Hotels

Inexpensive hotels can be found in Europe that are livable and even nice, so don’t think that “cheap” automatically means dirty or sleazy. For couples, or anyone who is sick of the hostel scene, there are small, cheap hotels out there that are clean and comfortable, if a bit basic. If you can handle a bathroom down the hall, you increase your choices tremendously. There are, of course, plenty of miserable roach ranches as well, so you may have to do some looking before finding something that matches your budget and standards.

Hotels that cost about the same may vary drastically in terms of cleanliness, comfort, and other amenities. It mostly depends on the owner’s attitude. A ten-room hotel that has been run by the same family for two hundred years may lack modern plumbing or central heating, but I’d much rather stay there than at a new two-hundred-room hotel with an absentee owner and a lackadaisical staff. Be aware that traditional European hotels will almost always be cheaper and have more “atmosphere” than those that have been built to “American” standards and designed for tourists.

In Eastern Europe, or somewhere like Turkey, where hostels may be a bit dingy, even a single traveler can afford a hotel, while groups of two or more are good to go. The local hostel will obviously be cheaper, but not always by that much; and the question is really what you are willing to live with - or in. It’s usually worth checking the hostel first, as you may get lucky. If it looks bad, move on up the ladder until your money and amenity standards converge.