Is $12,000 per year in travel enough

[ivinsfan]

Brett...what happens if one of these last minutes cruise bargains requires a Visa, is it possible to obtain one quickly.?.I've often wondered about how this works, I have seen great cruise bargains in off season. I have access to stand-by passes on Delta so the Visa might be the only possible hold-up.

 

[brett]

The only place in Europe that we have needed a visa was Turkey. Really more than a tax rather than a visa. Just paid as we entered. Same in our recent travels to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia inasmuch as the visa were easy to obtain either on entry of very quickly prior to entry. In Costa Rica we had thirty days but could have easily done a 'visa run' to cross the border and come back in, thereby renewing our 30 day stay.

Have to do some research though as we want to get to St. Petersburg on a land trip at some point so we need to find out if and what the visa procedure looks like.


Your question is very valid. We looked at a last minute cruise from SE Asia to Dubai. It had three stops in India. Until recently India was terrible for Visas, even for Commonwealth nations. We decided against the cruise because we did not have enough time to secure the visa. Had we been able to get a visa on arrival we would have booked it.

 

[ivinsfan]

I believe Brazil requires a Visa ahead of time as well, which can make certain South America trips problematic on short notice. I have access to a UK passport which has a easier Visa list, but my DH doesn't...I did not pursue the passport because it wouldn't really help when we travel as a couple.

 

[braumeister]

I believe Brazil requires a Visa ahead of time as well

Brazil is an extreme stickler for reciprocity. It's a pain in the butt for a Brazilian to get a visa to the US, so they return the favor. Not really all that difficult in the long run, but you have to follow the rules and it does take time.

 

[explanade]

As others have said it totally depends on your tastes and means. We have developed very expensive travel tastes because of our means. Our current budget is about an order of magnitude higher than this but, early in retirement we went a little crazy and spent multiples of even that. Having said that, there is no doubt that $12k can provide a reasonable annual budget for many (most?). Travel points really help and we use them extensively for business class on longer flights.

Order of magnitude means 10 times as much.

 

[MRG]

Order of magnitude means 10 times as much.

Silly me I thought you just moved the decimal to the right one place.:sly:

 

[HFWR]

Order of magnitude means 10 times as much.

Silly me I thought you just moved the decimal to the right one place.:sly:

Six of one, half dozen of the other...

 

[audreyh1]

Order of magnitude means 10 times as much.

I think he means that.

 

[explanade]

Yikes!

 

[Meadbh]

Nemo2 and Danmar represent Canadian extremes of the travel spending spectrum. If Nemo2 is a 1 and Danmar is a 10, I'm probably a 3. I think $12,000 is enough (for me alone) but I will have a better idea after adding up the bills from my latest trip!

 

[NW-Bound]

We like to stay longer for less, and hotels/restaurants are not why we travel......we want to see how/where the 'people' of whichever place we're visiting live, (which most often takes us to the old section of town(s) where all the winding alleyways are, and away from where the hotels are).

This is also how I like to travel. In my case, I do have to be careful where I go, lest the people I like to observe want to hurt me.

 

[Nemo2]

In my case, I do have to be careful where I go, lest the people I like to observe want to hurt me.

Always a consideration......with me though, I suspect people would be more inclined to come up and put coins in my hat than to think I/we had something worth stealing.

 

[NW-Bound]

On this subject, when I was in Montana recently, walking down a small town center which was only a block not even 1,000 ft long, some local drivers waved at me as they recognized me as a visitor. Can you believe that? Their friendliness startled me. And I experienced the same behavior in stores several times.

 

[brett]

Montana and Washington State are favourites of ours. Very friendly, welcoming people.

We got a Brazil visa fairly easily a number of years ago but they had a consulate in Vancouver where we lived. My understanding is that that Brazil makes it mych more difficult now. We are quite prepared to skip Brazil in favour of more time in Argentina and Uruguay since we have previously spent time in Rio. I do not mind a Visa, just make it simple to obtain and don't kill the golden goose by jacking up the fee to an unreasonable amount like China has done.

 

[W2R]

On this subject, when I was in Montana recently, walking down a small town center which was only a block not even 1,000 ft long, some local drivers waved at me as they recognized me as a visitor. Can you believe that? Their friendliness startled me. And I experienced the same behavior in stores several times.

I have never been to Montana, and don't know the customs there. Here in Louisiana, though, it's customary to wave at other drivers one encounters if traffic allows, and especially if the other driver did you a favor, like letting you go first or something like that. This is one of many facets of Louisiana that endears this state to me.

 

[NW-Bound]

I have been to N.O. a couple of times, but perhaps I was not observant.

The gesture from Montana drivers was not really a wave, but they just lifted fingers from the steering wheel and waved them.

Come to think of it, at my 2nd home in the AZ high country boondock, we do the same when running across a driver in the other direction, as a way of acknowledging them. However, it is only done when you are on a local road and the other driver may be living nearby, an unknown neighbor. We do not do that on major thoroughfare. When the other driver yields to you, of course it is different, and we use hand gestures as an acknowledgement to thank.

In Phoenix, if you wave to strangers for no reason, people will think you are crazy. Montana has only 1 million residents for a fairly large state, and most people live in small towns. Even the largest city of Billings has but 100,000, and its downtown is not what many think of a downtown. I stayed at a town of 4,000 with a 1-block downtown. So, the mentality is definitely different than even in Arizona.

 

[FUEGO]

I drove through New York City and got a lot of finger waving and honking. I guess they saw my North Carolina license plates and wanted to be real friendly toward me. The waving the middle finger thing was weird - it definitely doesn't mean "hey, how're you doing?" in North Carolina so maybe NYCers have a different custom?

 

[kcowan]

We have friends who live in PV full-time and they book relocation trips from Europe to Fort Lauderdale/Houston every year. They find it cheaper than other alternatives for escaping the PV heat and humidity (which is just arriving). There are some great deals if you search them out like Nemo has.

 

[brett]

Yes. There are some wonderful opportunities if you have time and if you are flexible. A few years ago we did a last minute TA cruise to Fort Lauderdale.

The night before we boarded, we snagged a 10 day Caribbean cruise from Miami that departed a few days after we landed in Fort Lauderdale. The cost of our balcony cabin for 10 days was far less than what we would have spent on hotels, food, and a rental in Florida for the same time period. And we enjoyed it more.

 

[ivinsfan]

TA is short for what...is it a cruise line or a website? You must travel with your passports all the time.

 

[FUEGO]

TA is short for what...is it a cruise line or a website? You must travel with your passports all the time.

TA = transatlantic [cruise]

 

[ivinsfan]

I guessed that first but the poster said it was a Caribbean cruise so I was confused.Most Caribbean cruises are island hoppers.

 

[brett]

Sorry...TA=Trans Atlantic

 

[ivinsfan]

Now I see, I think you were talking about 2 different cruises, how do you usually find last minute prices?

 

[brett]

I get last minutes sent to me by several cruise lines.

But I use this site as a guide: vacationstogo.com

The trick is have a good idea of the pricing, the various cruise options, and establish a 'strike' price.


Hit on 90 Day Ticker at the top left hand corner. We don't usually book through these folks. In the past we have used another on line travel agency that provides us with a commission rebate in the form of an on board credit (OBC)