Today the French are Europe’s number one movie-going population (and in the world’s top five), and the number of movie screens in Paris (some 376) rivals the number of French cheeses (an estimated 365).

American movies might make up 43% of the French market, but the French are the fifth largest producers of movies in the world, and Paris cinemas offer everything from obscure art house fare to classic films to new releases from around the world. If you’re in the mood for a complimentary French lesson, go see a French film, or an American movie with French subtitles (be sure to check that your film is “V.O.”, or original version; otherwise it will be dubbed).

Cinema discounts for locals

An average full-price ticket to a Paris movie theater is about €10. But Paris residents who want unbridled movie-going access can sign up for monthly unlimited passes with mega-chains Gaumont/Pathé or UGC/MK2 for around €20 per month. French cinemas offer discounts to card-carrying students, seniors, the unemployed, the handicapped and large families with three or more children.

But there are plenty of everyday tricks to save on admission for the rest of the movie-going masses, visitors included.

Movie Passes

MK2 cinemas, with locations all over the city (including a romance-friendly theater with two-person love seats at their MK2 Bibliotheque location in the 13th arrondissement) offer a 5-ticket pre-paid movie passes for €34.50 that are valid for two months, and can be used for up to three entries at a time if your Paris love affair is of the “Jules et Jim” variety. That comes out to €6.90 per person for new releases.

Morning Showings

Some theaters offer reduced prices of €6 for the first showing before noon (and if you’re on vacation, there’s nothing wrong with seeing a movie in the morning and having breakfast in bed after dark). Check out Allociné for more information on individual theater prices and showtimes.

Wednesday Screenings

Movies open on Wednesdays in France. At cinemas like La Bastille in the 11th arrondissement, tickets are €5 all day every Wednesday.

The post How to score discount movie tickets in Paris appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

This is the largest redesign in our 11 year history and it affects most of the site. If you’ve visited EuroCheapo during the past few days, you’ve likely noticed a big change to the layout and overall look of the site. Perhaps you’ve thought, “Where the heck am I and where did EuroCheapo go?” We’re here, Cheapos! We just got a facelift!

A new look

It’s been five years since our last design overhaul and we decided it was time for something with a little more sparkle. Specifically, we wanted the site to be easier and more intuitive to use. Make it fast. Make it pretty. Make it fun. But mostly, make it useful.

The new Paris home page

Our new site gives more prominence and visibility to the 1,200 budget hotels we review, including much larger hotel photos taken by our editors and newly expanded hotel reviews. In doing so, we feel we’re getting closer and closer to our goal of being the most helpful site for researching and booking the best budget hotels in Europe.

Here’s a list of a few of the new features we think you’re going to enjoy on our new site:

New Design

We redesigned every page of EuroCheapo to make it easier to read, navigate and help research budget hotels. We introduced some nifty photo carousels to make it easy to quickly flip from one hotel to the next, increased the size of photos across the board and expanded the page width for readers who access the site on large monitors.

Never to be at a loss for puns, we also added a pithy new tagline: “Stay cheap.”

Hotel search improvements

We improved the maps we use in our hotel search engine, CheapoSearch, to make them easier to use and more functional for our readers. Know exactly where you want to stay during your next visit? Do a search and give our maps and filters a test – we think you’ll love ’em.

We also made a dramatic improvement to the hotel search results layout and the algorithm we use to rank hotels. Yes, we know “algorithm” = “snoozeville,” but trust us. Do a search and see what you think.

The hotel reviews sport a new look

TripAdvisor Partnership

To help make it easier to research hotels we’ve partnered with TripAdvisor to show their most recent traveler reviews on our hotel pages. No need to read our review and also open new tabs in your browser to validate them on TripAdvisor—we now combine them all into the same page.

And we’re still including the verified user review scores from our reservation agency partners, as well, to provide the most well rounded review perspective you can ask for. EuroCheapo’s experts + TripAdvisor + verified customer ratings. Now that’s a winner!

Thank you

We received a lot of helpful feedback from EuroCheapo readers who volunteered to look at design mockups and answer questions throughout our redesign process. We thank you so much for all of your help and taking the time to help make the site what it is today. It’s vastly better because of your help.

And while we’re very happy with the new djddz.com, we’re only getting started. We’re developing many new features that we’re eager to introduce to you soon.

Come have a look and poke around for a bit. Tell us what you like, what you don’t like and what else you’d like to see. Leave a comment below or email us directly. And, as always, thank you for using djddz.com.

The post Unveiling the new djddz.com appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

This weekend’s New York Times features an excellent round-up of last-minute advice for would-be Olympic attendees, including some thoughts on hotels provided by EuroCheapo! The piece, part of the Practical Traveler series written by Michelle Higgins, includes advice covering all aspects of visiting the world’s largest sporting event. It includes:

Hotels

EuroCheapo’s editor Tom Meyers explains that it’s not hard to find a hotel in London during the Games, “it’s just hard to find a deal.” ‘Tis true — most hotel rates double during the Games.

However, cheaper options exist, including hostels, apartments and even camping.

Flights

Direct flights into London are still available, although expensive, running about 13% above last year. Fly.com suggests flying into another hub from the States, such as Berlin, and then catching a flight on a budget airline from there.

Tickets to the Games

A limited number of tickets are still available for certain events (including volleyball and gymnastics). However, budget travelers should consider the “freebies,” such as the marathon, which will pass through central London. Without tickets, you can still attend free screenings throughout town.

Read more in the New York Time’s article, “Last-Minute Tips for Traveling to London for the Olympics.”

The post Extra! Extra! EuroCheapo in the New York Times discussing hotels for the Olympics appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

For years we’ve steered clear of these pricey cities (and the country in general), assuming that Switzerland was simply inhospitable to budget travelers. With many hotels starting north of $250, how could any Cheapo afford to visit?

It’s the kind of budget travel challenge we love, however. After pounding the (immaculately clean) pavement in both cities, we’re thrilled to announce our new guides. Here are a few things we found along the way:

Rooms at Zurich’s Anwand Lodge offer wooden beams and flat-screens for as low as $110 a night.

Hotel prices

We found several Geneva hotels under $125 a night, (CHF 125) including some in the heart of the Old Town. Visit during the spring and fall for the lowest rates, and remember that, as Geneva’s hotels are often packed with business travelers, weekends tend to be cheaper.

Although Zurich can even be more expensive than Geneva, we found 10 central hotels in Zurich with rates under $130 a night (CHF 130), including some three-star hotels. Rates are similarly cheaper during the shoulder season and weekends, and clear of convention dates. (Check out the convention schedule ahead of time on Zurich’s Web site.)

Easy ways to save

We were happy to find that most museums in Geneva charge less than CHF 10 (about $10) for admission, and many charged quite a bit less. Even better, as we note in our budget tips article, many museums are free to enter, including the Maison Tavel, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Musée de Carouge and the Natural History Museum!

Zurich’s museums are surprisingly affordable, with most charging about CHF 10-15 (about $10-15). However, we recommend that serious sightseers spring for the ZurichCARD, which covers admission to all city museums and public transportation, and even offers some shopping and dining discounts. Read more in our Zurich budget tips article.

Transportation savings

Geneva’s efficient public transit is a gift to budget travelers: Anyone staying in a hotel, hostel or campground is given a Geneva Transport Card, granting free transportation on the city’s buses, trams and trolleys. Read more about getting around Geneva.

Zurich charges CHF 5.20 (about $5) for a daily transportation pass (or CHF 25.60 for six days, about $25), although many sights are accessibly by foot. However, Cheapos are encouraged to hop on Zurich’s free bike program. Pedal off some of that delicious rösti! (Read more about Zurich transportation.)

So, Cheapos…

What are you waiting for? With a little advance planning, both Geneva and Zurich can be on your budget travel itinerary. There’s simply no reason to miss Swiss.

The post Switzerland Just Got Cheapo: EuroCheapo launches guides to Geneva and Zurich appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Ten years ago this week, we launched EuroCheapo from my apartment in Berlin with a guide to 25 budget hotels in Paris. On June 14, 2001, with three friends huddled around my desk, I clicked “upload,” refreshed the browser, and watched djddz.com come to life.

True to “cheapo form,” we clinked glasses of inexpensive sparkling wine and went off for a Vietnamese dinner in Prenzlauer Berg.

The "Original Cheapos": Gianni, me and my old red bike reunited in Berlin in 2008.

2001: A Web Odyssey

Remember early 2001? George Bush was sworn into his first term in January. The US economy was rolling along and airline security less restrictive. European travel was different: You shopped with francs in France, Deutsche Marks in Germany and (lots and lots) of lira in Italy.

I had been dreaming of writing a guide that would promote the idea that European travel could be affordable for everyone. As I’m particularly fond of small, interesting hotels, I decided to focus on them. Guidebooks covered some of these, it was true. But I thought we could find an audience by only writing about cheap hotels, showing photos, and putting it all on the Web for free.

To start the site, I flew to London in January 2001 and tried to sleuth out cheap sleeps in the Bloomsbury neighborhood. That first day I knocked on the doors of B&B’s along Gower Street.

But there was a problem: The city was flooded with B&B’s. There were dozens of them lining Gower Street alone, and they all looked about the same from the outside. How was this ever going to work?

Kari and Alex working in my apartment, summer of 2005.

Saved, by Cheapo standards

I panicked… and headed to Rome, where my friend Gianni Bettucci helped me get my–and the site’s–act together. At the tourist information office by Termini Station they handed over a thick directory of every hotel and alberghi in the city.

On the back of a place mat at a nearby Chinese restaurant we listed out what we called our “EuroCheapo Standards.” To even be visited and “inspected,” the hotels had to be centrally located and cheap. To be chosen as an editor’s pick, they had to be clean and, ideally, smaller, non-chain properties. Bonus points would be awarded for personality.

I'm failing to impress the receptionist at the Winston Hotel in Amsterdam in 2005.

We got to work inspecting bedrooms, taking notes, and snapping photos of beds, showers and breakfast rooms. All the while we were explaining a site that didn’t exist to somewhat skeptical proprietors. In a few cases, we even had to explain the concept of the Internet. (“Is it like the fax?” asked one B&B owner in Rome. “Kind of.”)

Throughout the spring of 2001, we also visited hotels in Amsterdam, Florence, Paris and Prague. And yes, I revisited and re-tackled London.

Throughout the first month in the new office we didn't have an Internet connection. We tried to find one wherever we could.

Finally, we set up our apartment (with office) in Berlin’s Friedrichshain neighborhood. I spent a couple of months composing the hotel reviews and designing the site at the Staatsbibliothek near Potsdamer Platz.

How was the site going to make any money? Easy–banner ads! I proudly coded one into the top of the home page. There were also some ads to Amazon.com that could pay a small commission if somebody bought a guidebook. These would pay the rent, right?

Finally, on that balmy June night, we clinked our glasses and celebrated the launch of our new guide. And then we waited for Yahoo! to notice. We’d be waiting for a while. (As for that other, newer search engine with the stripped-down design–we didn’t pay it much attention.)

Dash forward

Growth was slow for the first couple of years. I moved back to New York in 2002, although I headed back to Europe many times a year to add new cities and revisit the old ones. The site started to take off in 2004, which allowed me to hire Kari Hoerchler, followed by Alex Robertson Textor and Vivien Kim Thorp the following year.

The night got late early for Pete and me at Wake Up London in 2005. (The hostel--and dance club--no longer exist.)

At about this time we lost the lease on our sublet office space in SoHo, and the office memorably moved into my apartment in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. There the expanded crew (plus interns!) sweat out the summer of 2005. We moved back into New York’s historic Cable Building at Broadway and Houston several months later, where we remain today.

In 2006, my brother Pete and sister-in-law Meredith became my business partners, and helped take the site to another level professionally. Pete’s business and marketing skills immediately served us well, as did Mere’s editorial experiences. During the following two years we invested heavily in the site’s technology, building a hotel and flights search engine.

Ten years after launching, we’re still hunting down cheap sleeps and taking photos of bathrooms. The “EuroCheapo family” has grown with new hires, correspondents, tech wizards and interns. Like any Web site, we’ve gone through redesigns, logo antics, bug testing (and more bug testing), site crashes, and incredible new launches that leave us proud.

The site has expanded from reviews of 25 hotels in Paris to include hotel recommendations in 28 European cities, a guide to New York, and a blog that publishes dispatches from correspondents around Europe. And we’ve got some new cities ready to launch this summer. (Stay tuned!)

Vivien, Kari, Meredith and Pete in London in 2005

Cheapos I have known…

The site would not exist today without the contributions of the many talented people who have joined the team along the way. We feel fortunate to have found so many others who have agreed with our site’s mission to “help make European travel affordable to everyone.”

Presenting some Very Important Cheapos:

Pete Meyers and Meredith Franco Meyers: Pete and I are brothers, born 15 months apart. We’ve worked summer jobs together and run businesses together (including a wildly–some might say “weirdly”–popular shaved ice stand in Lakeside, Ohio). Therefore, it wasn’t a big surprise to those who know us when Pete and his wife Meredith joined the company in 2006 and became my business partners.

Pete and Meredith officially become my business partners -- and our mother signs as a witness.

It’s hard to imagine what the site would be today without them. The Web site with a funny name suddenly became a “family business,” and I had partners who were deeply invested in and passionate about the business. Pete came from a strong interactive advertising background and took over the business and marketing efforts. Meredith had spent years writing and editing for women’s magazines and gave those skills a “Cheapo” twist.

Kari Hoerchler: Back in New York in 2004, Kari was EuroCheapo’s first hire. During our initial meeting (at the “Big Cup” coffee shop on 8th Avenue in Chelsea), we filled a legal pad with the projects that she’d be tackling during her two days a week. Clearly, she needed to work more days–and I needed to learn how to prioritize projects.

Kari poses as Sarah lines up a shot in 2010.

Since then, Kari has visited hundreds of hotels in Europe (this year, in Seville)–and she currently serves as the listings manager for our hotel search engine. The site would be skimpier without Kari–and the office much less fun.

Suzanne Russo: A master of all editorial trades, Suzanne first interned for EuroCheapo in 2007. We assigned her to fact-check our city guide articles during the day, while she worked on her Masters of English at New York University at night. Sure, she could understand Joyce, but could she make heads or tails of Venice’s vaporetto pass? (Yes, she could.) Suzanne now serves as our listings editor, editing hotel reviews from our correspondents around Europe.

Michael Cargian and James Ellis: Since 2007, Mike and James have been writing and bug-testing the code that makes EuroCheapo work. Mike is on the line daily from San Francisco, and James works his magic from Sydney, Australia. Together, the duo have created a hotel price-comparison search engine, a budget flights search, built a blog, and dealt with many other “Cheapo-” prefixed projects. Without them, the site would be… well, it wouldn’t be.

Meredith, Suzanne and I plotting cities out on a map of Europe in 2011.

Our correspondents: As the site expanded, we needed to find hotel reviewers who could add new cities and revisit the existing listings. Finding the right reviewers can be tricky, as you need someone who shares a sense of value and keeps an eye out for charming touches, quirky details and that certain “je ne sais quoi.”

Additionally, the site sprung to life in 2007 with the launch of the EuroCheapo blog. Suddenly we were publishing daily dispatches about cheap and free things to do in a couple dozen cities. The blog continues to be an extremely important part of the site.

Thus, many, many thanks to the fine writers who have hunted down hotels and penned blog dispatches over the years. And many thanks to our current group of Europe-based writers: Audrey, Bryan, Chaney, Cynthia, Jacy, Jessica, Joann, Laura, Marc, Monica, Nicky, Nicole, Nina, Regina, Susanne and Theadora.

Alex, Vivien, Tom and Pete celebrating the redesign of EuroCheapo in December 2008.

Alex Robertson Textor: Alex joined EuroCheapo in 2005, and quickly attacked our city guides and transportation sections with a sharp eye and budget sensibility. Alex has reviewed hundreds of hotels for us all over Europe, this year in Dublin and London. Alex also served as the EuroCheapo blog editor for its first two years. Today, he also writes for Gadling.com, maintains his own blog, Spendthrift Shoestring, and contributes to numerous publications. Importantly, Alex also introduced our office to the magic of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Vivien and Kari planning their hotel visits while staying at the Hotel Garth in London, 2005.

Vivien Kim Thorp: As Vivien assumed her position as hotel listings editor in 2005, armed with a red pen, she asked, “Which style guide do you follow? AP or Chicago?” I had no idea what she was talking about, no doubt clarifying the scope of the project before her. During her three years at EuroCheapo, Vivien reviewed hotels in several cities, cracked an editorial whip, and greatly elevated the quality of the writing on the site. Today she lives in San Francisco, where she’s finishing off a Masters in journalism.

Sarah Silbert: Originally brought on as a summer intern, Sarah “graduated” into an editorial position at EuroCheapo, where she fact-checked, copy-edited and blogged from 2008-2010. She was also in the cheap hotel trenches, inspecting hotels in Copenhagen and Helsinki for the site. Today Sarah is an associate editor at Laptop Magazine in New York.

Tom, TJ, Laura, Viv, Annie, Alex, Pete

Annie Shapero: For several years, Annie served as our Italy-based correspondent. From her home in Rome, she reviewed hotels in the Eternal City, as well as Florence, Venice and Milan. When Vivien and I first interviewed Annie for the job at a cafe in Rome in 2006 (see photo, below), we immediately knew that we had found a Cheapo-in-spirit (which is evidently why I felt compelled to photograph the event). Today Annie lives in New York where she runs DiVino Wine Events, and she still reviews hotels for us in Italy (this summer updating our Milan guide).

Gianni Bettucci: After helping me out that first year, Gianni launched a career stage managing and producing theater in Berlin. He now runs the incredible Familie Flõz troupe of masked performers and still lives in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg.

Finally, my family has been involved in the business from the very beginning. Of special mention:

Vivien and I met with Annie Shapero in April 2006 in Rome. We hired her on the spot.

“Grandma Miller,” over the course of a Fourth of July family game in 2000, came up with the site’s original name, AntsyPants.com. I registered it the next week and was approached immediately by another company to buy it. (Those were the days…) I sold it, and this provided much of the site’s start-up capital. (“EuroCheapo” was a back-up name. Read more about this on Budget Travel’s Web site.)

Aunt Jeanie and Uncle Mel made an additional family investment (along with cousins Drew and Dave) that funded much of that first year in Berlin. We still hold annual meetings.

My mother and father: My dad, a lawyer, incorporated the business in 2001 and tended to the banking when I was traveling those first years, while my mother has been a constant source of support and encouragement through every entrepreneurial endeavor. Traveling with them in Europe is always a blast.

"Travel Gram" on a trip with me in Salzburg, 2004.

Eileen Detlefsen, a.k.a. “Grandma Det,” a newspaper woman since the 1930’s, continues to serve as a source of inspiration and occasional columnist, as “Travel Gram.” Eileen founded and operated her own newspaper in the 1950’s and 1960’s with my grandfather, and my mother and aunts were teen columnists. She still has the best copy-editing skills I know. (Read more about “Travel Gram.”)

Ben and Elizabeth: My two other siblings, both of whom have worked as editors, have offered thoughtful advice, editing help, and introduced us to interns. I ran the site for six months from my sister and (now) brother-in-law Matt’s home in upstate New York after returning from Berlin in 2002.

Guillaume: My partner and sounding board for business (and non-business) matters. During the past five years, he’s participated in thousands of hours of business discussions–and changed my mind about many things.

Louie, one of our early interns.

Looking forward

The Web is constantly evolving and user expectations have shifted dramatically since we launched the site ten years ago. This can be a daunting challenge.

I believe, however, that there will always be a demand for expert budget travel advice. I look forward to the next ten years, and am hopeful that, blessed with the talents of this group and the Cheapos yet to come, we will continue to provide a service that is helpful and relevant.

A meaningful travel experience in Europe doesn’t need to be expensive. We’ll do our best to promote ways to keep it affordable–and accessible–for as many readers as possible. We hope you’ll join us.

The post EuroCheapo Turns 10: Cheapos who made it possible appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

This year, everyone here at EuroCheapo HQ has made a pact to aspire to both personal and office-wide resolutions. The former is listed below and at each individual Cheapo’s discretion, while the latter is also listed below and the result of both heated debate and thumb-wrestling.

Here we go, yo!

Office-wide Resolutions

1.) Only use WiFi at any hotel if it is free

2.) Spend as little as possible on airline baggage fees (and know what the fees are in advance, natch.)

3.) Be smarter about racking up points on credit and debit cards that can be used toward future travel.

4.) Take overnight trains more often.

5.) Remember how to properly use our iPhones abroad. And we reserve the right to just leave the things at home and get over our bad tech selves.

6.) Use public transportation to get in from the airport, no matter how tired we feel or if we overindulged on the free in-flight sauce.

Personal New Year’s Resolutions

Kari’s Resolutions

1.) Sip fruit soup in Budapest.

2.) Buy a welcome mat in Marrakesh.

3.) Find my grandmother’s roots on Mount Blanc.

4.) Step aboard a Viking ship in Bygdoy, Oslo.

5.) Listen to locals debate history along Serbian borders.

Pete’s Resolutions

1.) Take my 1-year-old daughter on an overseas trip and try to keep my flight anxiety to a minimum.

2.) Stay at least one night on a botel.

3.) I resolve to embrace the bidet.

4.) Karaoke at a youth hostel.

5.) Get involved in the paddle boarding conversation.

Suzanne’s Resolutions

1.) Read a book written or set in the destinations I visit.

2.) Attend a reenactment (and get someone to break character).

3.) Set up a travel fund.

4.) Take a class (cooking, dance, fill-in-the-blank…) in a place known for that specialty, even if for only a day.

5.) Give something back: volunteer for a day, bring supplies to a poor country, share conversation with locals…

Meredith’s Resolutions

1.) Keep a journal of my travels.

2.) Take the bus more.

3.) Go into a restaurant, forgo the menu and ask the chef to make me “whatever.”

4.) Find a baby-friendly budget hotel in Paris.

5.) Stop faking my knowledge of foreign languages.

What New Year’s travel resolutions do you have for 2011, Cheapos? Tell us in the comments below!

And to help make your resolutions a reality, consider some of these fab tips for Europe to get started.

The post The Cheapos’ 2011 New Year’s Travel Resolutions appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

But sort of like moving out of your first cramped apartment with no windows and poor ventilation into a house with non-clogging toilets, we can’t help but get sentimental about the change. After all, we love our blog, even on its bad hair days, and the many posts and comments that have been written since it first launched in January of 2007.

So please join us as we recap some of the hits (and misses) produced over the past few years, or at least a handful of posts that we think are funny.

The Vitals

• Our first post was written on January 30, 2007 and featured our then-Venice correspondent (and now-NYC neighbor) Annie Shapiro. The subject? Annie’s hunt for new hotels in Venice to add to our Editor’s Picks.

• We’ve published 1,485 posts so far and have received 2,854 comments.

• 66 writers have contributed to our blog since it launched.

• 77,173 “spams” have been caught by the WordPress anti-spam plugin Akismet. Thank you, whomever developed this plugin.

The Greatest Hits

• The most commented post (109 comments) is about cheap rail fares across Europe.

• The most popular post in 2010 is about using an American iPhone in Europe without going broke.

• The most popular post that has yet to receive a comment is about 5 free things to do in Venice.

• The most popular post about hotels is this year’s Cheapo 100.

• The most popular post for our most popular city is about finding cheap tickets for concerts and operas in Paris.

Not Popular, But Worth Mentioning

• The most random contest we’ve held involved naming a celebrity being painted onto the wall of a building next door.

• The post we probably laughed at the most while putting together is about hotel ghosts we’ve photographed.

• The shortest post we’ve written is about an attempted elf robbery in Belfast.

Thanks, Cheapos.

We enjoy writing our blog, working with our (fab) writers, and receiving comments from our readers. Thanks to all of you who’ve contributed to the blog to date and please keep sending your helpful comments and feedback our way!

The post EuroCheapo’s Greatest Blog Hits: 2007-2010 appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

But what exactly is a “Super Cheapo”? Is it simply the cheapest hotel in the city?

One commenter, Olivier, logically noted that our pick for Berlin, the Circus Hostel in Mitte, offers double rooms for $69-86. Sure, that’s cheap-ish, but you can easily find cheaper in the city. He writes:

“As far as I see, this list is a bit poor…. for ex. in Berlin : room for 2, shower/toilets outside but very clean = less than 30 euros in Berlin city hotel (located on the subway ring); another one : 30 euro as well, for a room+shower+toilets+free wifi, in the funkturm hotel (near ICC)…”

Why didn’t we pick one of those hotels?

Defining a “Super Cheapo”

Our definition of a “Super Cheapo” hotel is one that provides the basics in a great location and at a rate that’s low for the city. They’re mostly “no-frills” kind of places. Here’s a more detailed look at the criteria followed for picking a “Super Cheapo”:

1. Editor’s Pick

For starters, our “Cheapo 100” list drew on hotels that are already featured as “Editor’s Picks” on the site. This isn’t because we’re lazy, but rather because these hotels have all been personally verified! They have each been visited by a EuroCheapo editor, inspected and photographed.

2. Central location

In order to be an “editor’s pick” or make the “Cheapo 100” list, a hotel needs to be central. This is certainly not a criteria for all budget travelers, but it has always been a priority for our editors. We like to be located in a central part of the city—be it Berlin, Paris or Rome. Nearly without exception, all of our editor’s picks are located within walking distance of major tourist sights. We don’t have anything against public transportation, mind you. It’s just that life is a bit easier when you can walk home at night.

3. Private rooms

We focus on budget hotel recommendations on EuroCheapo. Sometimes, however, we also recommend hostels—provided that they also offer private rooms. By “private,” we mean rooms that you don’t share with strangers. (You may still have to share a bath.)

For most cities in the Cheapo 100, we choose a hotel as our “Super Cheapo.” In Berlin, however, we couldn’t resist giving the award to the Circus Hostel, as it offers plenty of private rooms.

4. Clean

It goes without saying that the hotels on our list need to be clean. We inspect the rooms, baths, hallways and shared baths.

5. Room rates

Finally, and most obviously, the hotel needs to be cheap. For our “Super Cheapo” award, the room needs to be notably less expensive than others of its caliber and location. We also considered “extras,” such as breakfast, Wi-Fi and room amenities, although they were not of chief importance for this award, as we were mostly concerned with the basics.

Back to the Circus

So, why did we choose the Circus Hostel in Berlin?

The Circus has been an “Editor’s Pick” for the past five years. I remember visiting for the first time in the fall of 2005 and being impressed by the rooms, especially the privates with balconies (and fabulous views) on the top floors. The location is great, too—just at the border of Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte, within easy walking distance of museums, cafés, shopping, restaurants, clubs and public transit. We were initially hesitant to give the award to a hostel, but, as I mentioned, the Circus offers plenty of privates. Finally, the low rates sealed the deal.

The hotels that Olivier mentions sound interesting. He notes that they’re clean, cheap and well-equipped. Their location, however, does not seem central. (Some, especially those on business, will find the second hotel’s location near the ICC conference center convenient, although it’s not our favorite part of town.) Lastly, neither has been visited by us, and thus don’t qualify.

We’ll look into them, however, and consider a visit in the future.

How do you choose a “Super Cheapo”?

We invite you to check out all of the “Super Cheapos” from our “Cheapo 100” list.

Of course, your “Super Cheapo” criteria may be different from ours. Search away, sort by price, read through user reviews and you may find something perfectly acceptable and cheaper that we haven’t yet visited. Maybe you’ll also find something central. Maybe, in fact, you’ll find a hotel we should add to our list of editor’s picks.

If you do, we invite you to email us and suggest a hotel for us to visit and inspect during our next hotel update. We’re always looking for great new cheap hotels to add!

The post Inside the Cheapo 100: What exactly is a “Super Cheapo” hotel? appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

The new guide to cheap hotels in Helsinki takes us into exciting new territory, farther north and east than any of our other guides.

Sarah Silbert, a contributing editor who covered the city following her update of Copenhagen, was initially surprised by the high rates of hotels in Helsinki while planning her trip. “I had expected that, like other cities covered on the site, there would be a wide variety of budget sleeping options. But ‘budget’ in Helsinki is different than ‘budget’ in Berlin,” she explained.

While Helsinki has a few hostels and pensions to accommodate the most budget-minded of travelers, even these are a bit more expensive than the same type of lodging in other European cities. A dorm at the Hostel Erottajanpuisto, for example, costs $36 a night.

“In Helsinki,” Sarah said, “that’s really cheap.”

Bumping up a notch, a double room with shared bath at the Eurohostel runs $72-$84 a night. Despite its name, the property only offers private rooms, not dorms. “I stayed at the Eurohostel and found it to be a good option, especially considering the steep rates at other hotels in Helsinki.”

EuroCheapo’s Helsinki guide also includes a number of three-star hotels, as well as travelers’ apartments and even one four-star pick. The city guide articles cover basics like Helsinki city transportation, expect to spend, and budget tips to keep it cheap.

The post Helsinki: EuroCheapo launches guide to cheap hotels in Helsinki appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Here’s a sampling of what’s new:

1. Enhanced city pages

Our new city pages (for example: Paris, London, Amsterdam…) now include neighborhood maps, dynamic hotel listings, aggregated (and verified) guest ratings, and easy access to other city guides. We also included links to EuroCheapo’s Twitter and Facebook pages, along with an archive of previous blog posts. Want to see it in action? Have a look!

2. Smarter hotel listings

In addition to reading our hotel reviews, Cheapos can now view guest ratings from our reservation partners and read reviews written by verified hotel guests. Furthermore, you can see the hotel’s location on an interactive map and view other hotel picks located nearby. We’ll also show you nearby landmarks, and provide you with more real-time information in the pricing module. Sound tempting? Try it out!

3. Helpful hotel filters and sorting tools

We’ve included all “sorts” of new filtering and sorting tools to help you find the perfect budget sleep. You can now sort by “most viewed hotel,” “user rating,” and more.

For example, say you’re looking for a hotel in Paris’ Latin Quarter that costs less than $100. Now you can quickly sort our hotels by neighborhood, by price range, by property type (hotel, hostel, pension, B&B and more), by average guest rating, or by properties that are frequently viewed by other Cheapos. And just to help out a little more, we display all of this information on a big Google Map that displays proximity to public transportation and other points of interest. Want to see it in action? Here you go!

But wait, there’s more!

These are just a few ways our new “fancy pants” will help budget travelers plan smarter and travel cheaper. We’d love to hear your feedback–what do you think, and how can we do better? Tell us below!

Special thanks to the EuroCheapo Insiders who provided all sorts of helpful feedback and, of course, to our tech superstars, Mike and James.

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