It depends, parts of Southern and Eastern Europe are shockingly cheap because they are desperate for tourists. Western Europe and UK/Ireland are extremely expensive. Japan is also obviously incredibly expensive but in other parts in Asia, particularly SE Asia prices are very reasonable. From a cost/benefit perspective I'd put Thailand as the best deal available. Getting there takes time but there are so many deals available at great rates.

Manhattan Buckeye;1623157 wrote:It depends, parts of Southern and Eastern Europe are shockingly cheap because they are desperate for tourists. Western Europe and UK/Ireland are extremely expensive. Japan is also obviously incredibly expensive but in other parts in Asia, particularly SE Asia prices are very reasonable. From a cost/benefit perspective I'd put Thailand as the best deal available. Getting there takes time but there are so many deals available at great rates.

Are you talking about the flights or the cost of being a tourist there?

Ireland was cheap. The flights were too, $60 to/from, is what I remember. You are there...so I cannot necessarily refute it. It's just all that I remember from being there.

I base everything on the prices of a typical beer, cigarettes and a decent meal. I've always heard Dublin is very expensive. GDP was 2:1 when I was there year ago and crazy expensive.

That's why I want to do a circle in Eastern Europe one day. Your money can go much further.

The budget airlines are great, and even mid range airlines have decent prices. You can get 90 min round trip flights for $100-150. I'm looking at fucking $350 just to fly to Pittsburgh.

OSH;1623176 wrote:Are you talking about the flights or the cost of being a tourist there?

Ireland was cheap. The flights were too, $60 to/from, is what I remember. You are there...so I cannot necessarily refute it. It's just all that I remember from being there.

Flights there are definitely cheap - hotels, or at least hotels that one would want to stay in are pretty expensive since the tourist area is small and not much selection. Unless one is very adventurous I would not advise staying away from the tourist area in Dublin. It was much "grittier" than we thought it would be and even we got a bit uncomfortable walking around in certain areas even during the day.

Manhattan Buckeye;1623196 wrote:Flights there are definitely cheap - hotels, or at least hotels that one would want to stay in are pretty expensive since the tourist area is small and not much selection. Unless one is very adventurous I would not advise staying away from the tourist area in Dublin. It was much "grittier" than we thought it would be and even we got a bit uncomfortable walking around in certain areas even during the day.

Gotcha. I was advised by a professor to do hitchhiking and hostels in Ireland. He said it's rather common and simple. One can tour the whole country this way and not spend much money.

Anywhere in Spain is amazing. Barcelona has some of the best clubs, restaurants around. The people are generally friendly ( unlike France ) and the women are absolutely gorgeous.

Chaperoning 14 teenagers to many of the places mentioned here in a week. First time to Europe. Downside is only spending a couple of days in each city, but figure that I can go back and spend time in places I like another time.