The buck stops here

Americans may learn best about global economics when they’re traveling. Our beloved dollar? Sure, it’s pretty darn powerful in some places. But in others, we’re likely to be downright humbled by its tumbling value. To demonstrate, here is a comparison of typical travel purchases at last week’s exchange rates. The prices listed here were derived from information from a variety of experts, including tourist bureaus, hotel concierges, bartenders, taxi dispatchers, pricing websites and so on. Each number in this chart is an average of multiple prices from different sources. All prices are before tax and tip.

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City: Los Angeles

A buck is worth: $1

A Grey Goose martini: $12

1 night in a mid-priced hotel: $139

Big Mac: $2.75

10-mile cab ride: $30

A gallon of gas: $3.30

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City: London

A buck is worth: 0.48 pound

A Grey Goose martini: $24

1 night in a mid-priced hotel: $350

Big Mac: $4.12

10-mile cab ride: $62.10

A gallon of gas: $7.91

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City: Paris

A buck is worth: 0.68 euro

A Grey Goose martini: $21.92

1 night in a mid-priced hotel: $219

Big Mac: $4.68

10-mile cab ride: $29.24

A gallon of gas: $7.75

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City: Rome

A buck is worth: 0.68 euro

A Grey Goose martini: $17.50

1 night in a mid-priced hotel: $207

Big Mac: $6.31

10-mile cab ride: $38

A gallon of gas: $7.16

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City: Tokyo

A buck is worth: 110.07 yen

A Grey Goose martini: $14

1 night in a mid-priced hotel: $229

Big Mac: $2.52

10-mile cab ride: $34

A gallon of gas: $5.10

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City: Beijing

A buck is worth: 7.44 yuan

A Grey Goose martini: $13

1 night in a mid-priced hotel: $144

Big Mac: $1.48

10-mile cab ride: $4.85

A gallon of gas: $3.55

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City: Toronto

A buck is worth: 0.96 Canadian

A Grey Goose martini: $17

1 night in a mid-priced hotel: $177

Big Mac: $4.04

10-mile cab ride: $41.84

A gallon of gas: $3.96