Traditional & cost-effective budget accommodation: The hotels and guesthouses you book will have a dramatic effect on your overall travel experience. Check out our recommendations for some of the best, most cost-effective budget accommodation we’ve discovered in our recent travels.

Our Budget Accommodation Highlights

Waru Guesthouse Karimunjawa

The Waru Guesthouse Karimunjawa was the first of the 4 guesthouses we planned to visit on Karimunjawa island. We had originally planned to stay at ...
Review

Ubud Bali Hotels & Airport Transfers

Following an overnight stay in London and a short break in Hong Kong we were keen to reach the relative peace and tranquility of a ...
Review

Turkish Airlines Hotel Desk Istanbul – Beware Scammers!

For many years we had heard a lot about the complimentary hotel services offered by Turkish Airlines for unplanned Istanbul layovers exceeding 10 hours. Many ...
Review

Sepilok Borneo – Where to Stay & Eat

After 4 days in Kuala Penyu, we organized a taxi to take us to the airport at Kota Kinabalu. Our next destination was Sepilok Borneo, ...
Review

Seaside Boutique, Panglao in the Philippines

We chose the Seaside Boutique for our second stay in Panglao, and we're very happy we did (€27 per night including breakfast). This guesthouse is ...
Review

Rome Hotels & Guesthouses

We often use Rome as our launching pad for long-distance flights to Asia. Many of the bigger airlines offer a variety of flight options starting ...
Review

Polwaththa Eco Lodge

From Kandy, we had arranged a pickup by tuk-tuk to take us up into the surrounding mountain jungle to the Polwaththa Eco Lodge. We were looking ...
Review

Panama City Hotels – Avoid Slum Areas

When choosing a place from your shortlist of Panama City hotels, you really need to make sure you're locating yourself in the right areas. Away ...
Review

Palolem Beach Guesthouses

It was through circumstances rather than planning that we ended up spending around 10 days in a variety of Palolem beach guesthouses. Cancelled trains and poor ...
Review

Palm Paradise Cabanas Tangalle

Palm Paradise Cabanas Tangalle is a medium-sized beach and garden resort located a few kms west along the coast from Tangalle. My last visit to Palm Paradise - ...
Review

Our Panamanian Hotel Experiences

During our 4-week trip around Panama, we stayed at a variety of hotels and guesthouses - in fact 11 in all. It therefore only seems ...
Review

Oasis Hotel Manila

Our trip back to Manila started in Panglao. We had booked the small Oasis Hotel Manila in north-central area of the city for just 2 nights. A ...
Review

Mangoes in Moalboal, Cebu

This is why we came to the Philippines: To relax in an off-track, secluded location with an open bath-water temperature sea, great snorkeling, eating tasty ...
Review

Makunudu Island Paradise, Maldives

Travelling with Emirates from Europe to Makunudu Island, we had an initial stop in Cyprus. We then had another stop in Dubai for our connecting ...
Review

Madrid Airport Transfers & Where to Stay

Arriving late in the evening at Madrid airport, we were keen to discover how straightforward our transfers into the city would be, and how our ...
Review

Lembongan Island Guesthouses

Nusa Lembongan is a laid-back island off the southeast coast of Bali. After our 4-day stay in Ubud, we took a boat to discover what the island ...
Review

Langkawi Accommodation Options

With just 1 week in the archipelago, we didn't have as much time as we'd have liked to experience Langkawi island life. Between hopping over ...
Review

Kuala Penyu Tempurung Seaside Lodge

Before leaving Kota Kinabalu, we telephoned ahead to our next lodging - the Kuala Penyu Tempurung Seaside Lodge - to arrange a pickup once we arrived ...
Review

Kota Kinabalu, Borneo

From Kuantan, we would have to take 2 flights to reach Kota Kinabalu, with a change in Kuala Lumpar. After the disappearance 6 days earlier of Malaysian ...
Review

Karimunjawa Guesthouse Options

For such a small island community, there is a surprising number of Karimunjawa guesthouse options. During our stay there, we were able to experience a ...
Review

Kandy Lake Comfort

From Sigiriya, we travelled the short distance to Dambulla by tuk-tuk. We were in two minds whether or not to visit the Dambulla Cave Temple. The ...
Review

Jakarta Takes Mansion Hotel

For our short return visit to Jakarta, we opted to stay in the Jakarta Takes Mansion hotel, close to the center of the city. The ...
Review

Hotel Residencial Cervantes David

We interrupted our journey from Santa Catalina to Boquete by stopping for a night at the Hotel Residencial Cervantes David. When planning our trip, we ...
Review

Hotel Quest Semarang City – Indonesia

After successfully retrieving our credit card from the BTN bank (see Honey, the ATM ate my card), we could finally get our travel plan back ...
Review

Hotel Elim & Minibus to Jepara

There are several options for getting over to Karimunjawa island from the mainland of Central Java. However, the boats run most frequently from Jepara. More ...
Review

Golf del Sur – Tenerife South

After spending a really enjoyable 2-night stopover in Girona, Spain we continued our journey to our principal destination - the Canary Islands. Our first introduction ...
Review

Denpasar Souvenir Shopping

Our last port of call in Bali was Denpasar, not far from the airport. Here we had just one day and night before taking a Cathay Pacific flight ...
Review

Cocohuts Karimunjawa

Following our hit-and-miss fortune with guesthouses in Karimunjawa, at well over 3 times the price of a regular homestay, we expected Cocohuts Karimunjawa to be quite ...
Review

Cherating Accommodation Options: Resort or Guesthouse?

After our first night in Kuala Lumpur, we made an early start: We needed to get to the bus station to take an early coach ...
Review

Ceylonica Beach Hotel Negombo

Our flight arrived in Sri Lanka in the early evening. Since Bandaranaike International Airport is actually much closer to Negombo than to Colombo, we decided to ...
Review

Breve Azurine Karimunjawa

The Breve Azurine Karimunjawa was our last accommodation choice on the island. Due to the cost (IDR 1,410,000 per day) we planned to stay here ...
Review

Booking a Venice Hotel

Choosing the Ca ’Fortuny Hotel Venice was the result of some precise online research. Finding a good, reasonably-priced hotel in Venice that’s not too far ...
Review

Best Western Hotel Riviera Fiumicino

Our trip to the Philippines was planned with a return flight to Fiumicino, near Rome. The flights back to Italy from the Philippines hit us a lot ...
Review

Amsterdam Layover Hotel & Activities

Our incredibly low-priced Lufthansa flights from Europe to Panama departed from Holland. We therefore needed to find budget flights to get us to Schiphol airport, ...
Review

Budget Accommodation Highlights

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