Shorten your Stay to Save

One common sense way to compensate for the rising cost of travel is to shorten the length of your stay in a particular destination. In a story in today's Concord Monitor (www.concordmonitor.com,) a woman with the delightful name of Chase Binder suggests reducing your stay in a major European city to five days instead of a week. Since you spend one night on the plane going over, you only need to pay for four nights in a hotel.

Try to book an early arrival and a late departure to make the most of your visit, and also begin your sightseeing as soon as you arrive. Don't worry about lost sleep--you can catch up on it for free when you are back home. I have never done quite such a short trip to Europe, but I have taken week-long voyages to places such as Britain, Portugal, and Berlin, either on press trips or on my own. A week is long enough to really feel like you have been away, so perhaps five days is too.

Binder also suggests downscaling on accommodation, saying you don;t really have to stay at the Ritz. Since I never stay at luxury hotels when I am paying, I would certainly agree with her. I would say you might consider downscaling to a private room or a hostel rather than a hotel if money is really tight.

Another good idea is considering places closer to home with a foreign atmosphere. For instance, Bermuda rather than the U.K., Montreal or Quebec City instead of France, New Mexico or San Antonio instead of Argentina.

To read the entire article, click on the "Do,See,Taste" section of the newspaper's home page, then on "travel &tourism."