<p>With frequent flyer miles, we could take a small trip to Europe this winter. </p>
<p>Is this potentially a poor idea given the euro and economic climate?</p>
<p>I would have to commit to our air tickets now for travel in December.
There are A LOT of seats available.</p>
<p>I don’t see why it would be a poor idea. My daughter and her new husband are on their honeymoon in Europe right now and are having a wonderful time. The Euro and pound are weaker than they were when they started their trip, so things are a little cheaper than they would otherwise have been. Whatever austerity measures are in place have not affected them at all. And tourism is certainly booming - many hotels we researched were fully booked and we had to keep finding alternatives.</p>
<p>There are probably a lot of seats in December because it is not the high season (unless you are right around Christmas). Their flight to Venice was so full they were initially not seated together despite checking the airline every day for weeks and weeks (but on the actual day they managed to find 2 seats together).</p>
<p>The dollar is getting stronger relative to the Euro. That means European goods and services will be cheaper to purchase for Americans.</p>
<p>Don’t see why it would be a problem. Flights, particularly midweek and this far in advance, are often not filled out of the peak season.</p>
<p>H is leaving next Sat., and I’m joining him in about a month.</p>
<p>Given the title of your post, are you talking about traveling to Spain specifically?</p>
<p>If so, yes, I’d be a bit concerned about it. I would not want to be in the middle of demonstrations and potential strikes etc. and it’s difficult to tell how things will play out over next few months.</p>
<p>We are in Italy now and when I was scheduling this few months ago, I decided to book our flights to Brussels (partly also because it was the cheapest by far) even though we wanted to visit Italy. I thought, if things fell apart in the meanwhile, we could just head north to Northern Europe (which is much more stable) and skip Southern Europe. Flights from Brussels to many places in Europe are $150 round trip so that got added on later once it looked like things would be OK.</p>
<p>That might be something to consider if you’re not completely wedded to being in Spain.</p>
<p>Seems like a perfect time, with less air travel and the euro worth a lot less vs the dollar than in the past few years. But yeah, Spain…might be careful with. I agree, demonstrations and strikes could ruin your vacation. Anywhere else you might go?</p>
<p>I know this is an alien concept to 99.9% of Americans, but Europe is a continent and not a country. This is like saying no tourists should visit any part of the USA because of problems in Mexico. Where exactly do you intend to go? If not Spain, then the problems in Spain are very unlikely to affect you (unless you plan on attending protests at Spanish embassies or something). Even if you do intend to go to Spain, as long as you are not actively participating in events connected to this, you are unlikely to be affected. The main problem is potential strikes. But there were occasional strikes before the economic downturn, and not just in Spain (London underground workers often have a few days off in the summer and again at Christmas, and in France strikes are almost an occupation in themselves). Just get travel insurance to cover you for such problems.</p>
<p>Be aware unions all over Europe like to strike (everyone is unionized), be if France, Spain, Greece or the Netherlands. I agree with cupcake that you should be OK, however you may suffer transit inconveniences, so be prepared. (I would not go to Greece, but they are a completely separate basket case from Spain!)</p>