Choosing a Place to
Travel based on Cost
Outline
- Overvalued and undervalued currencies
- Ten common countries in the cheapest countries
listings
- Least expensive destination in the Eastern Hemisphere
- Least expensive destination in the Western Hemisphere
- Safety Factor
- What do you think of the Leffel
quote
Overvalued and
undervalued currencies
Using the formula in the Big Mac Index interactive site, how much is the Big Mac overvalued in the most expensive country, and how much is it undervalued in the least expensive? Which countries would be the cheapest for travel, and which would be the most expensive based on this index?
Switzerland overvalues the Big Mac by $1.04 and in Egypt it is undervalued by $3.76. Egypt would be the least expensive to travel and Switzerland would be the most, because USD is valued differently in these countries.
Ten common
countries in the cheapest countries listings
Read the Leffel chapter and the other links provided to derive a list of the 10 cheapest countries for travel.
1. Costa Rica
2. Vietnam
3. Ukraine
4. India
5. Greece
6. Thailand
7. Cambodia
8. Hungary
9. Romania
10. Bulgaria
Least expensive
destination in the Eastern Hemisphere
From this list, the Big Mac Index and the most inexpensive airfares, find the least expensive destination in the eastern hemisphere for a three-week trip. What criteria did you use to select the country? Insert airfare graphic that shows how you would get to the country. Insert a graphic of an inexpensive lodging. What would be the total cost of the 3-week trip? (The idea here is that cheap lodging over three weeks will counter a more expensive airfare.
So, look for the cheapest lodging and find a moderate airfare to that location.) Estimate daily food costs.
$962 for airfare
$127 + $141 (two separate rooms) for 21 days
$1230 total
1 to 31.23 Thai Baht
|
in Baht year 2019 |
In U.S dollars, (Approximately) year 2019 |
|
|
Big Mac meal at Mac Donald's |
150 Baht |
3.59 $ |
|
Pad-Thai to take away, from street vendor |
30 Baht |
0.9 $ |
|
Natural orange juice (small), from street vendor |
20 Baht |
0.6 $ |
|
Beer in a club |
120 Baht |
3.6 $ |
Least expensive destination
in the Western Hemisphere
From this list, the Big Mac Index and the most inexpensive airfares, find
the least expensive destination in the eastern hemisphere for a three-week
trip. What criteria did you use to select the country? Insert airfare graphic
that shows how you would get to the country. Insert a graphic of an inexpensive
lodging. What would be the total cost of the 3-week trip? (The idea here is
that cheap lodging over three weeks will counter a more expensive airfare. So,
look for the cheapest lodging and find a moderate airfare to that location.)
Estimate daily food costs.
$433 for airfare
$441 for 21 days two twin beds
$874 in total
https://www.booking.com/hotel/hn/comfort-inn.html?aid=356929;label=metagha-link-localuniversalUS-hotel-2870961_dev-desktop_los-22_bw-13_dow-Tuesday_defdate-0_room-0_lang-en_curr-USD_gstadt-2_rateid-0_aud-0_cid-66;sid=f44ba52e060c9c7e25750d8aaf639765;all_sr_blocks=378737102_120642825_2_0_0;checkin=2019-03-21;checkout=2019-04-11;dest_id=-1129439;dest_type=city;dist=0;group_adults=2;group_children=0;hapos=5;highlighted_blocks=378737102_120642825_2_0_0;hpos=5;no_rooms=1;room1=A%2CA;sb_price_type=total;show_room=378737102;sr_order=popularity;srepoch=1550796027;srpvid=e1e204bd101c0040;type=total;ucfs=1&#RD378737102
$1 to 24.52 Honduran Lempira
Price of a Big Mac is $3.54
$5.25 a day for food
https://www.numbeo.com/food-prices/country_result.jsp?country=Honduras
Safety Factor
Consider the safety factor in the destination you have chosen. Take a look the Global Peace Index rankings (A ranking of countries based on the Peace Index begins on p. 8.) Which country would be the safest? Where is the United States ranked? Where do your chosen countries rank?
Iceland is rated the safest. USA
is 121st which is surprising to me as my choice Thailand is 113th
and Honduras is 119th
!! A poorer country is in fact safer than the USA.
What do you think
of the Leffel quote:
"You'll learn far more than you ever did at a university.
Remember the old days when people got a liberal arts education? They went to
Oxford or Princeton to learn about history, politics, social studies,
geography, religion, foreign languages, and economics. Well you'll learn far
more about all those things by traveling than you ever can in college. Ask
anyone in their 30's how much they remember about these subjects from their
university classes. "Not much" will usually sum it up."
I disagree with this statement, because you get out what you put into your education. If you simply learn information just to pass a test, you will most likely forget all of it by the end of the year. However, if you are someone who passionately researches a topic for a project, or just for the love of the subject, I think that you will retain information better. If you understand the importance of a subject and its relation to you, it is much easier to remember the information. It seems that Leffel values experiential learning, and he seems to think that university is just book learning and lectures. In fact there are many different ways to get out into the field and learn hands on. For example, in Secondary Education you are expected to student teach.
Submitted by [your name] on [date].