Budget Travel - Budget Travel magazine looking less so

Anyone else noticing this? I'm seeing too many $100 hotel rooms pitched in their pages lately as if they're budget finds.

Huh? In a 16-year travel career I've only paid that much per night once (in St. Thomas, USVI). Still not so far anywhere in Europe, SE Asia, the 50 U.S. or even Tahiti.

I have no doubt they're getting a great luxury standard in a place like Las Vegas these days because of the deep recession, but I'd be looking at a decent midrange place in the $20s and trying to stay 3-4 nights on the same money.

I think their suggestions are getting harder for me to afford. While I still resist Greyhound or hostels, at least in the U.S., three-digit lodgings don't do it, either.

Maybe there needs to be a Budget-Budget Travel magazine

Anyone else noticing this? I'm seeing too many $100 hotel rooms pitched in their pages lately as if they're budget finds.

Don't have the job I used to, so not traveling and not staying at Hampton Inn where I used to pick up Budget Travel Magazine ^

But gotta agree, outside of places like NYC (and similiar), where on God's green earth is a Benjamin a budget find :confused:

And while I have a lot of respect for your posts, I for one have been known to stay at hostels in US :p

NOT all great, and my favorite in SEA bit the dust when they lost their lease :mad: Guess the recession didn't come soon enough for YHA Seattle ...

EmailKid

And while I have a lot of respect for your posts, I for one have been known to stay at hostels in US :p

NOT all great, and my favorite in SEA bit the dust when they lost their lease :mad: Guess the recession didn't come soon enough for YHA Seattle ...

EmailKid

I should mention that a decade ago I was a card-carrying HI-AYH member and stayed at places including the house on Hawthorne in Portland and several in Alaska on early trips there. Also in HNL, Maui, near Yosemite and in DUS, BWN and CNS overseas.

I guess financial necessity was the mother of invention there. Though I could see the upsides and why the experience could attract a following.

Priceline generally put an end to that era. That, and being told by more than 1 person that I snore. ;)

I think their suggestions are getting harder for me to afford. While I still resist Greyhound or hostels, at least in the U.S., three-digit lodgings don't do it, either.

Maybe there needs to be a Budget-Budget Travel magazine

I agree with your larger point, but Greyhound does not have to be bad, necessarily. I have taken it a few times on some or all of the Vancouver - Seattle - Portland route, and I get from point A to point B quite successfully. Mind you, the last time I was in the Greyhound bus station in Seattle, I noticed how dirty and unappealing it is compared to some bus stations I have seen in Mexico.

I find that the NY Times Budget Travel section sometimes suggests prices that I couldn't possibly consider budget. But I guess everyone's definition is different.

Budget now means "good value." ie a 5* hotel for $100 is budget. Plus it's trendy to do a budget travel experience where your week long holiday cost about $2000, but hey it was great value! ;)

I agree with the OP. Since Erik Torkells, the former Editor left, I've really been disappointed with Budget Travel and the articles.

I agree with your larger point, but Greyhound does not have to be bad, necessarily. I have taken it a few times on some or all of the Vancouver - Seattle - Portland route, and I get from point A to point B quite successfully. Mind you, the last time I was in the Greyhound bus station in Seattle, I noticed how dirty and unappealing it is compared to some bus stations I have seen in Mexico.

I went from Tampa to Miami in Florida last year on Greyhound and that was it for me. Dirty bus, had trouble finding a seat that was not permanently reclined and when I looked around the bus I was looking like the odd man out by a long way.

Got there eventually, but that will be my last Grayhound trip.

I subscribed for the first couple of years, and it was great, but it started changing after that and I dropped it.

I think the reference for bus travel has to be the 24-seat VIP buses plying the major routes inside and between Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The seat size and pitch resembles business class on the widebody planes. You really get spoiled. I always take those between Singapore and KL. A Greyhound bus might have 44 seats or so.

At the other end of the scale, I have ridden some pretty overloaded rattletraps in the small islands in the Philippines, Nepal, and Vietnam, so you can certainly do a lot worse than Greyhound in parts of the world.