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If Hotel Lodi can't quite make up its mind if it's a good budget hotel (with nice airy private rooms upstairs) or a pretty upmarket hostel (dorm rooms downstairs), one thing's for sure: it's a fantastic option for cheap accommodation in Rome!
It's set a couple of stops on the metro away from the city centre, in a smart suburb near a couple of excellent (and well priced) restaurants. Out back there's a lovely garden (with fruit trees and vines), perfect for lounging around in on warm summer evenings...
But what really makes it special is the people who run it. Fabrizio is a giant of a man, who literally pressgangs his guests into sharing his food and wine (or grappa), and insists on giving them detailed instructions for how to get the best out of his beloved city. Special guy, special place.
Via Oristano, 14
www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/italy/rome/17900/
For weekend city breaks to Calais the Bonsai hotel is a good choice. Tiny rooms but ideal location and budget prices. Located right opposite the main station, a few minutes' walk from the centre of the town of Calais. Most important - free parking facilities for those who travel by car.
Quai Du Danube, Calais, 62100
www.hotelara.com/france/calais-accommodation.html
I travel a lot and I like to stay in hostels, because you usually get better quality in a nice hostel than in a cheap hotel. Truly one of the best hostels in Europe is the Lisbon Lounge Hostel.
Stunning, stylish. Everything is brand new and you’ll enjoy your stay the most. Check the pictures and you'll see I'm not overstating!
www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/portugal/lisbon/4765/
www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/portugal/lisbon/
Cheap luxury - top floor restaurant with panoramic views in the five-star Arena di Serdica hotel, worth going to if you fancy a bit of luxury for once and still don't want to break the bank. Superb service and food as you would expect from such a hotel and still comes out cheap. Unbelievably attentive and polite staff, most expensive main course was 25lv (£10).
Arena di Serdica Hotel, 2-4 Budapeshta Str. Sofia. (down steps from Moskovska Street)
www.arenadiserdica.com/en/restaurant-bar/
A traditional mehana on a side street in Varna, lovely Bulgarian food including amazing kebabs (try the lamb shaslik!) and of course cheap to boot. The trance background music you can ignore! Was on business in Varna and really wanted to try some local food. I wasn't impressed by the offerings in and around the main square, but was taken there by my local contact, would never have found it otherwise.
Difficult one this - it was dark... Go down Bratka Skorpil Street (Hotel Splendid is on the corner, Cathedral should be behind you) then take the first left after the large villa.
The hotel is in a residential area about 10min walk from Termini. The room and bathroom are small but clean and new. It is generally quiet at night, except for the hostelry and pizzeria close to the hotel. Very nice employees, helpful and smiling. Only problem we had was with the elevator... there wasn't an elevator!!! Within walking distance of Stazione Termini. I would definitely stay there again.
Htel Felice, Rome
www.hotelfelice.com
Phone: 0039-06-4453347
Fax: 0039-06-4460290
nearest Station: Termini
Winner of the 2006 Manchester Food and Drink Festival for Best Food Outlet, Bolton Market will blow you away in what it has to offer. Whether it is fresh lobster, rabbit, organic veg, cheeses it is definitely worth a trip.
I go there for the fish. I have never seen so much choice and the quality is superb.
Forget your trendy expensive farmers' markets. I have found Bolton Market to be cheap, friendly, original and without doubt the best place for foodies in Greater Manchester.
Great Moor Street
Bolton
Pension Vltava offers a fine stay as it is reliable for really cheap, really basic and very clean rooms. It is great to know about for very cheap breaks to see the city or see a concert, and flying visits when you haven't booked anywhere.
It's also good if you need to to save money and have a private room if you are just passing through the city and need a place you can rely on for a cheap room which is clean.
This guest house happens to have a tiny coffee shop and bar which stays open all night every night and is really cheap. You can relax with tea or coffee, beers, wine, cognacs or becherovkas back in your room at any time.
I recommend this place. I have nearly always got a room when enquiring on the same day (it is a quite a large guest house). The price is around £11 to £14 for a room for one person per night with very clean common shower and loo.
For those who don't know the city and especially for those to whom the central places are familiar, for the lowest budget place to stay the guest house is ideally placed. It is around eight to ten minutes on a tram from near the guest house to central areas. Around it are a few interesting bars and cafes. There aren't very many tourists around here though the area is quite nice and fresh if you know Prague, except backpackers and younger travellers are noticeable as Sir Toby's travel hostel, Extoll Inn, a few other guest houses and a Czech H.I. travel hostel are around here.
The river where it bends is just over five minutes walk away and it is a pleasant walk into the centre along the riverside from near Pension Vltava. Set aside a couple of hours for a great walk across the river, away from the city, to a leafy part on the outskirts of the city, to the Trojska Chateau gallery and courtyard cafe in summer, Prague Zoo and the lovely Botanic Gardens.
It is ideal to walk here, if you have the time, and better than taking a tram, though you can eaily go by tram. Either way, it is a quiet part of the city which is lovely and I really recommend it.
A good walk away of over ten minutes is the nice Cafe Lisbon on the main riverfront road, which has characteristic pizzas especially and is good for drinking at. Just over ten minutes in the opposite direction, toward Stromovka park, is the Absolut Hotel which has an unpretentious and quite minimalist, pleasant bar and restaurant. The Mecca Music Club is a few minutes walk from the guest house. Not far, good food at a good price in the restaurant of Hotel Henry, U Papírny.
www.pensionvltava.o1.cz
(Web site in Czech, with photos and readable contact details and map)
Dělnická 35
Praha 7, 17000
Phone: +420 220 809 795
Email: josefrandak@tiscali.cz
We have just completed the booking for our Barcelona trip. We used www.hostelbookers.com for our hostel and a great little service for airport transfers called www.justtransfers.com.
Both were really cheap and for two nights we have accommodation and transfers for just under £60 per person.
www.justtransfers.com/spain/costabrava/barcelona/ for Barcelona transfers
Sample an outstandingly fresh selection of authentic and contemporary dishes, those borne out of a visit to a morning market stall in Hanoi right through to dishes found at Ho Chi Minh City’s swankiest restaurant: La Vong grilled fish from Hanoi’s finest, Hanoi Dumpling from the Imperial Capital and Camfire Sirloin Steak from Saigon’s busiest restaurant.
To accompany your food select from the amazing wines hand picked by wine critic Malcolm Gluck then sit back and enjoy an exquistite meal in a uniquely relaxed environment.
301 Old Street
Hoxton
London EC1V9LA
Tel: 020 7729 8662
Tube: Old Street
Once you come over the border from Cambodia stay in this little border town. It is quite sleepy and they do not get many tourists stopping here. But everyone is really friendly and it is really cheap to stay. Then get the train to Bangkok. There are two trains a day - one early morning and one at lunchtime. The train takes 5 1/4 hours and is only 48BHT (approx 70p) and it connects with the skytrain in Bangkok at Phaya Thai.
Cheap, clean, hotel located close to backpacker amenities. I paid 175 baht for a single fan room - pretty reasonable for the Khao San Road area of Bangkok. To say the room was Spartan would be an overstatement, but it and the shared bathrooms were clean and perfectly adequate for a short stay on a budget.
It's slightly away from Khao San Road so a bit quieter than some of the other hotels but still convieniently close to the action.
Behind the wat (temple) opposite the tourist police station at the non-Burger King end of the Khao San Road.
Danhostel Copenhagen have opened a designer youth hostel in one of the city’s few tall buildings. Every room has a stunning view and the shared rooms aimed at backpackers start at about 10 pounds. Budget rooms with more privacy are available, too.
H.C. Andersens Boulevard 50
Tel: (+45) 3311 8585
www.danhostel.dk/vandrerhjem.asp?lan=dk&id=144
English bookshop in the heart of the latin quarter, Shakespeare & Co. is an "icontournable" for English speakers. Having lived in Paris for over a year, I spent many hours in the bookshop, reviving my love for English and American novels. Like a small cave with walls built with unending stacks of books, it has a spirit of its own. Photographs of great writers, and literary classics surround a well in the centre of the shop's ground floor. If you miss speaking English, S. & Co. customers are mainly English and American tourists, most of them too amazed by the beauty and wealth of the place to buy anything. You can find almost any book you've dreamt to read, and even write a few lines about the place, on the typewriter on the first floor, also surrounded by books of all sorts. Guarded by a black cat, the place also has a children's book section, as well as German, Russian, and some French literature, stuffed under the staircase. Many photographs recall the visit of some famous writers; Lawrence Ferlinghetti, among others. It is a passionate trip through time and literature. I've spent many rainy Sunday afternoons, just reading through this goldmine of knowledge and great minds. It's not too expensive, so you can come back from Paris with more English books than mini Eiffel Towers!
Another amusing fact, in the time I was there: one of the employees looked somewhat strangely like the great William himself!
37, rue de la Bûcherie, 5th district. Metro stations: St Michel, or Cluny-Sorbonne. Phone: +33 (0) 143 254 093.
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