Screw the Luxury Hotel!

It’s tough but true: travel requires a degree of financial sacrifice if you want to get further than the local caravan park. As a teenager, I saved up money determinedly, never quite able to afford that European holiday of my dreams. Then, at the cusp of adulthood, the internet gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Interrailing offered practically infinite travel around Europe for the usual price of one flight and a nice hotel. So, fresh-faced after my A-levels, I set off with my friends for a real-life coming-of-age movie across Southern Europe before boarding the train to academia.

With this trip, I discovered the joys of living thriftily. Sleeping in a room with strangers became thrilling. Craving lunch out? Nothing a quick stop at Carrefour or Rewe for a baguette and cheese couldn’t satiate. In Paris, I snacked on apricots gifted by a flirtatious market seller; in Venice, I drank one euro espressos by the canals. Ludicrously low prices for alcohol in German supermarkets set the backdrop for many lakeside afternoons reading terrible books procured at the airport. My most authentic experiences abroad have been the cheapest. 

SkyScanner, offering a treasure trove of cheap flights, has brought me to such random destinations as Zadar, Croatia, on account of ridiculously low prices. Only boasting one page of flights per day on its departures board, this town with impressive Roman ruins, casually surrounded by the bustle of people shopping and drinking in its square, lies largely undiscovered by tourists. What’s more, Alfred Hitchcock once said Zadar has the most beautiful sunset in the world, which I was lucky enough to witness for free.

Hostels are a particular highlight of the cheap travel experience. There’s inevitably going to be the weird roommate who sleeps all day (...go home?), and if you’re particularly unlucky, in the event of an after-hours activity resulting from two travellers getting on a little too well, earplugs are your friend. The sleep may not be the best, but the people you meet in these cramped quarters come from all corners of the globe, eager to exchange travel anecdotes. Among the many simple pleasures of budget travel, this is perhaps the best.

That’s not to say that my thriftiness hasn’t got me into some scrapes. There was the Krakow hostel I opted for, which, being the cheapest on the entire internet, had me and fifteen men, shirtless in the summer heat, sleeping in one room with a door open to the street all night. Flixbus, too, is an inevitably mixed bag — surprisingly good in Croatia and Germany, more rudimentary in other places. However, by making concessions in these areas, the savvy traveller can afford to splurge elsewhere, be that kayaking in the Adriatic or eating in an authentic restaurant.

It’s undeniable that luxury hotels have their virtues. If looking for a ‘retreat’ type break, it can be perfect. I would motion, however, that this kind of experience beats the point of travel as a mode of exploration. Yes, we live in the UK and are desperate to escape its drab weather, but why not just go to a spa down the road? Many on a ‘wellness retreat’ abroad will never see beyond their infinity pool. In providing an escape, sometimes luxury travel can undermine the reason why you left the rainy Scottish countryside in the first place. 

I’m not saying you should join the ‘day-cationers’, who take advantage of cheap flights to travel abroad and back in twelve hours. That’s unsustainable and only allows for a fleeting impression of a new city. Nor should you put your safety in jeopardy to save a few pounds. But if you can deal with a slightly bad back or temporary malnutrition in return for a few days of authentic cultural experiences, choose budget travel over a plushy hotel package.

Illustration from Wikimedia Commons