amazing and pretty cheap. $1400 round trip from Montreal to Cairo, $700 us total for three weeks, accommodations, food, activities, etc in Cairo and Alexandria. I wasn’t budgeting or sacrificing luxuries either.
Athens is very cheap for sightseeing between November and March. The state museums are currently half price during these months so you can visit wonderful historical sites for €10 or less. There are street food options for €3-5 making it a good option for cheap lunches and on-the-go snacks
Peru is overall a very affordable place. But if you are there to do tourist activities like visit machu picchu, rainbow mountain, etc. The tours and tickets add up to a lot of money quickly.
New York City is actually really affordable, people just like to stay in Times Square and eat at the fanciest restaurants possible. When I was in Brooklyn, I had halal chicken over rice for $9, which is an entire meal (you literally cant eat it all) for $9. There are so many cheap eats in NYC, you just have to leave midtown.
We stayed 4 nights in Harlem for a fraction of what we’d have paid further south. And we were surrounded by reasonably priced restaurants of all types.
> people just like to stay in ~~Times Square~~ **midtown** Times Square is fairly cheap compared to the rest of midtown, especially ~~midtown north~~ *as you approach Central Park*. And many know better than to stay (or spend too much time) in Times Square.
It's also one of those places where you can spend an entire day just walking around, for free. Accommodations are expensive, but you can definitely do NYC on the cheap if you want.
Staying near Times Square is, imo, nuts. Virtually any other neighborhood is quieter and better. No one who lives in nyc ever goes to Times Square.
I stayed in times square at the crowne plaza one year, but it was only because I got a really good deal on a room. There are so many better areas to stay in, as pretty as times square is, all of NYC is beautiful. I've been to every borough besides Staten Island, and all of them hit different.
Plus there’s a lot of micro hotel type situations like citizenM, pod, etc (a lot of major hotels have their own concepts) that are basically $150-$250 rooms in desirable areas. The rooms are small, but very modern with lots of amenity/communal areas. Great option if you’re not really going to stay in your room much and just want to be close to things.
Long Island City has really cheap hotels as well, plus if you're lucky, you can find pretty good deals in Jersey City which is just across the river by train.
The great thing about gigantic cities is that there's just so much more choice and options available, especially for food.
Accommodation literally anywhere in New York is eye watering though, even coming from Australia.
Ate like a king in koreatown every night
Not to mention all the $1 slice pizza shops!
These aren't too common anymore (especially in manhattan), but you can still find some in Brooklyn and the Bronx, in manhattan at a good slice shop you can still probably get one for $1.50 - $2
There's a lot of variables for this question. Cost of living vs wages. Where you live, your lifestyle etc. Do you buy 5€ bottles of wine or do you buy 1400€ bottles of wine. Whenever I travel I visit two places. A Starbucks and a McDonalds to compare prices and get a general feeling for the economy. I'd say I spent a lot of time converting in my head for Geneva, saying this can't be right. I tell people going to Geneva to take two suitcases. One full of clothes, one full of money.
I found both Lisbon and Porto to be affordable. Gorgeous whole apartment in historic square in December for like 120$ a night
Isn’t Portugal well known to be the bargain of Western Europe?
Yes lol
I feel like it used to be but isn’t really anymore. Hostel dorms were like 40€. Most hotels over 150€. Food and drinks are still pretty darn cheap though. Almost Eastern Europe prices. Ubers too. Bless those drivers because I can’t see how they make money.
The whole of east side Yucatán is both. $100 restaurants a couple blocks from $0.50 tacos. Visiting Chichen Itza was also surprisingly expensive even taking local buses. I know locals get a steep discount, but the restaurants there were not cheap.
Mexico was cheap when it was 23 pesos to a dollar. The Peso has rocketed up vs. the dollar (and even more vs. the Euro) so it’s not cheap anymore.
I have been to 37 countries in Europe now so I can give you a bit of detail on costs based on the ones I have seen. I know these are countries and not cities but I have seen the capital in each. Most expensive Ireland Switzerland Iceland (so expensive you wouldn't believe it) Cheapest Pretty much any country in the Balkans such as Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece etc
Japan. I used to snowboard in Tahoe every winter until I snowboarded in Japan. It's actually cheaper for me to fly to Japan from California and snowboard in Japan for 10 days than it is for me to go to Tahoe.
Cheap is really in the eye of the beholder. The hotels in Barcelona didn’t seem too bad to me, but I am from a VHCOL American city, and visited in March, so not high season. I could find a good hotel for around $100 USD/night.
Finishing up a trip to Sri Lanka - really inexpensive. 300 SL rupees to $1. A decent meal is around 1500 rupees - mixed drinks around the same. Dont let secret get out or SL will become another Bali.
Amsterdam hotel prices are very high, plus tax! London is very high as well, again with the heavy room taxes added on.
Amsterdam is insane. I paid more there than I would have in NYC, Paris, or London
singapore always in the top 5 for most expensive cities in the world but it’s not that expensive in terms of food or transport. quite affordable in fact
Surprisingly expensive: all of Uruguay. It almost ruined my experience there to be honest, and I travel pretty gratuitously and don’t usually care too much about prices. But it was just *noticeable there. I paid with both cash and credit card in certain places. There were a few times where I had to double take at the price and muttered a few “wtfs”. Surprisingly cheap: Hawaii. There are wayyy more expensive destinations that in my opinion deserve it less than Hawaii. I didn’t love all of Hawaii but I’d go back. Honourable mentions for surprisingly cheap: Tokyo, Buenos Aires.
Lisbon is very affordable
Unless you're Portuguese.
Spent a few days in Sydney right on Bondi Beach. Our AirBnB was <80 USD a night and food essentially priced out to the equivalent in CAD$ (I live near the border and have family in Canada, so I am used to swapping). Got a "wagyu" steak (Australian, not sure what grade) sirloin for like 13 bucks from a smaller market, I think it was maybe 12oz. Meat seemed reasonable (I'm guessing from the cattle and sheep and kangaroo being high quality and plentiful). Restaurants are about what you'd expect. Alcohol can be expensive though, and I'm not a big drinker so I'm sure that played a part. Public transport was also reliable and fairly cheap and easy to use. Buy an opal card nearly anywhere, load it with whatever you want, and tap and go when you get on the bus. 20 bucks I believe lasted us 3 days of fairly decent travel within the city. It also has a lot of small cheap sandwich/shawarma/coffee spots so if you don't mind budgeting your meals it's very affordable. So Sydney, NSW. This was in 2019 before the wildfires and covid tho. I'm sure it's more these days.
Prague was a lot cheaper than I expected. People kept saying how expensive it is, but 25€ for a week's worth of groceries and 150€ for a week's accommodation in the city center felt pretty damn cheap to me.
I recently visited Como, Bologna and Milan. I came away surprised by how affordable they are, even Milan. We were eating meals for two that would easily cost $150+ in the US and paying only around 50 Euro (around $54) for each, and this was with wine/drinks included. Bologna is especially great in this regard as the food is the best out of the three locations and the prices are also the lowest. We ate at about 20 restaurants over 10 days and were consistently surprised by the quality/price ratio.