Budget Travel - Been Layed Off and looking for budget vacation recommendations!

Ok so sometime between December and January I will be out of work which seems like a great time to take 1-2 months off somewhere. Since I will be between jobs I'm focusing on cheaper places where the weather will be nice around that time of year.

At the moment I'm thinking Peru and Argentina might be good options, but have to really figure out if 1-2 months would be enough time :) I'm based in Europe so nearer would be better, but I'm drawing a blank on where else! Viet Nam maybe....Damn - no idea what the weather is like there in January!

So any recomendations and rough (not knowing me how could they be anything else) estimates of cost of hotels and travel? When I'm in new places I will typically take land travel as much as possible, and tend to stay in fairly low cost hotels. I don't want bed bugs, but hostels, pensions, whatever is fine. For food I typically will eat out of grocery stores for a few days with one semi nice meal in between and the occasional splurge.

So everyone who reads this - throw out your random recommendation and over the next several weeks I'll do some research!

Thanks,
Matthew

Sorry about your job losses.

I'd recommend looking at one of the Gap Adventures tour. It's funner to explore new places with a group than by yourself.

www.gapadventures.com

Some of those tours do look nice :) Especially the amazon river trip.

I've always had good luck meeting people when travelling, and honestly like time alone - if I was really bothered by that I wouldn't go without the woman I married ;)

Was just looking at the weather for Viet Nam and it seems a little too cool around that time in the North so South America is looking more and more likely.

And I'm really not bothered about the job! Was looking already for something else, nothing wrong with the job I have but had grown bored. Now I'm not looking b/c the severance depends on staying until the end.

What kind of budget are you allowing for yourself? That might help with suggestions of where to go.

Yeah I know it would :) At the moment it's still too early to be sure, but at a minimum I think $5k for everything would be as low as would be possible. I could probably afford to go to $10k if I really needed to, but would want to stretch that as far as possible.

Ok does anyone know about the safety and cost of trying to go from Panama to Guatemala? And would 4-8 weeks be long enough?

Specifically if you've had any experience with buses from country to country and know how much cheap hotels might be.

Thanks!

I'd recommend looking at one of the Gap Adventures tour. It's funner to explore new places with a group than by yourself.

www.gapadventures.com

If it wasn't for flyingstudent's post count, I would have guessed he is a rep for gapadventures.com. Personally I recommend going on your own, with two months and being on a budget your money will go a lot further. You can join excretions en route.


Ok does anyone know about the safety and cost of trying to go from Panama to Guatemala? And would 4-8 weeks be long enough?

Specifically if you've had any experience with buses from country to country and know how much cheap hotels might be.

Thanks!

I have never crossed the boarder, but have been to Panama. Over all I found it to be same, just be careful. If you are a man just don't do anything too dumb, I definitely did and make it out ok. However, I wouldn't recommend it. If you are a woman, you may actually want to go on some sort of tour.


Over all to answer your question, Latin/South America is a great place to visit. By and large it is really safe. As with anywhere you go just be smart.

I don't think that 4-8 weeks is long enough to do Panama-Guatemala. But, traveling pace varies quite a bit for different people. I spent 4 weeks in Guatemala and Honduras and still didn't have time to see a lot of things. I had 10 days in Costa Rica but was moving around quite a bit. Also, if you're really on a tight budget, Costa Rica is relatively expensive.

Frommers.com has some nice suggested itineraries for one-two weeks in each of these countries to give you a sense of what you can do in a set time period. Also, Lonely Planet forums has a lot of information about making trips across Central America with topics about transportation, safety, costs, etc.

I have never crossed the boarder, but have been to Panama. Over all I found it to be same, just be careful. If you are a man just don't do anything too dumb, I definitely did and make it out ok. However, I wouldn't recommend it.
.

What is it you wouldn't recommend?

And with tours - the only time I ever do them is for walking tours in cities etc, never have tried a multi day tour. Something like a trip up the amazon might be fun as part of a larger vacation - but could never be the whole vacation.

But at the moment I'm seriously thinking of Central over South America anyway. For many reasons but one of the big ones is that my wife really wants to go to parts of South America so if I go now then I'll have to go back. Not a bad idea in itself except there is a lot of the world still to see!

I'll be checking out the itineraries and buses in the next week, maybe over the weekend. I'll post what I find.