One of the main reasons we decided to move to Sicily was so that we would have the opportunity to travel with our kids. So far, we love it! Obviously we’ve gotten to go on our fair share of longer trips this past year, but we’ve also found that we love taking advantage of long weekends for quicker getaways. Shorter trips generally mean less packing, less expense and less stress! So far we’ve taken weekend trips around Sicily to Modica, Ragusa and Noto, Cefalu and Agrigento, as well as our recent trip to Venice.

Along the way, we’ve picked up a few ideas for how to get the most out of a long weekend. Now, we hope we can help you do the same.

1.  Minimize transit time. The main problem with traveling over a long weekend can be time spent getting from Point A to Point B. Who wants to spend two days out of three trapped in an airport or a car? For this reason, I’d highly recommend sticking to direct flights only. Even if you have to pay a little extra, the having an extra several hours in the city you are visiting can often be worth it. If you are road-tripping it, my personal threshold is no more than four hours at the very most — obviously everyone has their own feelings about driving, but four hours each way is absolutely as much as I can stand doing within the same weekend!

Ah yes, this fun road! From our trip to Modica, Ragusa and Noto.

2. Schedule your arrivals and departures carefully. Basically, this is more or less the same reasoning as above. Say you’ve only got three days off (Saturday-Sunday-Monday or Friday-Saturday-Sunday), you want to make sure you have as much time as possible on each of those days. Shoot for leaving as early as possible on the first day, and as late as possible on the third. We did this very thing on our recent trip to Venice, and it worked out great. Plus, we felt like we had the better part of three whole days but only had to pay for two nights in a hotel.* #itsthelittlethings.

*As a reminder, we stayed at the Venice Dream House in Venice and absolutely loved it. I highly recommend! 

Agrigento! 

3. Have a plan. I’m not saying that you need to have yourself scheduled hour-by-hour, but if you only have two or three days to explore a city you should have a solid idea of what your sightseeing priorities are and what hours attractions are open. You don’t need to waste time sitting in your hotel Googling things! I’d also highly, highly recommend that you know ahead of time how you are getting from the airport to your hotel so you aren’t trying to figure that out on the fly. If you are the type that struggles to decide where to eat, I’d even recommend looking up some options for that ahead of time as well — after all, that doesn’t mean you have to go there if somewhere else strikes your fancy, but if you are struggling at least you have a plan to fall back on. I had compiled a list of “cheap eats” for Venice ahead of time because I didn’t want to waste time wandering around looking for somewhere that wasn’t outrageously expensive, and that absolutely came in handy. Likewise, in Modica we had a restaurant in mind that was recommended by a friend and that made our dinner plans super simple because we didn’t have to run around comparing menus.

Burano

4. Consider buying skip-the-line passes ahead of time for major attractions. Once again, this is a time vs. money situation. If you only have a few days in a city, maybe you don’t want to waste two hours of your day waiting to get into somewhere like Basilico San Marco. It is best to do your research ahead of time as to what the crowds are likely to be like at the time of year you are traveling, and evaluate whether buying tickets ahead of time is worth it to you.

Piazza San Marco, Venice

5. Assume you’ll be back someday. For all my talk of having a plan and seeing as much as you can, don’t knock yourself out trying to see every last possible thing that can be considered a tourist attraction! Even if you don’t know when you’ll ever get back to a specific place, don’t stress yourself out thinking that this is your only opportunity to see it. Life is long and weird. And chances are if you are on a weekend trip, you are going to have to go back to work or school or whatever as soon as you get back — remember that you need to relax before you head back!

Aperol spritz, anyone? 

Now, I want to hear from you! Where is your favorite place to go for a long weekend?

The post Five ways to make the most out of a long weekend trip first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Five ways to make the most out of a long weekend trip appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Basically conversations with Chris lately have gone something like this:

“So I’m thinking we should go to (place name) over Columbus Day weekend.”

“We’re going to Oktoberfest right before that and Venice after, it is too much.”

“Huh? No, I’m talking about the next Columbus Day. 2018!”

” … seriously?”

So yeah, I’m trying to map out our travel destinations for all of 2018, basically. Yes, Chris (and uhh a few other people I’ve mentioned this to) think I’m crazy.* But listen, I have my reasons (beyond being obsessed.)

1. Making sure we are being strategic about what weekends we plan travel.* Chris’ work schedule means that he gets every other Friday off (he works nine hour days). This year, I didn’t really look ahead well enough at the combination of RDO days and federal holidays, and missed some opportunities where we could have timed trips differently to use less leave. Next year, I’m planning our longer trips in ways so that we can end up with, say, 10-day trips that use only four days of Chris’ vacation time.*Originally ony of my goals was to avoid having trips super close together (our two big trips, France and Ireland, were less than a month apart) but it kind of seems like they are going to end up being close together anyway because of when holidays fall. Ha! 
2. Planning for when visitors come. If we get a schedule set for when we’ll be out of Sicily, the various friends and family members who are talking about visiting next year can use that to plan their own trips to see us! (Which we are so excited for, guys!!)
3. Being strategic with our credit card points. As I mentioned in this post, I have some hotel points stockpiled in a few different currencies. Knowing when we want to go where helps me a) decide at which property I’d like to use them, and b) actually make this happen. Award space can fill quickly at highly desirable places and times of year, so booking early is often a must. Knowing that we want to go to the Hilton Malta on X weekend also allows me to check to see how many more points I need to make it happen, and thus make an informed decision about what credit card I want to be using to rack up points.
4. Top pick of AirBnBs (and hotels). In the summer months here, the best AirBnBs at desirable tourists destinations (like San Vito Lo Capo or Tropea, for example) can book up quickly. Knowing where we want to go when means I can be looking ahead and get the best selection when time comes to actally book. I actually already booked one place a few weeks ago for summer 2018. It is a cool treehouse on Lake Bled in Slovenia that Chris saw last year and wanted to visit, but there was no availability even months ahead of when we wanted to go. This year, I was on top of it!  Added bonus: they honored the 2017 prices even though I found out they intended raise them by 20 euro per night in 2018 (we communicated via e-mail because rooms weren’t even available to be booked online yet).

   

5. Getting the best price for flights. Trying to time it right when buying a plane ticket is a frustrating business. Booking too early could mean missing out if prices become cheaper down the line, but waiting too long could mean your preferred flight sells out. Planning ahead means I can set up price alerts for flights and, combined with looking at options compulsively periodically, I at least have a general idea of what pricing has been doing for a specific place. For instance, if I saw a flight for Rome to Lisbon for 100 euro it might seem good, except that I know a few weeks ago I saw one for 75 euro. See? 

*This post is in no way intended to lay out the case to my husband for why I’m not crazy. Well, “in no way” is probably a bit strong. I should probably say it is mostly not aimed at Christopher. Love you hon!

The post Trip planning: why I’m looking more than a year ahead first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Trip planning: why I’m looking more than a year ahead appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

So you are going to Europe with kids …

First of all, good for you!

It has always been our experience that travel adds somthing wonderful to your life. It broadens your horizons (and your palate), leads to great memories and is just plain fun. Europe is a fascinating, varied and historically rich place to visit in particular for people of all ages — and contrary to what some people say, having kids is no reason to give up on going there. While you can’t expect a trip taken with little ones in tow to be exactly the same as your pre-kid adventures, there is no reason Europe with kids can’t be just as exciting — especially since now you are seeing it through a whole new set of eyes.

Plus, as I talk about here, there are some other, unexpected advantages to traveling with kids!

Straight off the bat, I’m going to say we don’t believe in the “what’s the point of taking them to X when they won’t remember or appreciate it anyway?” First of all, you can say that about anything — why bother take them to the park or the zoo or the community pool, then? Second, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast most mornings, doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it while it lasted. Seriously though, my kids might not remember every detail of our trips to France or Ireland, but I will remember how excited Owen was while running through the Catacombs or the sound of Fiona trying to moo at the cows we saw near the Cliffs of Moher during our trip to Ireland.

So, this is to be the first in a series I’m planning to share everything we’ve learned in the last nine months of trips (which have included Rome/Naples, France and Ireland, as well as a few weekend trips.) I’ll be adding to this list frequently as we learn more in the coming years! As can imagine, much of our advice will be centered on traveling with younger children since that is our experience, but I hope some of it can be applicable to those with older ones kiddos too. Also: I’ll get into more specifics of planning a trip as far as plane tickets and such at a later date.

So without further ado …

How to travel in Europe with kids without losing your mind (1st edition)

1. Plan extra time into your Europe with kids itinerary. When Chris and I went on our honeymoon, we fit three countries into about 11 days. We crammed a lot in during that time (including a lot of alcoholic beverages). If you are traveling with small children, however, you should plan on taking things a little slower. Two major attractions (this does not include meals) in one day is a nice pace, three is sometimes manageable and anything more than that is probably madness. Whatever seems like a reasonable amount of time to spend in a city pre-kid, you probably want to add at least a day. My blogging friend Diana also talks about the importance of downtime in an excellent post you can find here, by the way.

   

2. Have a plan for what you want to do each day. This advice is somewhat at variance with our former “we’ll figure it out when we get there” ideology. But having done it both way, I’m now a big advocate for having a plan. This doesn’t mean having a rigid hour-by-hour schedule so much as having an outline. Mapping things our ahead of time means that you can organize things logically in terms of location and that you are aware ahead of time when certain places are closed. Without preparation, you end up not realizing that you need tickets to buy tickets ahead of time for the Kilmainham Gaol, for instance. You also end up wasting a bunch of time in the morning debating about what to do and Googling to make sure it is open.

   

3. Feel free to toss out the plan. Be flexible. Sometimes you are going to run into something that makes you want to throw out the plan and investigate. Do it. For instance, in Spain with my parents in 2011 we abruptly ditched our plans to go to the Prado Musuem because my mom hurt her leg and we stopped at a bar to check it. We ended up having drinks, talking to a bunch of people and having one of our most fun nights in Spain. Don’t be so married to your schedule that you can’t ditch it for an afternoon to follow an impulse.

   

4. Sandwich things you want to do with things you know the kids will enjoy. When you are making these plans, consider organizing your day with an activity you are sure the kids will like with one you want to see that might be less interesting to them. For instance: we planned on going to the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris after a morning at Napoleon’s Tomb and the war museum there. In general, I’d recommend familiarizing yourselves with parks or greenspaces near where you are staying in any city because letting them run around at a park for an hour or so is a great break from the go-go-go of traveling.
5. Don’t go into any activity with the assumption that your kids won’t enjoy it. Even if you inwardly think that probably the kids are going to think an activity is dumb, don’t say so in front of them. Don’t bribe them beforehand to “just be good and we can do something fun after.” Basically, don’t say anything that is going to have them walking into a place expecting to be bored and you might be surprised. For example: my kids loved the War Museum in Paris. Go figure!

   

6. Do bribe them though. Be prepared with some bribes though as needed to get through something you want to see. I highly recommend bringing a bunch of snacks in your daypack, and in particular I recommend packing suckers if your kids are old enough to eat them. They are light weight and a kid can’t really whine when he/she’s eating a sucker. Victory.
7. Be willing to bend the rules.This is vacation and it is supposed to be fun, damn it. Our kids end up staying up later and eating a lot more sweets on vacation, and I think that’s OK. Frankly, it is giving yourself a break as well from the usual restrictions.

   

   8. Make (financial) concessions to your sanity. It is possible that renting an apartment is going to be more expensive than the cheapest possible hotel room, but if it means you can all get a little more sleep then I consider it money well spent. Likewise, public transit can often get you into cities cheaper than a car service but if you are walking off a 10-hour flights with a couple cranky kids and a giant suitcase, we think it is worth it to have a car (with car seats) arranged to take us to our hotel or apartment.

8. 

9. Consider putting the kids in “training” beforehand.Chances are that you are going to be walking around more than you normally would at home. Before our France and Ireland trips I made a concerted effort to take frequent walks with the kids to get them in shape in hopes of reducing the chorus of “I’m tired.” Obviously this has the added benefit of getting you ready too!

   

10. But also consider babywearing. I’m going to do a whole post on this later, but I highly recommend you consider carrying your baby in a sling or carrier instead of lugging around a stroller. It can be way easier to get around and you don’t have to worry about parking your stroller anywhere. It is also a perfect nap spot for tired kids in the afternoon! I wasn’t babywearing yet back when we were in Rome, but after that trip I invested in a toddler-size Tula and it has seriously been a game-changer. Update: I did a post about this here.
11. Remember that this is their trip too. Yeah, it can get annoying if they want to stop at the millionth fountain or stay at some boring attraction long after you’ve lost interest, but hey — this is their trip too. Cut them some slack.

    

12. Remember that it is YOUR trip too. That said, do not spend your entire trip catering to your kids’ wants at the expense of your own. Your kids might not love visiting that art museum and they might get bored at a two-hour dinner. Tough shit. It does not kill a kid to be bored once in a while. Along those same lines, try to take it easy on yourself as well. You and your spouse are sitting at dinner and want to linger, but the kid is whining? Give yourself a break and let him watch videos on your phone (or whatever) even if you never do this and but what will people THINK? Seriously, cut yourself some slack and enjoy your cappuccino (or cocktail) in peace.Here’s to you, fellow parent-travelers. You’ve got this. 

Happy travels! 

The post Traveling in Europe with kids and without losing your mind first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Traveling in Europe with kids and without losing your mind appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

With about two-and-a-half months to go until Oktoberfest in Munich, Chris and I took our most important step yet in planning our trip yesterday …

We ordered my dirndl and his lederhosen!

Ok, possibly I should have said *one* of the most important.

At any rate, with things coming together rapidly for this year’s Oktoberfest it seems like a good time to look back at the most arduous part of planning the trip, getting table reservations.

I’m going to start off by telling you straight up that there is one big thing you need to make this happen, and it is this:

PERSERVERENCE 

But I’ll come back to that in a second. To recap, we are going to Oktoberfest in Munich this year! We’ll be meeting up with my parents, my sister, my brother-in-law, my aunt and uncle, some of our friends and some of my parents’ friends. All told, the group is about 16 (not counting the children).

You probably already know something about Oktoberfest, but a little quick backstory: the first Oktoberfest was a celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig in October 1810. The commoners were invited to come celebrate the royal couple, and the festivities included horse races and stuff. I guess it was so much fun they decided to continue doing it every year, minus a few years when it was canceled because of problems like cholera, Napoleon and World Wars I & II. Eventually they decided to move the festival to take place almost entirely in September (better weather!) though it always ends a few days into October. I guess so the name continues to make sense?! Anyway, these days more than 6 million people attend every year.

Pics are from our 2010 trip

So the Oktoberfest grounds include about a dozen large beer “tents” that hold thousands of people, plus another 20 or so small tents that hold a few hundred people. To get a liter of beer or food in the tents, you need to be sitting down at a table (usually a long wooden table with benches). In our experience, finding a spot to sit is pretty much a nonissue in the mornings and early afternoon during the week. However, by midafternoon it gets difficult and in the evenings? Even worse. Chris and I had a hard time finding places to sit for just the two of us in the late afternoon when we were there in 2010, so we knew trying to find a table for a party of 16 on the day of the event was going to be damn near impossible unless we were content to go only in the morning. Enter table reservations.

“Tents” but on an epic scale.

So you can reserve a spot in one of the tents ahead of time, but there are a couple of catches:

1. You have to book an entire table — the smallest I’ve seen is a table for six, while the largest are for 20. Making the reservation is technically free, but you have to pay up front for two beers and a meal at the tent for each seat — and we’re talking about 40 to 65 euro per seat.
2. The process is infuriating.

For all you hear about German efficiency, Oktoberfest seems to be a bit of an exception. Each tent has different owners, and thus each has a different process for applying for a spot in the tents. Each has different dates on which they’ll start accepting reservations as well.

So, if you are going to try to get table reservations at Oktoberfest and are hoping for afternoon or evening reservations, you need to START EARLY! 

I’ve literally been working on applying for table reservations since early January of this year, and ended up getting four reservations (two of which we kept). Part of the problem was that for a lot of tents I kind of got the run-around; at Ochsenbraterei, for example, I was told variously over the phone and email that I needed to make my request again in March, then May, then June. And then it was full after all. And sometimes I got no answer at all.

I used this link as my central hub for the Oktoberfest websites. From there, the only thing to do was to go to each tent’s individual website and puzzle out how to apply. Some have an online reservation form, while others — I kid you not — require requests to be made in writing. (I did actually try this, but never did get a response.) One only offered evening reservations to people who were staying at a specific hotel. Most never seemed to have any evening availability at all and one was fully booked (returning customers get priority) before I made a single request.

The end result of my efforts was that I was able to get a table for 12 in the evening (5 p.m. to close) at one of the small tents one night, a table for 16 from 4 to 8 p.m. another day, plus two reservations that we’ve decided not to keep — both midafternoon during the week.

Planning to reserve a table yourself? A word to the wise. 

1. Start early. While most of my reservations didn’t come from requests I made in January, it is wise to get started early enough to have an idea of when reservations will open. Set an alarm to remind yourself to apply THAT DAY.
2. Stay organized. I wish I’d done a better job with this, because it got frustrating. At a minimum, open a Word document and keep a running list of what you find out from each tent re: when they start accepting reservations, what contacts you’ve already made, and any updates you’ve received along the way. You’ll thank yourself later.
3. Apply everywhere. I literally applied to every single large tent and many of the small tent (some more than once on accident — see above). So few of the requests I made actually panned out that I’m glad I made requests at all of them. You don’t have to pay for the table until June or July, generally, so there’s no harm in accepting what you are offered in principle while you wait to see what your options are. That’s how we came to select two of the four reservations I was able to secure.
4. Be flexible. Originally I only wanted to apply for evening reservations at the tents, but pretty soon I realized just how difficult getting a table at night would be and I shifted gears. We ultimately decided that late afternoon would also be a good option for us and as a result we were a lot more successful. Not being too rigid will make it more likely that you get a reservation somewhere.
5. Don’t buy from third parties. There are people selling Oktoberfest tables at inflated rates online, but going this route is a bad idea. As every website says explicitly, doing this is NOT ALLOWED and if you get busted then they won’t necessarily honor your reservation. Which is bad news considering that the already expensive tables come at an inflated price when you are buying from a scalper. You don’t want your trip hanging on you not getting caught for doing something wrong.
6. Learn German. Ok, just kidding here. But man, translating a million documents and trying to puzzle out the garbled answers from Google Translate got tricky!

Question: This seems like a lot of work. How do I know I even really need table reservations? 

Answer: It depends on what you are looking for and the size of your group. If it is just you and another person, you can probably find a spot to sit with enough perservence even in the afternoon/evening. If you are a patient person, you can wait in lines to get into the portion of the tents that is unreserved. If you are content to go in the morning and early afternoon (nothing wrong with that! that’s mostly what we did in 2010), then I wouldn’t bother with getting lunch reservations at all. Otherwise, I’d suggest trying to get reservations for at least one of the days you are planning to be there to avoid frustration. 

PROST!

I believe this was taken around 10 a.m. — you can see how many open seats there are! No comment about liters of beer at 10 a.m., please … 

The post So you’re going to Oktoberfest: table reservations first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post So you’re going to Oktoberfest: table reservations appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

So first some news: we’re coming back to the States in this fall! 

Christmas in Chicago last year!

Today we cashed out our entire Chase Ultimate Rewards hoard — roughly 144,000 points, plus about $450 since we were a bit short — for four round-trip tickets to Chicago in November. I have to admit that it felt a bit shocking to see all those points go at once since I’ve been stockpiling them for a while without a specific purpose in mind, but I can’t think of a better way to use them than to get to see our family and friends back home.

At any rate, this all put me in the mood to talk about credit card miles/points and what cards we are carrying these days. I’ve been following quite a few “travel hacking” groups for the last year or so but I am not even remotely an expert, so for a lot more detailed information I’d suggest you check out blogs like The Points Guy or Million Mile Secrets. That said, I wanted to share my experiences — first with Chase cards, and then with the other travel-related cards I’m carrying in a separate post tomorrow.

Disclaimer: I obviously think that using credit cards to earn points/miles is a great option. However, I hope it goes without saying that this makes sense only when you are using cards to pay for things you already planned to buy. Don’t rack up a ton of debt in hopes of getting miles/points!

Anyway, on to the Chase cards …

So, Chase Ultimate Rewards is my favorite points/miles program. You rack up UR points on any of several Chase cards, then you can either exchange them for cashback or — for a higher redemption rate — use them in the Chase travel portal. The travel portal basically works like any travel aggregator site (Kayak, Momondo, albeit with fewer filtering options) and presents flight/hotel/rental car/etc. options from a wide range of companies. You can pay entirely or partially with points, which is nice when you are a short of what you need.

My one complaint with the Chase portal is sometimes the options aren’t that great — excessively long flights, or flights that for some reason seem a little more expensive than what I’d see on a Momondo or similar site. That was my complaint — until today. Turns out, you can call into Chase’s travel center, they can (at least sometimes) find the flight you are looking at elsewhere AND book it with points! 

I was again frustrated because an excellent, low-cost, relatively short Lufthansa fare I saw on Momondo wasn’t coming up on the Chase portal. I called and boom! (Ok, 45 minutes and then boom!)They found it for me, and for basically the same much-cheaper rate I’d seen online! Doing this rather than picking the best option coming up on the portal meant we saved hours of travel time on both ends of the trip, and at least a couple hundred bucks.

I’ve seen a lot of arguing in the points/miles world about the usefulness of the Chase portal versus transferring to various mileage programs, but because prices are so low right now (in the offseason anyway) we’ve found that using the portal makes the most sense because it is pegged to the actual price of the flight. We also don’t care about booking business class — a big perk of transferring to partners — so that is a nonissue for us. But, to each their own!

This is the fourth tme we’ve used the Chase points to book travel (not counting the flights we booked, and then had to cancel, for our friend’s wedding in Mexico since we moved here. Still sad about that). The other times were:

1. Paid for part of our tickets home for Christmas last year (I believe points covered almost half)
2. Four tickets to Paris in April
3. Hotel in Munich for Oktoberfest because I couldn’t stomach paying cash at the elevated prices.

We used two different cards — in particular the sign-up bonuses — to earn the points for these trips. 

Chase Sapphire Reserve

This is our primary travel card. I was enticed to get this card during their initial (since expired) 100,000-point bonus offer. Even with the hefty $450 yearly fee, the 100,000 points (worth $1,500 in travel portal) and $300 travel credit made it a no-brainer. At the time I meant to cancel it, but I’m now thinking I’ll keep it at least until we move back to the United States. We’ve gotten a lot of value out of it thisyear because you get 3x the points on travel and dining out expenses, plus the card functions as primary rental car coverage when used to pay for a rental so you can save money by declining it. There are a bunch of other perks (replace your stuff if the airport loses a bag, gets you a hotel room if your flight is delayed, etc) but you can look those up on your own. It is now a bit less enticing now with “only” 50,000 sign-up bonus after a $4,000 minimum spend in three months, but still a good one if you travel a lot. Remember that the first $300 in travel-related expenses is credited back to you almost immediately, so you could argue that the fee is “really” only $150/year. Also noteworthy, points are worth more in the travel portal than the Preferred; 1.5 cents per point versus 1.25.

Chase Sapphire Preferred

If you are looking for a card for traveling overseas and don’t want to pay for the Reserve, this is your best option. It is $0 fee the first year, and $95 annually after that. We’ve had two — one for Chris and one for me — but I have since gotten mine switched to a no-fee card since I got the Reserve since it didn’t make sense to pay the fee for one I wouldn’t use as much. The 50,000 sign-up bonus is worth $625 in travel ($750 if you or your spouse has a Reserve card to transfer the points to for higher redemption), which can take your pretty far with airline prices being as low as they have been this year. It has no foreign transaction fees, you can transfer to various other airline or travel partners, and you get 2x the points on travel and dining. Because of the relatively low fee, good sign-up bonus and versatility of Chase points,  this is the card I see most often recommended for people getting into the points world. Plus, you could totally use the points to come visit us! Ha.

If you are interested in this card, please consider using our referral link so we get some bonus points too:

https://applynow.chase.com/FlexAppWeb/renderApp.do?SPID=FNLC&CELL=63HF&MSC=1536510093

Tomorrow: Moving on to the hotel cards I’m working on right now!

In the meantime: What’s in YOUR wallet? 

The post Trip planning with points: what’s in your wallet? first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Trip planning with points: what’s in your wallet? appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Since getting to Italy I’ve spent a (probably ridiculous/borderline compulsive) amount of time online researching places to stay for upcoming trips with the kids. I’ve outlined our thought process in determining where to stay before, in this post. This week, however, had me doing researching a type of accommodation that has been out of consideration since we got here: hostels.

I’ll get to the why in a minute.

Before I got married (almost seven years ago!), most of my international trips involved staying in hostels. I’ve stayed in them throughout Europe and in Australia, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Singapore and possibly another that I’m forgetting. My parents had us staying mostly in hostels during our big three-week trip to Europe when my siblings and I were 13, 11, 9 and 7 years old — a fact that seems even more impressive now that I’m a parent myself. During that time, I’ve had good experiences and bad, but by and large it is something I highly recommend to single travelers.

So, the hostels that I remember most fondly are notable less for what they are than how they are. I’ve twice stayed at the Yoho Youth Hostel in Salzburg, once at 13 and once at 18 years old. Despite that I can’t even remember what the actual rooms were like (dorms, of course, but comfortable or not I couldn’t tell you) but what I do remember is constant screenings of The Sound of Music, meeting fellow travelers in the hostel pub and fun employees. Likewise, while I remember being beyond grateful for bedding that didn’t feel like horse blankets and air conditioning that actually worked at my favorite hostel in Cairo, Hostel Brothers, my best memories are of making friends there.

For the single traveler, hostels are great because a) they are cheap and b) they offer companionship. When I spent two months in the middle East and Asia in 2008, I loved hostels because I almost always ended up making friends and having people go out to dinner, see sights or swap stories with. By contrast, once I hit the India portion of that trip I switched to hotels because it was so cheap (not much point in sharing a dorm if you can have a private room for $5) but I found that I got pretty lonely. That’s not to say it is all upside — crappy mattresses, noise when you are trying to sleep, complete lack of privacy and perpetually and infuriatingly wet bathrooms are pretty much the rule, not the exception — but while on my own and focused on saving money it was a pretty decent trade off.

Chris and I haven’t  been into staying in hostels together, but this week I was revisiting hostelworld.com again on behalf of my brother-in-law, Brett. He’s decided to join us in Munich for Oktoberfest (as I’ve mentioned, we are meeting my parents, some of their friends and some of our friends there) and needed to find somewhere to stay. Hotel prices are pretty inflated and many are booked up, so at a minimum he was looking at either about 500 euro for two nights’ accommodation or staying way on the outskirts to get a better rate. Another complication in our search was that we already have reservations at a nonrefundable, fully booked-up hotel, but he was hoping to stay near us so that he wouldn’t have to be wandering around trying to find his way back to his hotel on his own. Especially after a few liters of beer.

Enter the idea of hostels.

There was actually one right next door to our hotel that was an insane €47/night for a dorm bed. It would have been perfect except for reviews saying things like “smells like a frat house” and “laptops got stolen” and “filled with drunk men and we feared for our safety” and “RUN AWAY!”

So maybe not.*

We ended up picking a hostel based on basically the same criteria Chris and I use for hotels — location, price and reviews. For the sake of convenience, we were particularly concerned with finding one close to our hotel (even if we did give up on the one RIGHT NEXT DOOR) and ended up finding one about a kilometer away. It certainly didn’t end up being as cheap at the horrible-sounding one, especially since Brett decided to shell out a little extra to get a room in the six-bed dorm instead of the 12-bed, but he’ll still be paying about half as much as he would in a hotel.**

I’m really hoping that he has a great experience since it’ll be both his first time in Europe and his first time in a youth hostel. We’ll see! At the very least, hopefully jetlag and beer help him sleep through any potentially noisy bed(room)fellows.

*Despite this, he actually did still consider it because €92 for two nights? I mean, that’s cheap. And it was SO CLOSE to our own hotel …

**Worth noting that hostels would normally be more than 50 percent cheaper than the hotel, probably. The youth hostel price was inflated because it was Oktoberfest; the bed he’ll end up paying €117 for would normally be €34 per night.

Oktoberfest 2010

The post Hunting for hostels first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Hunting for hostels appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.