Do you stay in hostels all the time?

This is one of the questions I get quite often, especially when people ask about the budget for an around the world trip.  Quite often they are shocked when they find out that the average  for the first three years was $23,000.00. The assumption then is that I only stay in hostels, and some fear  I may be sleeping in bus stations. I am here to assure those family members and friends who worry that I might be sleeping in bus or train stations that I have the same accommodation standards I had when I was working. I have put in quite a bit of time in apartments, vacation rentals, hotels, guest houses but only a few hostels.  The only difference now is that I shop for quality bargains.

What I enjoy most is finding a bargain! This lifestyle is totally doable, especially if you are a bargain hunter. Contrary to popular belief I am traveling on a budget. I have learned how to get the biggest bang for my buck. I mostly travel in low season where bargains abound.  The budget for housing is $1000.00 dollars U.S., per month. Going well over budget the first month of this journey, a huge lesson was learned. Every accommodation shown below came in well below my monthly budget through use of points, free nights, low season travel, sheer luck and the kindness of others.

Hostels

When I started this journey hostels were not factored into the equation, but my occasional penchant for luxury hotels get the best of me somtimes. And when it does, staying in a hostel for a few nights to balance out the budget is required. Don’t discount hostels, they are fun, safe and believe it or not, really peaceful and quiet if you pick the right one.

There are advantages of hostels. One advantage is money and the other is the social aspect. Hostels continue to beat out hotels and apartments when it comes to travelers on a budget. Hostels are cheaper and can start as low as $7.00 a night; they also offer a social aspect that you just can’t get staying at a hotel. Being in a hostel is like being in someone’s home. There are usually people gathered in the kitchen or living area and they all have a common bond, travel.  Hostels can be a quiet safe refuge from the sometimes chaotic world of travel.

Best hostel deal ever was a brand new hostel in Thailand. It cost $7.00 a night. I was there for one month, 21 days of the month the entire six bed dorm room was mine. OMG!!!  I was so happy. Total for the entire month, $210.00 U.S.!  ($790.00 dollars left from the month’s budget to play with).  Cha-ching!  Add the fact that the owner and his family treated me like a member of the family only sweetened the deal.

Jailhouse Accommodation (Hostel) New Zealand

Dorset Backpackers Hostel – not what you would expect on a budget. This was a renovated Victorian style home that took a good hit in the last earthquake. It came in under budget for a single room.

Apartments

Getting a sense of community staying in an apartment is important to me. I have to find the local farmer’s market, grocery store, pharmacist, neighborhood restaurants and figure out public transportation. With extended time in the neighborhood and interactions with the locals I transition ever so slowly from receiving stares to having conversations that start with questions like  “Where are you from? I like your hair how does it stay twisted? What is your name?” Every now and then getting a greeting followed by my name makes this nameless tourist happy to be acknowledged as a part of the community if only for a brief moment in time. Leaving Mexico I leave a good group of friends, a regular coffee shop, bakery, grocery store, a volunteer job that I love and believe it or not, a hairdresser who knows how to do my hair.  I experience the same in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Cape Town, South Africa.

Side note: I am currently boycotting AirBnB for the damage I think they have done to the city of New Orleans; details in an upcoming blog post.

My Apartment(s) in Cape Town, George, Hermanus, Mossel Bay, Stellenbosch, and Franshoek

Becoming a true vagabond in South Africa, I took it to a whole new level. The trip started in Cape Town went up to Durban, down to George, Knysna, Mossel Bay, Hermanus, Franshoek, Stellenbosh and back to Cape Town. You can read about the South Africa adventure here .  Capetown guest houses in Greenpoint, Sea Point, Camps Bay, were fabulous.  Finally settling on the glass walled apartment with a fabulous Table Mountain view in Gardens I began nesting and enjoyed it for the remaining five weeks. The guest houses in South Africa are fabulous and very affordable for the most part, but I was there in low season.

The Final Apartment in Cape Town

The first hotel in Cape Town – spent my nights in this room off the lobby by the fireplace. My bedroom was as equally elegant.

Another Guest House in Cape Town

 

This guest house helped balance the budget. It came in well under the budget and at hostel prices. I had a private room and bath. The staff was remarkably kind and helpful. I was in and out of  here to balance some of my splurges during the two months of nomadic movement.

 

 

 

 

Other Guest Houses Along the Garden Route

Guest House in George, South Africa

Guest House in Mossel Bay – my all-time favorite. Upon arrival I discovered I had the entire place to myself (the property manager lived downstairs) No matter how beautiful, I wouldn’t have stayed here by myself! I love guest houses, the common areas are yours to enjoy. The great treatment from the staff and the fact that I had this fabulous place to myself made me reserve a second night. What a treat! Every room shown had a view f Mossel Bay.

Guest Houses in Hermanus and Stellenbosch, South Africa

Airbnb – Guest houses rule in S.A. so this is the only Airbnb I used.  I had a suite downstairs with the same view of the water from my room. But this place actually worked as a guesthouse as I had access to just about every part of the house except where the owners lived. I stayed here until I found the apartment in Gardens which ended up being perfect and centrally located.

 

Guest House in Ubud, Bali

Hotel outside of Ubud, Bali……a safe refuge from the crazy in Ubud

The guest house in Ubud was beautiful, it was the town of Ubud that I couldn’t take. I hadn’t been to Ubud in nearly 18 years and my memory of the sleepy town dotted by rice paddies on either side of the main road was quickly replaced with sweaty sunblocked laden loud tourists taking selfies on every inch of the sidewalk and cheesy tourist trap stores on every block. Not at all what I remembered.  So I found this gem of a hotel shown below, about 20 miles outside of Ubud. I stayed there two weeks. And just so you can be in awe of my bargain hunting abilities, this hotel was $17.00 a night for three nights in a single room! Then this beautiful jungle view room came available I bargained to get it down to $27.00 a night!!!!  Cha-ching! Applause, applause…….I will take my bow now.  Check out the pics below, you can click on each pic for a closer look. You can also check out the Bali blog post here!

 

Belize the Budget Buster!

Here you have four accommodations that broke the bank in the first month of this journey. Lesson learned, quick!  I stayed a week each in San Pedro, Placencia, San Ignacio and Caye Caulker. If you stay for a month in one place and take short day trips to explore other areas you save money. Hotel daily rates will kill your budget, monthly rates are your friend. Given a do over I would base myself in San Pedro on Ambergis Caye and take a flight (about $49.00) to the other islands and stay in hostels. Or, I would chose to stay a week in each place, but stay in hostels. That would have kept the trip under the $1000.00 budget. Spending $2004.00 on hotels alone in one month was a hard lesson learned. The total money spent in Belize for one month was about  $3,400.00, (flights, taxis, hotels, food) so over the budget it makes my head spin.

A very small sample of  places I have stayed in the past four years.

 

Taiwan on a visa run (used points to soften the blow)

Hotels

I have always had a great love affair with hotels. What’s not to love? You sleep in a bed you don’t have to make up in the morning. Someone cleans your room every day. You can order room service and have it delivered to a room with a bed and television in it. Oh my goodness what’s not to like? If you have a problem you call the front desk and they will send someone right away to resolve the issue. Did I mention they have room service? For some reason hotels always feel safer as there is a certain level of comfort knowing there is someone at the front desk 24 hours. Unfortunately hotels don’t foster the same level of community as an apartment or hostel.

The bottom line: If you are looking for a sense of community stay in an apartment or hostel. If room service and touring is your main focus a hotel will serve your purpose very well. In Vietnam  hotel costs are inexpensive and more cost effective than apartments. In hotels I live as a tourist. It is just a different perspective.

More tips and tricks:

Negotiate – Rule #1 everything is negotiable. When a price is listed for a vacation rental or an apartment, I look at it as a suggestion, not the actual price I will end up paying. If you are staying for a month or more, that is a key point in your favor while negotiating.

Save Your Points for Single Night Stays – The most costly rooms will be the single night stays. There is rarely any room for bargaining with a one or two night stay. The rooms shown above in Queretaro (three days)  and Puebla (about five days) could have been costly because I paid the nightly rate. I used my Expedia points and got one night free, and a deep discount on the other because the hotel honored my gold+ status. When that happens you get a room upgrade or a discounted price. I prefer the discounted price.

Clorox Wipes are Your Best Friend on the Road – I don’t travel without them and I wipe down every room before I get settled.

Points – I tend to book exclusively through Expedia because my loyalty usually pays off  through discounts or points that add up to a free night or upgrade along the way. However, there are those times when Expedia loses its mind and prices jump into the considerably expensive range and my back-up is Booking.com or Trivago.

Local Agencies – Looking in the local paper or even online you can find really good inexpensive furnished apartments (cheaper than Airbnb). I’ve looked into it but have always felt safer with the support of the Airbnb services (which I no longer use). But I have met many people who have found apartments that way. Local Real Estate agencies also offer cheaper options than Airbnb. Using a real estate agent is safer than getting an apartment from the local newspaper. Although real estate agencies are generally looking for long term rentals, many offer apartments short-term. So if the Airbnb prices are too expensive, stay in an inexpensive hostel while you work with a reputible local real estate agent to find the apartment of your dreams!

Don’t Trust the Pictures – Whether its Airbnb or VRBO (Vacation Rental by Owner) hotels or hostels, don’t trust the pictures on the websites, analyze them. If the pictures only show items (like a beautiful bowl of fruit) within the apartment and shy away from a full view of each room, be cautious. Look at the different angles at which the photos are shot. The apartment I rented in Santiago, Chile was the size of a shoe box but the way the pictures were taken made it look much bigger. I survived.  However, when getting an apartment, I want it to be bigger than a hotel room! Learn to analyze  pictures. If the square footage is not listed for the apartment, that’s another sign that you may be getting a closet.  Ask for the square footage before you commit. 

Photoshopped Hotel Pictures –  I paid for a hotel room in Vietnam that was clean and neat, but something was not right upon arrival and I couldn’t put my finger on it until taking a looking out of the window a couple of times. The view from the window exposed a dirty dark lot filled with junk and rusty tin rooftops of the houses below. Looking at the hotel on Expedia something was not right. Viewing the exact same room I discovered the view from the window had been photoshopped. The picture of my room on the laptop had a window view that showed a lush green park with beautiful tall trees and springtime flowers. In reality there wasn’t a tree anywhere near the hotel let alone a lush green park. Only there for a couple of nights  I said nothing. But the minute I left I gave them a great review because the room was clean (my top priority) but I mentioned the photoshopped view and how dishonest it was. I then alerted Expedia of the misrepresentaion of the room. I now do a Google earth check of the neighborhood of any place where I plan to stay for more than a few days.

Check the ratings and the reviews before you book lodgings. One bad review is okay, but several reviews with the same complaint that is consistent over time,  I play it safe and skip it. That goes for hotels, apartments and hostels as well.

Research the area before you book. I use Google Earth to check out each neighborhood. Even if I don’t know the exact address, that circle on the Airbnb map is pretty accurate to the neighborhood where the apartment is located.  Go to street view in Google and check out the neighborhood. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the apartment looks in the pictures, if you have to go down a dark alley and through a strip club, next to a sex toy store to get to it, it probably is not the place for you.

Tips for Apartments

Ask Questions….be specific. I ask specific questions because I was stuck for nearly a week in an apartment on the beach in Belize with a cup, a plate, two forks and a wine bottle opener. The listing said fully stocked kitchen. This is what was discovered upon arrival:

Because this was the view from my front porch  I stayed 5 days longer than I normally would have.

 

Unfortunately I had booked through the apartment’s website. I had to do some research and found the owner in London and contacted her. No one wants to do that on vacation. After that experience I only book apartments through Airbnb or VRBO. Although the contents of the apartments are usually listed, after the fiasco with the unstocked kitchen, I still ask.  Here is the list of questions I send to each apartment host/manager because I want no surprises and I want their answer in writing. 

• Is the kitchen equipped with dishes and utensils enough for four people?
• Do you have a toaster, a blender and coffee maker?
• Is there an air conditioner/heater? Yes there are places with no heat or air con.
• Are there neighbors? This is especially important for me as a solo traveler. I stayed in an apartment house with four beautiful units, on the beach in Belize during low season and I was the only tenant. It was pretty scary, especially at night the surroundings were pitch black facing the beach. You all know I am afraid of the dark! The next day I was planning to move out and new tenants arrived for a few weeks. Feeling safer I stayed. 
• Are there instructions (specifically in  English) for the washer/dryer/cable television super important in a non-English speaking country.
• Is there someone to call if I have problems with the apartment? Believe it or not this is not always the case. I haven’t had this problem but I have heard some horror stories from the road.
• Is public transportation nearby? If not what are the available options?

Only do business on an official site like Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia etc. These sites are set up for transactions to take place only through their site because it keeps all parties safe. If a host asks you to send money before your arrival, or wants to do financial business outside of the official site do not do it. It happened to me and because of the off-putting request I ended up staying in a different apartment. Now, with a little experience behind me I would report anyone who asks for money up front. A lady in Mexico wanted me to wire her money to hold the apartment. I declined and kept looking. With Airbnb and VRBO there is a booking fee (I don’t like it) but it is well worth it to insure your stay.

I hope this info is helpful to you. Planning where to stay is the most stressful and time-consuming aspect of travel for me. I am very particular about where I lay my head at night. I put in the work!!!

If you have any questions please ask in the comments below.

Happy Travels to All!!!!!