louiseinlimbo

When I’m travelling independently (ie not on a guided tour), I still stay in hostels.   Not just any hostels, but the cheapest one in my location, provided its location is okay and customer reviews do not refer to anything exceptionally bad, such as bed bugs.   (this is the review on bookingdotcom for the hostel I stayed at in Tirana for the last week: Couldn't even spend one night there. Scored 2.0 😊 the price. ☹ this hostel was really scary. there was no clear signage around - so it was difficult to find it. no locks on doors, no curtains on beds, no security, no reception, weird smell, scary vibe. We couldn't even stay the night because of how uncomfortable we felt.) I do this for financial reasons, as the package tour part of my travel lifestyle can be pretty expensive so I need to ‘balance the books’.   But I also do so for the company – even if I won £1 million next month, I would still stay in hostels (although maybe with the very occasional night in a...

One of the main draws of Montenegro is its beautiful scenery – hills, forests, mountains, lakes – so when I received the latest marketing email from a tour company I use frequently with a one-week hiking trip in Montenegro, during this time when I was planning to visit the country, it seemed sensible to sign up for it, especially as the cost was more than covered by the refund I’d received for the cancelled Socotra trip.  I hoped that the Valbona-Theth hike in Albania had helped to prepare me physically for the hiking, and was relieved when I met the other tour group members to see that they were mostly around my age. Before meeting up with them, however, I had a few days to explore some other parts of the country – the capital (Podgorica), and the coastal town of Budva.  Podgorica has little of interest to a tourist, but it bothers me when I visit a country and don’t get to see its capital, so I gave myself a couple of days there – enough to see the sights (a clock tower, a c...