This is the dumbest idea ever! Buying japanese junk at a local store, sending japanese postcards from your local post office, and ordering take-out from a japanese restaurant doesn't equal a vacation to Japan. Not even close! Go to work that week, don't buy all the junk and save up for a real vacation next year.

Whoa there big fella. I developed that idea at Christmas time, two years ago. I used the internet and printed pictures of Italy and links to Google Earth to simulate a trip to “Roma”. I gave it to her for a Merry Christmas.

Yes, I was able to save money by not actually traveling overseas. I won that battle! For my efforts I was given the opportunity to sleep on the “Victory Couch”. Those Who Do Not Learn From History Are DOOMED To Repeat It!

Don’t be an idiot. Take the trip don’t just order 5 Buck Pizza delivered to the house and call it good.

There is nothing that takes the place of the real thing, but if you take the real trip and do not do the study and preparation to inform you about what you are going to see------you miss a lot. I have found that the anticipation of taking a trip to a land that is foreign to you is almost as much fun as taking the trip because you read, study, and learn a lot about the people and the area you are going to visit. Everyone is different, but I can see her viewpoint and it is not a bad one. As for me, I would like to take the trip if I had the money and the time. But there is a lot to be said for taking a vicarious trip through other means. The important thing is to have the fun and do the things you can do.

I agree. Dumb, dumb, dumb. A weekend trip to the Adirondacks would be 100X better.

Count me among those who say this is a dumb waste of money. If you are living in reality then pretending you are overseas from your own house will do little more than to depress you because you really aren’t there now, are you?

We can’t afford a "real" vacation this year either, but we have stayed busy nearly every Saturday this summer doing something local with our kids. If you take the time to look around, you’ll be surprised at how many activities are free or low-cost in your own area. Suggestions from friends, word-of-mouth, and local newspapers are great resources. We have enjoyed local events, train rides, street-fairs, swimming, fishing, bike trails, picnics, waterslides, and overnight campouts at a local lake. We sometimes get together and go with other families and the kids are having a blast and look forward to every outing. As long as we are out having fun together, I don’t miss blowing money that we don’t have anyway on an expensive vacation.