Why Where I Stay Is Becoming A More Important Part Of My Travel Experience

Forget bowing to the algorithmic gods of your chosen hotel aggregator, I’m done with seeing accommodation as a purely practical purchase. It’s time for me to embrace the unique, the boutique, the traditional and, in some cases, simply the coolest places to stay.

Maybe it’s my frugal nature – I come from a part of rural West Wales teased for our reluctance to part with money – or maybe it comes from a mindset that sees booking flights and accommodation as the practical, stressful first step of planning a holiday – the fun stuff comes after, right? Well, I’m sick of penny-pinching hostels and snore-fest, copy and paste chain hotels that are very conveniently placed to explore the city, actually.

But why do so many of us treat the place we’ll spend half of our trip like an afterthought? Why can’t it be a treat, or even a key part of the itinerary? Budget, of course, is a major factor. Much of my travelling life has been done with limited disposable income, and I’d be the first to admit that my eyes can quite often have an appetite my wallet is unable to satisfy. So I understand the mentality of setting your bare-minimum standards and finding the cheapest option that fits those filters.

The high-end hotel world undoubtedly belongs to the mega-rich, but there are plenty of ways to inject some excitement into your holiday without blowing the budget on a room with a view. Even if luxury is the dream, there are ways to make five stars a reality. If staying at a fancy hotel is your desire, then why not choose your destination with that in mind? Paris and New York might require some compromise, but there are cheaper destinations that offer luxury accommodation for the price of a bog standard London hotel.

Me and my partner are heading to Krakow later this year, a decision heavily influenced by the quality of hotel we could book within budget. You can swap the eye-watering cities of Northern Italy with the far-more reasonable prices of Sicily (and play out your own White Lotus storyline as you go), for example. Asian cities like Ho Chi Minh, Siem Reap and Bangkok can offer great value for money, while cost-cutters should swap North America for the likes of Mexico City and Santa Ana in El Salvador.

But my desire to get inspired with accommodation is about more than spa treatments and posh restaurants. The place you stay should surely represent the place you’re in. There’s nothing more depressing than walking around a hotel that, if you blacked out the windows, could be absolutely anywhere on Earth.

There’s a real romance to the idea of staying in traditional lodgings. A night in an authentic ryokan (an old-fashioned Japanese inn) is high on my bucket list, as are the adorable Trulli houses of Puglia in Italy, and any Berber-style desert camp for a night under the stars. I can say with confidence that any visitor to the UK can expect no experience more British than that of a night in a cosy independent countryside B&B.

Traditional Japanese room at a ryokan in Kyoto, Japan

Then there are the accommodations that are designed to make the most of the surrounding area’s beauty. Glamping pods have become almost eye-rollingly trendy, but I would love to be kept up all night gazing at the Northern Lights in Scandinavia. If you’re in Iceland, a volcanic landscape with naturally occurring geothermal hot springs and baths, why wouldn’t you stay somewhere that takes advantage of this glorious bounty? The same can be said for the jungle hot springs of Costa Rica – eco-lodges are everywhere there, so you can sleep in a treehouse, immersing yourself in the area’s incredible biodiversity.

All of these variations showcase what makes the place you’re visiting special. They tell a story, reflect local communities, giving you a taste of what it’s like to be a local. They can transport you to a time when only real adventurers ended up in these nooks and crannies, when travellers really were weary, and didn’t expect a familiar brand with familiar breakfast and an array of incredibly multilingual hosts.

Although, to be honest, unique accommodation doesn’t have to be super culturally relevant to catch my attention now. Thanks to Culture Trip’s brand new Rail Trips I’ve recently become obsessed with the idea of spending a night on a sleeper train. Isn’t the thought of nodding off in A and waking up in B as thrilling as it is efficient?

If I’m being totally honest I have to admit that, as well as binging both seasons of The White Lotus, our own trips have without a doubt inspired my latest travel philosophy. Our trips are all about immersing you in the local culture of wherever you end up. This isn’t only done through activities, culinary exploits and the insight of our Local Insiders. Our Travel Experts put a lot of work into securing the right places to stay, with almost every itinerary featuring at least one culturally relevant or totally unique accommodation experience. Here are some of our favourites.