The solo traveler will inevitably come to the decision stage, a moment of silence when the decision must be made, and usually occurs in the middle of the voyage, possibly sometime when one attempts to close an eye, in the fifth night in a row of the non-stop snoring of the stranger in a dormitory full of twenty beds. It is the understanding that although initially the friendship and basement cost of the hostel lifestyle was the ultimate mark of the backpacking accolade, the craving that formed a door that closes, a bathroom, and room that just invited an exhalation became not a want anymore but a necessity. However, such a wish instantaneously comes clashing up against the bane of an economic drawing board, the feared single supplement. The travel business, to the greatest extent, is a two-person business. When one goes to book a normal hotel room, one is usually charged almost the same price as a couple, which is quite frustrating as a penalty to independence. Such is the paradox of the sole traveler: he must be either driven crazy by teenagers in a dorm or spend money in loneliness in a double room. But suppose, this is a false alternative? What were you assumptions? What if there is a third way? There is a universe of sensibly-shaped, well-considered single rooms that are within affordable reach and that are already thriving in plain view in Europe. To discover them, one will need to change the paradigm, a new means, and a more artistic vision on how to organize travels. It is all about thinking outside of the box, and mastering the art of the savvy single understand how to turn your travel into the celebration of your personal mobile and stylish space, not the alternative of compromise.
On the one hand, the first rational search scenario is to start in the place where you may think to finish your studies: the hostel. The term itself is capable of evoking thoughts of squeaky bunk beds and laundry-filled hampers, but this is a charmingly old-fashioned one. The introduction of a new breed of design-oriented hostels, or “poshtels,” has entirely changed the game, essentially an upscale backpacker who is more demanding in terms of taste but who cares at least as much about like-minded community and price. These facilities know what the current solo traveler is all about. They understand that you want to have the choice to converse over a craft beer in a well-designed lobby and an opportunity to escape to your own calm oasis. Their single rooms are very oftentimes masterpieces of design in the way of compactness. Small though they are, they are ingeniously practical, with comfortable beds ingenious storage, fine linens and, above all, gleaming en-suite bathroom. You obtain the solitude and safety of a hotel leasing, although at a value range that is a lot less intimidating. Hotels such as Generator which has outlets in cities ranging as far as Amsterdam to Rome or even The Social Hub which combines hotel staying with co-working have best innovated this. Your new phrases when searching using the websites such as Hostelworld or the Booking.com websites are the “boutique hostel” or the “design hostel.” Look through the reviews, in particular comments regarding the privacy rooms. You will hear a lot of solo travellers raving about their ideal compromise: a silent oasis right next to a social networking scene, where you get the best of both and never have to decide whether a craving for solitude or the desire to mingle with crowds takes shape.
After you have trotted into the top of the world hostels, then the successive step is to enter the enormous world of hotels with very limited course of action. It is not that he must book the typical queen room, but just go after the one of a kind and great places that have been put up with the individual traveler or have adjusted to the needs. Some older family-owned hotels in the historic centres of European cities, such as Paris, Vienna and Florence, have half a dozen or so so-called cozy-single rooms. These were usually planned in some other time frame, maybe for a traveling merchant, maybe a one single relative and date back on floor plans as a cost effective anomaly. As a rule they are tiny, yet they are all character and set you in a position that can never be beaten at half the price of the two-room apartments down the passage. They have to be diligently filtered to find them. When using large booking sites, once you have entered that location and dates just apply a filter to the results of a single room occupancy. Next, order the results in accordance to price, with the lowest priced being on the top. This shall force the less expensive solutions to the top. Then it is a visual treasure hunt. Forget about chain hotels in generic names and find places with interesting names and non-stock images. Look to the room section descriptions to see if it mentions words such as (but not limited to) compact single, petite room or single occupancy.
Parallel with this quest of historic flair, another queue of micro-hotel brands has come up, based solely on the idea of fashionable, micro and affordable rooms. Brands such as Ruby Hotels and its own conception “Lean Luxury”, or Z Hotels and citizenM, have removed what they consider the luxurious attentions tradition had given to the hotels: the vast lobbies, the room service, the bellboys, and centered their attentions on what is most important: a great bed, a great shower, high-speed Internet connection and a good place to stay in a big city. The rooms are painstakingly perfected such that they resemble high-tech warm cabins. They are not just singles, but their standard rooms are quite small and cheap, which is a great deal for a single traveler who values stylish design and compactness. They offer a quality and style which is guaranteed and eliminates the guesswork about booking an independent hotel of which not much is known about. Early booking is the main secret in getting these rooms at a low cost particularly on the mid-weeks which can be more than half cost of the weekend. All you do is match the area where you seek that elusive single room in a more traditional variety of hotels with the intent with which you seek out the new, design-oriented brands and you end up with a range of accommodation that is more affordable but just as striking to the eye.
Another beautiful channel that the world of the short-term rentals opens up to the solo traveler that not only seeks some privacy but wants to actually become one with a city, in fact, immerse into it. Although renting a whole huge apartment just by yourself can be impractically costly, it is possible to get a good use out of these platforms in two ways. The first is to take the route of accepting the option of the private room in an apartment. This has the potential of being a game changer. At a price frequently close to a private hostel room, you can have a bedroom in the house of a local. This is accompanied with numerous advantages. To begin with, you have use of a kitchen which can save you tremendously on food expenses. Being able to feed yourself at breakfast time as well as having the occasional dinner is a financial windfall. Secondly, you have a host, a priceless source of non-tourists suggestions on where to go in your neighbourhood, the most undiscovered coffee shop to the most effective method of finding your way to a particular museum. In order to achieve that you will have to master the reviews. Narrow the search by typing in “Private Room” and then select the option of Superhost just to be on the safer side and check the reviews with a view of browsing those written by other lone female or male travels. See them tell about cleanness, safety, how noisy it can be, and how interactive the host is some of them are really hands-on and others provide maximum privacy. The second rental hack is to use the filter of Entire Place then use studio or efficiency to accompany your search terms. This will assist you in locating small apartments that are self-contained but can be much cheaper than a complete one-bedroom apartment so that you have some privacy of your own and even a small kitchen and living area. The method will enable you to exit the tourist bubble and into the real local neighbourhood, you will live like a local as you stay here a few days.
In addition to these more traditional means, the really smart fly-solo traveler has a couple more up his/her sleeves. University accommodation is one of the best and hardly used alternatives especially in the summer time between July and September. In Europe and in particular the UK, universities take advantage of the times when students take a break as the student dormitories of these Universities are made available to the people at large. They are not the moldy dorms we used to have; a lot of them are modern, well equipped, clean, stable, and have single rooms with individual attached bathrooms. These are frequently found in central, well-connected areas of the city and they even come with access to such amenities as laundry and common rooms. Webites such as UniversityRooms.com pull together these listings, meaning you can get a room in a university in London, Edinburgh or Dublin at the cost of a local hotel. It is secure, dependable and extremely cost effective. To have an entirely different type of experience, it is wise to consider the stay at a monastery or convent guesthouse. Indeed, these guesthouses are not bare as in spartan simplicity at all; indeed, most of them are bare as in simple clean and quiet single rooms that are found in buildings of fantastic historic and architectural importance. There are websites such as Monastery Stays and Good Night and God, which pull many of these uniques together. The idea of staying in one of them is not merely finding a place of rest although, indeed, it is but rather a chance to have the feeling that one just came to a place of peace in the middle of a city such as Rome or Prague. They may be the place with curfew and bad fit with party-goers, but these hotels have unmatched peace and security to someone traveling alone and wanting to enjoy introspection and relaxation.
The truth is, locating the ideal room entails more than the most suitable sites and filters but it requires the strategic approach. It is very important that you come at the right time. Visiting in April-May or September-October will never give the prices in summer, that is swept by customers. Where possible, arrange your city stays during the week, a room on a Tuesday night can be 30-50 per cent less expensive than the same room on a Saturday. Be smart to location. They do not require you to stay within the shadows of the major tourist attraction. Accommodating in a nice looking neighbourhood couple of cycles of metro away (even one cycle) of the absolute center will save you a great chunk of change and will give you more city flavour. Also remember to look at good public transport links before you make the booking; a good deal of a cheap room is useless when you need to travel everywhere in taxis, and pay a fortune. Just to be on the safe side, after having identified a decent hotel or guesthouse on one of the major booking websites, spend that additional minute checking out its own webpage. When booking direct, properties usually give a minor discount, a free breakfast or a room upgrade since they will not pay a commission to the book engine. There is also the prospect of becoming a member of free hotel loyalty programs, especially among budget brands, which also bear fruit in the long run. The key to success is in following this multi-strated strategy combining appropriate platforms, creative ideas about lodging and timing. Your basecamp is your room, your special place at the end of the day when you have crossed over the day completing all the explorations. It is not a hard task to find one that not only goes well with your budget but it should also go with your style so that even when you have your quiet times of solitude, it should be as beautiful as your adventurous activities.
And when after a few nights in your own personal oasis you get that feeling of freedom again, only a different type of freedom, the freedom to spend more nights getting acquainted better. The simple fact that you have discovered a cheap, cool single room to spend your short city break will enable you to have a bigger vision. What would you do to spend one week or one month there? This is where a totally new breed of accommodation opens up, which is so well adapted to the single person where he / she wants to mix home and hotel provisions. That is where the aparthotel or serviced apartment comes in. The savvy single travelers have one of the most secret weapons in the form of these hybrid accommodations. They provide a personal (usually studio-like) apartment with a kitchenette but in a building that has hotel-type amenities in the form of a reception desk to grant security and assistance and usually daily housekeeping. This model has been fit to perfection by brands such as Citadines or Adina and thousands of local independent operators. A week can be spent there at a price that may be considerably lower than what an ordinary hotel costs and the value-added is exponentially greater. The kitchenette is your passport to economic independency, and to the emancipation of the hypocrisy of three daily dinners out. It is a mere indulgence of being able to adorn your morning coffee exactly the way you like it, or having a simple dinner in preparation using a fresh product in a local market. It is especially genius in areas that are more pricey such as Scandinavia or Switzerland because you can eat out and single-handedly blow your budget. Even the space itself, though small, is rather home-like with a small sofa or a specific space which lets a world of difference when you need to have a quiet evening to plot the next step or just have a book to read and relax.
The same long-term attitude in optimism is also the key to finding a higher level of strategy on short-term lease sites, such as Airbnb or Vrbo. The price mentioned in the list should not always be the final price where the stay is more than 1 week. Most hosts are happy to offer a discount on the guarantee of at least a week or even a month booking since this cuts down the annoying distractions and the cleaning expenses of frequent turnovers. The trick is to inquire and inquire in a professional and polite manner before you make a reservation. Identify a place you like, make sure that the host does not already apply an automatic weekly discount and prepare a nice message. Give them a brief introduction, tell them how you are looking forward to their apartment, mention your specific dates, and then humbly ask whether they are open to giving a discount in the event of the long term stay. They can only say no but you know it is likely to be that 10 to 20 percent reduction. The same applies to co-living houses, a quickly emerging trend that is self-made to suit the modern solo traveler. These are not mere rooms; however, they are designed communities. Other companies, such as Selina, Outsite, and The Social Hub, have exclusively designed, fashionable studio rooms in a bigger complex with unbelievable facilities. Think of having your own brand new co-working facilities at your disposal, having a gym, swimming pool and a community programme with yoga classes and skills sharing events on the calendar. To the remote person who works remotely or even just wants to connect at his terms, there is nothing better than co-living. Your place of refuge is secure and your own, yet step a moment outside your door and there is an instant, ready-made community of like-minded global citizens there with you. It is the scheme that can intelligently resolve the two problems of the long-term solo voyage of loneliness and logistics.
It is also imperative to understand that the quest to find the ideal solo room is not a standardized affair on the continent. The best plan in Italy need hardly be compared to the plan you would follow in Sweden. One of the most important things is to adjust to the local culture and accommodation landscape. This trend is especially popular in the Mediterranean countries of Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal, where it is worth going beyond such global hotel chains and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of family-owned guesthouses. They are usually tabulated as pensions, pousadas, albergos or simply guesthouses. They usually are smaller, more intimate properties and the owner usually resides on site. The rooms are plain yet spotlessly clean and there is also a personal touch that is very difficult to achieve in a larger hotel. The proprietor may take the time to draw you a map of his/her favourite local trattoria or sit down with you in the evening and offer you a glass of his homemade wine. That is where you will get the real hospitality. Contrastingly, by searching the more costly countries of Scandinavia and the German-speaking world, you should bend your approach to be more efficient and prescribe. In this case, your best and most affordable bet can be a high-end design hostel with its smooth private rooms. Or your other option is to find the minimalist-looking, tech-heavy economy hotel chains that focus on good beds and smart design instead of wasting space. And this is where the university room strategy finds its optimal and unique way of applying exceptional value to impossibly expensive cities centres. In the meantime, in Central and Eastern Europe, in such cities as Prague, Budapest, Krakow, or Ljubljana, you can afford more. The fact that it is affordable in itself can therefore make a chic, centrally located studio apartment in Airbnb relatively the same price as a simple, personal room in a hostel in Paris or Amsterdam. It is your turn to experience the comfort of staying in your own whole apartment, feel like a local resident of a unique storefront building, which is a genius piece of work by a talented artist. All that is when you learn these regional peculiarities, you can understand how to manage your expectations and use the most helpful search strategy in your place.
To increase your search in the best possible way, you must think like a digital detective and search utilising a number of tools outside of the largest aggregator booking organisations. Google Maps itself is one of the most potent but not used at full capacity. Rather than beginning the search at a booking web site, in Google Maps zoom into one of the neighbourhoods where you have an interest. Then the easiest way is to search up words such as, hotel, guesthouse or pensione. You will look at dozens of pins, which appears in the form of small and, at the same time, independent shops that barely have a marketing budget to rank highly on the major platforms. You are able to hit a pin, view the goofy photos that former visitors posted, read up the reviews, and you will also see a connection to the official site of the property itself. It is one way of unearthing the best finds and also enables one to get lower prices as they book direct. One more such sophisticated move is to take a first dig at Visual sites such as Instagram and Pinterest. Look up search terms which include the city name and the aesthetic you want, e.g. #ParisBoutiqueHotel, #LisbonGuesthouse or #BerlinDesign. It is an amazing method of finding out new, aesthetic Israel in which it is not so concerned with the pleasant visual presentation. You will get a much more realistic sense of the atmosphere than you would ever get off stuff structured professional marketing photos, as you will see rooms and spaces as you would see them in the eyes of fellow travelers, the people just like you. As soon as you discover some place that really attracts your imagination, just Google search its name and you will be directed to the booking options of that place. This process of visual-first searching will make you sure that you are identifying a place that you will really fit into in terms of style.
Last but not least, in case one is ambitious enough to want to explore what a room might actually be by staying in rather unusual places, there is still a long list of even more imaginative alternatives where the border is tangled between staying and being the participant of the event. To the rolling country-side of Tuscany or the sun-burnt Provence, an agriturismo or a farm stay is what to consider. In this case, there is the possibility of renting a rustic-chic room, such as a vineyard, olive grove or farm. The style is that of natural, gritty goodness and the experience is as immersive as it can be. You wake up with the sounds of nature, you dine and eat where ingredients are grown just feet outside your door and you get a deep feeling of serenity and closeness to nature. In the case of more extended stays, it is a crazy, yet genius solution, home sitting. Information digital sites such as TrustedHousesitters allow home owners planning to go on vacation to meet honest people who will take care of their homes and pets during vacations. Accommodation will be fully free. As a tradeoff, you receive a sufficient dwelling in a posh house at your disposal in any part of the world. Just imagine three whole weeks in a cool London apartment or a beautiful Amsterdam canal house without having paid anything of your accommodations. It takes planning, a good profile and some excellent references but in the long term it is the ace in the pack of tricks available to the long-term, budget saving, independent traveler who wants to open up a city. The other option is to reserve an experience with provision of accommodation. Creative writing retreats a week in Greece, language immersion programme in Spain or cooking school in Bologna might include the room as part of the deal. This puts your accommodation expenses together with something valuable to do where structure is built-in and a group of people, having a common interest. Such alternative options will turn your stay to something much more than just a convenience and an unforgettable part of your trip as they prove that even the most stylish and rewarding places could be discovered as long as you are willing to explore the world beyond the hotel lobby.
