Traveling Cheap - Hostels and other ideas

[Everydaymatters]

What are some suggestions for traveling cheap?

I can get good Amtrak prices by booking far ahead, or getting one of their Hot Deals, but when I get to my destination, hotels are a huge expense.

What are the youth hostels like? What is the age limit? Are there "old" hostels? Are there Colleges or Universities that will rent rooms during summer months? Does the YMCA and the YWCA still exist? What are they like? Do they still provide rooms?

What's the best way to eat cheap once you've used up all the food you've taken with you? Rachel Ray manages to eat on $40 a day, but with a camera crew following her, I'm sure they stack up her plate more than they would mine.

How can one visit the sites in new cities at cheap rates?

What cities are inexpensive to visit, see the sites and eat in?

What are some other ideas for economizing while traveling?

 

[RailFanLNK]

Recently I started staying in Youth Hostels. Hostels are as low budget as you can get. Some are great, some are filthy. A good place to start EDM is hostelzdotcom. Type in the town you want to go to and see if they have a hostel. They also have reviews there for you to read. Hostelling International is a large organization that I'm a member of. Buy a $25.00 membership or something like that a year, I get a free calling card, a membership card, a small amount off on the room and a "stay one night get the next night free" coupon. A cheap hostel on the CZ line is in Glenwood Springs CO. Not the cleanest, but I have stayed there twice now and its CHEAP!!!! Fun place and you don't need a rental car either. HI Chicago is fantastic. You live in Illinois so go to Chicago sometime and check it out. Its about 9 blocks from CUS. The best hostel I have ever had the pleasure to stay in is at Winter Park CO. Its called the Rocky Mountain Inn. (rockymountaininndotcom) Its beautiful, spotless and has a huge kitchen with a grocery store across the street and about 4 blocks from an unstaffed Amtrak station. If you stayed two nights in WIP and 2 nights in GSC the total "hostel" costs would be about $68.00 for 4 nights. Remember, they both have kitchens so grab some stuff out of your kitchen cupboards and throw it in your suitcase. Part of the "hostel" experience is like riding the train. You get to know alot of people. Some are fun, some are real cool and some can be schizophenic. (I'm not kidding) Hostels in the winter can sometimes have "locals" which is a polite term for transients when the weather gets beserkly cold. The GSC and WIP hostels will have loads of ski bums. I have not had a bad experience at the three above mentioned hostels.

 

[DaveKCMO]

i stayed in two hostels while i was on the canadian leg of my cross-country trip. the canadiana backpackers inn in toronto (4 bunk room) was clean and well-managed. the HI-montreal was not as clean (6 bunk room), but the people were cooler. both were great locations. i've seen the HI-chicago and it looks very cool. i would definitely stay there if i were traveling alone.

as far as feeling old, i'm 33 and i felt a bit old at times. but if you can remember living in a college dorm, then it shouldn't be that much of a stretch for you.

also, try using hotwire.com or priceline for a bit of savings on real hotels. by comparing your results there with hotels.com, you can extrapolate which hotel name they're selling you before you buy.

 

[benale]

I m on a limited budget, but I still take the train every chance I get. Another poster mentioned Priceline. I ve gotten great deals using it. I have a very nice hotel in New Orleans booked for $45, and laterin the year a Quality Inn in Montreal for $50.

If your train leaves in the middle of the night,or early morning you really don t need a hotel. For example,when Im leaving from BWI, the train station ora flight from the airport,I ll drive to the long term lot at BWI,get there at midnight and juck sack out in the car for a few hours. Nobody bothers you..how many vagrants are going to roam a long term lot? I ll be in LA on July 4th and flying up to Seattle on the 5th. I plan to take the Surfliner to San Diego, tske the last one back, get back to LAUS, take the 24 hour flyaway bus to LAX about 3AM and wait for my flight. There are many ways to cut expenses.

If you want to explore a city on the cheap, take their local transit system. In LA, an all day pass costs $3. I was in Vancouver and rode their Skytrain all day for $6. Washington DC also has an inexpensive all day pass. You can get off and on whenever you like and really explore a new city. Most train stations are very close to the public transportation system.

There are many ways to cut down expenses once you are in a new city. It just takes a sense of adventure and a ittle planning.

 

[Guest]

When one is looking for cheap eats in the vicinity of LA Union Station, go to ABC Seafood (Chinese Takeout); it's on the corner of New High and Ord streets - basically, you walk up Alameda, make a left at Philippe (that's Ord), then go two blocks up to the corner; use the takeout, not the sit-down restaurant next door. Most expensive item is combo B: two main items, plus rice, plus noodles, plus two eggrolls, plus a can of soda....$3.95. (got this from a conductor...)

 

[AmtrakCrescent20]

You may be able to get low rates on hotels using coupon sites, such as roomsaver.com. These hotels generally won't be in the city, but in most cities you could find one where you could take some form of mass transit into the city.

In almost every city there is a bus system, even if no other form of transit exists, which provides, depending on the city, extremely low cost transportation. Bus travel in all but the major cities can be adventurous, however.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Well for sleeping...

There are a number of aggregator websites that can reserve beds for you in hostels worldwide, the most well known being Hostelworld. Note, however, that Hostelworld charges a booking fee to reserve your bed, and you might be able to get a better deal if you call the hostel direct. Hostelworld normally block books a certain number of beds, which can sometimes mean that a fully booked hostel will still have availability through Hostelworld.

However it's been a long time since I stayed in a hostel in North America. I'm a member and big fan of the Hospitality Club, which is a free hospitality exchange site. Members create a profile based on their location and add as much or as little information about them as they want. If you have a couch or spare bed that you don't mind offering to a visitor, you can arrange to welcome people for any length of time. Good guests and good hosts then leave comments on each others profiles to show future guests/hosts what they're like. So, it's basically free accomodation worldwide... you do have to be flexible and accept that you won't always be staying in the most central locations, but you will be staying with a real local and you'll get to see a side of life that a regular tourist would never get. The site is run by volunteers and can be a bit slow, but it's a brilliant idea that has never let me down. Another similar site with a smaller database is called CouchSurfing, but I've found it much harder to find places to stay - it seems to be populated by college students wherever I end up looking.

One point of caution is that (conversely to what you may think) bigger cities are harder to find free beds in... there are many many many HC members in Paris and London, for example, but they are swamped with hospitality requests. I strongly recommend you make your profile personal, give as much information as possible and make sure that you send a personal request to only those members who interest you, explaining why you want to stay with them. When I lived in Montréal I knew a few other HC members, and it was pretty easy to check when someone had been sending us all the same template message :lol:

For eating...

Well, make a point of heading to every city's Chinatown - that's where I always fill my cavernous stomach for the smallest price. If you're travelling overnight in coach on Amtrak, I'd recommend bringing your own food (sandwiches etc) and skipping the restaurant car dinner: breakfast and dinner are much better value. For me, breakfast is the only essential restaurant car meal.

And for travelling...

Don't forget Amtrak's wide range of rail passes. The best periods to travel are at the beginning and end of the low seasons, so that you're effectively benefiting from the low season price for 'shoulder' seasons.

*j*

 

[Sam Damon]

I second the notion of checking on one of the hotel auction sites.

Also, if your cafe car attendant or conductor seems particularly sharp, ask for their opinion for things to do or places to eat. The better ones will punch your cluetrain ticket.