When traveling around the world as a family, hotels can get a little complicated. Each country has its own rules about occupancy, and you can often get stuck! What other options are out there for families to stay in. Here we are going to discuss four hotel alternative options: places besides a hotel where you can stay as you travel.
Campsites
Without surprise, camping is the hotel alternative that costs the least amount of money. Coming in as the cheapest of the cheap, camping around the world is for the most frugal travelers trying to make their money stretch as far as it can go.
But campsites are more than that.
The WHY behind when we choose to camp:
- Summertime! It is beautiful to be outdoors at night. The smell, the sounds, the campfires. It is a great time of year to be staying out in nature instead inside four walls.
- When it’s on our way somewhere. Camping is an easy stopover accommodation. Arrive around dark, put up the tent, sleep, wake up with the sun, put tent away, drive away.
- When its available and easy to get to. Campsites are not always close to public transportation, so it may not be available on our trip. But when we are traveling and we can use a campsite, we will!
- When we are comfortable with our surroundings. Often in travels, we don’t know what to expect. In those cases, something more traditional than a tent might put us more at ease. But when we feel that we have an understanding of what is going on around us, camping can be a lot of fun!
Hostels
Though this may seem like an unlikely hotel alternative option for families, it is actually a viable option in many cities around the world. The cost per bed-type housing option can be much cheaper than cost per room.
The WHY behind when we choose a hostel:
- When we see it as the cheaper option. We compare two rooms in a hotel to 6 beds in a youth hostel.
- When we feel comfortable with our children being in close quarters with others (they are old enough to not bother other guests and they understand how to make proper respectful conversation)
- When we want to stay in a place with more of a community feeling. We sometimes are looking for that space to make conversation with fellow travelers and have our whole family gain different perspectives on the world as we share stories in the common areas of the hostel.
Apartments
Very often as a larger family of 6, we find that apartments are spacious and willing to house more visitors than other types of accommodations. It is very useful to look into these as a hotel alternative. We like to book them through Booking.com.
The WHY behind when we choose an apartment:
- We want our own kitchen to cook food. Shopping from the grocery store can be less stressful and cheaper than eating out. A kitchen gives you the ability to cook.
- It is often cheaper than the other options.
- When we have more people in our group and we are looking for a place with a common area to all hang out in. A living room can give us the space we need to plan our busy exploring days or just sit around and play games in the evening all together.
- When the only other option is booking 2 hotel rooms, we 95% of the time, choose the apartment.
RV
An RV as hotel accommodation gives you a completely different experience than the other three housing choices. It is also by far the most expensive of these four options. However, the positives of choosing RV travel may outweigh the cost for some families. So, it is included on this list.
The WHY behind when we choose to use an RV:
- It creates a different experience for traveling where you are able to have your transportation, lodging, and food all in one place.
- When we are planning on fast travel (covering a large amount of miles in a short amount of time) and don’t want to have to continuously move our stuff from place to place, but understand that there is still set up and take down at each campsite.
- Shopping at the grocery store and keeping food with us is easiest in an RV and when consistent access to food is important
- When we need the most control over all of the different elements of traveling
- When the need for privacy is extremely important for us.
Hotels have become the go-to when it comes to places to stay while on vacation. But as a family, we must think beyond hotels and look at the other alternate accommodation options in order to make our travel fit the lifestyle that we want to have. If you want to see how we plan our off the beaten path adventures, check out this planning an off the beaten path post.