<p>My D (24) is moving to London early Oct. and I am planning a 10 to 12 day visit in mid-March. London is covered, as I have family there. </p>
<p>Planning a few days in London, and then…</p>
<p>D & I are planning to high speed rail from London to Paris for 2 or (maybe) 3 days.</p>
<p>From there we are planning to high speed rail from Paris to Barcelona for 2 or (maybe) 3 days.</p>
<p>Then rail back to London for the balance of my stay.</p>
<p>The rail costs are reasonable (from research I’ve done online).</p>
<p>Anyone have any experience with hostel/pensione stay in Paris or Barcelona? We will each have a small rolling duffel, or backpack only & we have no qualms about sharing bath/toilets. We have (both) traveled on the cheap and easy in the past, but it’s been forever since I’ve done so in any part of Europe. </p>
<p>There are a ton of websites for hostel/pensiones, but figured with actual knowledge I could alleviate the hours of research.</p>
<p>We (D & I) will be mostly interested in the art world on our journey.</p>
<p>Sorry, I have no first hand knowledge of hostels in those cities, but I can say that we stayed at hostels all over England and Wales when we went on a trip with S when he was in 5th grade, and enjoyed it immensely. We’ve more recently stayed at a hostel and hostel-like place on a trip to Yellowstone. Many people seem to prefer any kind of chain hotel over local places, but we prefer the latter.</p>
<p>Coincidentally, S is going to be in France until next June, and I’ve been hoping to visit him next spring, and thinking of going the hostel route to save $$. So any Paris suggestions would interest me, too. Actually, S stayed in a hostel in Paris briefly a couple of years ago…I’ll see if he can supply any information.</p>
<p>I remember reading an ad in the New Yorker once for staying in a convent in Paris (very inexpensive). I just tried to find it (couldn’t) and saw this instead:</p>
<p>Is there a better position for a hotel in Paris than by the square in front of the Cath</p>
<p>First you need to button down the dates of travel.
Check for any local holidays which can affect rail service.
Often a cheap airfare is comparable to rail because you do not lose a day traveling place to place.
Remember all museums owned by Paris are closed on Mondays.
National museums owned by France closed on Tuesdays.
In Barcelona, depending on the season, the hours of operation of museums vary.
Tripadviser is a good place to start your hours of research because you can read reviews and decide for yourself.
I would suggest staying near Las Ramblas in Barcelona because of its central location to points of interest, places to eat and people both citizens and tourists.
In Paris, the Metro makes it easy to get anywhere in the city.</p>
<p>I stayed here, and found it very nice. By Gare du Norde. Not a fancy neighborhood, but I liked the food prices better than where I stayed in Montparnasse. </p>
<p>The NY Times online has a long list of places to stay from past articles, with good reviews from travelers.</p>
<p>Please be aware that robbery of tourists is rampant in Barcelona. S1 was robbed of his passport, camera, journal, wallet (including credit cards, drivers license, etc.) and other assorted goodies the minute he stepped off the train. </p>
<p>I love Barcelona, but I would not stay on or right near Las Ramblas if I could avoid it. Too touristy and too seedy. The last time I was there, we stayed near the University and MACBA, and that was perfect – an easy walk to the Barrio Gotico and Raval, but not right in either.</p>
<p>I don’t remember where we stayed or how much it cost – that’s my wife’s department, and she generally does a great job of finding relatively inexpensive, not-uncomfortable small hotels. We didn’t do ultra-cheap, though.</p>
<p>In Barcelona, the big-name art is the Picasso Museum, which is very disappointing (the building is wonderful, as is the room devoted to the version of Velasquez’s Las Meninas that he did expressly for the museum, but the rest of the art is second-rate, or juvenalia, and sometimes both), and the various Gaudi buildings and Parc Guell (super). But don’t miss the Miro Museum and the Museum of Catalan Art on Montjuich, the MACBA (of-the-moment contemporary art), the non-Gaudi modernist masterpieces Palau de la Musica and Hospital de Sant Jordi i Sant Pau, and especially the wonderful Fundacio Antoni Tapies.</p>
<p>Tapies (whom I believe to be still living, although very old) is an abstract expressionist (mostly) who is absolutely revered in Barcelona as the great Catalan artist after Miro. He is not terribly well known here, but deserves to be. (Dali, who is also a great Catalan artist, is pretty much disqualified for reverence there on political grounds.)</p>
<p>In Barcelona,we stayed at the Hotel Alexandra and there were three hostals within a block of the hotel. We found the area perfectly safe with shops and sidewalk cafes and the location to be great for site seeing. I never entered the hostels, but here are the names. (all three are on the Rambla de Catalunya which turns into Las Ramblas)</p>
<p>Many times trains will offer a limited number of seats at a great price so make sure you book early in such a way that you can lock in the price. Early purchase of airfare can be unbelievably cheap. Two years ago we flew Barcelona to Paris for $69 on Air France. I think Ryan Air is the name of the discount airline used by many Europeans. I cannot remember if the metro runs to the Barcelona airport.</p>
<p>A great feature on googlemaps is to enlarge the area you are interested in and it will show the names of hotels/hostels/ etc on the map.</p>
<p>In Barcelona, I stayed at Residencia d’ Investigadors, on Carrer de l"Hospital, a couple of blocks off the Ramblas near the Boqueria. It’s a dorm like place with private baths, comfy and clean but basic. Breakfast included.</p>
<p>The Miro Museum is a definite. I also liked the Palau de Musica Catalana for sheer over the top decor, and walking around the Barri Gotic is fun. DO BE CAREFUL about pickpockets. The stories are NOT exagerrated.</p>
<p>Absolutely look at hostel Kabul in Barcelona. D loved it and, from her description, which I filtered through my own years of hostel experience, it sounds great for on-the-cheap, make-a-few-concessions travel. Met lots of others, incl adults. Some rooms hold multi people, but what the hay? 24 hour front desk. Plaza Real, just off Las Ramblas.</p>
<p>In fact, before I gave the nod, I ran it through many web sites and was satisfied. </p>
<p>As for dangers, one could avoid many great cities. Better to be where many people are out and about than on a darkish side street, heading back to a hotel, late. And, for me, the value of the Picasso Museum is just what JHS didn’t like- I could see the development of his skills, came out with respect for his later choices.</p>
<p>She flew EasyJet from Orly. In her words, really cheap, but make sure you know the luggage restrictions or there’s a huge surcharge.</p>
<p>Btw, I am good with French and I can’t fathom the SCNF (train) info sites (which seem more complete than the English version.) Different discount categories, with or without extra reductions dep on student, day of week, hour, a little advance purchase or not- I did the homework for her and flying worked out better. Agree many folks (incl on some old CC threads) like Ryan.</p>
<p>If you compare air to the rail service, you might also look at packages that include a hotel. On a recent trip, I scored an amazingly low airfare and the bonus was that the hotel was offered at a very steep discount. The hotel was a very modern 4-5 stars hotel, at the northern side of town, and fifty yards from the beach. For a perspective, the RT between Barcelona and Brussels with two nights came at around 300 dollars, all taxes and fees included. </p>
<p>It does not fit the OP request for super cheap, but it gives an idea of what is available. Sometimes spending a few bucks more can make the trip so much better. I think that the price differences between a cheap hostel in Paris and a more conventional hotel will be greater than in Barcelona.</p>
<p>All I can say is to buy your tickets for the high speed train early! Went there a few weeks ago and my dad held out on buying the tickets from London to Paris in case we could find any more Olympic tickets.</p>
<p>The price went from £64 to £180 something per ticket in a very short amount of time- half the seats were empty on board a well. He thought it was a decent price originally, but tickets are subject to change vastly at their whim. Just a thought : )- also, the Olympics being held at that time might have had an impact that won’t be present when you go, but it’s better to be safe.</p>
<p>We recently traveled in Spain and had good luck with using AirBnB in Barcelona and Madrid. </p>
<p>Our budget wasn’t quite as low as yours so we were looking at somewhat higher cost apartments but there was the full range of prices from rooms to apartments. I found the reviews to be very helpful and accurate. We loved our stays through airbnb and will definitely use it in the future.</p>
<p>While not a hostel for my most recent trip to Barcelona we stayed at the Hotel Europark, a few streets off the Paseo de Gracia and Avenida Diagonal which I thought was a great location, easy walk to the Sagrada Familia and the Gaudi sites, easy access to a Metro stop, not as crowded or touristy as the Ramblas. Breakfast was not included but we found a cheap cafe for cafe and croissant and we also found several nice and reasonable restaurants in the area. You need to be very aware of street crime in Barcelona. Spain has extremely high unemployment and while always known for pickpocketing…it has gotten much worse So be really aware and careful, but enjoy. It is a great city and the euro/dollar exchange today is about 1.23. Last time we were there it was almost 1.50, makes a difference.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the suggestions and ideas. I will go through each response, one by one, and see what I come up with.</p>
<p>As for being safe in Barcelona (and any big city), I always am. As is my D. She lives in NYC & I am very city savvy. I have done a lot of research on the thugs (for lack of a better term) in Barcelona, specifically, and I am aware it is a very real thing. </p>