Boutique hotels are plentiful in Paris, and finding the right one for your budget can take some searching. These independently run hotels offer an enticing alternative to the larger, often more expensive international chain hotels.

Paris has gained a reputation as the world’s most romantic city, but also for an occasionally stuffy or elitist attitude. By finding the friendliest lodging, travelers can avoid the attitude and maximize their experience of romantic charm.

Often, these smaller hotels have been family businesses for many generations and provide a more personalized and casual atmosphere for guests. It is possible to find Paris hotels that are charmingly French and friendly — if you know where to look. Here are seven of the friendliest boutique hotels in the City of Light.

These hotels are also friendly for your pocketbook and will cost you under $200 per night during most seasons.

Hotel des Saints-Peres

The renowned poet Edna St. Vincent Millay stayed here in 1921 when she was a foreign correspondent for Vanity Fair. She favored the hotel for its affordability and historical appeal. Today’s guests are greeted with the same combination of practicality and charm that so enticed the famous poet nearly a century ago. The Hotel des Saints-Peres is in the bohemian Left Bank of Paris, still an international beacon for artists and writers. One of the hotel’s suites features a 17^th-century fresco on its high ceiling, and all 39 rooms now feature the convenience of Wi-Fi access and mini-bars.

Hotel Verneuil

It’s rare to find a hotel that exudes historical style but without the pretentious attitude that often accompanies extraordinary design.

Hotel Verneuil manages to maintain its friendly, inviting atmosphere while preserving its distinctly Parisian romantic flair. The Verneuil is owned by Parisian hotelier Sylvie de Lattre who meticulously restored the hotel’s handsome 17^th-century wooden beams in order to preserve its authentic look. The two closest cafes — the Flore and Deux Magots — are both frequented by locals and rarely by tourists.

Hotel Le St. Gregoire

The St. Gregoire is run by a couple whose passion is to provide old-fashioned personal service. Guests report that the couple truly loves running the hotel and spend their days joyously tending to the needs of guests. Family friendliness exudes in the attention to detail at the St. Gregoire, a hotel that attracts repeat customers because of its comfortable amenities. The couple oversees the small kitchen in the stone cellar where they create rustic-style, home-baked meals and pastries for guests.

Hotel Luxembourg Parc

If you’re seeking a hotel that’s in between a palace hotel and a tiny boutique hotel, the Luxembourg Parc is your spot. The hotel maintains a classic Louis XV style, including fine linens and extravagant bathrooms, but is not quite as decadent as some of the larger hotels. This hotel manages to find a balance between eccentricity and extravagance that appeals to those who favor boutique hotels. One of its stranger features is a “24-hour room service” which mostly involves delivering food directly from local restaurants — a rare service among most smaller hotels.

Hotel de l’Abbaye

Its name is the French word for “abbey,” true to its origins as a 17^th-century abbey. This hotel’s tiny rooms are small enough to be monastic cells, and yet they are charmingly quaint. Most rooms offer views of a medieval church, St. Sulpice. Hotel de l’Abbaye is decorated in phenomenally bright floral fabrics, amplifying the warm and comforting mood. The quaint lodgings here provide a convenient escape from the hustle and bustle of modern Paris with its original cobbled patio and leafy green gardens. Stay here and you’ll have Paris at your doorstep and a contemplative sanctuary while you sleep.

Hotel Buci Latin

The Buci Latin is the essence of quirky, artistic decor. The hotel’s facade is constructed to resemble a flying saucer, and its main staircase features a gigantic graffiti mural. The lobby is buzzing with busy abstract wall paintings, and zebra stripes are a common fabric motif throughout the rooms. While its wacky look does not appeal to everyone, the hotel strives to maintain a warm and comfortable atmosphere and doesn’t veer into the pretentious attitude that sometimes accompanies the art world. During fashion week, this hotel is a favorite of editors, photographers and designers who favor a more low-key hotel experience.

Hotel Duc de St. Simon

This 34-room hotel resembles an 18^th-century townhouse with its dazzling pleated fabric-covered salon and pansy-filled gardens. The staff wear stylish uniforms but maintain a more casual approach to guest service. The famed model and actress Lauren Bacall opted to stay at the Duc de St. Simon as often as possible during her stays in Paris. Students of design frequent the hotel to take note of its unique interior décor, which focuses on folded and molded textiles. While this hotel is fashion forward, it retains the vibe of a boutique hotel.

You’ll know you’ve found the right boutique hotel when you go to sleep smiling and wake up the same way.

About the Author: Samantha Jansen is a travel and tourism writer based in New York City.

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Depending on whether we are going on an extended vacation country hopping or just travelling to a destination for a week, we always have some kind of restricted budget on our minds. A lot of the time, we like to hope that we can adhere to our spending but sometimes we either max out our credit card or find ourselves miserable, skipping meals, ordering water and counting our pennies on a counter making sure we don’t go over the ‘daily limit’.

But like everything, it takes practice to know the ‘tricks of the travel trade’. For those experienced with holiday travel, they have found secret short-cuts which help them make their travelling experiences more enjoyable whilst saving money at the same time. Funnily enough, these tips are not as difficult as you may think. Some could even say such tricks can enhance the trip!

You may have noticed that accommodation can cost more than a flight ticket these days. A lot of businesses have realised this by creating websites dedicated to private bed and breakfast or apartment listings for holiday makers to rent. And the outcome has been really positive. The process is a lot more simple than you think and can be proven with many people are switching to these cheaper sleeping alternatives due to the realization that they still have money in their bank to spend.

There are many great online sites which specialize in private bed and breakfast listings. With so many variables in the listings, one would think that it might be a bit too complicated. Why not just stay in a generic hotel room? Well, people can get that idea out of their heads, with private accommodation websites filled with photos and independent reviews and easy to use filters, making sure travellers know exactly what they are booking when browsing through listings. Surprisingly, you may not get as much detail from a hostel or hotel website, so functions like these are great. Also, the sense that you are in a real city apartment or home makes ones holiday destination a little bit more ‘authentic’ and in most cases, significantly cheaper.

For those of us who are on a restricted budget there are luckily avenues such as private accommodation websites, which make booking a great room much more easier than you thing. Now we all relax without staying in a place which is 5 times more expensive than the flight ticket!

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The Brits Guide to Camping in France: The location that has it all

So often camping holidays in the UK are sodden affairs that don’t offer the kids much opportunity to get out and play and leave the parents feeling miserable and claustrophobic. If this rings a bell with any of your experiences from camping within the UK have you ever thought about taking a trip abroad to go camping? Camping in France and across most of central Europe is popular amongst the residents of those countries and it is becoming increasingly popular with campers from the British Isles.

Camping in France: Who to book with?

A camping trip abroad can be a cost effective way of enjoying some sunshine and also offer all the same charm that a camping trip in the UK provides. Pitching up a tent in one of Frances glorious regions with their scenic countryside and enjoying their culinary delights goes down as one of my favourite family holiday destinations of all time. France provides almost guaranteed sunny weather and a huge range of diverse locations to choose from. To get a better idea of what the country can offer and to explore camping opportunities we recommend Thomson Al Fresco who specialise in camping and outdoor holidays. If you visit their website you will be spoilt for choice because they have a wonderful range of camping destinations that are spread across every popular region of France. To help you make your decision I here’s my quick guide to French camping destinations based on my families experiences in the country.

The Alps

If you have an adventurous side and you enjoy walking and hiking the French Alps is the perfect choice for you and your family. The Alps are renowned for their amazing and spectacular views from the valleys between the rising peaks of the mountains. There are numerous highly regarded campsites in the Alps that offer great access to the lakes, villages and towns that are scattered across the mountain range. Chamonix is a popular destination that has plenty of tasty restaurants and bars to explore.

Brittany

Renowned for its endless sandy beaches Brittany is one of the most popular destinations for anyone thinking of camping in France. Children will relish the prospect of spending all day on the sand and exploring the hidden coves and rock pools that are a feature of most of the regions beaches.

Paris

Camping in the countryside that surrounds the French capital is is a great destination for people who like to explore cities. Paris is obviously easily accessible by car and Lyon is only a stone’s throw away as well. Paris has a great number of interesting sightseeing opportunities to take advantage of including the world famous Eiffel Tower and the Arc De Triomphe. Disneyland Paris is also close by which will keep the kids happy because it is one of the top theme parks in Europe.

When to go camping in France

While most people prefer to go camping in the summer months because of the almost guaranteed sunshine and hot weather, it should be said that France often has glorious conditions in early spring and during autumn. Out of season the prices can also be found as low as half price.

Tom Watson is a travel writer who has spent a lot of time abroad with his family and this is something that he enjoys sharing amongst the blogging community so that others can enjoy the same experiences.

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Not many or may be even non of tourist who are coming to Sydney are thinking about camping in this city. I could say that not many locals know about such possibility. But yes, you can do it and in very nice place with beautiful  view.  Campsite I am talking about located in Cackatoo Island in the middle of Sydney harbor.
It is not one of whose big holiday parks with trailers parked everywhere. The place is easy accessible by ferry from the city and is very popular during New Year Eve as you can enjoy uninterrupted view of fireworks, but you need to book space in advance.

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If you are not using Paypal (Australia) yet, you can easy get benefits of these offers by creating new account with Paypal. It is free and easy to set up and you can save up to 200$ by booking your next flight or accommodation with offers from these companies. Just read fine print as they have different rules.

FlightCentre: Receive 10% cash back when you spend over $200 on any flight. You will receive 10% cash back to your PayPal account, up to a maximum cash back of $100.

Webjet are rewarding customers who book and pay for their international flights using their PayPal account with $150 cash back. Your booking must have a minimum value of $1,000 and excludes flights to and from New Zealand and Jetstar flights

Jetabroad offers a 10% cash back on all bookings with a minimum purchase of AUD$500 and a maximum of AUD$200 cash back per booking.

Besides flight bookings you can save on hotels bookings with Agoda. It offers $50 cash back into your PayPal account when your booking value is $200 or greater. Limited to the first 800 eligible bookings.

Offer ends on 31st of October or cash back budget is used up, whichever occurs first.

Of course you need to check other alternatives, as I couldn’t find good prices to destinations I want to fly with these companies, but may be you’ll have more luck and will be left with more spending money on you next holidays.

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You expect it should be easy to find affordable accommodation out there, but when I started look for place to stay it end up not being so easy task.

I am not talking about hotels. I was looking just for bed in hostel. Of course it is a lot of hostels out there, but it is tough find one in good location, good price, clean and quite. Don’t even look at cheapest hostels, as it most likely will be dorms with 10 or more beds. Or it is on noisy street, or…

I was getting frustrated and tired of reading reviews and thought won’t be able find anything, but luckily one of my friends was traveling to Singapore just couple weeks before me and after staying in some hostels, finally chose and recommended YMCA International House. Which I want to recommend for other travelers too.

Great location – on Orchad Road, close to MRT, small dorm room. By small I mean, only 4 beds in the room, bathroom in the room (yes, it is not shared), good food. Only con was – pool was on renovation. But I didn’t have time use it anyway, too many thing to see in the city. Here are some pictures from my room I was staying:

Enjoy your stay in Singapore!

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