Posts by author Pete Meyers
A villa in Tuscany. Photo by Nika.
A few years ago my wife and I pulled a daredevil stunt: We rented a 1,100 year old villa in Tuscany and invited both sides of our families to join us for a week-long vacation. Now, before you ask “what were you thinking?” or say “that doesn’t sound particularly Cheapo, Pete,” let me explain further. » Read more
Today we’re happy to welcome Pauline Frommer to our “Four Cheapo Questions” interview series. Pauline is a one-stop shop for budget travel insight and advice, offering tips for “spending less and seeing more” on Frommers.com and in her “Pauline Frommer” guidebook series. In addition to her travel writing and editing, Pauline hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, » Read more
Today’s “4 Cheapo Questions…” interview features Mike Richard, founder and editor of Vagabondish.com, the “travelzine for today’s vagabond.” We’ve been big fans of Mike’s website for a long time, both for its thoughtful articles and talented writing, as well as its eye-catching photography and snazzy design. But enough about us! Read on to learn a » Read more
Back in the nosebleed section.
The annual US Open tennis tournament is one of our favorite sporting events in New York City. We love the nighttime lights. We love the rowdy crowds. We love the celebrity sightings. Heck, we even love taking the 7 train to Queens! But most of all, we love watching it all from courtside seats that » Read more
Our new hotel review design.
We’re celebrating some exciting stuff at EuroCheapo HQ today. At long last, we’ve pulled back the curtains on a new site design and have made a giant upgrade to our technology. That’s right, Cheapos, we’ve put on our “fancy pants.” Here’s a sampling of what’s new: 1. Enhanced city pages Our new city pages (for example: » Read more
Lookin' good, Cheapo search!
Pardon the interruption to our regularly scheduled “Daily Cheapo” programming, but we have an exciting announcement: We’ve unveiled a new release of our budget hotel search engine and think you’re going to love it! Our new search engine includes all the Cheapo “bells and whistles” we could dream up to help budget travelers find the best hotel. » Read more
Should you pack your laptop? Photo: Engin Akyurt
The scene is all too familiar: While packing your bags back home, you spot your laptop computer. It seems to be winking at you with an all-knowing, come-hither look. “Take me with you,” it says. “Please. You know you need me!” Well, Cheapos, what do you do? Should you pack your computer or not? Can you survive » Read more
Recently Twitter, the micro-blogging service and current “it” brand of the web, turned 3 years old. Yet, while most three-year olds we know spend their time observing others and imitating their parents, Twitter is busy trying to create a new communication platform (and vocabulary) for the web. Twitter for budget travelers? So what does this mean » Read more
McSorleys on 15 E. 7th St.
McSorley’s Old Ale House in New York’s East Village is hardly a hidden gem. Given its status as New York’s “oldest continuously operated saloon,” most guidebooks recommend a visit and the weekend lines tend to trail out the front door. And if you visit during peak hours you’ll have a hard time finding a spot to sit, » Read more
An internet cafe can help you stay in touch. Photo: Bill L
When I travel, I look for affordable ways to stay in touch with my friends and update my family back home. Thanks to the Internet, it’s much easier to stay in touch now than it was in the past, and the cost of doing so has plummeted. For those who are looking to save a » Read more
Go Kim, go!
Today we’re kicking off the new month with an interview of Kim Mance, co-founder of the new social network for travel bloggers, TravelBlogExchange.com. We’re big fans of “TBEX,” signing up shortly following its launch earlier in the year, and have enjoyed watching it rapidly grow and thrive. For all of our Cheapo bloggers out there, » Read more
Flying Ryanair. Photo: Michell Zappa
We enjoy spending time researching Europe’s newest discount airlines and perpetuating our love / hate relationship with Ryanair. However, we often hear from fellow Cheapos “Hey, how do I find cheap flights from the U.S. to Europe?” and thought we’d put together a list of a few of our favorite ways to nab a cheap » Read more
Over the last several months, we’ve been quietly toiling away at redesigning the EuroCheapo homepage. After many revisions, tweaks, testing, more tweaks, bug testing and pulling solid patches of hair out of our collective heads, we finally took it live late last night. Hallelujah! What’s with the redesign, you might ask? Well, we loved the » Read more
We were pleasantly surprised to wake up this morning and realize “The Great NYC Syrup Mystery” has been solved! After several years of aromatic confusion in which the soft, supple smell of maple syrup lingered in the air throughout New York City, Reuters recently broke the news that the cause was New Jersey’s fragrance processing » Read more
Today we’re featuring Sean Keener in our “4 Cheapo Questions For…” interview series. Sean is the co-founder of Portland based BootsnAll.com, one of the web’s pioneering community sites for independent travelers and a favorite resource of Cheapos here in the office. (Editor’s note: not all interviewees need to be named Sean. But we suppose it » Read more
After an extensive search throughout most of the eastern seaboard of the U.S., we are pleased to announce the official hire of our new office dog, Maude. Maude is a three year old dachshund (i.e., “weiner dog”) and hails from rural Virginia. Her previous employment included chasing field vermin, attempting to heard sheep, and playing » Read more
Mere leaving with pancake happiness! Today’s absurdly cold weather in New York – 17 degrees fahrenheit anyone? – makes us crave warm comfort food like nobody’s business. Hot oatmeal, a Bauernfrühstück, heck, even the thought of a full English helps fuel us up and persevere through winter’s bite. One treat that we never, ever, turn down » Read more
A gorgeous terminal in Madrid's airport. Photo by lowfatbrains.
One of the things we look forward to each January is making our annual New Year’s resolutions. Call us crazy, but for whatever reason, the process of manic reinvention and self renewal just gets us excited. And while we have a number of the ol’ standbys on our list (did somebody say “less caffeine, more » Read more
Now that the presents are unwrapped and most of the eggnog is gone, we’ve been spending quite a bit of time reading (and chuckling) through our many blog posts from 2008. And what a year it has been, Cheapos! We’ve published over 300 blog posts since January, upon which you’ve provided nearly 400 comments, all » Read more
We’re heading out of the office for a few days, Cheapos, to visit family and friends back in Ohio, Atlanta and North Carolina. We’ll be back on the blog in a few days and, in the meantime, we wish our fellow Cheapos across the globe a very happy and safe holiday season!
Earlier in the week, several of the Cheapos in our office (i.e., my wife Meredith and me) were in Amsterdam for a short holiday visit. Having recently picked up a new digital camera for the first time in 5 years – hello recession discounts! – we snapped an absurd volume of photos, and include a few » Read more
Today we’re beginning a new series of interviews called “4 Cheapo Questions For”. We’ll be talking travel with notable travel writers, bloggers, and other travel industry personalities. The format is nice and simple: 4 questions, 1 photo, and maybe – just maybe – a bonus question if we’re feeling snappy. First up to bat is Sean » Read more
Sometimes you just can’t make it back to grandma’s house for Thanksgiving because you live (or are traveling) far, far away. While a few Cheapos in our office were living in London the year before last, they had an admittedly hard time thinking about family back home, gathered around a table of carved turkey (or » Read more
Save money with Ryanair's budget flights. Photo: Michell Zappa
Pack your neck pillows, blankets and bring your ear plugs, Cheapos, because Ryanair is coming to the United States! Our friends at the Budget Travel blog tipped us off that Ryanair just announced it will begin offering flights from Dublin and London Stansted to the U.S. starting at about $13 each way, taxes not included. U.S. cities » Read more
We take lots of photos while visiting hotels in Europe. While most of them look fine and accurately capture each hotel, every now and then we notice something unexpected in the corner of the frame. Something lurking in the shadows. Something creepy. That’s right Cheapos: sometimes we take pictures of budget hotel ghosts! Think we’re » Read more
