Travel Bits: February 2024

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Travel is getting expensive...... 


While working on my travel plans for 2024, I realised that travel is becoming really expensive. While I expect the usual price increases due to inflation, but the astronomical increase in ticket and accommodation prices far out-strip the percentage rises in inflation, at least based on my searches when checking out airline tickets and hotel accommodations. How this is so, I have no explanations.

Add the fact that I am not traveling in luxury classes or staying in 5-star accommodations, the exponential increase in prices year-on-year is even more baffling. Admittedly, I am not backpacking or the like but still, middle-class travel is getting a bit out-of-reach and out-of-hand, pun intended.

Thus, while I will still travel, I am cutting back on the number of trips and also on my discretionary expenses when traveling. No more souvenir hunting, no more buying something nice but my travels henceforth will focus merely on taking in the sights and experiences instead. Not that I do not want to spend to help local retailers in my destinations but I simply could not afford to continue spending when most of my travel budgets are already taken by the airlines and hotels.

I will still travel but will be watching my travel expenses a lot more closely........ in 2024 and beyond. And of course, the number of trips will be curtailed too. Spontaneous travels for me, are now a thing of the past.

Sightseeing in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan (2023)


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