Getting Deals: The Hotel

I like to think of traveling as one of my favorite hobbies, and I know as well as anyone that this hobby happens to be a huge money drainer. A few relaxing weeks can quickly become thousands of dollars before you've even left your house. Money is probably the biggest deterent to a lot of people traveling (or at least, this is what I tell myself. Because why else wouldn't you want to travel?). One thing I refuse to skimp on is the activities, because if you're not going to visit the sites you want or do the activities you want, what's the point of being there?
So that leave a few things: accommodation, flights, food, and transportation.
Quite possibly the most important thing you need to do is set a total budget, then divide that by the number of days and work out what you have to spend on what. Once you start working out what you need to spend money on you realize that what may seem like a lot may not get you very far.

The first thing I do is look on discount hotel sites. Unless you're staying in a hostel or couch surfing (both good options, but not for me personally) you probably are going to be staying in a hotel. Sites I've used include hotels.com, laterooms.com, and lastminute.com. It's important to check a few different sites because often the same hotel will come up with different prices depending on where you're looking. It also makes searching quick and easy since you can pull up loads of hotels in one area, compare prices and see pictures of them all. Another great site I've discovered is hotelyo.com. They have huge discounts, often on really nice places in great locations. The only problem with this site is that there are only limited number of locations available at one time so this would be great if you are lucky enough to find where you want to go or are just looking to get away and don't mind where you go.

If you have the option of traveling in the off season and during the week, you can save a lot of money on the hotel. Actually a lot of cities are wonderful to visit during the off season as you avoid both the crowds and the extremes of the weather. If you're lucky enough to be able to travel during the low season, definitely take advantage of it.

Extra tip: If you are walking into a hotel on the day without a booking, often they will lower their price slightly to give you a deal (don't ask for too much of a reduction, $20 tops) since selling a hotel room at a slightly lower price is better for them than having an empty room.

Let me know of any other tips you have for getting great deals on hotels.
Happy traveling!

Athens

(Academy of Athens)

(Athens University)(National Library)

As you have probably heard Athens has been having some economic/political problems which led to a few strikes earlier this year and the bombing of a bank which killed three people.
We stayed at the Melia Hotel Athens, which ended up being really close to where the bank bombing took place. It was still all black and there was piles of flowers and photos outside, it was really sad.The ground floor restaurant in our hotel was closed when we arrived as there were lots of cracks in the glass from where rocks had also been thrown. A little disconcerting.

Anyway, the first night we decided to go out and see Sex and the City 2 since it had just come out. When we left the theater at around 11:30 p.m. the feeling outside had dramatically changed, there was literally no one about, but there were police officers with large guns walking around and we encountered a few guys who made very lewd comments. Overall, it left us with a very uneasy feeling and we seriously considered leaving right then and going to Santorini early.
We decided to stay though but needless to say didn't walk anywhere at night again.

Athens is not a very pretty city but it was nice to see the Athens trilogy, which consists of the National Library, Athens University, and Academy of Athens (all pictured above). We had a wonderful dinner one night at a restaurant in Syntagma Square, where there are a few fancy hotels. It was hellishly expensive (and I think we were the only ones under the age of 30 in there paying for our own dinners) but seriously yummy and had a lovely view of the acropolis.

So I'm adding Athens to the list of places I won't be visiting again but am glad I saw once.

Pic of the sunset from the rooftop pool at the hotel.

Photos from Rome (part 2)

Please listen to this song while reading this post, as it was playing in my head most of the time I was in Rome (thanks to the Lizzie McGuire movie...yes, I should probably stop admitting that these terrible chick flicks made me want to go to some of the most wonderful places on earth).

These are the final noteworthy pictures from Rome.

Trevi Fountain

Roman Forum

Museum (...the type of which I have already forgotten)

We stayed at the Kame Hall which was in a good location, nice and clean, and since it's not a proper hotel, not too expensive. As I mentioned before, all the main attractions are within reasonable walking distance of each other...so if you find a hotel near one attraction, you won't be too far from the others. There were no restaurants for breakfast or lunch in the hotel, but since we were so close to pizzerias, cafes, and shops it really didn't matter.

I'm already trying to work out when I can afford to go back as it is a truly magical place.