A place to stay can make or break our journey.
Places to stay encompasses the typical venues like hotels, Airbnb, Homeaway, and the like. When you start searching, you can also find other places that offer very interesting places that range from very affordable to upscale. We have found some pretty great places with very little effort!
While looking for places in Madrid for instance, we found Spain Select (now called Home Club) and ended up booking two different units (circled in blue in the image below) in the Centro region (historic section) of Madrid. They were within 15 minutes walking distance from each other and note the train station in the bottom right which was very close to the second (the one on the right) flat that we rented.
Image by Google Maps
If it’s easier or more convenient, one can definitely book with a travel agent or use Expedia. Both allow you to take advantage of the “bundle” packages they have.
There’s no rule of thumb to use. Simply figure out what’s good for the particular journey you’re about to embark on, then start looking to see what you like.
For example, with our trips in cities, we typically look for loft apartments that are located in the center of the city. That way we can take advantage of the public transit systems (buses, or subways). In some cases locate ourselves near the train stations.
One thing to watch out for is to verify what you’re getting. If you have a travel agent, they usually do that for you. If you’re booking you’re own, you’ll need to double check. As an example, we once searched for all-inclusives (specifically hitting the toggle). What came up was airfare and the hotel…first. You had to scroll down about two pages to find the all-inclusive deals.