Getting some perspective on the US dollar

I don’t mean this to sound insensitive, because an economic recession is serious business. But from where I sit north of the border, in Canada, the doomsday talk about the impact of the struggling US dollar on travel to Europe is getting a little old.

After all, Canadians and Australians (and pretty well every other nationality in the world) have been managing to travel to Europe despite our weaker currencies for years. For that matter, even travel to the United States meant giving up a pretty steep exchange rate for most of my life! And believe it or not, the sky did not fall just because a cappuccino cost me three times as much when I traveled as it did when I was at home.

So with all the talk about the dollar and the euro, I was thrilled to find this BootsnAll article: 27 Facts To Put This Exchange-Rate Craziness Into Perspective For American Travelers. It’s a collection of currency and exchange rate trivia that shows just how much some of the world’s other major currencies have fluctuated over the past few decades, and I think American travelers anxious about their next European trip might find it comforting.

Of course, no one likes to see costs increase dramatically. But – aside from keeping things in perspective – the best way to handle the changes is to do all the things we talk about here on Vagablogging all the time: slow down, break away from the main tourist trail, slow down, couch surf or self-cater to save on food and accommodation, oh, and slow down.

[Via Vagabondish]