Originally Posted by iahphx
..... While there may be a misconception out there that Europe is particularly expensive right now -- which isn't necessarily true if you look at the Euro's value the past ten years (based on the conversion rate of the Mark and Franc)....
Sorry - off-topic in the BA thread
The Euro came 01.01.2002. And a lot of businesses, restaurants, hotels used this to increase the prices. In Germany the Euro is called "Teuro" = "expansive Euro"
The Deutsch Mark was 1,95583 for one Euro. Almost double, but when the Euro was launched, some businesses just changed the currency and not the number: "Steak with frites" DM 22.80 was then "Steak with frites" Euro 22.80
And the end of the story, alone in Hamburg went about 30% of good restaurants out of business.
Back to the topic:
We went twice to Argentina and Brazil. Very nice people, beautiful scenery, very good food & wine, 1A hotels ... and it didn't cost us an arm & leg!
We liked the wine from Argentine, but it's hard to come by here in the US. Wine from Chile, Gaucho100K's "wrong side of the Andes", is plentiful, good and not too expensive. Actually, many of them are imported and distributed by Robert Mondavi.