Website Review: Hotels.com

I booked my first night in Oakland at the La Quinta near the Oakland Airport. This is my first time to use the site eventhough I have been visually barraged at the airport by people w/ the name on their boarding pass envelope. I didn't have much trouble booking a room, and the price was the same as the price on the La Quinta website before taxes. I was happy with the experience and glad it didn't make me spend a lot of time creating a customer account. I could book it and be done.

Travel Deal: Hostelsclub $1=1€ Hostel/Hotel Deal

I received a comment from Johann from Hostelsclub.com, a hostel booking site based in Venice, Italy, about a $1=1€ European Hostels Offer. That sounded like a pretty good deal with the $1 currently trading at 0.72€ on the commodities exchanges. This deal is only for US citizens to entice them to travel to Europe despite the dollar being at historical lows against the Euro. Ouch! I have never used this booking site, so I decided to look up some hostels I have stayed at. I found the Meininger City Hostel & Hotel Cologne on this list which I stayed at last year. The discount was offered for only single rooms at this hostel/hotel. The website, although it is named "Hostelsclub" includes a mix of hostels and hotels, and the discount was also available for this mix. As an independent traveler, I prefer websites that focus more on hostel beds than hotel rooms, however, checking for this discount is a "no-brainer". I wish I was heading to Europe in the near future, because I would definitely take advantage of this deal. Many hostels are offering it through this spring so start making some plans now. With some hostels offering beds as cheap as $13/night, such as at SEI-Hostel in Leipzig, you wonder how Americans would take a "Staycation". This is another great example that if you buck conventional wisdom, you can really get a great deal.

Note: I added this deal to the right-side set of great travel links.

The Beach a Block Away [Freeport, Grand Bahama Island]

Airtran started flights to Grand Bahama Island while I was living in DC, and I picked up some of their really cheap, introductory flights about 5 years ago. Airlines often offer discounted fares when they are starting a new route,and I also picked up a similar deal on my flight from NYC to Cologne, a new route from Continental. GBI doesn't have any real character, but they have some nice white sand beaches. The flight was probably about $110 round-trip, and with a $75 hotel stay, $200 for a trip to paradise is unbeatable.



My hotel, a block away from the beach, didn't have a view of the beach, a pool, or even working lights in my room, but it only charged me $25 a night. I found the hotel on a hostel booking site, and I suspect they were desparate to book any rooms. This was a steal compared to the resorts around the island. Before booking I checked google maps normal and satellite view to make sure I wouldn't be sleeping away from the tourist areas. I was on the first floor of the hotel shown below.



The hotel was across the street from a much nicer hotel, and the beach above was in front of that hotel. The hotel required a boat ferry ride to get to and from the town center, and I rode many of the local "buses" to different corners of the island. On the north side of the island they fished the meat from these conch shells.



A nice perk of traveling to the carribbean is the availability of Cuban cigars and Havana-Club rum, and I enjoyed these in the evening while waiting for the ferry back to my hotel.