Your vacation need not be expensive, but you shouldn’t have to compromise on quality either. A new class of hotels has emerged in recent years—trendy, city-centre, design-forward boutique accommodations that don’t break the bank. These are not your familiar budget-conscious global hotel brands (or sub-brands), but whole new reinventions where some typical amenities have been removed for the younger city traveller.
As budget conscious travellers, we certainly don’t want to shell out hundreds a night for a room we’re barely in except to refresh and sleep, and yet there’s a floor to how cheap we can be. Thankfully there’s a solution, particularly for the traveller to Europe, and two brands stand out—Mama Shelter and citizenM. These two brands, along with Ace Hotels in the US, have essentially created a new market—affordable luxury. Of course this may all just be marketing spin, a way to advertise to a particular segment, but beyond the hype are real hotels.
Spend where it matters
You can get a good deal on your travel, sometimes, and the hotel doesn’t need to break the bank, but you also don’t want to skimp and take only memories of the rundown dump you stayed in. A central hotel puts you closer to the sights, and saves you travel time as well as the added cost. The savings let you spend on the places you’re visiting, and many of the meals you’ll hopefully enjoy.
Take transit, skip the rental car
We’re big into taking transit here at Ville Route. There have been trips to car-centric places where transit was possible but a longer journey (looking at you LA and Las Vegas). Only with the exception of eventually renting a car in Los Angeles in order to get out to Malibu and Venice Beach, the only other city visits have been by air or train (and one time a bus). Many European cities have somme form of rail or transit service to their airport, and intercity rail service almost always puts you in the city centre. With some luck you may not even need any form of transportation, and for bigger cities, transit is far easier than finding parking or negotiating a taxi. Also it’s an affordable option.