Destinations that are inexpensive and cheap to get to
 

mrs pbiflyer, who loves AirBnB type places is always searching for interesting places. She often finds amazing places for dirt cheap, but they are often in hard to get to, expensive to get to places. She found a beautiful place for $50 a night...in Tanzania. Costly and hard to get to. So by the time you add air fare, travel time, the cost is more than a typical trip.
I really want to go to Eastern Europe. Tons of places to stay for cheap. But the airfare is typically a ton more, especially for two people.
Are there places you can get to from the US that are not that expensive to get to and stay? I have looked at places like Colombia and other Central and South American destinations. A possibility. But not high on my list to go (and the ones that are, like Argentina and Chile are expensive to travel to).

Am I missing some? Some trick? The other option is small towns in the easier to get to places. That may be an option.
Suggestions? Ideas?

I get TAP emails - they always have good deals to various European destinations. I know Miami is one of their U.S. gateways.

Usually the cheapest deals are beyond Lisbon, but offer a free stopover in Lisbon. (Weirdly, flying to Madrid with a Lisbon stopover is cheaper than just flying to Lisbon.)

Not sure what their Eastern Europe offerings are, but Spain and Portugal both have lots of places with fun things to do and nice lodging at decent prices.

Credit cards with large sign-up bonuses.

pbiflyer , you do not identify the class of cabin in which you want to travel. If Coach is OK with you, you can fly one way from MIA to Hungary, the Czech Republic, and even Morocco for 30,000 AA miles per person, and minimal fees. Business Class and Premium Economy will be trickier to get for decent redemption rates, but not impossible if you are very flexible as to travel dates.

My husband is working in Venice throughout the next 5 weeks. A vital piece of equipment never made it onto the already departed delivery van and there’s no way to get hold of it before his flight out tomorrow.

Congratulations to me! I worked out how much I could transport the equipment for and it’s way cheaper than any commercial alternative.

I finally get my first courier gig! Effectively a free trip to (and stay in) Venice.

Does anyone in your circle need anything transported for them?

There are also international arbitrage options, the dollar is pretty strong, buy things in your destination and make money on them. I’ve never done this myself but often come across people who go to Japan to do this (particularly from Spain). They either make a profit or do it to subsidise their trips.

Coach, no checked luggage (my last trip was two weeks with a carry on). Right now I am a Delta guy, but with the changes to their FF program, I am looking at CC options and as you note, MIA is an AA hub and easy to get to via tri-rail. And the upgrades to premium economy are pretty cheap sometimes, I flew AA MIA-BCN and the premium economy was an $300 upgrade.

Yeah, I get those too and then when I go to price them out, they always price way higher than advertised. I love Lisbon (and can be pretty cheap!) so would love to work that out. Just never seems to happen. (Seems Prague, Warsaw and Vienna are the furthest east they go) Looked at going to Morocco with them, but every time I price it out, it is the same as other airlines.

Don’t forget how extraordinarily inexpensive it can be to fly within Europe. So long as you don’t bring any hold luggage with you just by getting over to Europe means that you can use LCCs to go almost anywhere.

There is a thread in the Mileage Run subforum that is titled something like "Cheap Economy Fares." Mostly domestic but occasionally interesting and, as noted above, many are intra Europe so you can always get across the pond for cheap and make a go of it from there. A couple examples of recent deals had:

My parents are flying in a few weeks MIA-FCO R/T N/S on ITA for around $700 all-in, and that includes seat assignment. The sale was around Thanksgiving (courtesy of an ITA promo email).

I took a family of five N/S BOS-DUB in PS on DL for about $800 over Christmas and New Year's, and had flights to/from DUB and the continent for around $50 each in RyanAir. I picked cities with multiple flights a day and the costs included carryon and seat assignments. Booked close in (sub-30 days) and we were flexible on where to go. And to your wife's interests, we stayed on a house boat in Amsterdam for New Year's.

All it took was some patience and gaming. I recommend using Google Flights like many others here do for an initial search (eg, Miami to Europe) on specific dates that will give you a map with a range of minimum prices to different cities, and then you may experiment from there. Not for everyone but to me planning is part of the adventure...

If you don't mind planning a year's travel in advance, you might look into economy RTW fares that cover up to 16 segments over a 12 month period. The fares require you to cross both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in the same direction, and end in the same country where you began. Both Star Alliance and Oneworld offer these products, with the Star RTWs having maximum mileage limits while the Oneworld ones are priced based on how many continents you touch, from 3 to 6.

Both alliances' RTWs are priced VERY differently depending on where you begin and end travel, as well as their own mileage or continent limits. For example, a 4-continent Oneworld RTW in economy with travel beginning and ending in the US has a base price of $5374, or around $336 per segment. However, the same ticket with travel starting and ending in Norway costs $1956, or $122 per segment. Yes, you'd have to get to Oslo to start the trip and return to the US following it, but in the meantime you could rack up a good many miles, and hit some places where budget accommodations are more plentiful. Note taxes and airline fees are on top of these base prices, usually in the 10% - 20% range depending on the selected airports and airlines.

By starting overseas, you can turn the one ticket into at least 2, but as many as 3 to 5 separate holidays, by using your home city as a stopover. For example, this imaginary Oneworld 4-continent RTW starting and ending in Norway would allow you to fly home via Buenos Aires (or could be Santiago, or Rio, or Lima, wherever) then use the six allowed segments within North America (which includes the Caribbean and Central America) for separate short-term trips, or longer ones if you want. You'd conclude the trip with stops in Asia and eastern Europe before ending back in Norway.

Or this one would take you to South Africa, then across to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, before returning you to the US for some domestic trips. Then ultimately you'd cross the Atlantic for some time in Eastern Europe before again ending in Norway.

The RTWs include baggage allowances and offer normal FF perks. If you're willing to plan several months' (to a year's) travel in advance, they can be terrific value.

Recently got CPH-IAD r/t for a family member. Direct with SK, cabin bag only, 435 USD.

Plenty of LCC options at 20-50 USD to much of eastern Europe from CPH.

That is a great retirement possibility. Especially first year. And it might take the time before that to plan it. But I really like it.

Fair enough, but I didn't mean to suggest that every trip using the RTW has to be some weeks-long marathon. My examples may have been misleading in that they showed numerous overseas stops in one pass - e.g. home to Alaska to Hawaii to numerous stops in Asia then more stops in Europe before ending.

You could just as easily focus on shorthaul flights within North America and still get good value. For example, a 3-continent (Europe, North America, Asia) Oneworld economy ticket starting in Norway has a base price of US$1643. That still gives you up to 16 flights - 4 in Europe/Middle East, 6 in North America (incl. Caribbean and Central America) and 4 in Asia, plus the intercontinental flights.

So fly to Norway on the cheap some weekend (one way from MIA in, say, October, is around $475, or else use some miles.) Eat some lutefisk (or not) then hop on a flight to London or Madrid or Doha and connect home to south Florida. You'd be gone maybe 3 days (or more if you want.)

Then you have six flights within North America to use. Long weekend trips to Costa Rica, or to Canada, New England, Texas, the west coast? Spread them out over 10 or 11 months. Then when you can spring for a couple of weeks, cross the Pacific to Japan? Korea? Hong Kong? Bali? Thailand? - and then connect through Doha or Helsinki or London or...? to get back to Oslo before the ticket turns back into a pumpkin 12 months after the first flight. The idea being, it doesn't have to be some major expedition, it can be a series of brief trips.

Anyway, just a thought.

There is now a public offer of a 75K sign-up bonus (after $3,500 in spend) for the Citi AAdvantage Platinum credit card. FIrst-year annual fee waived.

Agreed for any airline credit card with SUB in order to get the cheap coach redemption, possibly with airline partners. Once you choose the airline, ask on the specific airline forum for best redemption tips. Eg if you get UA then consider LH saver fare for something like mco/tpa-clt-fra-waw/bud or whichever Eastern European destination you seek. You’d ask on ua forum on how to find the cheap award redemption. I’m not sure how you’d get to pbi to mco / Tampa or whichever Florida city near Pbi gets you with United just as the example.

If coach travel is OK, check Virgin Atlantic miles options.If you have/acquire Amex, Citi, or Chase points, they will transfer to VS. VS flies from MIA,MCO,and TPA direct to London.

I’ve actually seen 15k on AF OW from ATL and a bit more like 20k from an extra domestic leg. Paris isn’t cheap but the countryside could be more budget friendly.

A lot of foreign FFPs will collect a cash carrier surcharge on award redemptions. So what you save in miles, you might end up paying for in cash.

Redemptions with AAdvantage miles have no carrier surcharges, except for travel on BA (high for long-haul flights, low for short-haul flights), and IB (moderate for long-haul flights, low for short-haul flights). If the OP can get an AA trans-Atlantic flight -- with or without a connection to BA or IB in Europe -- his cash outlay should be relatively low.

October AF ATL-PAR or MIA-PAR in economy is 20k + $65. Not too bad.

I thought the “only” big money taxes for award redemptions was with LHR.

And I have free lodging in Provence ! Well, pretty sure I’d have to stock their wine cabinet, so cheap lodging anyway! Train to Avignon is east from CDG. I like it.

Yay! We spend a lot of time in Nice and often take the train from CDG. Avignon is lovely and so many things to see nearby. Stroke of luck you have lodging there!

Consider signing up for — and subscribing to — a service which specializes in sending inexpensive airfare alerts to you via e-mail messages.

Atlanta is not an easy airport from which to procure inexpensive airfares; but I recently scored a round-trip ticket to Athens for a total of $481.90 — including all taxes and fees — and not on a budget ultra-low-cost carrier...

So mrs pbiflyer saw this and is now headed to Lyon and Strausburg in October. Thanks...:mad: :D Was 32k round trip from MIA with my DL status discount.

Panama and Canada (Canadian exchange rate to USD is highly favorable).

I booked AF in coach ATL-CDG-ZRH one way for 20K + $65 for a trip a couple of weeks ago. Booked it about 2 weeks in advance, so that kind of deal exists with some frequency.
You can also book DL flights using Virgin points on the Virgin site for a little premium. I booked return ZRH-ATL nonstop on DL with 30K VS points. DL wanted triple digit points.

My favorite use of points is SW companion pass to LGA... spend a day or 2, then book JFK-LHR on the VS 820am flight for 10K points plus $152 per person.

Excellent! And sorry. lol. But what a lovely time to be there.

OP is asking for cheap suggestions, and you serve up Zurich and London?

I’d suggest finding a cheap flight to London, Rome, Stockholm, Prague and from there a 20EUR flight to Tirana with Ryanair.

Albania is cheap as chips, with some very nice areas.

Would you expand a little bit more about Panama? This would exclude Panama City itself, no?

Yes, including Panama City. Many affordable and inexpensive accommodations. Recommend the Old Town, Casco Viejo. Very safe. Lots of English spoken in urban areas. Tons of nightlife with jazz and Latin music and dancing. Good subway. Cheap taxi fares. Do not recommend driving one’s self in the city, countryside ok, if you know where you are going. Outside the capital, I recommend historical sites (Fuerte San Lorenzo, Porto Bello), gasping number of jungle/eco outings (pipeline road, rainforest park, birding almost anywhere bucolic), Islands (Las Perlas, Taboga, Bocas del Toro coast), beaches (Santa Clara, Rio Mar, Gorgona), El Valle de Anton, Chiriqui Highlands (coffee farms, extinct volcanos, flowers, birds galore, refreshing cool weather, gorgeous countryside). Etc. Oh, and all the Canal stuff.

Thank you so much, in one paragraph you put so much information.

I will drop you a message with more questions because you seems are quite knowlegable.

I never thought of Panama City as a place to travel, but after your description, it seems worth it.

Yeah, I was focused on cheap points travel to a Europe hub, not really the final destination. I'm pretty cheap so often book to a hub, spend a day then fly an LCC or use points to go elsewhere in Europe.

We went to Mexico City on UA in May bc I needed to burn through some expiring ANA points. 30k RT. Stayed in a suite at the Hyatt in Polanco for minimal points (I think a reg room is 12k). FANTASTIC city. Excellent hotel and location. Very, very affordable. Amazing restaurants that in the US would be 3x the cost. Ubers were cheap. Art museums first rate.

If you like snorkeling in warm warm water with hundreds of species of fish for less than half the cost of Hawaii, I recommend Fiji Airways to Nadi and a high speed catamaran to Barefoot Manta Fiji resort. It’s a favorite of young Australians. About $200 a day including meals for two on a charming tiny island with about 50 total guests. The reef starts right in front of your hut.

Until this year coach was 40k Alaska miles each way with excellent availability. Including a post-stopover flight to Christchurch or Sydney. It costs a bit more now but still a good value.

NZ South Island pre-Covid had ample cheap backpacker lodging. You can still find it if you book far enough ahead and don’t stay in queenstown. Car camping is essentially banned.

I have done a 3 week vacation with both stops for less than $3000 plus miles. Business class was 60k which required having a paid fare alert service and booking immediately. Business awards on AS are higher now, but if you get lucky you will get lucky. :)

Your 12k Hyatt reminded me of a long ago trip to Hyatt Cancun Caribe, a Category 1 hotel. We were upgraded to the separate Regency Club building next to the beach. Amazing buffet, large tub with an ocean view, brand new construction after a hurricane. I had two stays before Hyatt lost the contract. Incredible deal.