A reader has recently send me an admonition, gently scolding my failure to point out that many activities and sights in Europe and elsewhere are free-of-charge to experience. Because it's an important point that shouldn't be overlooked in the responses to this blog (especially his tip on how to find these freebies in the places to which you're traveling), I'm repeating his statement here:

In all your blogs about keeping travel expenses in Europe down, you have forgotten to mention FREE things. There are a lot of free things besides people-watching out there. Use your favorite search engine to look for "free things to do in BLANK" (whatever city you're traveling to). London has a great array of items. For example, we signed up at a website which offers free tickets to concerts, plays, etc., and snagged two tickets to a top concert with top seats. This event turned out to be the highlight of our trip. Museums usually have at least one day a week that's free ... You just need to do a little research before you go, and then ask once you're there.

Labels: budget, europe

My daughter Pauline has just published her list of the world's most attractive, budget-priced destinations, and it contains a number of places that aren't well known, even among the most avid travelers. With her permission, I am summarizing them below in greatly condensed form you can see the entire list here).

1. Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, home of the Bathhouse in Berkeley Springs State Park, where you can soak in thermal waters and then receive a Swedish massage for a total of $40. All other recreations are similarly cheap, as are lodgings.

2. Boundary Waters Canoe area of northern Minnesota. For canoeing close to 1,300 miles of navigable waters, outfitters will rent you a canoe and supply you with food for the trip, for extremely reasonable sums.

3. The midcoast of Maine (Rockland, Maine), where you'll find the superb Farnsworth Museum (Andrew Wyeth, Louise Nevelson), many small galleries and restaurants, Windjammer cruises, and low-cost mom-and-pop motels. All of which makes it a fine jumping-off point for such pricier places as Kennebunkport, Bar Harbor, and the area near Acadia national park.

4. The Wisconsin Dells. "Waterpark capital of the world," charging $30 to $35 a day for most waterparks. There's fishing, golfing and rock-climbing, and (with some effort at ferreting them out) reasonably-priced motels for as little as $40 a night.

5. The Oregon coast, spectacular in its vistas, with wine areas further inland. Go, especially, to the little town of Yachats (where I've vacationed), with its excellent, reasonably-priced restaurants.

6. The Dominican Republic (you know about this one).

7. Newfoundland, Canada. Puffin colonies and caribou herds, whales, bird-watching, hiking, excellent camping facilities. Gros Morne National Park here is a World Heritage site.

8. The Mayan Riviera, just south of Cancún on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. Fast-developing, its hotel-resorts challenge those of the Dominican Republic as the world's least expensive. White sand beaches and Mayan ruins are the lure.

9. Peru. Cusco is a favorite jumping-off point, as is elegant Arequipa. Wonderfully low-priced.

10. Bulgaria. Europe's budget champion, with its Black Sea beaches and well-preserved medieval villages.

Pauline's brand-new travel guides, now numbering 12 titles, and eventually to be a series of at least 24, are in all major bookstores, and I urge you to scan their pages. Once you do, I'm sure you'll choose the Pauline Frommer's Guides for your next trip. Two of the books (on New York City and London) were recently named best travel guides of the year by a prestigious group of travel journalists.

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Labels: budget, pauline

Some U.S. families regard the self-drive automobile tour, staying in highway motels, as an excellent way to see the country. Surprisingly enough, a great many Europeans feel the same way about their highways and motels. At strategic Autobahn and autostrada exits across Europe are modern roadside motels waiting to welcome them with standardized comforts, few frills, and rock-bottom rates: €29 to €75 for a double room.

I've written before about Travelodge (www.travelodge.co.uk), a British chain of 330 motels where Web sales can bring the price of a double room as low as £19, but that is far from the only motel chain operating in Europe. Travelodge's rival Premiere Inn (www.premierinn.com) boasts 500 hotels in the U.K. and Ireland -- and there are motels beyond the British Isles, from Berlin to Budapest.

Accor, the vast French-owned hotel group, may be more famous for its higher-end hotel brands Novotel and Sofitel (and, in the United States, Red Roof Inn and Motel 6), but at the other end of the lodging spectrum it runs the famously basic Formule 1 (www.hotelformule1.com), a chain of 380 motels in 14 European countries. These utterly bare-bones motels are fully automated (aside from a few hours each morning and evening), the "receptionist" consisting of an ATM-like machine you use to check yourself in.

One step up in the Accor family is Etap (369 motels in 11 countries; www.etaphotel.com), with a live receptionist all day, rooms with a double bed and a lofted bunk for a child, and an included breakfast buffet (breakfast at Formule 1 costs an extra €3.90).

Another French lodging includes the motel-like brands of Campanile (more than 300 properties in nine countries; www.campanile.com) and Kyriad (200 motels, all in France; www.kyriad.com). Europe even boasts familiar roadside signs for such American chains as Holiday Inn Express (www.hiexpress.com) and Days Inn (www.daysinn.com), where rates start around €55 to €75 for roadside properties, rising to €130 to €210 for hotels closer in to city centers.

This brings up an important point. European motels are increasingly no longer limited to highway interchanges, airport approaches, and ring roads. A surprising number of these bland but reliable chains are opening up along the outskirts of, and sometimes even within, the historic city centers of Europe's major cities.

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Labels: accommodations, budget, europe

The savings achieved by staying in a suburb or satellite of London, Paris, Florence, etc., etc., are so very important that they deserve further discussion. In this time of a painfully weak U.S. dollar, choosing that sort of location for your next European trip can make the difference between an affordable stay and a bankrupting one.

The great capitals of Europe and the renowned cultural centers are often inundated by tourists, whose presence causes costs to skyrocket. The suburbs are obviously less crowded and often refreshingly cheap.

A decision to choose a suburban location is frequently made by the Europeans themselves, for a variety of reasons. In the last years of his life, when he was still appearing on the stage in London's West End, Sir Laurence Olivier would commute home late at night to Brighton, England, whose residential seaside areas he apparently preferred to the locations in London he could easily have chosen. Brighton is less than 40 miles from London.

When I suggested that tourists consider staying not in the badly overpriced hotels of Venice but in the far more reasonable lodgings in Padua, thirty minutes away; when I advised staying in Prato rather than Florence, in Avila rather than Madrid, in Haarlemrather than Amsterdam, I received enthusiastic endorsements from several readers of this blog.

One of them pointed out that on their own periodic trips to Paris, they stay in Vert Galant, a suburb near Charles de Gaulle Airport, where 60€ a night (about $100) bought a fine double room with full buffet breakfast each morning for two persons. Vert Galant is eight stops and less than half an hour on the speedy R.E.R. suburban train system from the Gare du Nord (North Station) in the heart of Paris. Buying a one-week "Carte Orange" transportation pass for 32.10€ (less than $50) brings you unlimited transportation not only on the R.E.R. suburban trains but on the Métro (subway) of Paris for seven days. Generally speaking, the couple choosing Vert Galant for their accommodations will save about $100 a day, or $700 over the entire week -- which ain't hay.

So give this some thought. The dramatic decline of the U.S. dollar should cause us all to consider alternative methods of visiting Europe, and the use of inexpensive suburban locations less than a half-hour from the center of the big city is one of those methods.

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Labels: accommodations, budget

Pick any popular area, where tour buses prowl and hotels and restaurants charge a premium. Now shift your gaze slightly north, south, east, or west and you'll find an area that is undoubtedly just as attractive yet far less trammeled and, hence, less expensive. It almost goes without saying that, as with any strategy that takes you off the beaten path, this also offers you a chance to have a more unique and rewarding travel experience away from the madding crowds that infest the most popular areas.

Here are a few illustrations to prove the point. Millions of visitors descend each year upon the beaches and towns of Provence, yet relatively few venture further east along the Mediterranean coast to France's Languedoc region, also full of sunny beaches, roman ruins, mighty castles, fine wines, and pastel-washed medieval towns.

For every hundred tourists who drive the Ring of Kerry and kiss the Blarney Stone in Western Ireland, maybe ten head just north up the coast into County Clare, famed for its traditional music and dramatic landscapes--and perhaps only one or two of those might continue up into County Sligo, where postcard towns surround roofless abbeys and forlorn Celtic tombs top windswept hills.

Most visitors to Andalusia stick to the popular western half of the region along the Costa del Sol of the Mediterranean coast and the inland cities of Seville, Cordoba, and Grenada; few discover the charms of the eastern, Atlantic Ocean half of the region: the pueblos blancos string of whitewashed hilltowns, the ancient border town Jerez de la Frontera whence comes the world's sherry supply, pilgrim routes through stunning national parks, and the ancient city of Cadiz -- at more than 3,100 years old, the longest-settled human city in Europe.

In Germany, consider the castles of the Neckar River rather than those of the Rhine River, the towns of Franconia rather than those of Bavaria. In Switzerland, explore the eastern Appenzell region rather than following the crowds to Interlaken and the Berner Oberland to get your taste of the Alps.

This strategy of setting your sights just off-kilter from the tour bus routes can also work by degrees. Central Italy is a perfect example. Take Tuscany, a justifiably popular region, but a place where most tourism focuses on Northern Tuscany (Florence, Pisa, and Lucca) and the Chianti/Siena region of Central Tuscany. That leaves the Maremma in Southern Tuscany relatively unspoiled, discovered mainly by German bicycling groups.

But perhaps you're an old Italy hand who feels all of Tuscany is overcrowded and overpriced. Move one degree further out and to the east and cross the border from Tuscany into Umbria, a region that features many of the same attractions (medieval hill towns, Renaissance art, Etruscan ruins, picturesque vineyards) but is not nearly as popular and, hence, not nearly as expensive.

To those who say that even Umbria has already been discovered and is on a par with Tuscany, I say: continue out yet another degree, looking east into the regions of The Marches and, a bit to the south, Abbruzo. The hill towns and wineries continue, but the majority of tourists have turned back to seek out Rome or the Cinque Terre. These areas of Central Italy are still almost entirely yours to discover -- and at prices far below those of the Chianti in Tuscany.

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Labels: budget, europe, tips

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.

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Labels: budget, europe, tips

A few weeks ago, I told you about a selection of new-brew hostel chains that are aiming to become household names in high-quality backpacker digs. One of the best of the trend blooming Down Under is Base Backpackers (www.basebackpackers.com), a chain that provides perks that few other hostels do, including Egyptian cotton sheets, women-only floors, and in one property, a rock climbing wall. Base Backpackers began life a few years ago as a single outpost in St. Kilda, in Melbourne, Australia, and judging from its quick growth rate -- there are now eight properties in Australia and in New Zealand -- budget travelers are grateful to be treated with respect.

Well, in Europe, another smart new hostel chain has appeared. This one, too, is run by people eager to take the concept international. It's called SmartCityHostel (www.smartcityhostels.com ), and its first, enormous, 620-bed facility has opened in Edinburgh, Scotland. The location in peerless: in Old Town on a short street long known for its hostels and proximity to charming pubs.

Like Base Backpackers, SmartCity offers a women-only section for female travelers -- a new and welcome idea for hostels. It also promises one private bathroom per room, which each lodge between two and 12 people. Most of the year, Edinburgh's tourist traffic won't keep every bed full, but during the summer festival period, you can bet that reservations will be jammed for weeks.

Unlike many independent hostels, this one has been designed and built by people who know that even money-saving tourists want a stylish environment. Interior rock walls, Jetsons-inspired carpeting, free WiFi, a roof terrace done in woods and metals, and designer furniture are part of the deal, as is an in-house cafe (serving actual cooked food!) that puts the festering self-catering kitchens of its rivals to shame. Nightly rates start at £13.50 (about $25).

Anytime a budget accommodation choice gives its guests more than hand-me-down furniture and bored service, I'm in full support. Backpackers deserve respect, too, and as long as new ideas such as SmartCity do well, budget travelers will be well served.

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Labels: accommodations, budget

The dollar has recently sunk to appalling depths -- but all is not lost. Remember that for some European services, the prices charged to the American market were set as much as a year ago. So even though the greenback has weakened, the price of some items hasn't changed all year.

Take rail passes. As long as you buy over the next few weeks, you'll be able to secure the earlier-2007 rates, despite the fact the dollar has slid dramatically downward all year. Wait too long, though, and price levels will be re-adjusted.

For example, a four-day Britrail (www.britrail.com) pass, which buys you four days of unlimited train travel over two months, costs $293 for an adult right now. Bought without a railpass, a one-way ticket from London to Scotland can cost as much as £100 (US$210) if you walk up to the ticket counter on the day of travel, so it's clear that as long as you're traveling substantial distances on your vacation, a railpass can save you money. But when the sellers of these passes re-adjust their prices to make sure they maintain the old profit margins, you can bet the price of a railpass will soar higher. The same math applies to Eurail passes (www.raileurope.com).

Many hotels, too, re-adjust their dollar rates as of the first of the year. So for the next month or so, you can still secure the lower prices set an earlier date in 2007.

It may seem obvious, but in this brutal economic climate, every little thing helps.

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Labels: budget, trains

When it comes to touring the world by escorted bus, I'm not aware of any company other than Green Tortoise, of San Francisco, that actually places bunks aboard its buses and brings down your travel costs in that manner. I wrote about Green Tortoise (operating mainly in the United States) in a July post.

But a number of bus companies in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Western Europe, claim to offer exceptionally cheap, "counter-culture" bus tours designed for youthful types. They earn that title by making use of van-like vehicles, young tour leaders, and guesthouse accommodations for overnight lodgings on fixed itineraries; or by offering "hop on, hop off" patterns that let you tour at your own pace, stopping to inspect areas that most interest you, and then re-board the next day's bus.

The most popular services in the British Isles, Europe, and North Africa are
now all gathered together in one site at Radical Travel (www.radicaltravel.com). It represents, for instance, the famous Shamrocker Adventures (www.shamrockeradventures.com) of Ireland, and Haggis Adventures (www.haggisadventures.com) covering Scotland, England and Wales. Radical Travel also links directly to the Europe-wide service Busabout (www.busabout.com), which offers both "Busabout Adventures" of set itineraries in Spain, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Morocco, and Egypt as well as the "Busabout Explorer" hop-on/hop-off service. This is a pass valid for the entire operating season (May to October) on your choice of a series of loops covering Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Austria.

The hop-on/hop-off cheap bus model has spread to many other English-speaking countries popular among backpackers. The hop-on/hop-off bus service in Australia is called the Oz Experience (www.ozexperience.com); in New Zealand you're looking for the Kiwi Experience (www.kiwiexperience.com); and in South Africa it's the Baz Bus (www.bazbus.com). All are exceptional opportunities for the right kind of traveler.

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Labels: budget, bus

What's going on with passenger-carrying freighters, ask a great many readers? Are they still around? Answer: more than ever. The increasing use of computer-operated, automated equipment has reduced the size of crews, opening up more cabins for use by passengers. And the additional revenue is highly valued by the freighter companies, which now offer numerous sailings each month of these lengthy, 30-day-and-longer itineraries to exotic ports of the world.

The major recent change has been in price. Since tariffs are usually calculated (by the freighter companies) in euros, the dollar price has risen sharply over the years. While once there were some cabins available for about $100 per person per day, the usual minimum rate -- based on my own review of recent charges -- is about $140 a day. For that, you get the run of the ship, you dine with the officers, and wander about through long, lazy days, perhaps writing that novel you always had within you.

The best way to obtain a partial glimpse of the options is by accessing www.freighterworld.com and then filling out a form to receive a free copy of the bi-weekly, glossy, six-page newsletter ("Freighter Space Advisory") published by Freighter World Cruises, Inc. (180 South Lake Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101-2655, phone 800/531-7774 or 626/449-3106), one of the largest of the passenger brokers for the 21 largest lines operating freighters. Although the newsletter writes up only three or four sample opportunities out of the dozens available (see the website for many more), its photographs and maps are tremendously instructive. Keep in mind that most passengers (except for that occasional novelist) are in their 60s and 70s, and that departure dates are estimates requiring that you be able to board the ship on a day of their choosing (obviously, you must have time to burn). Twelve are the maximum number of passengers taken aboard each ship.

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Labels: budget, cruise

It's a closely-guarded secret among savvy travelers: that there are two types of Motel 6, the original (and occasionally shabby) versions with outdoor corridors, and the "new builds" with interior corridors and modern, comfortable amenities. And while the older versions may not be to your liking, the newer kind (designed by the chain's innovative French owners, the Accor hotel corporation) are the full equivalent of motel chains charging considerably more. While most Motel 6s ask a uniform $35.99 or $41.39 per room, regardless of whether they are older motels or "new builds," the newer models are a tremendous, comfortable value at that price (even though they are probably the cheapest lodgings in their communities).

In advance of a road trip through the U.S.A., go to the company's website -- www.motel6.com -- and take a look at the description of each motel you're considering. If it's with "interior corridors," book it! There are now nearly four hundred of these newly-built, modern Motel6s. You'll stay in modern, clean, comfortable surroundings and enjoy all the traditional Motel 6 extras: free local phone calls, no surcharge on long-distance calls, free morning coffee, data ports, no charge for kids 17 and under occupying their parents' room, free HBO and ESPN.

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Labels: accommodations, budget

So help me, I'm receiving a number of messages from readers who have cut their London meal costs by purchasing microwavable dinners at Tesco, and then borrowed use of a microwave at their guest house to heat them up. It's a sign of growing desperation as visitors rebel against the high cost of British suppers.

And what is Tesco? It's the largest supermarket chain in the U.K., always featuring a department with frozen dinners costing around $4 (a tenth of what you'd spend for a restaurant meal). Its various London branches are usually only a few minutes from your hotel, as are branches of its competitor, Sainsbury's. Even Marks & Spencer now operates London supermarkets, and all of them sell frozen dinners.

What else you need is a sympathetic guest house proprietor or hotel front desk clerk willing to find you a microwave. And incidentally, what works in London should also do the same in other European cities.

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Labels: budget, food, london

When it comes to exchange rates, the news is awfully bad. The British pound costs $2.05, the Euro $1.38, and both may have strengthened further by the time you read this. Nonetheless, there are exceptions to the bleak current picture of the U.S. dollar.

An acquaintance of mine recently returned with her husband and children from a 12-night vacation in Brazil. For a family room in a delightful oceanside resort in the historic Brazilian city of Paraty, a three-hour drive from Rio, including a full buffet breakfast for all four in their party, they spent $30 a night. In Rio itself, two short blocks from awesome Copacabana Beach, they spent $60 a night for room and four breakfasts.

To make additional vacation choices from countries whose currencies are weak against the U.S. dollar, go to a much-used website for currency equivalents found at www.xe.com. Then click on "currency table," which enables you to compare the current value of the dollar with the value it had two-or-so years ago. You'll find that the Mexican peso remains weak against the dollar (11 pesos for one U.S. dollar), as does the Argentinian peso. And though the Chinese yuan has recently strengthened by 9%, it still remains a remarkable bargain at its present exchange rate of approximately 7.50 to the dollar. In Eastern Europe, Romania and Bulgaria have weak currencies; in the South Pacific, the island of Bali is a steal; and the Bhat of Thailand is another currency whose weak current level permits a very low cost visit.

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Labels: bali, brazil, budget, bulgaria, romania

If you've been to Las Vegas lately, you've experienced the sharp rise in prices for lodgings and meals in that city. With nationwide conventions happening there for weeks on end, the hotels of that city are often fully booked and expensive to get. The same for meals. With some Las Vegas hotels currently earning more money from their restaurants than their casinos, the old policy of pricing meals as loss leaders has been jettisoned; the food of Sin City is increasingly pricey.

So which is the better choice for budget-minded vacationers -- Las Vegas or Orlando? I say Orlando. The bargains in packages that combine airfare, hotel and car rental, and the recent competitive ticket prices at Universal Florida, have created new opportunities for cost-conscious families.

The bargains begin with an Orlando offering from the Florida-based eLeisure Link (tel. 888/801-8808; www.eleisurelink.com): a remarkable $499 per person for round-trip air from New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Hartford, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence or Washington, D.C. (with cheap add-ons from everywhere else), a two-bedroom suite with mini-kitchen at the Nickelodeon Family Suites Resort (kids get their own, entertainment-filled bedroom and water park-style playground), and a five-day mid-sized car rental with unlimited mileage, all based on a family of four traveling together. Add to that the recent admissions price of $86 per person for a full week at the theme parks of Universal Studios, and you have a record low price for a weeklong family vacation. While first-timers to Orlando will undoubtedly prefer devoting their week to the Disney theme parks, repeat visitors seem to be well satisfied with the more contemporary attractions of Universal, whose two theme parks -- a TV-oriented Universal Studios Florida and a movie-and-comic-strip themed Islands of Adventure -- provide the basis for several days of enjoyable entertainment.

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Labels: budget, orlando

A lot of Americans have learned that the large, central European city of Budapest offers many of the pleasures of the more heavily visited European capitals but at a fraction of the cost. Several four-star Budapest hotels charge less than a hundred dollars in winter for a double room. Restaurants in downtown Budapest will serve you pork cutlets with a paprika cream sauce, together with the excellent beer of the country, for less than $30 for two persons. And the Király Baths in Buda bring you an hour-long soak in a 97-degree communal pool for only $4. For a one-week package to Budapest costing as little as $899 from November 1 to December 10 and from January 2 to March 31, call Paul Laifer Tours at tel. 800/346-6314, or log on to www.laifertours.com.

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Labels: budapest, budget

I don't usually recommend other peoples' travel literature. But a newsletter called "Las Vegas Advisor," published by Anthony Curtis, is so very delightful and helpful in the specialty area, that you really ought to request a copy to learn whether you'd like, or benefit from, a subscription.

The "Las Vegas Advisor" is not for the casual visitor to Las Vegas, but for those hooked on that awful city, the gambling-oriented people who go there frequently each year and want to know where the odds are best in your favor, where to get the best coupon (discount) booklet for all your needs, how you can be comp'ed for a free stay, where to get other discounts, where to attend a show for less, how you can occasionally beat the odds. Its text is racy and fun, its knowledge is based on many years as a resident, and it sometimes makes for good reading even if you haven't plans for an early trip there. A one-year subscription is $50; but a better approach is first to request a sample issue for $5. You do this by going to www.lasvegasadvisor.com, or by contacting Las Vegas Advisor, c/o Huntington Press, 3665 Procyon Street, Las Vegas, NV 89103.

And for a guidebook to the accommodations of Las Vegas, the most affordable full-scale meals, the top attractions, the excursions outside the city, the definitive work is Pauline Frommer's Las Vegas now in bookstores, reflecting a several month stay there in which she personally sampled (one night at each) no fewer than 40 hotels.

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Labels: budget, las vegas

Among the services presently offered by almost all public libraries are not simply Internet access and use of computers, but faxing and photocopying of the sort for which you'd pay big amounts to a Kinko's or a hotel's business center. You should keep that in mind when you travel. Internet and computer use are usually free at a public library, and laser copies can cost as little as 10 cents and photocopies only five cents. And thus, the institution that plays such a big part in the lives of many of us, is handier still when you find yourself in another U.S. or foreign city.

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Labels: budget

The giant worldwide student travel operator called STA recently offered seven nights of hotel accommodations in Hawaii as well as round-trip airfare there from the West Coast, for an amazing $449 per person. That served to remind me that STA offers weekly travel specials on its web site that are among the best in the business. Simply log on to www.statravel.com, then click on "Deals & Discounts," and you'll almost always find an extraordinary pick-of-the-week, as they call it -- and rumors abound that you don't always have to be a student to take advantage of it.

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Labels: budget, websites

A tip from a reader, commenting on one of our blog posts, is so important that I'm repeating it here. She claims that high-class hotel rooms in cities like London, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, and more, can be obtained by bidding as little as $100 a room on www.priceline.com, the famous opaque search engine. And she suggests that you make the attempt before settling for a cheaper "private homestay" (and after using www.biddingfortravel.com and www.betterbidding.com to obtain guidelines for your Priceline bid).

Obviously, Priceline won't work for those popular high season dates when hotels are heavily booked in major European cities -- the hotels offer discounted rates to Priceline only when they're in trouble. And on those much-in-demand dates, you'll still need to search out a "private homestay" (room in a resident's apartment or home in London, etc.) if you're to enjoy affordable rates.

But who would have dreamed that Priceline could be used for European hotel rooms? Since the vast percentage of travelers is probably unaware of that possibility, you might want to try our reader's advice.

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Labels: budget, websites

If I were asked to name the single best hotel bargain in America, I'd probably refer to a charming, "roaring twenties" pile once inhabited by the likes of Al Capone and Desi Arnaz in South Miami Beach, Florida. It's called the Clay Hotel; its nicely furnished private rooms have phones, TV and air conditioning, and yet they rent this summer for only $56 a night per double room with shared bath and $80 per double room with private bath. The hotel also has dormitory-like hostel facilities for young or unpretentious travelers that are among the best of their kind and cost only $23 to $28 per person per night. And yet the Clay is within an easy walk of the beach, a quick stroll from the Lincoln Road pedestrian mall and restaurant row and all the rest of the sizzling scene in South Beach. Call 800/379-2529 or log on to www.clayhotel.com.

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Labels: accommodations, budget, miami

In the world of low-cost airfares to northern Europe, a company called 1-800-FlyEurope is making quite a name for itself. It is owned by the well-known AutoEurope (www.autoeurope.com) operating out of Portland, Maine, and its prices for airfares are quite stunning. While peak summer flights aren't especially favorable, departures taking place just after Labor Day in September are already as low as $571 round-trip between New York and London (on American Airlines, no less, a morning departure from New York), including not simply the standard fuel surcharge of $140 but all government taxes and fees -- that $571 is the final price you'll pay. The same from Los Angeles to London for September evening departures is as little as $707 round-trip, again including fuel surcharge and taxes. There are good rates to Paris as well, and you can learn more about these and other specials by calling 1-800/flyeurope, or logging on to www.1800flyeurope.com.

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Labels: budget, websites

Croatia is one of the hottest of current destinations. The former province of Yugoslavia has been free of violence for more than a decade. Its touristic highlight, which is Dubrovnik, has been restored to its precise pre-war appearance and is once again vital and enchanting, as are all the other resorts of the Adriatic coast, such as Split, Hvar, Sveti Stefan, and the picturesque offshore islands. Its capital, Zagreb, is humming with culture and cafe life. And because its prices are among the lowest in Europe, it is attracting the intelligent tourist. You might choose Croatia for the remaining months of 2007.


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Labels: budget, croatia

People write to me that they are planning to represent their company at a convention in Las Vegas but then would like to stay on for a few more days on their own, and where can they get good prices at hotels and evening performances? I respond not simply with the key Las Vegas websites for discounts at hotels, but with the advice that they wait to buy their show tickets until they arrive in Vegas and can go to the two half-price ticket booths that now operates on the Strip. Those kiosks are a real money saver, and depending on the time of the year they will even sell reduced-price seats to the popular Cirque du Soleil show that is normally sky-high in price. All over the nation, theaters with unsold seats sell them at sacrificial rates on the day of performance, at special central kiosks or ticket booths maintained for that purpose.

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Labels: budget, las vegas

A travel organization called Escapes Unlimited operates as much for the love of travel as for profit. It was founded 25 years ago by a California social worker named Roe Gruber to deals with the world’s most exotic destinations at prices well below what everyone else asks. Imagine enjoying a five-night stay in Bali or Vietnam, including breakfast, sightseeing, and round-trip air from Los Angeles or San Francisco for $899 per person. Or five nights in Ecuador or Panama, including round-trip air from Miami, for $599. Or five nights in Buenos Aires, on the same basis, for $649. Roe Gruber’s obvious goal is to bring about learning and heightened social consciousness through travel. If you’d like to join her trips, simply go to www.escapesltd.com.

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Labels: budget, tour companies

Though everyone has become accustomed to flying the low-cost, upstart airlines of America on flights within the country -- and I'm referring to companies like Southwest Airlines, JetBlue and Airtran -- fewer Americans are aware that various low-cost, upstart airlines of Europe are now flying across the Atlantic. An Italian company called Eurofly (www.euroflyusa.com) flies at low-cost between New York City and cities in Italy. A carrier called Air Plus Comet (www.airpluscomet.com) flies to Spain. Condor Airlines (www8.condor.com) goes to Germany from Orlando and Las Vegas. Martinair (www.martinair.com) flies from Florida to Holland. Britain's Flyglobespan (www.flyglobespan.com) flies from Orlando to Edinburgh. Because their flights aren't always listed by the big airfare search engines, you'd do well to access the airlines' own websites when you next consider a trans-Atlantic trip.

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Labels: airlines, budget

There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but free beds are increasingly available all over the world. And one of the reasons is the explosive growth of two hospitality organizations called www.globalfreeloaders.com and www.couchsurfing.com. Both of them sign up people who enjoy having or being a foreign guest and allow them to use a spare room or a spare couch for overnight stays -- totally free of charge. And both organizations have elaborate systems for screening out the wrong type of person. Some of them require references and elaborate personal statements. You'll get a kick out of reading their funky websites, and if you're the right kind of person, you may want to use their services either as a guest or as a host.

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Labels: accommodations, budget

I'm not sure that the full impact of recent exchange rates -- $2 for a British pound, $1.35 for a single Euro -- has yet sunk into the psyche of Americans planning a European trip. Or that they've considered the radical new tactics that a cost-conscious trip there will require.

Because the average guesthouse room -- I'm talking a modest guesthouse and a double room -- is currently renting for £100 in London and for at least 100 € on the continent, the cost for lodgings is therefore $200 a night per couple in London and nearly $150 in Europe. Multiply those costs by 14 nights, and for a pair of Americans traveling together, the average two-week trip can start off with a $3,000 tab for lodgings alone.

So what's to be done? It's clear to me that the cost-conscious American must, from now on, seek out not hotel accommodations, not even guesthouse accommodations, but so-called "private homestays" -- a low-cost, $40-per-person room in a residence whose owners are simply supplementing their income by renting out an occasional room. If you'll go to www.happy-homes.com or www.athomeinlondon.co.uk, you'll find such $40 per person accommodations in London. You'll find the same for Paris at www.goodmorningparis.fr or www.bed-and-breakfast-in-paris.com; and in Rome at www.b-b.rm.it.

For years, many of our Frommer's travel guides to Europe have laid a heavy stress on alternative, non-hotel accommodations, and my daughter's recent series (Pauline Frommer's London, Pauline Frommer's Paris and Pauline Frommer's Italy) is especially full of internet services for private homestays, university accommodations, hostels, and guest-accepting convents and monasteries. And you can bet that I'll be returning to the private homestay in future issues of this daily blog.

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Labels: accommodations, budget, england, france, guesthouse, italy, london, paris