Hotels Go Budget Boutique

Diving dollar be damned—here are 10 tips for wise budgeting

(NEWSER) - The euro and the pound are kicking the dollar's butt, but that doesn't mean you need to cancel your vacation plans. The Times gives you 10 tips for traveling on a shoestring:

1. Find cheap flights abroad
2. Find a budget hotel or rent a villa
3. Within Europe, try the budget airlines
4. Pack light so you can steer clear of airport cabs
5. Take advantage of cheap public transit

They may be cheap, but you really don't want to stay in them

(NEWSER) - Unless you like urine-scented rooms and hairs in the bathtub, you probably won’t want to stay at any of Trip Advisor ’s top 10 dirtiest hotels in the US. Below, a sampling of the user reviews:

1. Heritage Marina Hotel, San Francisco: “The second room ‘appeared’ clean until we realized the next morning that we slept with bed bugs.”
2. Days Inn Eureka/Six Flags, Eureka, Mo: “The smell was horrible. The floors and walls were dirty. There was food and beverage spilled and dried up all over the place.”
3. Tropicana Resort Hotel, Virginia Beach: “The ice machine produces dirty ice and is not fit to use.”
4. Super 8 Virginia Beach/At the Ocean, Virginia Beach: “There were hairs in the bathtub, and bugs on the counter.”

Man in fleece suit will take off the chill for you

(NEWSER) - Do you love it when your bed has that already-slept-in feeling? Then Holiday Inn is the hotel for you, friend. The chain is testing human bed-warmers at three locations in England. Request the service, and “a willing staff-member” will don a one-piece fleece sleeper suit and slip between your sheets, heating them to 68° Farenheit. More»

(NEWSER) - Families are traveling more often, and recession-battered hotels are ramping up their kid-friendly offerings, the Boston Globe reports. Rooms occupied by families with children accounted for 27% of the total in 2008, up from 25% in 2004, and lodgings are watching the trend. Whether it's free Wii, a dog to walk, or a theme guest room, the trend is picking up and is no longer relegated to just the summer months. More»

(NEWSER) - Looking to vacation in a spot that inspired your favorite novel? USA Today asks travel expert Melissa Biggs Bradley about the best hotels to connect physically with the literature.

• The Resort at Paws Up, Greenough, Mont.: "The Blackfoot River, which runs through this 37,000-acre ranch, is the river referred to in Norman Maclean's wonderful A River Runs Through It," Bradley says.