Boomers, You Can Do It!

Each window in our Normandy rental could have been a still life painting.

"Not only can you travel independently to Europe, but you can do it much more cheaply and easily than you thought possible."

I always hope that sentence will galvanize my listener into action so that he'll race to buy my book, Europe on a Dime: Five-Star Travel on a One-Star Budget, and start planning a trip. After all, the book holds your hand, step-by-step, so you can plan a European experience that is easy on the budget.  Truly, Europe on a Dime practically makes the reservations for you!

But no matter how sincerely I promise to walk people through the process, it's never quite that easy to convince them.  No matter how tantalizing the thought of traipsing down the Champs d'Elysee or cruising the canals of Venice, there's usually a "yes, but...." counter to my promise of cheap and meaningful travel.

So, it's time to face those "yes, buts...." in the next few blog posts.  We're going to take a look at the fears which keep people rooted to their La-Z-Boy recliners when they could be sauntering down exotic cobblestone alleys.  We'll confront the objections head-on in hopes that everyone will soon feel confident enough to plan a European trip.

I think one of the fears that keeps people firmly at home is the Money Fear.  They don't believe a trip to Europe can be accomplished for $98 a day per person (assuming two people are traveling together).  Oh, they wouldn't come right out and call me a liar, but, they've done a bit of homework and have studied the AARP, Globus, Tauck, Grand Circle, or Costco travel ads, and have seen that organized tour trips cost $200-500 per day per person. So, how on earth can I promise $98 a day and still insist that the accommodation will be even more comfortable than a four-star hotel?  Surely, think the skeptics, if I'm not lying outright, I must be stretching the truth. 

Vacation Rental Apartment Advantages

David's and my casa rental in San Miguel de Allende

Steven James Snyder describes his experience renting a vacation apartment in Paris in this Time magazine piece.
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For most travelers, hotels mean security and reliability—a standard level of service when sleeping away from home. But they can also be dull or cheesy, as far removed from an authentic local experience as your house is from the nearest tourist trap. They tend to be expensive too, all of which explains why my wife and I steered clear of hotels near the Louvre or the Champs Elysées when we planned our September trip to Paris. We didn't want to be surrounded by American chain restaurants, souvenir vendors and a constant parade of tour buses.

Instead, we searched the Web for vacation rentals, eventually zeroing in on a ground-floor apartment in the Marais neighborhood that charged half as much as a boutique hotel two blocks away. We asked questions about the property via e-mail and used PayPal to make a deposit. Two months later, at 10 p.m. on a misty Monday, we emerged from the Breguet-Sabin Métro stop and started wheeling our luggage down empty streets. With no cell-phone coverage and only a street map to guide us, we were more than a little nervous: Would the owner be there to hand off the keys? Would the apartment look as advertised? Would the address even exist?