We have been in the US for the past 2 weeks and are currently in New York.    We have been here a few times in the past, and even though the Aussie Dollar was around 60 to 70 cents US, it always seemed cheaper to buy things, travel, eat etc.   Not now!   It is very expensive here, for instance, meat and fruit that we would buy by the kilo, is dearer here and that is by the pound!    Public transport is dear, and forget dining out too much- there are empty restaurants and fast food outlets everywhere.  Petrol is around $4uS a gallon so, a bit cheaper.  If you are thinking of spending some time here, be prepared for a shock when you compare similar things to Australia

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saw a clip just this morning where an aussie in canada showed the frozen marinated  pre packaged chicken drumsticks at their local supermarket for $220kg

as bad as things are here, we often don't realize how good we have it

Wow Vic, sounds like an amazing trip but at the same time our dollar is worth less and less  :-[

I watched the Travel Guides do New York and they all loved it.
Have you been to ground zero yet? The travel guides were very moved by it, and the museum.
It showed a totally mangled fire truck and a lot of first responders had died.
I’m not sure I could handle it. I’m just too sensitive. :-[

The amount of people and cars is phenomenal, I recall after being in heavy traffic 8 lanes each way I would never complain about our Melbourne traffic ever…again  ;D

Now if you think USA is expensive, try London! Our dollar is worth less again! Taxis nearly drive us into poverty  ;D
But surprisingly …. I liked England a lot.

Sophia wrote on Apr 25^th, 2025 at 8:36pm:

Wow Vic, sounds like an amazing trip but at the same time our dollar is worth less and less  :-[ I watched the Travel Guides do New York and they all loved it. Have you been to ground zero yet? The travel guides were very moved by it, and the museum. It showed a totally mangled fire truck and a lot of first responders had died. I’m not sure I could handle it. I’m just too sensitive. :-[ The amount of people and cars is phenomenal, I recall after being in heavy traffic 8 lanes each way I would never complain about our Melbourne traffic ever…again  ;D Now if you think USA is expensive, try London! Our dollar is worth less again! Taxis nearly drive us into poverty  ;D But surprisingly …. I liked England a lot.

We will be in the UK in two weeks and whilst we go there every year or so, I am dreading the costs.  Luckily, we have relies to stay with so at least accommodation is no issue.    We flew to Seattle, stayed three days then caught the train across to Niagara Falls for two days, then train to New York.   A few days here then a transatlantic cruise to the UK, two weeks doing the visits and back home end of May.

Today was touring around and a harbour cruise, but it is so expensive!    At least in Australia, you know the final price of something you wish to buy, whereas here, there are a suite of government, state and visitor taxes added on at the checkout.  That faux metal statuette of the Statue of Liberty may seem cheap at $10 until the taxes plus exchange rate kick in, and then it suddenly becomes very expensive.

Another mistake I made a couple of times is using a card payment at a store.   The machine asks you whether you want to pay in US dollars ( whereby your bank at home does the rate conversion) or pay in Aussie dollars - whereby THEY do it.    I forgot to select pay in US dollars and thus received there very bad exchange rate.   A trick I fall fo at least two or three times whenever we travel

We arrived early at Southampton rail station. And asked if our pre booked tickets to London could be changed to an earlier train, about an hour earlier.  The original tickets had been booked 6 months ago, and were £41 ea.  To change trains by an hour was an additional £120!  We declined.

Vic wrote on May 11^th, 2025 at 6:51pm:

We arrived early at Southampton rail station. And asked if our pre booked tickets to London could be changed to an earlier train, about an hour earlier.  The original tickets had been booked 6 months ago, and were £41 ea.  To change trains by an hour was an additional £120!  We declined.

Ouch!  :o

At least the Ukraine was dirt cheap.