Becca wrote:

> Dave Smith wrote:
>> They will also find prices on scale they never dreamed of. I know a
>> few people who have been there in the last few years and they were
>> stunned by the prices. My son's girlfriend was there on an exchange
>> for a summer. She went out for drinks with two friends and when it
>> was her round it cost her $60 for three drinks.
>
> The value of the US dollar has fell in the past 8-9 years, causing
> foreign travel to be expensive. In 2002, I stayed in a suite in
> Brazil that had a kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom. It was
> $30 per night. A friend recently stayed in the same hotel, and it
> was just over $90 per night. When you look at the currency exchange
> rate, the Brazilian Real is currently 1.79 to the US dollar, and when
> I went in 2002, the Real was over 3.50.


Brazil now has a fairly strong economy, hence the strength of their
currency...

As for Iceland (if that's what Smith up there is referencing), prices for
visitors have "adjusted downward" somewhat since the economic collapse of
the past year...IIRC the gov't. is touting Iceland as a "reasonably -
priced" tourist desination in order to drum up some activity for their
extremely depressed economy.


--
Best
Greg