Vacation Ideas for 2009

If I continue to be employed this year, 2009 seems to be an opportune time to take advantage of some price arbitrage for vacation purposes. (Ok, so it's not really "arbitrage" since I'm not making riskless profit with no cash outlay.)

Iceland is the most obvious option, being that it was so prominently in the news. Meng recently came from New Zealand and said that currency rates there were also quite favorable.

Let's take a look at some potential destinations and their currency related discounts versus the dollar:

• Iceland: 1.7X, 41% discount (trending unfavorably)
  
• New Zealand: 1.55X, 35% discount (trending favorably)
  
• South Korea: 1.49X, 32.8% discount (trending favorably)
• Australia: 1.41X, 29% discount (trending favorably)
• Sweeden: 1.35X, 26% discount (trending favorably)
• South Africa: 1.32X, 24% discount (trending flat)