Stretching sinking dollar abroad

Guidebook writers like to advise travelers to picnic in their hotel rooms as a way of saving money, but Americans will need to do more than eat bread and cheese to beat the higher costs of foreign travel.

The dollar's fall against most of the world's currencies mean it's more expensive to travel almost anywhere, including Canada, where the "loonie," as the Canadian dollar is called, has been hovering at par or just slightly below the U.S. dollar.

How bad is it? Consider that five years ago (Jan 1, 2003) a hotel room priced at $200 Canadian cost $126 when it took just 63 U.S. cents to buy one Canadian dollar. Now the same room costs $200 U.S., a 60 percent increase. If the room was 200 euros, the cost in American dollars was $210 at an exchange rate of $1.05 to one euro; now, with the rate at $1.47, it's $294, up 40 percent.

Even India is shunning the greenback. Worried because this year the dollar slid more than 12 percent against the rupee, the government started requiring tourists to pay for entrance fees to monuments in the local currency instead of dollars.

What's a traveler to do besides stay home and calculate the cost of a car trip with gas edging toward $4 a gallon?

Here are a few suggestions:

• Skip the in-room picnics and dine like a local by turning a corner or walking a few blocks away from the major tourist attractions.

Visit the Tower of London, for instance, then hop a bus or walk across the Tower Bridge to Southwark and join the office workers grazing through the Borough Market (www.boroughmarket.org.uk) for grilled lamb burgers and samples of English cheddar.

Climb the Eiffel Tower, then when it's time for lunch, wander the little streets in the Paris neighborhoods behind the Parc du Champ de Mars instead of the pricey brasseries fronting on the river.

Eat ethnic: A growing immigrant population means you'll find Ethiopian restaurants in Paris, Turkish pizza in Amsterdam and Chinese and Indian food just about anywhere. London's hole-in-the-wall Italian sandwich shops serve cappuccino and panini for a pound or two ($2-$4).

Indian restaurants are great deals worldwide. You'll often find them on the upper floors of buildings where the rent is cheaper. In Bangkok, recently, on a hot, humid evening, my husband and I found the India Palace on the second floor above a tailor shop. We ate in quiet, air-conditioned comfort for $16, including beer.

Dine near an outdoor market: They tend to attract inexpensive eateries that cater to workers and shoppers. The bohemian de Pip neighborhood around the Albert Cuyp market in Amsterdam (www.amsterdam.info/depijp) is one of my favorites.

• Watch for seasonal deals on air fares and hotels. A standard double room at the Sylvia Hotel off Stanley Park, for example, is $95-$115 Canadian through April compared to $145 in the summer high season. In Victoria, the Fairmont Empress Hotel quotes $219 Canadian for a double room compared to $429 in July. The reverse is true for winter destinations such as Whistler. Look for deals on hotels there in summer when the skiers are gone and rates drop by half or more.

• Fuel surcharges are compounding already high air fares. Go offseason, if possible, and take advantage of lower fares and hotel rates. Round-trip Seattle fares for January and February are in the $550 range to London and $625-$700 to Rome and Paris compared $1,000-$1,500 last summer. Some travelers report good luck using www.vayama.com, a new tool for sorting through the lowest fares on international routes.

For bargains on name-brand hotel chains, Priceline.com invites name-your-own price bids on four and five-star hotels overseas and in Canada (see www.biddingfortravel.com for travelers' tips on how to bid). Two people reported snagging a room in the four-star rated Novotel St. Pancras for $73 in January.

• Spend fewer days in big cities and more time in "second-tier" cities that are easier on the wallet in the same way Chicago is less expensive than New York. Try Antwerp, two hours by train from Amsterdam, where cozy B&Bs in the old town go for $70-$80 per night with breakfast. Shave a few days off Paris and try Lyon, the food lover's capital of France, or leave Rome and spend a few days sampling pizza in Naples.

Stay or eat in residential neighborhoods, an alternative to downtown areas that tend to cater to business travelers on expense accounts. Scout around the West Fourth Avenue shopping and dining scene in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighborhood, for example, or settle into a B&B in the historic James Bay area of Victoria.

Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East are the bargain foreign destinations for American travelers, but if you've got your heart set on Europe, consider less-touristed regions and countries -- Sicily instead of Tuscany; Northern Ireland or any of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe that haven't yet adopted the euro as their official currency (Croatia, Hungry, Romania, Bulgaria, etc.).

• Use public transportation instead of taxis or renting a car. An all-day pass for travel on the London Underground and buses is 6.60 pounds, the equivalent of $13.50 at current exchange rates, compared to a $14-$22 for a two-mile taxi ride.

Find out if it's less expensive to fly between cities on one of the new no-frills airlines (see www.whichbudget.com or www.attitudetravel.com for a list of who flies where) than take the train, especially in countries such as Great Britain, France and Germany where train fares have soared. Take advantage of train passes in Europe, but only if the distance you'll be covering justifies the cost.

• Minimize foreign currency transaction fees when using credit cards or withdrawing cash from automated teller machines in other countries, including Canada and Mexico. Use cards that carry a maximum 1 percent fee on each charge or withdrawal (available from small community banks, credit unions, etc., as opposed to bigger national banks which charge 3 percent or more). Capitol One (www.capitalone.com) issues a no-annual-fee Visa or MasterCard with no foreign currency transaction fee.

• Consider an apartment or condo rental instead of a hotel for longer stays. Deal directly with the owner if possible. Avoid rental agencies that ask you to pay in full up front. Negotiate a reasonable deposit.

• Read the fine print in group tour and cruise contracts to find out if price could change if the dollar continues its slide. Prices might be higher than advertised in the brochures, but most companies will lock in a price once you pay a deposit.

Carol Pucci: 206-464-3701 or cpucci@seattletimes.com