I first learned about HotelPal from my friend Anil, who publishes the travel blog foXnoMad.com. This free application for the iPhone and iPod Touch allows users to search for accommodations at more than 100,000 hotels, inns, resorts, and B&B’s worldwide, making it’s among the most complete hotel databases available anywhere.

HotelPal app for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Immediately, I downloaded it and browsed around the interface. It seemed fairly easy to use: I simply needed to choose a hotel, type in my billing info, and tap “Book Now.” This week I finally had an opportunity to test it out during my tour of the Tampa Bay area. While my experience with the application was excellent, I found myself using it in a totally different manner than the developer intended.

Because I prefer not to be locked into structured itineraries, I rarely pre-book accommodations before leaving home, and this instance was no different. I left Sarasota at 4:30 p.m. in order to have plenty of time to find a hotel, check in, and still on time for my 8 p.m. Yo-Yo Ma concert this past Wednesday. Once I was in the neighborhood of the concert hall, I whipped out my iPhone, opened HotelPal, and clicked on “search.” The iPhone’s GPS automatically determined my geographic location and returned a list of nearby hotels and Read the rest of this entry »

This is no joke. TripAdvisor, one of the Internet’s most trusted sources for member reviews on attractions, accommodations, and restaurants, asked their members to reveal the cheapest, most comfortable lodgings around the world. The following is just a sampling:

Shiva Guest House in Kathmandu, Nepal

The Shiva Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal. Average price per night: $9. Member comment:

“The guesthouse is right in the center of Bhaktapur, rooms with great view on Durbar Square. Breakfast at rooftop with excellent view on city and Himalaya’s. In times of festivals quite noisy in rooms at front side. The guys really make you feel at home.” Read the rest of this entry »

I have always enjoyed roughing it, whether I was in a tent in a National Park or some remote location half a world away where my sleeping accommodations consisted of a floating bamboo shelter with no running water or electricity. One of the reasons I enjoy this experience so much is that when I get close to nature my spiritual condition is renewed. I feel close to ‘all that is’ and I am at peace. After exposure to such great beauty, the world could be falling down around my feet and I would walk peacefully through the rubble.

Especially with international destinations, I prefer to travel this way because it allows me to get close to the people and culture of the country I am visiting. Pricey, upscale hotels try their best to provide all the amenities the traveler would normally have at home. The result is often a sanitized, if well-intentioned, experience of the country and its people. On the few occasions when I stayed at all-inclusive resorts or five-star hotels, the hotel staff strongly encouraged me not to venture off the grounds because they “could not ensure my safety” in the event that I did so. This happened to me in Jamaica last year, and I thought it was Read the rest of this entry »

Give me a Mom and Pop motel over one of the ubiquitous chain motels any day! They are often dated to the point of being dilapidated and offer only the most basic amenities: a couple miniature bars of soap, two or three cellophane wrapped plastic cups, a few scratchy towels barely big enough to be called towels, and a roll of single-ply toilet paper slightly less rough than sandpaper. The better ones occasionally even provide shampoo, conditioner, and a coffee maker. So why am I so attracted to these small, locally-owned operations? Aside from the fact that they are affordable, the owners of these establishments almost always bend over backwards to make you comfortable.

When I rolled into Woodstock, New Hampshire for my recent visit to Franconia Notch State Park, I spotted The Carriage Motel high atop a hill overlooking a river. It had that kitschy look that screams Mom and Pop, including an old-fashioned game room in the courtyard. True to form, owners France and Dennis Demers welcomed me with Read the rest of this entry »

Since my friends Bill and Angie Rapant, owners of the Cape Pines Motel on the Outer Banks, were good enough to take me in when I was essentially ‘homeless,’ I decided to pitch in and help them during their busiest week of the year. Although I offered to clean rooms or man the front desk, they decided I was best qualified to do the laundry. Angie briefly showed me how to operate their various washers and dryers and then left me to fend for myself.

The room attendants began delivering dirty laundry around 9:30 a.m. as guests checked out or left for the day. I examined each of the bath towels, hand towels, washcloths, and sheets for stains that needed to be treated with special spot removers before loading the big commercial front-loader, and then waited for the pre-soak cycle to finish before adding the detergent. When the load was done, I divided the clean towels and sheets between three dryers, setting the timer on 40 minutes for loads of towels and 30 minutes for loads of sheets. So far so good. I figured this would be a piece of cake.

By 10 a.m., the volume of dirty laundry began to mount. No problem. I was on top of it. I put the second washing machine to work and started Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve learned the hard way never to keep all my money in one place when traveling, not even when I have access to an in-room safe. On more than one occasion, my room safe has failed. In each instance, I was amazed how easily hotel staff could access a master key and how simply the safe was opened. So I spread the money around a little. Some stays in my wallet. Some goes in the safe, if one is available. But the rest gets stashed in strange and unusual places, like the following: Read the rest of this entry »

There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that I am a fearless solo female traveler. The bad news is that I am a fearless female traveler. I used to be fearless to the point of taking foolish risks, until a few years ago, when I was camping on the island of Kauai – my tent was slashed while I slept in it and all my stuff was stolen. Fortunately, I was not harmed, but it was traumatic – this occurred about a year after 911 and it was nearly impossible to get a hotel room without any ID, credit cards, or money, not to mention that I lost my camera, keys to the rental car, glasses (without which I could not read a menu or drive), cell phone, passport, etc. The experience taught me a lot of lessons, the most notable of which was to never ignore my inner voice. I KNEW I shouldn’t have been in that campground – it was full of negative energy – but I ignored what my gut was telling me because I wanted to “wake up to the sound of the waves.”

Following that disastrous vacation, it took a monumental effort to let go of my fear of traveling solo. Before leaving for my next vacation I made exhaustive preparations, created lists after list and layers of backup safety precautions. It took about a year, but the fear subsided and I am back to being a fearless traveler, albeit a much wiser one, and I decided it was worth sharing my hard-won wisdom in the following list of precautions I take when traveling: Read the rest of this entry »