Spendthrift Shoestring

A French Half-Secret: Gîtes

For almost a decade now I've traveled as often as possible. This has meant, in most circumstances, that I've traveled on a serious budget, becoming a connoisseur of many varieties of cheap bed along the way.

I'm always marveling at the existence of cheap accommodations that tend to fly under the international radar—types of accommodation used by locals that don't manage to attract a lot of press. I've written about the Dutch bungalow park phenomenon several times, a few years ago here. Bungalow parks can be an extremely inexpensive way to have a rural or beach holiday in the Netherlands, yet they receive very little coverage outside of the Netherlands, and virtually none in North America.

I've known about France's gîtes for years, but it took my recent trek through Martinique and Guadeloupe to really hit home how amazingly budget-friendly they are. Gîtes take many forms. Some are simple rooms with kitchen facilities. Many function more or less as bed and breakfasts. Some gîtes are spare rooms in apartments and others are free-standing structures. Gîte owners are required to live on the premises or near-by. There are pricey gîtes as well as inexpensive ones, though what stands out is the great value offered by so many gîtes. Even in otherwise expensive regions, gîtes tend to be much cheaper than hotels.

Country road. Marie-Galante, Guadeloupe.

It was on Marie-Galante that the money-saving value of gîtes really jumped out at me. Gîtes dramatically outnumber traditional hotels on Marie-Galante, where there are scores of gîtes with nightly rates in the €40-€50 range. The island's embarrassment of gîtes is fitting. With its uncrowded beaches and relaxed, bucolic vibe, Marie-Galante is an independent traveler's dream.

Check out Gîtes de France as well as Simply Gîtes and Gite.com for listings and information. 

Budget, Value, and Hotel Listings

I love Budget Travel. It's my favorite American travel magazine. It's the only mainstream, commercial U.S. travel magazine that succeeds consistently in coming up with tips, advice, news, and information of real value to travelers determined to see the world on a reasonable budget. In the prevailing U.S. travel publishing context, where aspirational travel nearly always trumps value-based travel, Budget Travel offers a much appreciated alternative.

I hope that the following will be taken in the context of my sincere appreciation for the magazine.

The lead story in the BT's February issue is titled "Best Values 2008," and it's a list of 100 hotels around the world. The magazine teamed up with TripAdvisor to come up with the list, which utilizes the latter's "Popularity Index." The theme driving the listing is "value," based on what the editors refer to as "a quality experience without ... exorbitant rates." (So far, so good, though I find that user-generated review-driven sites like TripAdvisor are by no means the best guide to actual hotel quality, which is itself far less quantifiable than many seem to want it to be.)

The main problem with the listing lies in its rate ceiling, which is $250 per night.  I understand that the main criterion here is a "quality experience" and not cheap charm, but the question has to be asked: Why is a budget travel magazine recommending hotels that run $250 per night? A $250 rate ceiling is downright alienating to me, a travel writer who travels for work and fun as much as possible. What does it look like to people of moderate means who want badly to travel and budget accordingly for their one or two trips per year?

For me and for most people I know, $250 is an exorbitant amount of money to spend on a hotel for a single night's accommodation. I don't know how else to phrase it.

$250 per night means $750 for a long weekend. It means $1750 for a week's stay.

A high-value budget hotel list would be far more valuable with a ceiling of $100, or, pushing that limit into splurge territory, $150. Such a goal is by no means impossible. Over the last several greenback-unfriendly months, I've stayed at many lovely hotels with rates under $100/night, in Europe, the Caribbean, Central America, and Asia. I have even managed to stay at stylish hotels in the too-dear eurozone for $150 per night. One quick example: Madrid's utterly gorgeous Hotel Meninas, a polished boutique charmer that charged Matt and me €102 (under $140 then; a hair over $150 today) per night for a room this past August. The rate included breakfast and a shuttle to the airport.

Elsewhere, the letter from the editor hits all the right notes for this weak dollar moment. It suggests three basic budget saving approaches: traveling to places like Mexico and Argentina where the exchange rate won't leave Americans broke; looking beyond hotels to house rental agencies and house-swapping; and getting beyond first-tier destinations. All sound, all very helpful. And online, Budget Travel pairs the top 100 hotel listing with two others, both far better: its irresistible list of 50 hotels with rates under $150 per night (from last November) and its primer to non-US hotel chains (from last September.)

Hotel Julamis, Mérida

I waited until the last minute to make a Mérida hotel reservation. When I finally got around to sending out emails, I received lots of disappointing no vacancy responses. After what seemed like an eternity, my onslaught of email queries yielded Hotel Julamis, a guesthouse in the city's historical center, with availability for six of the seven nights I was due to be in Mérida.

My hardcore budgeteer side was thrilled by the $25 nightly rate, single or double. This nightly rate was appealing, if seemingly incredible. I figured that in the case of a true disaster I could crash with a family member in town for the week.

It turns out that Julamis is a complete gem. The hotel is decorated simply, even sparsely, though carefully and well. It's got a lush courtyard full of plants and shade. Common spaces are decorated by paintings done by one of the proprietors. There are lounging areas, a hammock, and a single computer terminal that can be used for just 12 pesos ($1.10) per hour. A candle is lighted in a mid-stairwell basket at dusk. And a friendly dog and cat keep court.

All rooms are ensuite, cozy and very simple. There are no televisions and air conditioning is available in only one room (at a significant surcharge of $35/night.) The nightly rate comes with breakfast, which consists of toast with jam, corn flakes, a bowl of fruit, and coffee. 

But what makes Julamis so wonderful is not (just) the nightly rate, the friendly house dog, the slices of papaya at breakfast, or the hammock. It's the mood of the place. For this the proprietors of Julamis have to be credited. On Christmas night, they served a massive Cuban/American Christmas dinner for guests, friends, and neighbors. There were early evening tequila shots, too, and breakfast time daytrip suggestions throughout.

Julamis opened officially in November. As it offers few traditional amenities, it's not for everyone. But for travelers looking for a basic guesthouse that is also very friendly and aesthetically pleasing, it's an ideal choice. I'm expecting Julamis to attract a fanatical repeat following within a few months. I just hope they'll be able to squeeze me in on my next visit.

The Incidental Guesthouse

One current obsession is with the incidental guesthouse—the sort of property that offers a few rooms upstairs or in an annex, a literal sideline to the main business at hand.

A few weeks ago I spent four nights with my friend Paul at Frédéric in Amsterdam. Frédéric is a bike rental agency that also includes three very simple rooms in its hinter zone. So for €30 per person per night, we had a prime spot on Brouwersgracht, close to Centraal Station in the western Grachtengordel.

Last year in Bratislava I visited Pension Carabic for EuroCheapo. It’s a very plain guesthouse, a series of rooms above a restaurant. At the time, the proprietor who showed me around was really apologetic about the state of the rooms, promising a renovation. (It's been over a year now since my visit, and it's possible that these rooms have been renovated in line with the much more stylish restaurant downstairs.) The rooms were, of course, perfectly fine. Quite bare bones, they benefited from a quiet location just down the river from Bratislava's Old Town. Last summer, a single room at Carabic was SKK 950 (€29; $42).

And another, one I've not yet visited, in Gent: De Brooderie, a set of three rooms above a bakery. A single room at De Brooderie (breakfast included) runs €40; a double runs €60. The prospect of waking up to the morning smells of a bakery is plainly wonderful; the thought of being able to head downstairs for a bakery breakfast makes me want to detour to Gent the next time I'm within a 250km radius.

Incidental guesthouses offer insights into place and culture that many hotels, due to their objective of standardization or their chain-established idiom, do not. They're low on amenities and high on character, and they're often seriously budget-friendly.