Getting a Good Night's Sleep at a Good Price

Hotels, Pensiones and Apartment Rentals

Revised December 1, 2007

There are many places to stay throughout Europe, ranging from luxury resorts that cater to Europe's royalty and elite to small hotels and motels and comfortable family run bed and breakfasts. Start by doing some research before you leave, book rooms for your first few nights and then have a great time seeing what you want to see.

We arrived in Paris on both trips and thought that a hotel near Notre Dame would be a great place. By early April, rooms at the highly recommended low-priced hotels in mid-June were no longer available. We then started searching online and found a variety of hotels in our price range. The most affordable were in the Latin Quarter which is just south of Notre Dame and the most historic parts of Paris. We have stayed at the Excelsior located at 20 Rue Cujas four different times and found this simple two star hotel to be a clean bargain with a great staff. Please let me know if you make a reservation at this property and, if possible, give me an update on its condition after your stay. Unfortunately, as the dollar continues to drop in value, finding reasonably priced rooms in Paris and Rome, even in the off season, is becoming much more difficult; our bargain room a few summers ago now costs about $120 USD. So as you plan, limit your days in Paris and Rome, and spend more times in small towns where there are more lodging bargains. Throughout France and, to a lesser extent, in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain, you can find clean rooms at Etap and Formule One properties. Run by France's Accor company, the same company that owns the American chain, Motel 6, Etap and Formula One have standardized hotelkeeping the way the McDonalds standardized the burger business. Rooms are simple and clean with room for 3 in a lower double and upper single bed. A TV and sink complete the Formula One properties where showers and toilets are shared in units down the hall.

Europe Activities

ETAP took a similar design concept but gave rooms their own baths, at a cost of about 10 Euros per night. These are no-frills but clean hotels where you can check yourself in whenever you like and have a quick breakfast in the morning before hitting the road.

Hotels in Italy don't have the same marketing and branding strategies of the Accor properties. While there are many comfortable hotels throughout Italy, most are run as small family operations. It means that you will spend more time if you try to book each night directly with the hotel. Still, there are many delightful hotels throughout the country and you might enjoy doing the planning.

One of the most spectacular hotels we stayed at, without breaking the budget, was Ca del Brochhi, a beautifully renovated hotel near the Guggenheim museum and Santa Maria della Salute. It's spacious rooms include wonderful jaccuzi showers/tubs and a delicious breakfast. While I loved the friendliness of the campground on Punta Sabbioni, the nights we spent in Ca del Brocchi made us feel like we were royalty. When we stayed there the first time, the property had just been renovated and it was an incredible bargain. Now it is recognized as oneo f the nicest places to stay and has received wonderful reviews on the online booking companies. With that reputation, its prices have increased but it if you want a very luxurious room in Venice at a relatively reasonable price, it is a hotel I and many other travelers highly recommend. Please let me know if you make a reservation at this property and, if possible, give me an update on its condition after your stay.

To find other hotels in Italy and other countries, you can rely on Rick Steeve's guide books which generally lead you to clean, value priced hotels. The popularity of these books help hotels fill quickly, so you may want to get your reservations early. This is particularly true at places on the very beaten path. Still, we made some phone calls in the morning to places that Rick Steeves had recommended and found ourselves sleeping in comfortable beds that night.

Throughout Italy, a unique government program called "Agriturismo" encourages farmers to open their homes to tourists. Much like American bed and breakfasts, these working farms supplement their income with money from guests. We stayed a wonderful farm just west of San Gimiagnano. Podere Montese provided a spotless and delightful bath on a hill overlooking the beautiful towers of the walled city. Breakfast was bountiful and included honey produced on the farm. Its warm pool was relaxing and gave us a chance to meet other guests. Our Fourth of July experience was topped with an evening sing-along, sharing the farm's red wine amd grappo with friendly Austrians, Germans and Americans as a distant summer thunderstorm flashed in the sky like fireworks. Again, if you stay here, please let me know.

For information about other agriturismo farms and bed and breakfasts in Italy, go to www.agriturismoitaly.it/english/