Five Central and South American cheap vacation destinations

Why spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to travel abroad or visit a tourist ridden resort city? There are plenty of cheap exotic vacation destinations in Central and South America. Plus, the flights are shorter if you only have a week off (in comparison to European vacations) and the majority of the continent speaks Spanish, making communication easy. Here are some of the best and cheapest discount South American vacations.

Roatan Island, Honduras

Located thirty miles off the coast of Honduras, Roatan Island is an unspoiled Caribbean paradise. With blue skies, turquoise water, sandy beaches and year-round high temperatures in the 70′s and 80′s, Roatan Island offers everything a Caribbean vacation should. While Roatan Island is more expensive than mainland Honduras, it’s a definite deal when compared to other Caribbean vacations. Plus the island has less street crime and violence than the rest of the country, making it safer.

Rooms run anywhere from $8 budget lodging to $175 resort hotels and a gourmet meal will set you back about $15. The island is also home to the second largest barrier reef, making it a popular dive location and scuba diving is a must. It also is one of the most reasonably priced places to get certified as a scuba diver and one of the best cheap exotic vacations.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Once the most expensive country in South America, the economic collapse of Argentina has consequently created travel bargains. Argentina offers amazing scenery, exciting nightlife options, world-class dining and wine – all at budget prices. Budget travelers can easily get by on less than $50 a day. The well-known Argentinean nightlife makes it the perfect vacation destination for young budget travelers looking for adventure. Dinner typically is served around 10 p.m., followed by all-night partying. Argentina is a perfect party and discount South America vacation spot.

Margarita Island, Venezuela

This tropical island paradise is located off the north shore of Venezuela and is home to beautiful beaches and has an average of 320 days of sun a year. Margarita’s daytime activities include snorkeling, scuba diving, fishing, beach-lounging and horseback riding. For great bargains and local culture, head to El Mercado de los Conejeros on the outskirts of Porlamar where you’ll find unique souvenirs crafted by Amazon Indians and locals.

Due to the country’s steep economic decline and an amazing exchange rate, hostels can be found at as low as $13.50 a night, a delicious fish meal can go for around $7 and a cold beer will only cost a dollar. There are also plenty of bars, clubs and discos, offering an exciting nightlife.

Peru

For more family friendly cheap travel, visit the country of Peru. Adults enjoy the low prices and sightseeing options and the children love the animals and colorful country. The biggest tourist attraction is the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu, but the country also has amazing Amazon rain forests, colonial cities, whitewater rafting and mountain trekking. Meals at local restaurants will cost from $2 to $5. Budget travelers will pay anywhere $20 to $50 a night for lodging in Peru cities like Lima or Cusco, but elsewhere the rates will be lower.

Santiago, Chile

Santiago, Chile is one of Latin America’s most sophisticated metropolitan areas. Lying in a valley surrounded by the Andes Mountains, this capital city allows for a morning dip in the sea and world-renowned skiing in the afternoon. The country is cheap too. Nice hotels can be found for as low as $50 up to $150 and hostels cost from $10 to $25.

The country has unique museums and art galleries, bustling markets and unique colonial architecture. Restaurants can be found at reasonable prices, but some can be fairly expensive – so check them out before you sit down. The country also has decent wineries and wine tours are available. Chile is the perfect metropolitan discount South American vacation and a definite cheap vacation destination deal.

Travel Europe on a budget

Traveling to Europe can be expensive and many Asian countries can be overcrowded and expensive. Fortunately there are other great and cheap European vacations out there, so you can travel to Europe on a budget and enjoy everything Asia has to offer.

Malaysia

Compared to the overwhelming nature of many other Asian countries, Malaysia is laidback, relaxing and cheaper. Gorgeous beaches, exotic jungles, colorful temples, delicious cuisine and snorkeling can be yours for as little as $15 to $30 per person per day. Malaysia is also more westernized than other countries and many people speak English, making communication easier. Plus there are tons of attractions in a small area. From the bustling city of Kuala Lumpur to the calming and beautiful Cameron Highlands Hill Station, there is everything from big city attractions to wild jungle adventures.

Morocco

Morocco is located in northern Africa in close proximity to Europe – but couldn’t be more different. Tangier, Casablanca and Marrakesh offer exotic marketplaces and bazaars, ancient and medieval buildings, delicious Moroccan food, camel rides and tons of excitement. Once you’ve had enough of the bustling cities, head for the uncrowded beaches, amazing mountains, cedar forests and old Saharan towns. There are plenty of outdoor activities like trekking, skiing, windsurfing and hiking to do on this cheap exotic vacation. Depending on how many creature comforts you seek, you can get by on anywhere from $30-$80 a day.

Turkey

Turkey is a great vacation in itself, but also a great way to travel Europe on a budget. This nation is located between Europe and Asia and is known world-wide for its amazing sightseeing opportunities and great values. Even though the prices have crept up over the years as tourism has expanded, the country still is a great deal. Turkey has a historic past, with amazing and ancient cities to visit, Roman ruins to explore, mosques and ancient churches to visit, Byzantine art to admire and more. Turkey is also surrounded by four seas, making it a beach paradise with plenty of outdoor activities to keep you busy and resorts for comfort. Although a bit more expensive than the other counties, travelers can get by on about $50 to $100 a day. Hostels start at around $25 a night and hotels a little bit more at about $45.

Prague, Czech Republic

Once the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, Prague offers amazing Roman architecture and all night partying – at budget prices. During the day, visit the city’s beautiful buildings, many of which were build more than a millennium ago. For an ancient feel visit Prague Old Town or Prague Lesser Town, two older areas of the city that are less modernized. In the evening, pub hopping and beer drinking seems to be the choice of most. In fact, a half-liter mug of world-famous Czech beer starts at round $0.30, which is often cheaper than a cup of coffee or soda. For food, there is everything from local dishes like dumplings and goulash, to Thai and Russian food and at reasonable prices too. For evening accommodations, hostels will start around $23 a night and a nice hotel room will cost around $50 a night. Prague is a cheap European vacation and a great way to travel Europe on a budget.

Thailand

Thailand is an attractive budget vacation for everyone from families to honeymooners to retirees. With stunning beaches, snorkeling, diving, sailing, hiking, elephant rides, floating fruit markets, inspiring temples, delicious cuisine, ancient kingdoms and historic sites – you’ll have plenty to keep yourself entertained with. Don’t forget about the famous shopping as well – custom tailored handmade suits cost only around $100-$150. Thailand is a country where you can visit on a low budget, spending $20 on a beachfront bungalow or you can splurge on amazing luxury five-star hotels like the Oriental for $200, a budget price in comparison to other countries. Thailand is renowned for its hospitality – so why not splurge?

Having been to Phuket and Krabi so many times, we decided to try something completely different. We spotted this little fishermen village call Bang Bao in the island of Koh Chang. This is also our first time to Koh Chang, much less develop compare with Phuket. Bang Bao is on the south side of the island, about a 45 minutes truck ride due to the multiple hair-pins pathway.

The place is tiny, just a long stretch of wooden deck with dive shops, seafood restaurants, and local housings on either side. It takes probably 5 minutes to walk fromroad end to sea end. There are limited and cheap accomodation for visitors. Since the place is mostly unknown, they don’t take reservation from travel agency. We stay in this place call Bang Bao Sea Hut, which is rather charming. It composed of 12 individual hut that erect from the nearby coast. Each hut is a octagon room, with a semi-opened shower. You can hear the waves coming in as you take shower. We spend 2 nights at this place, and get to know almost everyone in the area.

We went diving with one of the local dive schools at a nearby site. It is very convinient since the boarding deck is just one minute from our sea hut. And the dive sites are within a 30 minutes boat ride. We tried out a couple seafood restaurant at night, nothing outstanding, just your basic thai-style dishes. However, there are so local street food at the road side of Bang Bao. We bought a whole bunch of them (less than 100baht), and bring them back to our hut for a brunch by the ocean.

“Ki Ora! Welcome to New Zealand!” This is often the comment you will get when you step off the plane into one of our international airports at Christchurch, Hamilton or Auckland.

New Zealand is an amazing place to live and a fantastic place to visit. We have lush, green rolling hills surrounding us in many parts of the country but then we also have acres and acres of lush, green flats with flowing rivers all leading out to the Pacific Ocean.

There is so much to do here and no matter what your age, there is something for everyone. Having lived in New Zealand all my life and having traveled around most of the North and South Islands, I can tell you there is no other place in the world I would rather live.

So, what can you do in New Zealand? Well, if you are into hiking and camping, this is going to be like heaven for you. We have some fantastic mountain ranges. The best places to go for hiking and camping are Taupo, which is in the middle of the North Island, Wellington, Christchurch and the west coast of the South Island, where there are some amazing hiking tramps down there.

Not into hiking or camping? Prefer shopping? I have just the place for you! Auckland, our largest city, has got one of the best places for shopping ever! There are so many factory shops and bargains to be had, you will most certainly find something and being a bargain shopper myself, I would recommend checking out “Dressmart” at Onehunga, it is huge and has some of the best shopping to be had! Another fantastic place to shop is the main street of Wellington; catch a cable car to get around. Christchurch has some fantastic shopping malls also.

Ok, so you are over shopping? Want to see all the different attractions New Zealand has to offer? Well, where do I start?! Here is a list of my favourites spots throughout New Zealand, there are many more but these are the ones I love:

- Swimming at 90 mile beach at the top of the North Island. This is just past Kaitia which is about 6 hours drive from central Auckland.

- Fishing off Great Barrier Island. There are some great charters and this is some of the best deep sea fishing you can find.

- Enjoying a good coffee on the waterfront at Mission Bay in Auckland. This is a fantastic place to be during summer.

- Visiting the Auckland Museum for some history about our beautiful country. Learn about the Maori culture and how our country has evolved through the ages.

- Head on down to the Waitomo district and go to the Waitomo caves where you can go white and black water rafting and see the amazing glow worms in the caves. This is a truly surreal experience.

- Visit our national bird, the Kiwi at the Kiwi house in Otorohanga. Get up close and personal with this two legged flight less birds. They are gorgeous.

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Now that even more restrictions have been placed on what can go in carryon luggage, more people are finding it necessary to check their luggage on flights. Unless you plan on purchasing all new toiletries after your plane has landed and abandoning them before you make your return trip, checking your luggage is the only way to make sure you’ve got everything you need on your trip. If you find yourself in the position where you have to check your luggage, here are some tips to make it as smooth as possible.

• Once you’ve purchased your tickets, you’ll want to find out how many pieces of carry on luggage you can take with you and what they can way. Often this can be found on your ticket or the confirmation you’ve received via e-mail or fax. If you can bring two pieces of luggage, somewhere you will see the code 2PC (or 3PC if you can bring 3 pieces of luggage, etc.). You will also see a weight specification in pounds or kilograms. If you can’t find this information on your paperwork, contact your travel agent or the airline, and they should be able to give you the information.
• Stay within the airline’s allowance for baggage. If you are over, one of two things can happen. The airline can deny acceptance of your luggage, or more likely, they will charge you an overage fee when you are checking in.
• Find out the three letter code of the airport that you are flying into. When the handler checks your luggage, make sure the correct code is being put on the tag that gets attached to your luggage. It’s one small way you can help avoid having your luggage lost. Unfortunately, if you have a connecting flight, you can’t check the next code on your luggage, but at least it will at least get to your first stop with you.
• If you do have connecting flights, mention that to the baggage checker. It doesn’t guarantee your luggage will follow you all the way, but at least the checker will be aware of what needs to be done with it.
• Place your contact information on the outside and inside of each bag. Luggage tags are great, but they can get separated from your luggage. If you have your contact information on the inside of your luggage, it will be easier for the airline to match it up to you if the outside tags do get lost. It’s a good idea to do this with bags you plan to carry on also, because you never know when you may be required to check a bag you planned to carry on.
• Put something on the outside of your bag to easily identify it. Some people put colored ribbons on their bags to easily identify them on the baggage carousel. Using an identifier makes it easy to spot your luggage and will help keep others from picking up your luggage by mistake.
• Guard the stubs from your checked luggage. If your luggage is lost, you will need them.
• If your bag doesn’t end up with you, report it immediately. Most bags do eventually get returned and the odds are even better if you report the lost bag(s) as soon as possible.

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If you are looking for tranquil peace the Bahamas is the right option for you. Most of the Bahamian population is black at about 85% and the next largest population group are whites at 12%. Other minorities include Hispanics and Asians at 3%. Many Bahamian whites are concentrated on Harbour Island, Abaco Island, Spanish Wells, Harbour Island, Montagu bay, and the Long Islands district of New Providence. There are also a significant number of noncitizen white expatriates from Europe and the United States.

The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is an independent English-speaking nation in the West Indies. An archipelago of 700 islands and cays (which are small islands), the Bahamas is located in the Atlantic Ocean, the United States and east of Florida, north of Cuba and the Caribbean, and northwest of the British dependency of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Documented Bahamian history begins with the words, “Baja Mar,” the name the Spanish bestowed on the islands. This term is misleading, however; it means “shallow sea,” but the islands are really mountain plateaus that emerged from the Atlantic hundreds of thousands of years ago. Christopher Columbus’s first landfall in the New World in 1492 is believed to have been on the island of San Salvador (also called Watling’s Island), in the southeastern Bahamas. He encountered Taino (also known as Lucayan) Amerindians and exchanged gifts with them.

The 294,982 people who live in The Bahamas are predominantly of West African descent. Their ancestors were slaves brought to the islands to work the cotton plantations until 1834, when Britain abolished slavery in all its territories. Most white residents of are descendants of the first English settlers, who emigrated from Bermuda in 1647 to gain religious freedom. Some are also related to the Loyalists who fled the southern United States during the American Revolution and built enormous plantations here.

Religion is an important and integral part of Bahamian life. Even the tiniest village has a church, sometimes two. The people’s religious ardor and high regard for education are evidence of their Puritan heritage, derived from the Eleutheran Adventurers. Music is also very popular and is in the very bones of the people. Caribbean Calypso, African rhythms, English folk songs and the uniquely Bahamian Goombay beat echo in the air.

Weddings and funerals in The Bahamas are especially important social events. People begin celebrating a marriage weeks before the official ceremony begins, and the passing of loved ones is commemorated by parties long after they are gone.

Anyone in search of the perfect beach might very well start with the Islands of The Bahamas, whose relatively small land mass belies the sheer quantity of its beachfront. With the vast majority of the islands shaped like slivers, one imagines two gorgeous stretches of beach separated by the most perfunctory of inlands. The beaches of The Bahamas are often coupled with shallow transparent water for hundreds of yards out to sea, rising gently to sandbars before finally dropping into the depths.

Thailand is great value; an outstandingly beautiful country; the people are warm and welcoming; it offers a multitude of outdoor activities; it’s home to wonderful ruins of ancient kingdoms as well as present day temples; the food is out of this world and Thailand has some of the finest beaches on the planet.

Chiang Mai and its surroundings is any adventure enthusiast’s playground with a huge array of activities on offer- from outstanding mountain biking and trekking to rafting and elephant riding. You can even cycle all the way to Bangkok! If Chiang Mai and the north are associated with adventure and activity then the south is with beaches and sunshine. The islands are split on either side of Thailand’s peninsular, with, amongst others, Phuket, Koh Lanta off the Andaman coast to the west and Koh Samui and Koh Pha Ngan to the east in the Gulf of Thailand.

There is of course plenty in between as well, not least the ‘City of Angels’ ? Bangkok, surely one of the most vibrant city’s on the planet! So many visitors pass straight through, convinced that it offers nothing but pollution and noise. Take our advice; give it a couple of days and you’ll fall in love with the place.

In the heartland of Thailand you’ll have the opportunity to trek, explore lost kingdoms, ride elephants, walk with tigers, raft and visit, and even stay with, hill tribe people!