WesleyPipes

Hey fellow travelers, I just recently took up an interest in traveling, and was hoping for you traveling veterans to help me out. So, I read an article where your travel dollar goes the furthest, and in these articles they say things like a solid meal can be low as $1.25, hotel rooms can be had for $5-$25, and so on. Articles state decent HOTEL rooms, not hostels. And yet, I do extensive research, and hit up the pricelines, expedia's, etc., but there is nothing remotely close to those prices. Only the hostels are cheap. My question is, are there decent hotels for cheap, or are these articles misstating the facts and confused hostels with hotels? The majority of the countries in the articles I read have very nice beach destinations, so I'm really anxious to find out if any of these places are actually pretty cheap.

If hotel rooms really are that cheap, do I book online with the hotel, travel site, or are they walk in rates?

I'm looking at going to any country that has a great looking beach.

Thanks in advance to all who can give me insight.

obscure2k

Welcome to Flyertalk WesleyPipes
There is a great resource on FT which should address the questions you are asking. It is our Budget Travel Forum.
I am moving this over to the Budget Travel forum for discussion.
Best of luck...
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Tchiowa

Muanda in the DR Congo has hotels on the beach that can be had for $5/night. No electricity, no water, no windows. But you get walls and a ceiling. Sometimes a door.

Doc Savage

Take your malaria pills, too.

Very few places are as cheap as you are asking for, OP. Hostels are about the only option at near that price level in most places.

mbece

I don't know where you're getting those numbers. I'm not sure you're going to find them but, if you do, you need to be prepared to go off the beaten path by quite a bit, which would of course add to your transportation costs.

EmailKid

I can do a meal for $1.25 at a Thai street stall, and find places for under $25. I normally pay 40 Baht for an omelet over rice (yes, they serve it over rice ) and that normally gets me through dinner.

Go off the beaten path, and it can be cheaper. Of course they may not know English, making it a little touch to communicate.

hco

Sure, agree with EmailKid.

In Thailand you can eat a healthly local meal for 1.0 - 1.5 USD. Go for 2 USD and get fresh fruit juice and fresh cut fruit for desert. If you are alright with streetfood and to eat where/what the locals eat.

All over Thailand you can find hotels for 15 to 35 USD. Not exclusive but OK with air con, bed, clean sheets and private bathroom.

If you go to a less exploited beach outside the main tourist areas, you can find these hotel prices also walking distance from the beach. No need to book online if you travel off season. But nice to book a few nights if you are new to a country.

WesleyPipes

I'm just getting it from articles I read on the internet. I'm not stating these prices, this is what I read.

http://www.smartertravel.com/photo-g...l?id=396&all=1

Thats one of the sites. States Costa Rica $15 gets you a basic budget hotel room. I'm not looking for a Hilton, just basic room

There was another article, but I can't find it. I will look for it.

WesleyPipes

Not asking for a cheap price, I just want to know if what the authors are stating are true, or are they exaggerating.

WesleyPipes

Hey, thanks for the info. How does one obtain one of these basic rooms? Do I go to a travel site? I'm positive the travel sites don't list any of these budget hotels (at that low of a price), or it's usually a hostel. Do you know any of the hotels by name? Thanks again for your help.

redtigeriii

As mentioned you can get some pretty cheap rates in person just walking by an area. But you can book online as well, and I'd recommend Agoda.com as where to book online for places to stay in Asia.

Doc Savage

The Lonely Planet guides often have suggestions at lower cost levels, with at least basic reviews. Many of the lower end places may not yet be on the web, though that is obviously changing.

hco

Like tigeriii already said, Agoda has the most low cost rooms in Asia. If the hotels are online and in English, they are probably on Agoda. But faaaaaar from all are listed.

Many of the local cheap hotels in Thailand only have name in Thai and no website, so doesn't really help you. It's more of a walk-in style type of business, at least for as long as you don't speak Thai and can call and book.

When you know where to go, book something affordable for the first part of your trip. Then just walk around and see if you find anything which beats the price you already have.

For non-party, non-expensive beach locations in Thailand, you may want to check out Chumphon area.

Tip for Lonely Planet guides: nowadays you can buy just the chapters you want as pdf from their website. Not expensive and you don't need to buy the whole book. But check your local library for Lonely Planet guide books and browse the accomodation sections.

UltraRant

Rule of thumb: cheap hotels cannot be booked online. They're usually too simple and too much focused on locals to have a website or to be in a booking system.

In Morocco you can get a hotel room for $3. Here's what you do:
Don't book anything on beforehand. Just go there, fill out a B$ hotel and address name on the immigration form and get in the country.
Travel to the Medina of the city you are visiting. This is the old old town. There are always a lot of small hotels there or just outside of it. They might charge you about anything from 30 dirham for a night in a one person room, which is about $3. You usually get a relatively cold shower, one light bulb on the ceiling and a bed with a generally uncomfortable and hard mattress for that price. If you're lucky, you might even have a hotel that's cockroach free. (Seriously, I have never seen so many and so many different types of cockroaches in my life as in Morocco. Especially Casablanca was horrible). Needless to say, breakfast isn't included, wifi is unavailable and the door may not have a lock. Toilets are usually shared (don't expect toilet paper) and no more than a hole in the ground. But it's cheap.

In Morocco you can also get meals for $1,25. Bring your first aid kit, though. However, a normal meal in a decent restaurant won't set you back more than $3 or $4, including drink.

I also encountered a few very cheap hotels in other parts of Africa. For example: Dire Dawa in Ethiopia doesn't have any hotels that can be booked on line. Just use Google and make a list of them. Prices and quality are usually also indicated. I had a luscious three course meal including drink here for about $7 in the only quality restaurant in the city. The hotel here was one of the two up to Western standards and it set me back $20 per night, but then I had the suite with wifi, a bathroom with hot and cold water, a security guard at the door and electricity 24 hours a day. I guess there are also hotels with rooms at $5 per night or so.

Rules of thumb for extreme budget travel are:
- don't try to find it in the capital city, as capitals are always more expensive.
- don't try to find such deals online, but go to the local tourist office, use Google for traveling webloggers on a budget, ask a taxi driver from the airport or just wander around a bit in town.

I hope this helps.

ps. If you have a partner who is more into luxury travel, then completely disregard all of the above. It will lead to a guaranteed break up.

pps. one detail: there are no great looking beaches in any of the countries mentioned above. That's because I usually don't travel to beach destinations for work or leisure. I'm sure the same principles apply for hotels near the beach in those countries, though.

BuildingMyBento

An omelette with rice is a common meal in Japan, it's called "omuraisu."
Also, I haven't found English to be common anywhere in Thailand.

Regarding budget hotels, I've found Malaysia to be quite kind on the wallet.

China also has many places to stay that would be under $25/night, though you'd have to 1) carry good earplugs and 2) read Chinese to find most of them (hint: 宾馆 bīn​guǎn is the word for guesthouse). At the same time, they don't all accept foreigners, but out of numerous stays throughout the country, I've only been denied lodging twice.