Back-in-the-day Bargains

We’ve got ancient receipts tucked away here or there, which will probably be unearthed during some clearing that will be coming up this year, but I still believe the multi-day bike trip along the sides of the Danube, in 1999, was a real deal. Lufthansa had just started direct flights from Denver to Frankfurt, and their introductory fares were surprisingly low. I don’t recall the prices, but combined with a Rail Pass, getting then to Austria, on trains with the seating compartment off to one side of the car, separated from the outside aisle by a curtain or sliding door, it was a bargain.

Back then (but no longer) the Austrian ÖBB train system let you rent a very serviceable bike from them at a station, and turn it in at a station down the line - simple, and affordable! A bike shop in Vienna was clearing out some equipment. We bought helmets - molded pieces of styrofoam with a thin fabric cover stretched over them - for something like the value of a dollar. Handlebar and Pannier storage bags, too, nylon in florescent colors, that held our jackets, food, and other gear on the racks that came with the bikes. They weren’t heavy duty, but they worked, and were only a few schillings (remember those?). We also stoped at a butcher along the way, and they had a poster showing bargains on cuts of meat, with the word “Auktion!” printed at the top. My husband (not a German speaker) pointed to the poster, and said “action,” and the ladies behind the counter sprang into action, an animated flurry of slicing and packaging up lots of cold cuts that served as lunch and snacks for the next couple of days. The packages fit nicely into the nylon carry bags we’d bought a couple days earlier, but it involved eating a lot of meat, not Power Bars.

I don’t know whether we’d have the energy now to repeat a similar trip, but the savings from back then helped us afford making many following trips to Europe since then.

Not to Europe but from Oakland CA to Honolulu in 1968….vaguely remember it was $250 roundtrip.

Would be my first plane flight.

Our high school football team was invited to play Punahoe High School. We thought the airfare outrageous and held car washes so our cheerleaders and pep band could go.

To this day I remember the overwhelming sadness while touring the Pearl Harbor Memorial.

Rent for our 3 bedroom apartment in Spain when we lived there in the late 70s was never more than $125 a month, and that was at the worst dollar/Peseta rate.

My first trip to Europe was only 8 years ago so I can't share any 'back in the day' bargains yet, except maybe gelato in Rome in 2014, €2 for two scoops. I don't think it's gone up much since, but anytime someone offers me 2 scoops for €2, I say take it, and we did, every night.

On our honeymoon in 1989, Disneyland tickets were about $25.

Maybe the price I miss most though, was a rental car in Florida in the 90's, I found a deal from one of the major companies for $14/day.

@allen - back in 1979 a gelato in Catania, Sicily was about 500 lira when the exchange rate was 700 lira - $1. I got one a day every time when we deployed there from Spain. 2€ was a bargain.

Then again, the Good ol’ Days were 3 months ago, in Italy. Even though this thread is posted under Germany, we were still Europe, and the Euro was down to 97 cents, compared to the U.S. dollar. First time in more than 20 years! Now, 2 weeks into 2023, the Euro is back at $1.07 or $1.08 exchange rate. It may be just a few cents, but especially on a trip of several weeks, paying to see sights, spending on meals, buying transportation, it adds up.

The British pound is stronger against the dollar now, too. Ah, the bargains of the past . . .

I was looking through my travel journal from my trip to England in 1996 and found a mention of the room I'd gotten in Whitby for £14 a night through the Book-a-Bed-Ahead program. It was a very nice B&B, too - there was a couple from Leicester staying there, and another from Blackpool. One of the men bought me a pint of ale (the B&B had a license to serve alcohol) and we drank and talked in the parlor. Sigh... I miss those days. Sometimes I feel like I've lost my capacity for spontaneity as I get older.

We went to London a month after 9/11 and the prices were insanely cheap.
Flew United for around $300 r/t. Now you could maybe half way across the ocean.

Stay in the Citadines South Kensington studio for 55 GBP a night.

Saw a play at half price-An Inspector Calls for only around 25GBP. Found out two things on my first London theatre trip: I absolutely love having ice cream at intermission. And I'm not a fan of JB Priestley or his plays.

Unfortunately, my later trips were not as cheap and my trip this year is still pretty expensive. But there is still pent up demand for travel.