Already the Caucasus’s worst-kept secret on cost, Georgia has only improved its case with the lari’s recent 7% slide against the euro, which makes it cheaper still for anyone converting from dollars. Tbilisi’s sulfur baths cost $4 for public entry, and the Kakheti wine region, where 8,000 years of uninterrupted qvevri winemaking is now UNESCO recognized, offers sommelier-led tours with lunch for $90 to $120. Design-forward boutiques run $60 to $70 a night alongside family-run guesthouses staging sprawling feasts of khachapuri, khinkali and churchkhela for $15 to $30.
Sri Lanka
1 USD = 295.59 LKR
Three years after its economic crisis, the rupee still languishes 45% weaker than pre-crisis levels, and for Americans that translates into extraordinary purchasing power while the tourism industry rebuilds with a hunger reflected directly in visitor pricing. Yala National Park offers the world’s highest leopard density at luxury tented camps from $500 a night all-inclusive, oftentimes half what comparable East African safari lodges charge. GDP rebounded 5% in 2024, the IMF program is on track and inflation has turned negative. This is the optimal window: post-crisis value paired with pre-recovery pricing, in a country determined to remind the world it was always extraordinary.
Elise Hassey
New Zealand
1 USD = 1.74 NZD
Air New Zealand has added 34,000 seats on US routes for 2025 and 2026, including 20,500 in premium cabins, capitalizing on a Kiwi dollar that has weakened steadily against the greenback over the past decade, meaning Americans are getting more New Zealand for every dollar spent than at any point in recent memory. New Zealand was never cheap the way Southeast Asia is, but it has migrated firmly into the aspirational-yet-accessible category, particularly for travelers willing to push beyond Queenstown into the Coromandel Peninsula, Wairarapa wine country or the West Coast’s wild glacier valleys.
Guatemala
1 USD = 7.73 GTQ
The quetzal has held remarkably steady and Guatemala‘s prices have barely budged, making it Central America’s most consistent value proposition. But the country rewards with far more than favorable numbers. The weaving cooperatives around Atitlán, the jungle-swallowed ruins of Tikal and a food culture built on maize, cacao and pepián deserve considerably more international scrutiny than they currently attract. The CA-4 agreement allows 90-day travel across Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua on a single entry.
