Value Vacations

Five unexpected, un-touristy destinations where your dollar will stretch up to 70% further.

By Sean O'Neill

From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, November 2006

If travel to you is more about having a fresh experience at a great price than visiting well-trod and tourist-mobbed hotspots, check out these five destinations that offer what you want at about 20% to 70% off the cost of visiting marquee destinations. Then, you can get more info on our picks -- plus view seven more bargain vacations -- in our slide show.

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Tango Time

Nick Guarino is still astonished by the size of the filet mignon he enjoyed last November in Buenos Aires. The meal for two (his wife had lamb chops), including a bottle of Argentine merlot, cost $24. A comparable dinner in New York City would have cost $200, the Maple Shade, N.J., retiree says. Nick and his wife, Charlotte, owed the bargain dinner to the dollar's one-to-three exchange rate with the Argentine peso, a development that has put the South American country on a two-thirds-off sale for U.S. visitors. Says Nick: "Everything in the city was a great buy."

The capital of Argentina has been called the Paris of South America. Buenos Aires feels surprisingly European to many visitors because of its wide boulevards and extensive subway system. The mix of residents is unusually diverse. Says Nick, "At one sidewalk café, our waitress spoke Italian, Spanish, Russian and English."

Greenbacks deliver a big bang. For example, the Guarinos' vacation package included a seven-night stay at the small but elegant Aspen Towers -- where the accommodations feature marble bathrooms with whirlpool tubs -- plus daily tango classes and round-trip tickets from Philadelphia on United Airlines. The couple paid $3,498 for the trip, including taxes and breakfasts, through Destinations Travel Services. They spent about $800 in stores, but the bargains they found made them feel as if they were saving, not spending. For instance, Charlotte bought a custom-made leather jacket for $260 -- about one-fourth the price she would have paid in New York.

THE LOWDOWN: BUENOS AIRES
What you'll pay: Figure less than $150 a night for four-star lodging. Airfares are on par with fares to Europe. Case in point: A high-season, round-trip flight from Dallas is about $900 on Delta when booked early.

When to go: The city heats up in November, when the jacaranda trees spill purple flowers. But stay away in January and February, when the heat is "miserable," says Michael Luongo, author of Frommer's Buenos Aires.

Best bargain: Free tango dances and classes, says actor and tango buff Robert Duvall, who has visited the city about 60 times.

Money saver: You may get a discount of about 5% if you offer to pay in cash at small shops, some of which prefer currency to dodge credit-card processing fees.

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