Where did we SLEEP?

When you travel AROUND the WORLD, a lot of time is spent on the computer booking hotels and trying to find comfortable, clean, affordable places to sleep. Many people have asked me how we planned it and where did we stay? Well, there are only about a bazillion choices in every city from luxury hotels to B & B's to apartments to youth hostels.  The game is to narrow your choices down by your budget and location, and then just pull the trigger to reserve it. Here's my method:
First, I used www.Tripadvisor.com everytime to get the hotel list started and ideas generated. Once there, you can enter your city. But it will give you everything available (100's of hotels), so you need to slide the budget cursor to fit an acceptable range. For our RTW trip, we aimed for $50-100 per night. Gone are the days of $10 night anywhere, when you used read about Europe "on a shoestring." Ha! No way! Not even Peru or Mongolia has shoestrings anymore.  The cheapest place we stayed at was in Madagascar for $35 nite; in a cute little hut with mosquito nets and no hot water.
Les and I decided that we were too grown up for youth hostels filled with noisy, farting college students and down-the-hall bathrooms. And we weren't rich enough to travel for 4 months like a business traveler and stay at Marriott's for $200-300 per nite. Plus, we really didn't want to be sequestered in "mini-American" capsules with too many comforts and conveniences spoiling our sense of adventure. Then we would miss out on the local culture and flavor of each destination we visited. Which was the whole point of the trip to begin with: MEET THE LOCALS, EXPERIENCE THEIR LIFE!
TripAdvisor then will rank the top hotels, in your budget, and in your city, #1-100, I always picked from one of the top 15. The gist is that ranking comes from other travelers' reviews who just stayed at each hotel. So you can read their honest experiences and decide for yourself. Key phrases that popped out to me were usually about the "friendly, helpful staff" and "great location; next to Metro" and "clean & quiet rooms." If any of those read in the negative, I skipped that hotel. We also opted for smaller Bed & Breakfast homes, so we could meet and learn from the local landlord or owner themselves. This is risky because every room style & expectations will be different, but worth it because invariably we would leave with a great story or memory and several new friends. This skimming, sorting, research process would take us at least 2+ hours on the computer, for each upcoming city.
Here is our RTW Hotels (in chronological order, an asterisk * means I would stay there again!):

Hale Iki in Kona

1. Kona, Hawaii:  *Hale Iki House (on the ocean, www.haleiki.weebly.com, our favorite place on Earth!)
2. Lima, Peru: *Ramada Costa del Sol Airport Hotel (it's literally IN the airport parking lot, very clean and comfy, great for overnite layover to connect onward flights, cocktail & breakfast included)

Hotel Andina in Cusco, Peru

3. Cusco, Peru: *Hotel Terra Andina, www.terraandinahotel.com (met with coca tea, breakfast included, lovely room w/down comforters on beds, great location to explore center of town, cobblestone street) A great tour company www.columbusecuador.com for Machu Pichu.

Arasha in Ecuador

4. Highlands, Ecuador: Arasha Resort, www.arasharesort.com (cool bungalow room, but NOT in the Amazon rainforest as website says, like a Club Med in Mexico, all-inclusive, long drive to get there,)
5. Quito, Ecuador: Hotel Boutique Plaza Sucre, www.hotelplazasucre.com (located in old town Quito, a good spot, but front desk guy was short -as in abrupt, ha! & no breakfast either)

Susie on Millenium Catamaran

6. Galapagos Cruise: *Millenium Catamaran www.millenniumcatamaran.com (only 16 passengers, absolutely the best way to explore islands, the crew was top notch, first class, can go last-minute deal=half-price) Same great tour company www.columbusecuador.com for cruise.

Surf B & B in Peru

7. Lima, Peru: *Hotel Surf Penescal, www.surfpenescal.com (Noa's favorite, owners take you surfing, wife cooks, son Sebastian is cool kid, all inclusive)
8. Sao Paulo, Brazil: Airport Quick Sleep (located IN the airport between terminals, bunk beds with shower rented by hour, just what we needed for 23 hour layover & no Visa, ugh!)

Noa at our Madagascar hut

9. Madagascar: *Hotel Feon ny'la ($35/nite, next to Perinet Reserve, 3hour drive from Tana, no website online, book it via Franckie (your $100/day personal driver/nature guide-he's a must. Email him at ralaiaritiana_franckie@yahoo.fr)
10. Cape Town, South Africa: *Camps Bay Apartments, www.campsbayresort.com (breakfast included, walk 1 block to beach, perfect spot for Table Mtn, Cape & sharks)

Laine's Kruger hideaway

Zebras on our doorstep in Kruger!

Les relaxing at Laine's in Africa

11. Kruger National Park, Crocodile Gate: *Laine Pepper's Home in Marloth Community (the best!)
12. Paris: a funky little apartment, can't remember the name, but way too expensive. A great location in Place d'italie near metro & french market street.
13. Athens, Greece: *Herodion Hotel, www.herodion.gr (two blocks from Acropolis, next to museum, breakfast included, super nice and friendly service)

Santorini Hotel Amelie

14. Santorini, Greece: *Hotel Amelie, www.hotelamelie.gr (breakfast included, 4 block walk to beach, and lovely young couple owns it and attends to everything, very clean & cute)
15. Mykonos, Greece: *Marietta's Apartment, www.mariettas-mykonos.com (right next to famous windmills and cove, tiny alleyways, no breakfast, but nice room, Marietta drives you to/from ferry)

Great for Ephesus, Turkey daytrip

16. Samos, Greece: *Hotel Samos, www.samoshotel.gr/en (breakfast included, located on harbor, next to ferry port for daytrip to Ephesus, Turkey)

Hotel Eleven in Rome - not good

17. Rome, Italy: St. John's B & B, www.stjohnrome.com (breakfast included, great location, walk to Colesseum & metro, graffiti on ugly building exterior but nice once inside, young owner is helpful)
18. Rome Italy: Hotel Eleven B & B, nope, don't bother, noisy & icky

Mena House in Egypt - GREAT!

19. Cairo, Egypt: *Mena House, Oberoi Hotel, www.oberoihotels.com/oberoi_menahouse/index.asp (OMG this is the ONLY place to stay in Cairo, literally next to Great Pyramids, pool/spa, luxury, expensive but SAFE)
20. Bochum, Germany: Our friends Jorg & Gabi's lovely home (the best!)
21. Hong Kong: *Island Pacific Hotel, www.sino-hotels.com/Island_Pacific_Hotel/en/default.aspx (no breakfast, but great views of harbor, nice room and good location to crazy Chinese fish market streets)

Tara Angkor Hotel in Cambodia

22. Siem Reap, Cambodia: *Tara Angkor Hotel, www.taraangkorhotel.com (lovely place, pool/spa, cocktail + giant breakfast buffet included) *Great tour Company: www.aboutasia.com
23. Ulaan Batar, Mongolia: *Bayangol Hotel, www.bayangolhotel.mn (comfy & clean, not fancy, but best in town, it is Mongolia, breakfast included)

Mongolian Ger Tent

24. Mongolia: Ger Camp (Awesome! part of trek package) *Great Tour Company www.tusker.com

Jade Garden Hotel in Beijing

25. Beijing, China: *Jade Garden Hotel, www.jadegardenhotelbeijing.cn (no breakfast, awesome location to walk everywhere, shopping, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, night market, etc.)
26. Beijing, China: Grand Hyatt Hotel, www.beijing.grand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp?null (we spoiled ourselves for a night of luxury and tropical pool and workout room and spa...nice place)

There's no place like HOME!

27. Home... the best place of ALL!
Now, even though I gave you all the hotel websites directly, this was part of my research plan... first find a couple good spots on tripadvisor.com, then cross-reference their tips with the actual hotel website for specifics and published rates, then I would go back to tripadvisor.com to actually reserve the room at discounted rates using their compare system with hotels.com, booking.com and agoda.com, etc. Most of the time, these were a lot lower than the direct hotel website. One trick though is that you often have to prepay for the room fully, so if you change your mind, the small print says you don't get a refund. That can hurt. So be sure to know the facts before you click "reserve."
I'm only saying that because I was stupid and booked the wrong month totally in Cape Town, then realized it after they had already charged me $400 on the credit card. Ouch! It took quite a bit of apologies, yelling, calling, and documenting to get our money back. Les wasn't even mad at me. I'm married to a good guy and very lucky indeed.

Buddy-on the plane ready to go!

So GO! Have fun. Explore the World, and stay in one of the places we did. I found out that my grandparents and uncles actually stayed at the Mena House in Cairo back in 1961, 50 years ago! (probably before the infinity pool & spa it has today!) How cool is that?