A customer reaches down to pick up a bottle of water from a street vendor in Paris on June 17, 2022.
Stefano Rellandini | Afp | Getty Images
The value of the euro relative to the U.S. dollar has sunk near a two-decade low — and that’s good news for Americans traveling to Europe this summer.
A favorable exchange rate means travelers’ dollars will go further when making purchases abroad.
“Right now, your money goes further in Europe than it has in quite a few years, and it’s a great time to have that dream trip you’ve been putting off to Italy, France or Spain,” said Kate McCulley, a travel writer who lives in the Czech Republic and publisher of travel site AdventurousKate.com.
Parity approach ‘is like getting a 15% discount’
Not all European countries use the euro — it’s the official currency for 19 out of 27 European Union members.
Those countries are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
The euro is soon expected to hit parity with the U.S. dollar, meaning the two currencies will have a 1:1 exchange rate. That hasn’t occurred since 2002, when the euro was in its infancy.
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Triggers for the relative decline of the euro include the ongoing war in Ukraine, which has fueled fear of an energy crunch and recession, as well as U.S. interest rates moving sharply higher, pushing investors toward the dollar and from the euro.
One euro is currently worth less than $1.01 — down 11% from nearly $1.13 at the beginning of the year and down 15% from almost $1.19 a year ago.
As an example, an American who bought a €15 sandwich in Paris a year ago would have paid about $17.80. Today, that traveler would pay roughly $15.10.
“It’s kind of like getting a 15% discount,” according to Sara Rathner, a travel expert at NerdWallet. “It’s more gentle on people’s travel budgets,” she added.
Inflation is raising travel costs
Brabo Fountain and City Hall, Antwerp, Belgium.
Shaun Egan | The Image Bank | Getty Images
That discount comes at a good time: Stubbornly high inflation has made it an expensive time to travel almost anywhere.
Costs at home in the U.S. for items like airfare, lodging, recreation and meals were up almost 19% in May relative to the same time in 2019, before the pandemic, according to the U.S. Travel Association’s Travel Price Index. (Domestic travel costs are also up more than 19% versus last year, but that partly reflects a comparison to low pandemic-era prices, the association said.)
Meanwhile, Americans’ appetite for international travel appears to be growing, spurred by factors like the recent scrapping of a Covid-19 testing requirement for international travelers flying to the U.S., as well as the lifting of a separate mask mandate on…
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