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We are just back from a fantastic trip to the national parks in Utah, Grand Canyon and Sedona.
We have been to the US about a 20 odd times in the past 20 years but wow the prices this year.
We were finding simple bar meals with a couple of beers was coming to over $100, hotel prices must be double to what we used to pay and more and more adding on the dreaded resort fee – was £40 a day in Vegas, a pint in a pub (realise tourist areas) were pretty much $10 once they added on tax and we tipped. Even grocery shopping seemed extreme.
Petrol and hire car prices were what they used to be from memory.
Is it just me?
Nope , it’s not you…
It’s $50 for two “meal deals” in most fast food places now and you you want to sit down at basic restaurant it’s $100 $200 with tablecloths…Hotels in big cities are often $500 a night plus parking and breakfast. Nothing is cheap anymore.
No it isn’t just you.
I too have been a big fan of travels to the USA in the past, 2 or 3 times a year – until about 6 years ago when the £ went down the pan and I first began to take notice of the cost of things.
Haven’t been west since, except on a cruise, and now travel east 3 or 4 times a year, far east or middle east.
Service and hospitality at hotels is simply incomparable to USA, it’s night and day, and you are treated like a proper guest not a cash cow. And value for money? Far east especially, USA simply doesn’t even come close!Everyone I know who comes back from the States now says the same – WOW!
None of them are in a hurry back.
Nor am I
+++!
We did 3 weeks in Florida over Xmas 22/23 and found it pays to shop around – we were pretty much stuck with expensive grocery stores like Publix in the Keys, but got to Ft Lauderdale and found an Aldi which was 1/3 of the price!
Haven’t renewed our ESTAs and probably won’t for some time.
Definitely not alone, last year our first grocery shop was nearly £100 for what didnt seem very much food, and then two take out pizza worked out nearly £60 for two. It doesn’t seem to make a difference if you self cater or eat out some of the time.
I’m anticipating large food bills when we go in a months time.
Ok, after 6 weeks with a week to go here I can talk with a little authority on this. It really depends where you go and what you’re eating/drinking.
Yes the major cities are ridiculous but honestly no more expensive than London, Amsterdam etc.
If you want cheap groceries, you go to Walmart and Aldi like you would in the UK with Asda/Lidl/Aldi but if you’re a Waitrose/M&S kind of shopper then you’ll spend big in Safeway/Publix etc. Top tip – Sign up for a loyalty card at those and you’ll save massively – You can do it with your email address at the till.
There are still hotels in Vegas with no resort fee if you shop around. Hilton GV if I remember correctly. Valet fees everywhere are outrageous. Either ditch the car before you get to the hotel and re-rent after your stay or find a public lot and Uber/Lyft/Walk to the hotel.
I found a cunning way to avoid the tip in restaurants which seems to work 90% of the time – Use a debit card to pay, (Wise, Revolut, Chase, Whatever) and then when the server comes back with the slip for you to sign, add the tip in the box provided…. and for some reason they never update the transaction to include the tip. Doesn’t work where you are presented with an e-pad to sign/swipe/add tip but every restaurant that still uses paper slips it seems not to update.
Plenty of places doing happy hours if you want to eat and drink early.
For familes, you have to experience a buffet restaurant such as Golden Corral at least once. Not fine dining but all you can eat (and soft drink) for 4 for less then $100 is the way to go.
@Froggee Kids will lap it upDon’t use stuff like Uber Eats – taxes, tip, service fee, extra charges etc turn a $15 meal into $30. Find the restaurant online with google maps and choose one of the no-fee options for ordering directly with the restaurant and then go pick it up.
If you intend to visit any National Park sites then buy an Interagency (AKA America the Beautiful) pass for $80. Allows a car and 4 people into any park/BLM/Federal land site and covers you for parking at trailheads.
Btw, it was so &^&%ing hot in Utah my pass melted on the dashboard, it’s now soft and wiggly.
If you’re in Florida or California then a State Park pass is equally good value.
First full day of 21. I’m going to cry myself to sleep tonight.
But we only need to stay solvent for ten days as for the final 11 we are off to sponge off Mrs Froggee’s sister in California. Her husband is like tech company rich.
You don’t need to eat out every night of the week when you’re in the US (or indeed any country)
Plenty of supermarkets etc where you can get yourself a good salad or a picky tea for a lot less.
Indeed.
And plenty of hotels in the US have microwaves, especially in smaller cities. Easy to warm up a TV dinner.@BA Flyer Indeed. Steak and salad tonight, picked up a couple of amazing Pichana steaks at a place called the Dry Lakes Ranch Beef store for £6 each, teamed with some salad from the supermarket and I’m all set to fire up the BBQ in a couple of hours. Had one last night, was one of the best steaks I’ve ever had.
Would have been even cheaper if I’d gone for the monthly supermarket special at $7.99/Lb (which looked great) but this Dry lakes place looked amazing so I waited and paid up for better.
To give the US of A credit, they do cater well for people on a budget – places like Homewood Suites with kitchen and BBQ facilities can be as nice as some 4 star hotels in the U.K.
@Froggee, did you not fancy Disney etc in California?I can also talk with some authority about this.
A cunning trick to stiff your server is to take lots of monopoly money with you. Pretend to leave a cash tip, but only the top note is a genuine dollar bill.
Eat in Five Guys. The peanuts are free. Just pretend you are waiting for your order.
Jump over the barriers on the subway.
And fill your suitcase with TP and toiletries when checking out of your hotel.
But my top top is – if you can’t afford the US, then go somewhere else!
The high cost of hospitality in the US isn’t new and it’s not really about the currency as the exchange rate today is within three cents of where it was seven years ago although it’s been higher and lower in the interim. People in the US, even very rich ones, will tell you how horrendously expensive things are which is why they are travelling to Europe in droves at the moment.
While people are talking about hacks to save money, does one really want to be traipsing around Walmart or Aldi on a supposed holiday or indeed eating something from the supermarket in one’s room?
Many of the comments above are also about very mid to lower end lodging which is in contrast to the sorts of five star hotels people report on HfP they are booking when travelling in Europe – there must be a reason for that. The cost of luxury hotels in cities or hotels outside that have history/character/charm has gone absolutely stratospheric.
We found even just before Covid that to eat out in a small town in New Hampshire town was costing $200+tip and these weren’t anywhere remotely smart and not really very good. American wine is very expensive, although European wine can be oddly cheap. Service standards in the US, that in the 80s were light years ahead of Europe are now way behind and while so many European cities have undertaken major projects to beautify themselves, that’s not the case in the US where so much looks terribly run down and dirty.
The other thing we find off putting is the many reports here in various threads of needing to book hiking trails ages in advance or go into lotteries to get a ticket, getting to park gates at opening to secure a parking space and worse. No thanks! Also, part of the pleasure of some of these natural sights should be peace and quiet.
@AlexG – I think your last line is meant to say top tip (another pain in US) but I think it entirely misses the point. It’s not all about the cost, it’s about value. I appreciate that many people will have different perceptions of that, but our feeling is that the US at the moment represents really terrible value, so while we can afford it, we not only hate feeling ripped off but also don’t wish to be told when we are allowed to hike. Fortunately, equally impressive landscapes can be found on other continents which, combined with much better lodgings, better food, wine and service all at a fraction of the price, so we will be giving the US a swerve for a while.
Skiing in the USA has seen extraordinary inflation. A 5* hotel in Vail is now at least £1,000 per night in February; it was nearer £300 per night in 2020.
Alex G – it’s not about what I can afford, but what I’m willing to pay. The skiing is just as good in Canada, but the prices in BC are a fraction of those in Colorado. I love Vail, and my best ever skiing day was in 2′ of fresh on a bluebird powder day there. But I’m not rushing back unless the prices sort themselves out or the alternatives catch up.
To give the US of A credit, they do cater well for people on a budget – places like Homewood Suites with kitchen and BBQ facilities can be as nice as some 4 star hotels in the U.K.
@Froggee, did you not fancy Disney etc in California?Nah. We wanted to try a five hour time difference for starters this trip and the direct flight from Edinburgh to Orlando really appealed. But we may go LA next year. We were actually saying that the 9am Virgin flight from Heathrow to LA would be reasonably civilised even in Premium.
Yes I have done exactly that and gone to a Trader Joes / Whole foods / corner deli etc and picked something up and ate it in my room even when staying at the elevated levels of an IC or Kimpton.
A salad with perhaps some extra meat / cheese and a bottle of their very drinkable $5 wines can make a very nice dinner indeed on a couple of nights of a weeks stay.
No one here is talking about making soup or pasta in the room kettle or using the iron to cook bacon!
I think the length of trip is significant – for a weekend in London or a European city, an IC or Kimpton is a nice treat. For 3 weeks in America some nights at least are going to be spent in more modest lodgings.
Also, it can be really nice just to kick back in your lounge wear and eat a takeaway pizza or box salad in your room or on the balcony instead of dressing for dinner (sorry, @JDB!)
Nah. We wanted to try a five hour time difference for starters this trip and the direct flight from Edinburgh to Orlando really appealed.
Ah so you are also in Orlando?
The Scottish contingent were on the BA Cityjet to Gatwick this morning where I met them for the onward trip to Orlando.
For all the complaints about cost I thought that their £1100 each for Flight and hotel for 13 nights was excellent value on a BA holiday. £330 for Universal tickets each also good. Little people are fussy eaters, it’s just so much easier to buy croissants, jam and microwave porridge than spent $lots on going to a diner.
LGW flights are generally the least expensive, I think. Certainly when we went to MCO some years ago we went via LGW (in the days when there was a MAN connection!) because it was so much cheaper than going direct. IIRC Virgin wanted nearly twice as much as BA.
Many comments here hit nail on head on cost vs value and that’s exactly where I think a trip to the USA just isn’t worth it right now but honestly nothing makes me feel excited about the thought of eating out for every meal for multiple days/nights and dare say even weeks. I also hate the tip culture it’s 2024 just pay your workers a decent wage and have the proper prices on the menu so we can all decide where we eat without reminding ourselves back to mental arithmetic lessons.
I agree FX isn’t the only issue as for example the AED is pegged to the USD and while some meals do cost as much as the US and are much more expensive than say 10 years ago the quality and service is so much better in my experience.
Completely agree with @NorthernLass and @BA Flyer that sometimes a nice salad / sandwich / cured meats / fruit and veg from the the local deli/supermarket while lounging in your joggers just hits the spot and while helping keep the waistline and bank balance in check.
I can concur with @davefl about using a debit card when paying, probably for me about 30% of the time the transaction doesn’t get updated. This also worked with Lyft when a few weeks after the trip all the tips were refunded. Just 11 weeks now until our 30-day Canada/USA extravaganza, fortunately 13 nights are on a cruise ship and everything, even tips, is already paid for. Using points for some hotels and having a few F&B credits spare will help offset the frankly ridiculous amenity fees, IC San Diego $47 a night! The 4 night in Maui will probably be the most expensive but using VRBO will at least allow us breakfast on a modest budget.
This also worked with Lyft when a few weeks after the trip all the tips were refunded.
I had a wierd one similar but the opposite if that makes sense with Uber Eats.
Ordered late at night after a festival, after 4 driver changes and 45 mins, got the order to my hotel room and found that it wasn’t my order it was someone elses. I’d ended up with 2 meals not one, but similar to what I’d ordered. Complained to Uber, sent the receipt showing the other persons’s name. Their AI refunded the order immediately but then next day re-debited the tip. Didn’t bother challenging it as I scoffed one meal and gave the other to the hotel receptionist.
I pity the other dave who only got one meal instead of the 2 he ordered.
Sad to confess, but we stock up on the artery-bursting Hampton Inn breakfasts in the morning,
with OH also sneaking the little one’s mid-morning snack into an Ikea sandwich bag!!
@JDB will hopefully forgive me if I say we will NOT being doing that at the Beijing Regent in
2 week’s time!Circumstances/context etc. etc.!
Can’t believe I’m reading hacks to scam low-paid hospitality workers by pretending to pay tips that never go through. It’s in pretty poor taste.
@jj It wasn’t intentional, I just used the best card for spending in the USA which was Chase. I’ll continue to use the same card and tip appropriately.
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