Nov 21, 2007
You can sleep and eat affordably in Europe by staying in small towns within a hour (or less) of the famous, expensive towns
Here's a strategy that will let you thumb your nose at the mighty Euro; here's a way to overcome the increasingly-weak level of the U.S. dollar: By staying in towns within an easy radius of the major European cities you wish to visit, you can cut your hotels costs -- and even some of your meal costs -- by two thirds.
You simply need to find a neighboring city to the famous one you would like to tour that lies within about an hour's commute by public transportation (and where prices are significantly lower enough to justify the extra time and expense of taking that train ride into the major city for a couple of daytrips).
For example: rather than paying through the nose for a room in crowded and costly Venice, try staying instead in the lovely university town of Padua (Padova in Italian), a half hour away.
Padua boasts a fresco cycle by Giotto arguably greater than that in Assisi, the famed Basilica of St. Anthony (complete with Donatello sculptures) -- and it's just 30 minutes by trip from Venice herself, so you can visit the city of palaces and canals on a daytrip or two but leave behind the high prices of its hotels and dinners each evening. As a bonus, Padua is less than an hour by train from other Veneto highlights, including the Palladian villas of Vicenza and Verona (the city of Romeo and Juliet, which has an ancient Roman amphitheater hosting outdoor opera performances).
Now it helps if the neighboring inexpensive town has attractions in its own right that make it an interesting place to explore--for example, I would never recommend staying in dull and dreary Mestre rather than Venice, even through it lies closer to Venice than does Padua.
That said, here are many other cities where this tactic works well: stay in Haarlem rather than Amsterdam, Prato instead of Florence, Avila instead of Madrid, Chartres instead of Paris, and just about anywhere instead of London (I suggest Oxford).
Will this entail a different trip from one on which you stay in the big city and experience everything it has to offer, from hotels to nightlife? Yes. But it will also be a cheaper trip and, in its way, more rewarding since you will get to know two cities for less than the price of one.
Write and read comments about this post.
You simply need to find a neighboring city to the famous one you would like to tour that lies within about an hour's commute by public transportation (and where prices are significantly lower enough to justify the extra time and expense of taking that train ride into the major city for a couple of daytrips).
For example: rather than paying through the nose for a room in crowded and costly Venice, try staying instead in the lovely university town of Padua (Padova in Italian), a half hour away.
Padua boasts a fresco cycle by Giotto arguably greater than that in Assisi, the famed Basilica of St. Anthony (complete with Donatello sculptures) -- and it's just 30 minutes by trip from Venice herself, so you can visit the city of palaces and canals on a daytrip or two but leave behind the high prices of its hotels and dinners each evening. As a bonus, Padua is less than an hour by train from other Veneto highlights, including the Palladian villas of Vicenza and Verona (the city of Romeo and Juliet, which has an ancient Roman amphitheater hosting outdoor opera performances).
Now it helps if the neighboring inexpensive town has attractions in its own right that make it an interesting place to explore--for example, I would never recommend staying in dull and dreary Mestre rather than Venice, even through it lies closer to Venice than does Padua.
That said, here are many other cities where this tactic works well: stay in Haarlem rather than Amsterdam, Prato instead of Florence, Avila instead of Madrid, Chartres instead of Paris, and just about anywhere instead of London (I suggest Oxford).
Will this entail a different trip from one on which you stay in the big city and experience everything it has to offer, from hotels to nightlife? Yes. But it will also be a cheaper trip and, in its way, more rewarding since you will get to know two cities for less than the price of one.
Write and read comments about this post.
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
