Problem is I hate traveling alone, and none of my friends would be interested in a 2 day trip to NYC…

For me, my greater passions are Star Trek and figure skating, both of which let me occasionally indulge my lesser passion of traveling when I go to a convention or competition. And having identified my greatest passions in life not only help me stay focused on saving money to indulge in them, but also helps me to reduce clutter and not keep stuff that I’m just plain not truly passionate about, thus making room in my life for what I do truly enjoy.

I noticed you mentioned stopping playing Magic cards. My husband played early in this game and had a whole bunch of cards from the mid-nineties. When we sold them off a couple of years ago, we made enough to fund a trip to Ireland! If you get to the point you want to sell them, I’d be happy to tell you the places we used – specialist sites online. It was a treat to turn what was then clutter into a fabulous trip!

Jennifer

Your cost per day calculation assumes two things that might not be true: First, that time off from work is free and readily available (if not, that’s an additional cost/limitation), and second that “cost per day” is the best way to measure your value for money. Depending on the person involved, there could be a point of diminishing returns where a six-day trip is not twice as valuable as a three-day trip.

If you’re on the east coast of the US and you can get a direct flight to your destination city, it’s not nearly as bad as that. Leaving late on Thursday means arriving early Friday morning, and getting back late on Monday evening means leaving late Monday afternoon. So you have all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and half of Monday.

That’s more than enough time to explore and see the sights if you do a little advance planning and know where you’re going. One of the most fabulous and memorable trips I’ve ever taken was to Vienna and Prague, and I only spent about 24 hours in each city. (I lived in England at the time, so it was only a two-hour flight each way.) No, I didn’t see everything, but I saw plenty.

Indeed, travelling to Europe on a long weekend is not something I would recommend. (I’m an American who lives in Europe so I cross the Atlantic many times a year to visit family.) And not just because of the travel time: in taking a trip to Europe the number one expense is the airfare, which can range from $500 to $1500 (depending on airline pricing voodoo), but which in any case is the single most expensive part of visiting Europe.

When you work out the budget for a long weekend trip compared to spending a longer trip, in terms of cost per day, the numbers show that a trip length of at least a week gets you the most for your money. I put up a spreadsheet that illustrates this here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p6kCkg12C2mzF2nS0Kw_mJw

Also, I am searching for just the right camera. I’m torn between getting a digital SLR and high end point-and-shoot. I have photography experience so I’m not sure what to buy.

It is part what he talks about in his book “The 4-Hour Workweek”

http://www.timferriss.com

Some of the ideas are unconventional, for sure… but there’s a lot of good stuff in that book.

He makes you think, and challenge assumptions… which I think is a very good thing.

Bonne chance,

Aaron Kulbe

In my case, I prefer to travel for a much longer time, 3-6 weeks at a time. Often the biggest cost is just getting to where you want to go. The longer you can stay, the less your ‘per day’ cost is, especially when leaving the country.