Global "Repression" Hitting Travelers In The Shorts

I have been watching the news lately and have really begun to fathom the impact that the world economy will have on the global travel trade in 2009. With the dollar fluctuating between 1.30 and 1.45 per Euro, I am beginning to wonder how this will affect all the various elements of trip building (i.e. air travel, hotels, rent-a-cars, etc.). The affect of the global oil trade (barrel of oil now trading in mid to high 30s) has helped on the price of gasoline (gas oil for the Europeans) when one does travel abroad but I haven't seen the equalizing affect on air travel. The rates are relatively unchanged from this summer and when last I checked Expedia, the ticket prices were actually a bit higher than in June for some reason.

With currency fluctuations as they are, paying for even middle grade hotels is an expensive undertaking. Youth hostels, have always been an option to me in the past, but with all the craze about them, they can cause a bit of a problem if you actually have a need to sleep! For the economy driven traveler, I would also put a hasty warning out to all, that the possibility of your hotel reservations being canceled due to bankruptcy of the hotel is extremely high. When the amount of travelers drops significantly, the result is negative cash flow and no hotel has ever been able to weather such trends for long periods of time. My advice is to definitely purchase trip insurance (U.S., GB and Canada) where you can. At least, you get some or all of your money back and can make other arrangements on the fly if it happens to you.

Having traveled in Germany for some time, I realized very early that there are a number of bed and breakfasts around the country (mostly rural Germany and on the rivers) that you can always count on. These are people's homes, for the most part, and they offer the comfort of a home versus the hotel environment most travelers are used to. These are also recession proof, for the most part, because the people that are renting rooms out actually live in the house full time. If you want peace of mind, then you should always go this route.

I have found that renting a car in Germany is a very expensive proposition. Last October (2007), I rented a minivan. By the time all was said and done, it cost me over U.S. 1,500 dollars for 9 days of renting. Had I been traveling alone (was traveling with friends from where I live), I would have settled with the good ol' public transit system. Not only is this extensive throughout Germany and Europe, but it is so dirt cheap that it makes me wonder why they have cars over there to begin with. In most cases, you can get to your destination as quickly (if not more so) with public transit as with an automobile. With the slow down of the Autobahn and the various unexplainable traffic jams, the time I wasted driving from Frankfurt International to Garmisch Bavaria would have been better spent sitting in a Biergarten tossing a few back. I probably lost at least an hour of personal time just being frustrated with the often lack of progress circumnavigating the outer belts of the cities I had to drive around.

If you are a major stop and go sightseer, then an automobile is the only way to travel. Since there are sooooo many different picturesque villages to traverse across Germany (or Europe in general, for that matter), your time schedule would be far more flexible darting in and out of towns to view sights...afterall, you are on vacation!