Manage Your Life

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The best non-shady hotels for international travelers

http://travelhouseuk.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/eiffel_tower.jpg
When Rory and I went to Italy last year, the hardest part of planning our trip was picking hotels. We didn’t want to fork over a fortune when we’d barely spend any time in the rooms, but we didn’t want to cheap out and wind up staying in a sketchy part of town.

Rory’s inclination—and mine, too, naturally—was to err on the side of spending more um, caution. With two weeks in fancy-pants hotels (it was our honeymoon!), our trip was fantabulous, but in hindsight, perhaps we should have researched less-spendy options and saved ourselves a few hundred Euros.

To my credit, I was planning a wedding beforehand, so reading hundreds of hotel reviews wasn’t high on my priority list. But for anyone who’s planning a trip now, The New York Times went ahead and did all the research for you—so you have no excuse for over-paying!

Here’s their roundup: 100 Hotels for Under $150. (In includes hotels in Florence and Rome, two of the cities we visited. D’oh!)

Do you guys tend to spend more on hotels when you’re visiting an unfamiliar city? Do you trust reviews from friends? How ’bout online travel boards? (I always worry the hotel people write fake reviews talking up their shady digs!) Anyone have a fancy-pants trip coming up? If you had to spend a week in an international city right now, which would you choose?

Petra and I have been chatting about going to Paris and Israel next year. I don’t think that exactly fits in my budget, but a girl can dream, right?

Want some more travel talk? Here you go:

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Comments 1-2 of 2
  • Katie B's Avatar
    Posted by Katie B Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:44am PDT

    I just go to my Aunt... who is a travel agent and has been for over 30 years now.... Granted, not everyone is related to a travel agent... but it works for me.

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  • rglo820's Avatar
    Posted by rglo820 Fri Oct 16, 2009 9:55am PDT

    Paris is actually pretty easy to do cheaply - there are a number of hotel chains geared toward budget travelers (Timhotel, for instance) that have multiple locations in various arrondisements and are very reasonably priced. Or if you were going for a week plus, you could probably rent an apartment, which would give you the advantage of having a kitchen. I've been twice in the past year, once in-season and once off, and I never spent more than 60 Euros a night per person. I'm happy to give recommendations...

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