Hotels
& guesthouses: Booking.com
I use Booking.com for 3 reasons: (1) It keeps all my hotel bookings together in one place; (2) I've come to trust Booking.com's review scores; (3) With Booking.com there's usually a clearly-marked Free cancellation option. Free cancellation means I can secure hotels risk-free even before trains are open for booking, and if necessary I can change those bookings as my plans evolve. How do I choose a hotel?
Location, location, location: If I'm only staying only a night or two, I look for a hotel near the station. You can enter the station name (e.g. Berlin Hbf) as search location. If staying longer, I look for a hotel close to the sights, entering the name of a city attraction as the search location, then using map view.
Review score: I look for a hotel with a review score of 8.0 or over, I have found that any hotel scoring over that won't disappoint.
Is there a historic landmark hotel? Why just visit attractions when you can stay in one? Sometimes staying in a classic hotel means a serious splurge, such as the Renaissance Hotel at St Pancras, Ritz in Paris or Raffles in Singapore, but not always so. For example, the Hotel Moskva in Belgrade, Pera Palas in Istanbul, Continental Hotel in Tangier, Majapahit in Surabaya are all very affordable.
Hostels
& cheap rooms:
Hostelworld.com
Hostelworld.com is the place for cheap but safe backpacker hostels in major towns and cities in Europe & worldwide. Not just dorms, they offer budget private rooms too.
Rent a cottage
If renting a house or cottage for a week or two is what you need, for UK & Ireland I can recommend www.sykescottages.co.uk.
Air BnB: www.airbnb.com
www.airbnb.com began in 2008 when two designers who had space to share hosted three travellers looking for a place to stay. You can now book rooms in people's homes, or apartments, flats or houses people want to rent out.
Recommended hotels in European cities...
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Sofia | |||||
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Venice | |||||
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Vienna | |||||
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Warsaw | |||||
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Zagreb | |||||
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Zurich |
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