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In a previous post, I discussed my experience in 2006 with hostels in Italy, France and England. Once again, we’re planning a trip for late February, and I thought I’d share how we saved a few dollars, without compromising the experience.

The planning process (well, after deciding on Rome, and choosing a date), started with booking the flight. Expedia.ca is my favourite way of finding and booking a flight. They have all the major airlines, and allow you to easily compare prices, connections, and flight duration. I searched flights with a few of Expedia’s competitors, and none of them could match the prices. Also, Expedia includes all fees and taxes in the listed prices; many airline search tools only list the base price.

It’s also worthwhile mentioning that it’s usually best to book airline tickets early. Airlines have advanced pricing systems, and will increase prices as departure dates approach. (Because last minute travelers are usually doing so out of need, and therefore will accept the higher price, while forward planners have the luxury of shopping around, or changing departure dates.) So while there’s fun and excitement in a spontaneous vacation, you’ll save by booking your flight a few months to a year in advance.

When booking a flight with Expedia, it’s easy to book a hotel at the same time. You even save when doing so. But there are definitely better offers elsewhere.

For Rome, Expedia’s hotel selection is severely lacking. They’re either outside the city centre, or too expensive (or both). I don’t need a 4- or 5-star hotel. I want something clean and quiet, and above all, very central.

Once again, I turn to Hostelworld. For finding central accommodations, they have a great “Show on map” feature in their search. At first, I was very disappointed that Hostelworld turned up very little in the historical area of Rome. The bulk of the hostels were located near the train station, but far from the Vatican and the city centre.

But the default Hostelworld search only includes hostels and campsites. Add hotels to the search, and central Rome fills right up. That’s how we found, and settled on Domus Ester. At €30 per person per night for a double room with ensuite, it’s more expensive than most hostels, but the central location (in my opinion) is worth it. It gets great reviews, and is one of the few budget hotels in Rome that gets booked solid months in advance.

(We learned about a great Hostelworld feature when making this booking. For a couple dollars, they offer “Cancellation Protection”. If you have to cancel a reservation, they will credit your deposit to a future Hostelworld reservation. Without cancellation protection, the 10% deposit is nonrefundable.)

We get more and more excited for Rome as February approaches… I’ll post our actual experience with Domus Ester later in March.

In the spring of 2006, my partner and I took a three week vacation to Europe after finishing our undergraduate degrees. One way we made the trip affordable was by staying in hostels.

Our trip started in Venice (well, it technically started in London, but that’s another story), then we headed to Florence, then Paris, and ended in London. Everything was well planned out, and much of the research went into accommodations. And if you do your research, you’ll be rewarded with a great place, in the right location, for the right price.

It’s hard to define or describe a hostel, because they’re all so different. They can range from bunk-beds in a dormitory room with shared bathrooms, to a private room with a private bathroom. But shared bathrooms are the norm, and you’re definitely not getting hotel style or ambiance. Some have poor reputations for cleanliness, but that can be avoided with research, and some draw party-goers while others are more quiet.

The other thing to note is that hostels are priced per person. Logical when you’re talking about a bed in a shared room, but perhaps not so obvious when you’re talking about a private room for 2 people or 3 people.

An invaluable tool in finding and booking hostels is Hostelworld. They list thousands of hostels in hundreds of countries. They’re all rated and reviewed by users, with ratings broken down by elements such as cleanliness, location and “fun”. (We generally avoided fun, since we just wanted a nice quiet stay.) Pay close attention to the cleanliness rating.

Through Hostelworld, we found our hostel in Venice and Paris, and they are both places we would recommend, and to which we would return.

Venice

In Venice, we stayed at the Locanda Poste Vecie. We loved virtually everything about this place, and would highly recommend it. Located above a fancy-looking seafood restaurant, they have a number of 3- or 4-bed shared rooms, as well as private rooms. The private rooms are only slightly more expensive (€35) than the shared rooms, so that’s what we chose.

Locanda Poste Vecie is located in the heart of Venice, right next to the Rialto Market, the Fish Market, and the Rialto Bridge. There was also a very quaint coffee bar (Bar da Luca) right outside the door of the hostel for your morning espresso. After coffee, we would grab a pastry at the market, as well as some lunch meat, bread and fruit for lunch, and get on our way. The central location meant we could easily return to our room between attractions.

Florence

In Florence, we found Soggiorno Gloria. They call themselves a guesthouse, offering single to quadruple rooms, with or without a private bath. The double room with shared bath was €50 total.

Again, location is key with Soggiorno Gloria. A very short walk from the train station, and right next door to the main market. All the other sights of Florence are also within walking distance. Just be sure to bring the address, because it’s not marked from the road, and you have to ring a doorbell to get in.

Paris

We found another Hostelworld gem in Paris. It was Perfect Hostel in the Montmartre area of Paris. We had a private room with ensuite for €29 per person. That also included a small breakfast of coffee and baguette.

Located a short walk (albeit uphill) from Sacré-Coeur, as well as two metro stations, it was the perfect place at the right price for our stay in Paris. For a private room with ensuite in Paris, we would definitely return to Perfect Hostel.

London

London is a hard city to do on a budget. We stayed at the St. Paul’s YHA, part of the Hostelling International network. At about £25 per night per person (notice I changed from € to £), it was almost twice as expensive as our other accommodations, and we only had bunks in a dormitory room. Nonetheless, a large breakfast was included, and it was in a great location, being just steps away from St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Next Steps

Check out part 2 of this post. We’re currently planning a trip to Rome, and once again, we’ve turned to Hostelworld for accommodations. See what we found.