If you’ve read my blog much, you’ll know that I believe travel doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, we spent a whopping $50/day on basic day-to-day expenses for our family of four as we cycled through the Americas. That translates to about $1500 for our regular expenses, plus we budgeted an additional $500/month for those one-off things like visiting the Galapagos or Machu Picchu.
Thomson Cruises recently released this infographic (see below) showing just how cheap traveling on a cruise is over traveling the “traditional” way with airplanes and staying in hotels. While I don’t question their figures at all, I do know you can do better than either of these.
The key to keeping costs down is to travel slowly. Pick one destination and stay there for your entire vacation. Do you really need to visit three different countries in your week away? Or can you delve in deeper and get to know one place more intimately?
Using one of the examples below, they have a tour to Egypt with one night in Cairo. ONE NIGHT? Why on God’s green earth would anyone only want one day in Cairo? Sure, you’ll be able to see the pyramids, but you’ll miss the souks, the Egyptian museum, and the citadel, not to mention all the other fabulous sites scattered around the city.
If you’ve got bucketloads of money laying around, then by all means take that multi-country tour or cruise. If your buckets are running dry, then head out to one place and dive in. I think you’ll be glad you did.
I agree- who on earth travels like that on a normal holiday?
I went on one cruise once, when my parents invited me to one in Greece, and I hated it. Went to magical Santorini for only a day, for example, and went to so many places I don’t even remember what the later ones were called- ugh!
[Reply]
I agree as well, there are cheaper and slower ways to do it, although I would never criticise anyone else’s way of travelling. Some people are more interested in the highlights I guess. For me it’s about seeing the bits that most people don’t get a chance to
[Reply]
Nancy Reply:
October 8th, 2012 at 8:30 pm
@Justin, I don’t judge either. I would rather that people get off the cruise boat and see the real deal, but I guess seeing the tourist bits is better than nothing.
[Reply]
I think if you look at the typical one day stops you have on cruises as missing out on a location, you are looking at cruises the wrong way. I look at cruises as the Whitman’s Sampler of travel. You get to try a bunch of different destinations and decide which ones you want to go back to for a longer visit. There are several places in the world that I’ve been to on a cruise that I was very happy to see for a day but really have no desire to go back. But I definitely agree that doing Egypt in a day is not nearly enough. Next time I go back it will be for at least a week.
[Reply]
Nancy Sathre-Vogel Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 4:47 pm
@Robert Longley, There certainly are times when a cruise is the best way to see a place – there’s no doubt about that! That said, I tend to prefer to dig in deep and see more of a country so cruises generally aren’t my preferred mode of travel. For people who are content with a more superficial glance at many countries, then they are wonderful.
[Reply]