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BRITAIN. As in the past, this will be Americans' favorite country: a record 2 million visitors are expected, even more than came in 1978; already in April, the numbers were up almost 30% over the same month a year ago. This despite the fact that most prices, particularly in London, are the highest in Europe. According to the British Tourist Authority, Americans these days generally know their way around: they have "done" the obligatory sights and scenes like the Changing of the Guard and Westminster Abbey. The biggest draw remains the theater, where a good seat for a current hit like Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing costs around $15.
A new attraction at the venerable Victoria and Albert Museum is a dress collection featuring an exhibition of classic fashions of the 1950s and '60s. Another novelty on Yank itineraries: Castle Howard, which gave television's Brideshead Revisited its essential touch of aristocratic languor; the castle is 60 miles from the great cathedral city of York, worth a visit in itself.
Britain is an island festival all summer and into October. A delightfully offbeat itinerary for the visitor to Britain is offered by Boston's Esplanade Tours: intimate excursions (limit: 15) through Wales and England's West Country highlighted by a sing-along with Welsh miners and tea with the Bishop of Exeter ($2,390, not including airfare). This year is the Festival of Castles in Wales, which has more battlements per fiefdom than any other part of Europe and has scheduled special events ranging from ox roasts to sound-and-light shows.
There are vintage-car rallies in Humberside; a steam engine and organ rally in Yorkshire; a Teddy-bear picnic in Cumbria; a historic-car race in the east Midlands; a medieval jousting tournament in Leicestershire; flower festivals, sheepdog trials and aerial circuses.
FRANCE. For the first time in memory, a vacation in France is affordable: the dollar buys almost twice as many francs as it did four years ago. Americans—some 1.4 million this year—are lining up to cash in. Bargains cover the spectrum from a signed silk scarf at Hermes at $65 to bicycle rental at a country train station (about $4 a day). Despite an annual 12% average increase in domestic prices, hotel rates over the past three years have taken a dive when measured against the dollar. At Paris' four-star deluxe Bristol, a single room that cost $180 in 1981 now goes for $124. A first-rate dinner in Paris is still high, but no longer astronomical. At Maxim's, the meal costs roughly $70 a person, not including wine or service; the restaurant's prices have risen only 15% since 1981. The capital's taxis charge less than $2 for a ride of a bit more than a mile; car rental for a long weekend can be as low as $41, with no mileage charge.