Budget Travel - Options from NY for about a week (~$2k budget)

Hello all,

Just wanted to get some ideas for a trip that I would like to take with my wife sometime in the next month or two (July/August), for 5-10 days. We are based in NY. The thing is, we would like to keep it to $2k or so if possible (yes.. including airfare and accommodation). If it goes over by a bit that is fine. I was thinking of splitting that budget to have $500 for each ticket, accommodation, and daily spending. Of course if we end up staying somewhere for closer to 10 days I would expect those figures to change. We did a trip to Japan last year (and thank you guys for ideas on that trip as well!) that ended up being about $100 daily spending (for both of us), and $60-80/night for hotel, and that was fine for us.

We're not expecting fancy hotels, or expensive dinners. We enjoy walking around, visiting some of the touristy places, and eating in casual places that either just look good or I have looked up online. Outside of ticket and hotel, almost all of our spending falls under transportation and food (with a bit for fees for things like museums). Usually no shopping, and no clubs (we don't drink). The thing we enjoy most about traveling is simply the feeling of being in a new place, so unique atmosphere is high on our list (Asia destinations are at the top for us, followed by Europe, etc.).

At first I was considering Canada to escape the heat, perhaps Quebec City as I have heard it's like N. America's France. Didn't intrigue us all that much though. We have never been to Caribbean either, and out of all the choices I am heavily considering Puerto Rico for its things to do outside of the beach (ie: Old San Juan, bio bay), but the climate at this time is making me reconsider. All that being said, if we could fit any sort of Europe trip into that budget, that would be awesome! Any chance of squeezing one in? UK (although London Olympics may make that difficult?), Spain, France, etc. would be wonderful, but obviously $500 for airfare is a stretch!

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, I'm just very confused about where to go. :confused:

Thanks very much in advance. :)

Not sure if NYC or other part of NY. Lucky in NYC a ton of flights on JEtBlue or Spirit to destinations on the cheap.

You may wish to consider a cruise either out of NYC or FL which reduces daily cost and covers the number of nights you have indicated plus see a bunch of destinations.
Otherwise, multiple Caribbean destinations have all-inclusive locations so you can reduce daily cost some include alcohol. Requires research and must note you will probably get stuck at the resort as not many things to do/see nearby.

PR from NYC has good airfare but it isn't the best destination as the beaches nor tourism is that great in my opinion.

All that being said, if we could fit any sort of Europe trip into that budget, that would be awesome! Any chance of squeezing one in? UK (although London Olympics may make that difficult?), Spain, France, etc. would be wonderful, but obviously $500 for airfare is a stretch!)

Um, it's Summer Travel Season, so never mind London and Olympics, pretty much ALL of Europe will be north of $1,000 for tickets alone (YES, each) :rolleyes:

Canada sounds good to me, though it can get hot up there as well unless you go to the West coast or the mountains in Alberta / British Columbia. But even those tickets are running north of $500 ....

Sorry if I'm not sounding that helpful, but the high cost of geting anywhere these days is sort of making your plan somewhat difficult.

EmailKid

Thank you folks. Should have specified that I am from NYC area. And yeah I do realize that most tickets will be closer to $1000 for Europe, just very optimistic I guess :p. I did see some closer to $500 for November, but we would prefer not to wait that long of course!

Cruise might be looking into, I'll do some more research on that. All inclusive always sounded like it wasn't meant for us, especially since the alcohol is usually considered a big part of the deal which for us would be wasted. I'll look into Central / S. American as well to see if there are any options there.

The California coast is beautiful in July/August. Fly to SFO, drive down the coast to LA/SAN. Spend a couple of days in SF, at least a couple on the drive down Pacific Coast Highway, stop in Monterey, Santa Barbara. The breeze off the ocean keeps things nice and cool.

To get a list of all destinations that would be within your budget at specific dates, you can try making a search on www.skyscanner.net, selecting NYC as departure and no arrival city. They will be sorted by price.

Thanks again. Doc, we actually did a trip to San Francisco (and Vegas) not too long ago, but you're right it would be nice this time of the year. I think Europe really would be pushing it, even if we were to wait till Sept. So I think I'll save that for later and go for somewhere in Caribbean. Any other options outside of Puerto Rico that might be good for this time of the year and given our style? I was thinking we might be better off going to a place just for the beach given the weather, but I don't know how satisfied we would be from just that. Especially since we usually enjoy walks around towns and trying different food, etc.

Are you interested in a home exchange? Home exchange options for visitors to NYC are few and far between! PM me if you are interested!

Free accommodation will really stretch out the value of your $2k!

If you want to go to Canada and don't mind driving, it is often much cheaper to fly to a city near to the border within the US, rent and car, and drive across. You can see a bit more of the country that way as well.