Unless you’ve been living in a fallout shelter for the past 18 months, you are quite aware that we are in an economic recession. And, with news swirling around about layoffs, failed businesses, foreclosures and more, it may be no surprise that the travel industry is also hurting. The result has been lower airfares and cut-rate hotel rooms. In fact, an article from the Business Standard reports that global hotel prices drop 17% to their lowest in 5 years—and hotels in Europe and the U.S. have been especially hard hit.
So, what does this mean for us? Now is actually a great time to take advantage of some stellar travel deals and travel. If you take advantage of some of the low prices on airfare to Europe, Priceline is now offering discounted hotel rooms at many European hotels. PricelineEurope.com – Discounted Hotels in 63 Countries Worldwide
I am a big fan of a few things: finding that item you’ve wanted to ages is 50% off, multi-leg trips and extended vacations/travel and anything and everything that has to do with France—which is why the latest offer on Air France allowing free stopovers in Paris when you book a multi destination trip made me jump for joy. It knocks 2 things off of my above list right off, leaving me only to go in search if a killer outfit and marked down prices to make it a full trifecta of wonderful. 
Although my family used to pack up us kids nearly every summer and head to France, this has not been a tradition I have been easily able to carry on with me into my adulthood. Unfortunately being a young professional with student loans and poor college student have left me little by means of travel funds—ultimately leading to me staying off the continent of Europe in the summertime for the past several years. However, luckily, airfares to Europe this summer seem to be even lower than many low season fares, which is great for those poor students and young folks like me. The economy may be crap and preventing many of us from finding jobs, but at least we can fly to Europe for cheaper. Hooray!