Sneeze Your Way to Savings?

Travel Blog  •  Alexander Basek  •  05.01.09 | 1:33 PM ET

Photo by jurvetson via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Remember when I told you guys how many deals there were to be had in Thailand? Well, the Practical Traveler now reports they’re even better thanks to the unrest there. If you don’t mind a little protesting, then run for the savings! The Anantara properties Michelle mentions, particularly at the Golden Triangle, are some of the nicest in the country. 

Same goes for travel and the SCHWEINE-GRIPPE—I use the German term for swine flu because it sounds much scarier that way.

Making a decision on a trip right now depends on your general comfort level when you travel. If you are the type that heads to the Caribbean during hurricane season, another strategy that nine times out of ten turns out OK and saves money, then redshirts or face masks won’t bother you so much. If the mere thought of something going wrong in a major way would hang over your trip like a vacationing Sword of Damocles, then domestic travel is the way to go.

It’s easy to be gung-ho conceptually, but I can sympathize with both sides. So much of travel is the willful suspension of disbelief. In the abstract, who would think it’s a great idea to haul across the globe in a metal tube, with people who may or may not have an infectious disease, to a country where there may or may not be political unrest? But we go all the same, because it’s there.

And the truth of travel is that bad things happen all the time. Train strikes are an integral part of many vacation tales, as are scary bus rides, thin hotel walls, and food poisoning. What I’m saying is that it’s not wine and roses during the best of times, so perhaps some protests or the flu shouldn’t impede you from your vacation. At the very least, you’ll have a story to tell.

Tags: Adventure Travel, Budget Travel, Health, Hotels, Travel and Security, Travel Tips, Asia, Thailand, Caribbean, News and Briefs

Alexander Basek is a food and travel writer based in New York City. He is the Best Deals reporter for Travel + Leisure. His writing has also appeared in the New York Post, Time Out New York, and Fodor's.


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