🛌 Where to stay

The destination is chosen, and now you have to decide where to stay. Almost everything else depends on that decision: how much time goes into getting around, how your evenings turn out, whether it works with kids. The neighborhood and the type of lodging shape a trip more than it seems at the planning stage. That is the question people bring to this section.

The first large group of articles breaks cities down by neighborhood. That is how the guides to Dubrovnik, Krakow, Porto, Ljubljana, Florence, Athens, Brussels and Boston are built. In each one we compare the neighborhoods with one another: who the center suits, where it is quieter, which areas have easy metro access. The same principle applies to islands and resorts. There are guides to Zakynthos and Mykonos, and to Levi in Lapland, where the choice is between an igloo, a hotel and a cottage.

The second group is hotel roundups built around one clear criterion. That can be star rating, a beachfront location, the "all-inclusive" format, or a water park and a kids' club for a family vacation. Roundups like these cover Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Egypt, the UAE, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam and the Maldives. City options are gathered separately: hotels in the center of Vienna and Rome, near Disneyland outside Paris, with a view of the Eiffel Tower. There are also articles on the type of lodging: a hostel, a villa or an eco-resort in Indonesia, a guesthouse or a five-star hotel in Goa. A few texts focus on a single hotel, for example Meliá Zanzibar and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

Every article opens with a short conclusion: which neighborhood or hotel suits whom. Practical sections follow: location, transportation, what is nearby, what the stay includes. For every figure we give the source and the date it was checked. We name the downsides plainly, on equal footing with the upsides. Noise, weak transit, a long way to the sea or the center: all of that is in the text.

The section suits people who plan their own trip and want to understand the logic of the choice first, then look at specific options. It is useful for families with kids, for couples, for anyone visiting a city for the first time or traveling on a limited budget. It will not help those looking for a ready-made package tour. We do not sell lodging and we do not book anything. Prices for specific dates also need to be checked on your own, because they change.

The easiest place to start is the article on the neighborhoods of your city or resort. It gives the overall picture and narrows the choice down to one or two areas. After that, open the hotel roundup for the criterion you need: category, beachfront, facilities for kids. If you have already picked a hotel, see whether it has a dedicated review. The last step is to check the location against a map and the terms of the stay against the hotel's official website.

Inside the section there is a subsection called "Living abroad". It is for those who are going for a long time or thinking about relocating. It includes, for example, an article on what life is like in Mangualde, a small town in Portugal. In the Porto guide we also single out neighborhoods for a long stay. Besides lodging, the section touches on related topics: a walking route through the neighborhoods of Istanbul, car rental in Italy, the beaches of Sri Lanka, the resorts of Israel. They help when the choice of place depends on the route or on transportation.

Hotels change their terms, their range of services and sometimes their category. That is why we come back to the articles and check them against the hotels' official websites and the map. The date of the last check is stated in the text. If it is an old one, recheck the key terms before you pay.

New cities and resorts are added gradually, and some destinations have only one article so far. Even then, it answers the main question: which neighborhood or type of lodging suits you. The rest gets settled faster once it is clear where you want to stay and why.