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The hidden costs of travel;
Expenses beyond published prices

By Brenda Warner Rotzoll
Copyright 1994 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Article date: November 13, 1994
 

Who knows what hidden expenses lurk to menace the budgets of tourists: taxes, taxis, tips, teas, toll roads, flabbergasting hotel telephone surcharges.

They're all out there, waiting to pounce out of the computerized cash register and crimp the style of those who assume the price advertised in large type is all they'll pay.

Not so. Not with hotel taxes of more than 13 percent in New York City; car-rental taxes up to 20 percent; airline ticket surcharges for airport improvements that start at $3 per stop, plus a $19.95 customs and immigration fee package for foreign travel; taxes up to $15 per port that quickly run up cruise fares, and the business traveler's pet hate, the surcharge many hotels add on to every call placed from your room. It can reach $10 a call in some foreign countries.

Then there are the little things we often forget to factor in: paying to use a public toilet; bus and subway fares; snacks along the foot-weary way; meals not mentioned in the "inclusive" tour price; souvenirs; postcards and postage, even the maps and travel books bought to plan a trip.

Here's a whirlwind look at some of the hidden or unthought-of extras that might be encountered by a family of five on a fly-drive trip to New York-New England- Washington, D.C., and then by a person traveling alone on a budget-level trip across the Atlantic. More details on hidden travel costs of all sorts appear in other stories inside this section.

ONE FAMILY'S TRIP: Let's say Bev and Bill Traveler take Toni, 14, Bill Jr., 10, and Katie, 6, to New York to see the big city, then rent a car to tour Revolutionary War sites in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, winding up with a stay in the nation's capital.

They're going to fly from Chicago to New York, rent a car after a few days, turn it in at Washington National airport and fly home again. Say the bargain fare they find for Chicago O'Hare to New York La Guardia, with return from Washington National to Chicago O'Hare, is $215.45. They'll actually pay $243 per ticket because of the federal 10 percent tax on all air tickets, and passenger facility taxes of $3 levied at each point of departure.

They booked far ahead to get a cheap rate, then had to miss a big family party because it would have cost too much to change their tickets.

It's $9 per person for the airport bus to Manhattan, plus taxis on to the hotel. Taxis might be cheaper outside rush hour, at maybe $20, but there's a limit of four passengers per taxi.

Once in Manhattan, $170 is about the cheapest weekend (Friday and Saturday night) rate for a hotel suite that could accommodate the whole family, with rates rising at least $20 on weekdays, when business travelers fill up the town.

That's the quoted rate. Add on $24.53 per night in hotel taxes, or $33.03 if you arrive before Dec. 1, when the state of New York removes its 5 percent surcharge on any room that costs $100 or more per night. New York City charges 13.25 percent plus a flat $2 for hotel taxes, down 1 percent from the rate prior to Sept. 1. The city was pressured to cut the rate because it made hotel costs so high, some conventions were going elsewhere.

For breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, add 8.25 percent for taxes and be glad you're not downtown in Chicago, where the restaurant sales tax is 9.75 percent.

Getting around Manhattan is not cheap unless you stick to an area small enough to walk all day. Bus or subway fares are $1.25 and bus transfers are free, but you can't tranfer between bus and subway. You have to shell out another $1.25. Taxis are
$1.50 to step inside and 25 cents each one-fifth of a mile, plus waiting time.

There's plenty to see just roaming the streets in New York City, but ready cash will disappear fast if they start visiting attractions such as the Statue of Liberty, the top of the Empire State Building and many of the zillion museums scattered through the city. Souvenirs add up fast, and it's hard to resist the fabulous Fifth Avenue stores or the bargain emporiums on the Lower East Side. Even postcards mount up, plus postage.

Terrible traffic and worse parking fees make driving in Manhattan something to avoid. When it comes time to rent a van (five people, remember), Bill resists add-ons offered by the rental firm but can't avoid New York taxes of 8 percent. He's lucky to be where he is. State, county and city taxes at Chicago's O'Hare come to 18 percent a day plus $2.75 per rental. That compares to 8.25 percent in Los Angeles and 6 percent plus $2.05 a day in Orlando, Fla.

New England gasoline prices will seem fine after Chicago's highest-in-the-nation (48 cents a gallon in taxes). Fiscal danger lurks here in the many attractive historic villages and museums, countless roadside farm stands with apples, maple sugar and related goodies, and antiques stores on almost every corner. Count on meals and hotels being taxed, although not at New York rates.

Rooms in the District of Columbia are a little less pricey than New York, but there's a hotel tax of 11 percent plus $1.50 a night (how do they figure this stuff out?) and meals are taxed at 9 percent. Add a tip and the bill will be a good 25 percent higher than menu prices.

Don't forget $1 each for baggage carts at O'Hare and taxi or limo fare home. I, at least, wouldn't want to keep tabs on three kids plus baggage on the L.

ALONE IN LONDON: British Airways has a great package advertised right now of $699 to London. It includes round-trip airfare, six nights in a hotel, continental breakfast daily, bus transfers between hotel and airport, and a one-week Travelcard good on all London buses and the Underground trains. (When getting directions, be sure to ask for the Underground train -- in London subway means a pedestrian underpass.)

Fran Footloose quickly finds a week in London is going to cost her far more than $699. If she gets the cheapest hotel available -- and they're gone soon after the ads first appear -- she'll still have to pay another $38.95 in U.S. taxes that support airport, Customs and Immigration and Agriculture Department costs. If she flies out on a weekend (Friday, Saturday or Sunday), it's another $20 each way, and the Christmas travel supplement is $150. (She did save $44 on the Travelcard and $12 on airport buses.)

Then there's the infamous single supplement. Travel packages usually list hotel prices on a per-person double-occupancy basis. Fran has to pay a supplement, ranging from $25 to $70 a day depending on how pricey the hotel is.

Changing dollars to pounds costs several percent of whatever the amount is, often plus a flat fee, so she changes larger amounts less often, at banks when possible. Check the rates, they vary madly and tend to be worse at stores and hotels.

Underground trains come above ground and go miles out into the country, but Fran has to pay for British Rail tickets for day trips to see delights such as Windsor (Castle), Brighton (Beach and Pavilion) and Canterbury (Cathedral). She shells out for
lots of museums, finds most of them have irresistible gift shops, and comes back to town at night for the theater, at about $35 a ticket (but that's the best seat in the house). Add on several dollars for chocolates, ice cream, lemonade, coffee or a drink at the bar during intermission. She stays in the theater district too late one night, the Underground stops running and she has to take a taxi to the hotel.

Then there's food. Even pub grub can be $10 or more, and Fran is into afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason and similar elegant spots, at $15 and more.

England is great for readers: The British write in our language. Fran buys newspapers, paperback books (a trifle pricier than at home), magazines and fancy brochures on the attractions she visits. She knows other souvenirs will push her above the $400 limit over which she must pay duty on returning home, but printed matter comes in free.

One last expense she hadn't planned on: Her souvenirs took up so much space she had to pay excess baggage charges.
 

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