State Department foreign per diem rates
Even Tokyo and Kyoto are far from being the most expensive cities (Rome, London, Paris, Bermuda come in well ahead).
Domestic government per diem rates can be a bit puzzling. In Florida (where I live) they are sometimes inadequate for something like a Hampton Inn (sorry, I like them). London's maximum lodging rate of $337 seems easy to beat (Premier Travel Inn), Taipei's $167 seems enough to stay in a deluxe hotel (at least in low season before lunar new year--I did nicely last Feb. for half of that), so how about 180 or so for Tokyo and Kyoto? Tokyustay business hotels offer very reasonable prices.
Opinions? Going through the long list of per diem rates reinforced my suspicion that an Asian vacation can be cheaper than a European one for an eastern US resident.
Are you being paid to travel by your government? Go for it then, although I would have thought they would dictate where you go, if it's on official business.
Japan can be up to 40%-50% cheaper than Europe. I always find great deals even in London, so it depends where you go and what you do.
US government per diems are often based on prices negotiated by the government for employees and do not always reflect the cost to travelers who are not traveling on government orders.
Prices in Japan have been relatively stable in comparison to the dollar while those in Europe have gone up considerably.
Ruth
I find Japan everything BUT expensive! Travelling through Europe or the US is probably more expensive. You can make your trip as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be, and cheap travelling in Japan is not difficult!
I appreciate the comments. By the way, domestic US government per diem rates are usually fairly realistic, although in my experience southern Florida in February and March can be difficult. The availability of "government rates" offered by hotels is unpredictable. I'm not likely to ever be sent abroad on business, but the State Department's foreign per diem rates are interesting for being even roughly comparable to the domestic ones.
My own impression, from two visits, was that Japan's reputation for being horribly expensive was unjustified. It's good to hear some personal confirmation of that! I guess we Americans can thank the long Japanese recession and deflation for the favorable exchange rates.
By the way, for everbrite, a colleague and her family just visited the St. Petersburg (Russia) area and I'm waiting for their report.
And on the side, I've liked London because
it's easy to get there from Florida
it used to be pretty affordable
hardly any city has so much theater and classical music, and
it's a great place to wander around. Even if much of the city's sort of dismal.
With Tokyo, my moment of realizing the city's accessibility was on a bridge over one of the old Edo-era canals. Without thinking about it, I visualized the canal busy with boats as it would have been, back then.
They are spending US tax payer dollars what do they care? The amazing thing is they pay hardship rates to the useless fecks that "work" at the Tokyo embassy/consulate.
Steamero - US government employees in Tokyo do not get hardship pay. They get of COLA or cost of living adjustment which dropped from 70% to 42% this past year but that is not 70% of salary but rather of an amount considered to be your grocery basket/living expenses which doesn't amount to much.
Ruth
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