I was quoted a few times in Travel Weekly last week in a long article about the impressive tourism numbers coming out of Argentina and Chile. I’ve been saying for quite a while that there is a good bit of “Europe substitution” going on—travelers deciding to head south instead of across the Atlantic. Now we have some hard numbers to back it up. The number of Americans visiting Europe this past July was down 15 percent from 2007. Meanwhile, the number of Americans going to Chile in the first half of ‘08 increased by 15.8 percent. Coincidence?

No, it just makes lots more sense from a value standpoint. When the Ritz-Carlton in Santiago costs in dollars what the Ritz-Carlton in Barcelona costs in euros, that’s a difference of 40 or 50 percent. Stroll around town for a meal and a bottle of wine in Santiago or Buenos Aires and the difference is even more dramatic, as in a tab that’s 1/4 to 1/3 a comparable meal in Europe, even at the best restaurant in town. There’s value even at the very top of the possible budget range, whether you are looking at hotels, adventure tour packages, or villa rentals.

LAN is stepping up flights as a result, says Travel Weekly. “The carrier now fields four nonstop flights per week from New York Kennedy to Santiago plus daily service from Kennedy via Lima, Peru; 10 weekly flights from Miami; and three weekly, nonstop flights from Los Angeles plus four via Lima. This month, the airline is set to launch service to Toronto.

Luxury Chile Travel page

Luxury Argentina Travel page

[Photo by Lorie Bennett, from our review of Explora Salto Chico in Patagonia.]

In the “no surprises here” category, a survey conducted by TripAdvisor found that travelers mostly avoid hotel minibars because of sky-high prices, not selection. This subject is top of mind for me right now as I just stayed in a hotel in Costa Rica that had $2.50 beers and $1.50 sodas in its minibar. So I used it quite a bit. Meanwhile, I saw an article in Travel & Leisure talking about a Paris hotel that had $9 bottles of water in its minibar. Who pays that?

Not many people, apparently. “Price, not selection, is the most important factor when it comes to using the mini-bar, as 94 percent of all travelers surveyed would use the mini-bar more often, if the prices were more reasonable. Thirty-three percent of travelers said they never hit the mini-bar.”

Personally, I’ve never understood the logic of charging more for an item in the minibar than it goes for in the real bar in the hotel. In the real bar you’ve got labor costs, additional space requirements, furniture, and lots of other aspects that contribute to the cost of a drink. In a hotel room you’ve got none of that and the guest does all the work. There’s just the cost of electricity for the fridge. (Which is completely wasted in most cases since guests just balk at the price and don’t use it at all.)

And in a move that had to be dreamed up by an accountant rather than someone who faces guests, mini bars with motion sensors are more trouble. “With the advent of motion and weight sensors, 16 percent of travelers have been billed for simply adding items to a hotel room mini-bar/fridge or for moving contents around. Seven percent have been charged for merely storing their own items in a mini-bar/fridge.”

If you read the financial news, you know the U.S. dollar is in the toilet. There are plenty of sound reasons for this, plus a few other reasons that have nothing to do with logic or reason. None of that really matters though when you’re planning a trip to Italy or France and you go into cardiac arrest looking at the prices.

Fortunately for U.S. and Canadian travelers, it’s still 2001 in Spanish-speaking Latin America in terms of exchange rates. Overall, things haven’t changed all that much except in Argentina, where it’s a far better deal than it used to be (though not as good as two or three years ago.) Here’s a look at how the U.S. dollar has done so far this year against other currencies.

Argentina +1%

Mexico +1.7%

Ecuador and Panama - unchanged (they use the dollar)

Peru -0.5%

Brazil -5.3% (ouch)

Euro -2.9%

Australia -5.8%

India -5.7%

New Zealand -5.9%

Thailand -8.3% (double ouch)

You better believe these costs will show up in your travel budget, whether it’s taxi rides, hotels, restaurant meals, or museums. Taking a trip to Europe this summer is akin to opening your wallet and letting someone take out 1/3 of your cash. If you go to Latin America, your wallet stays intact.

If you’re looking into retiring overseas or buying real estate as an investment, there’s another reason to pay attention to currency fluctuations. That rural castle in Romania is not looking like such a deal anymore, but beachfront property in Mexico, Roatan, or Panama? That’s a different story.