There are as many types of hol­i­day accom­mo­da­tion as there are types of trav­el­ers. You want to travel, but you’ve got to have a place to sleep, so now it’s time for some decisions.

Make up your mind that it’s not going to be just like home. (If you want that… you might as well STAY home.) What do you want or need in the way of a room? Your choices can go from hav­ing a reser­va­tion in a big hotel to just find­ing a room in a local vil­lage as you travel.

What makes you com­fort­able when you travel? Do you want lots of lux­ury, a big room and a concierge to get you tick­ets to the lat­est play? …Or… Are you an adven­tur­ous trav­eler who car­ries a back­pack and wants to find an inex­pen­sive local place?

Let’s look at your options.

You can stay in big name brand hotels, or big hotels that are famous in the city you are visiting.

You can find lux­ury spas where they will pam­per you or help you lose weight or get you exercising.

You can find resorts of all kinds… like beach resorts, ski resorts, or golf resorts.

You can stay at a dude ranch and ride horses and play cowboy.

Many coun­tries in Europe have cas­tles that have been turned into hotels. A sim­i­lar option are grand old manor houses that have rooms to rent.

There are small but lux­u­ri­ous bou­tique hotels.

There are small local hotels that have all the basic ameni­ties and lots of local charm.

There are B&B’s and other Bed-and-Breakfast options almost everywhere.

There are also cheap hotels almost every­where. These can be very basic. If you’re on a tight bud­get and you’ll almost never be in your room, these can work. Only you can decide if these will do for your holiday.

Hos­tels are prob­a­bly the cheap­est accom­mo­da­tion you will find… espe­cially in cities. These are gen­er­ally for younger trav­el­ers, but they have changed through the years, and trav­el­ers of all ages stay in them now.

If you’re trav­el­ing to wildlife areas there are safari lodges or jun­gle lodges. These may be just like city hotels, or you may find bun­ga­lows or tented camps.

When you’re try­ing to decide on the type of accom­mo­da­tion that will serve you best, you can take a look at some of them on the Inter­net. Just remem­ber, they will post pic­tures to make them­selves look good. A wide angle shot may make that room look big­ger than it really is.

If you are going on a tour, look at the types of hol­i­day accom­mo­da­tion they use as well as the itin­er­ary. If that tour looks like it’s a bar­gain price, maybe it’s because you’ll be stay­ing in cheap hotels that you’d rather not put up with.

If you are an inde­pen­dent trav­eler, decide if you want to book your hotels in advance or find them while you are on the road.

You may be able to book on the Inter­net, but if all the web sites you check say there are no rooms avail­able, and there is a hotel you really want to stay in, con­sider call­ing the hotel direct. We have done that and come up with just the hotel we wanted.

Some cute lit­tle places are not on the Inter­net, or you won’t eas­ily find them. If you can deal with find­ing a place to sleep as you go along, these can be real lit­tle jewels.

Some trips will call for a cer­tain type of accom­mo­da­tion… like a city hotel or a jun­gle lodge. Some­times it’s up to you to decide what kind of hol­i­day accom­mo­da­tion you want. If you think about what you want and need while you are plan­ning your trip, then find­ing that room will be easier.