Prices on European Vacations on the Decline as the Dollar Gains Ground
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iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — For many Americans, a trip to Europe has been on the back burner for years, with a weak dollar and pricey flights keeping travelers stateside.
Call this the summer to reconsider. According to new data from TripAdvisor, prices across Europe are down. In some destinations — such as Istanbul, Copenhagen, Denmark and Stockholm — the price of a one-week vacation is down more than 20 percent as compared to last summer.
On average, travel expenses for popular European destinations have decreased 11 percent year-over-year.
So which cities offer the most bang for your buck? Aside from the aforementioned cities, other places popular with Americans showing steep declines are Paris (down 17 percent), Rome (13 percent), Brussels (14 percent), Dubrovnik, Croatia (13 percent) and Dublin (11 percent).
Of the 25 destinations on TripAdvisor’s list, only Moscow showed a price increase between June 1 and Aug. 31 (8 percent). That’s a result of a significant increase in the price of airfare, up more than 50 percent.
The U.S. dollar has been gaining ground against the euro since mid-2014, meaning vacation expenses on the ground — restaurants, tours and museum entry — won’t send Americans into the same sticker shock that’s plagued them for several years.
“Compared to last summer, Americans can expect to pay about 20 percent less on hotels in Europe when booking on TripAdvisor, and 8 percent less on round-trip airfare,” said Brooke Ferencsik, director of communications for TripAdvisor.
The least-expensive hotel rooms this summer can be found in Bucharest, Romania, for $67 per night, while Reykjavik, Iceland, has the costliest, at $258. However, flights to Reykjavik are the cheapest of any European city. Flights to London are the priciest, with an average cost of $1,763.
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