I am a really big fan of booking my hotels through Agoda, especially in Asia. I’ve been using them for 2 or 3 years now, and their point/reward system for both bookings and writing reviews after stays has brought me a lot of free or reduced rooms. Just last weekend in Green Bay, Wisconsin I booked a free night at the Holiday Inn, and I’ve trimmed $25 or $50 off of a few trips in Thailand and Vietnam. So it’s worked well for me.
But I am in the daydream stages of finding a temporary home in some faraway city late next spring or early summer. Is it Cordoba, Spain? Maybe Budapest? Back to Istanbul? I have no idea other than I’d like somewhere I can explore on foot, soak up some culture, history, and charm. If you are looking to soak, however, you need more than a couple nights, in my opinion. So I am looking at possibilities of one- or two-month stays, something local, not touristy.
And even as I’ve been thinking about this, a lodging site contacted me called Enrout, “Live Like a Local.” I’m not sure if they are going to work for my long-term plans, but some of the properties I’ve looked up have seemed like really good options for the “Hey, let’s all rent a villa together” vacations. They have three categories: hotels, vacation rentals, and bed and breakfasts. My initial search on Cordoba came up with some nice family home stays (with good user reviews) that would make an economical week there. Currently, Enrout is running a contest, the winner of which will get a $500 gift card. (That would cover about 10 days in Cordoba for me, so I signed up.) Entries are done via Facebook Likes and Tweets, and you can enter in five different ways. What’s to lose?
I will have a dozen grand ideas before the end of the day, and a dozen more tomorrow. Spinning a globe or staring at a world map is one of my favorite pastimes. I plan to toy around with ideas over the next couple months, but ultimately the choice of destination — or even if we do this at all — will come down to my wife’s passport: it must be somewhere that isn’t going to be difficult to get a visa for a Thai citizen.
Suggestions for cool European cities that are economical to live in for a month or two are welcome!
Friends of mine have traveled in the US and across the Pond using Vacation Rentals by Owner (dot com) and have had good luck. Just a thought. Monique
Yes, sites like those, especially the ones that come recommended by friends, are great. I once rented an apartment in Prague for a week. Back in ’98 when it seemed a really radical idea on the internet. It was $200 for the whole week for two people and we thought it was a steal. We ended up staying a night in another town, unconcerned about the extra $ at the time, and later found out from the organization that we could have told them that and switched the booking to another hotel for that single night. Wow. I never kept track of the website and wish I could remember who they were to use them again. Seemed they specialized either in Czech Rep. or eastern Europe in general.