Inflation is making travel impossible book a staycation in NYC and dupe it for Paris or London

Continental taste, Coney Island budget.With the cost of traveling to Europe soaring as “record numbers” of travelers flock overseas, even as the dollar weakens, the traditional summer destination could be out of reach for a lot of New Yorkers in 2024.“There’s been such a huge demand for travel in the past three years, and lots of places are pushing up prices,” Graham Carter, director of Unforgettable Travel, told CNN.“People are wondering, ‘Is Europe worth it?'”For many, the answer appears to be no.

A survey conducted by Tito’s found that 55% of respondents plan to staycation at or near their homes this summer, blaming the cost of travel, tight budgets, pet accommodations and “having just as much fun in their area.”Fortunately for Gothamites, hanging around the neighborhood puts a world of entertainment, history and culture at their fingertips — more than enough to dupe a dream European vacation.“There are so many places to go, things to see, that even travel writers … barely scratch the surface because it’s just so big,” Matthew Kepnes, a travel blogger and bestselling author, told The Post.“There’s a lot of opportunities to be a traveler in New York.”With a staycation, he added, “you want to replicate the emotions and experience of travel in your own town” — no flight costs required.“The first major rule of any staycation is always break out of your routine and get out of your house,” said NYC-based Kepnes, better known online as Nomadic Matt.

“Because if you staycation in your home, you’re just going to end up doing things like errands and stuff like that.”To distract yourself from the mountain of laundry and pile of dishes you need to clean, booking a hotel allows you to escape your daily routine and feel like a traveler, even if you’re down the block from your apartment.So, take the money you might have spent on airfare and splurge on one of the opulent NYC hotels recently awarded 3 Keys — the high...