DANNY ROBINS' INDIE TRAVEL GUIDE TO...BUDGET HOLIDAYS

With this week's news dominated by spending cuts you might be feeling torn between tightening your belt and wanting to escape it all. Hopefully this week's Indie Travel Guide will help you to do both - it's full of tips on how to get away this autumn and winter as cheaply as possible. It's true you can travel for next to nothing if you know where to look...

Hostels

First off, let's talk about hostels. 'Hostel' can be a bit of a dirty word - carrying implications of being not that clean, comfortable or safe and if you've seen the film Hostel, a whole lot worse. But there's a new generation of hostels out there that are not only cheap, but nice and even cool.

In Stockholm, one of my favourite indie cities and a great place for a winter break with its great Christmas markets, you can stay in the world's only hostel to be made out of a Boeing 747. The Jumbo Hotel is at Arlanda airport, just 10 minutes walk from the check in counters so it's a good bet if you've got either a very late or a very early flight. You can get a bed from £30. There's even a bedroom in the cockpit, billed as the 'honeymoon suite'.

In Berlin, another cracking indie city, stay in the coolest hostel I've found so far - The Rock n Roll Herbege - it's cool, it's clean, the rooms have funky wall paintings and downstairs is a punk bar with that offers free drinks to guests - which can be dangerous if you find yourself still playing pool there at 4am. You can get a room that sleeps 2 for about €34. Try and get room number 7 - it's the best.

Those ones are cheap but you can go cheaper, staying in places for as little as €12 a night - like the Mosaic House in Prague, a city we talked about last week. You'd think it would be rubbish for that but it's actually a 'boutique hostel' with lots of green features - the airport shuttle bus runs on leftover vegetable oil from the kitchen and the heating's controlled by a computer that adjust the heating depending on the number of people it detects.

Outside of Europe, you can find incredible hostels in places like Argentina and Malaysia for as little as £7 a night.

This is a useful article on cool hostels for under £15 a night, and here are two of the best websites to check out: Hostel World & Hostel Bookers.

How to stay places for free!

Hostels not cheap enough? Want to stay somewhere for completely gratis?

How do you like the idea of staying in someone else house? Legally and without breaking and entering! If you're ok with that idea, one way to not spend anything on your accommodation is to take part in the growing trend for house swapping and house sitting.

If you own your own place then, you can sign up with a house swap website. The Guardian have a good one. It costs £35 a year to register - you put the details of your house or flat up and where you'd like to go and how long for. Obviously you've got to be prepared to be flexible, but it's a great way of finding a cool place to stay in a city. I looked and saw some really nice flats in New York listed by owners who wanted to exchange with someone in London for 1 or 2 weeks - sorely tempted. This way all you'd pay would be your flights and food whilst you're there. Big saving!

Another good website is Home For Exchange and check out this blog.

If you don't own your own place you could try house sitting - this could be for just a few days to a year or more. With most of the website you pay a small fee to register your details and then people will contact you to see if you want to housesit for them. You'll normally chat on Skype first so you can get a feel for each other. It's a good way to spend some time in another part of the world with the feeling of having your own place. Some people will even pay your travel.

Here's some websites to check out: Housecarers, Mind My House or Luxury House Sitting.

'Vagabond Travel'

If you don't have a flat and don't want the responsibility of house-sitting, how about Couch Surfing?

Couch Surfing is not some very laidback extreme sport involving sofas and waves, but a network of people across the world offering their couches as a bed for the night to complete strangers. The website is a social network. People put up their details and then take turns to play host or guest with people around the world. It definitely needs you to be pretty confident and not mind roughing it a bit and being in someone else's space, but the plus side is it's free accommodation, sometimes even free food and, if you're lucky with your host, they'll be someone nice who shows you around and perhaps even takes you out to parties, clubs or gigs - so a good way to check out a city's social scene.

This is all part of the online culture of 'Vagabond Travel' - people making their way around the globe for next to nothing (usually under $10 a day). For an insight into this world check this blog, and this website.

One guy, a Geordie called Paul Smith, did the ultimate and made it around the world spending absolutely no money on accommodation or travel. Under the nickname 'The Twitchhiker' he travelled the world entirely through things donated by his Twitter followers. Cheeky really, eh?

Flights

Flights-wise I think most people are pretty switched on to where to find cheap flights these days. Ryanair and Easyjet generally remain the cheapest way to get places. It's always worth shopping around though. My favourite price comparison website for flights is here.

On short trips within Europe you generally find the big cost is your accommodation, on longer trips to farther flung places you'll normally find your flights are lot more expensive but you can stay places more cheaply.

Sun

If you fancy a dose of sun to cheer you up, then Thailand is one of your best bets. You're probably looking at about £400 for a return flight, maybe a bit cheaper if you shop around and book in advance, but once you're there you will hardly spend anything - you can get by for as little as £10 a day including accommodation.

Why not go towards the end of next of next month and catch the Monkey Buffet Festival (28th November) in Lopburi province about 95 miles north of Bangkok.

Don't worry, the monkeys are eating the buffet not being eaten. It's an annual event where the hundreds of monkeys who live in town are given a big spread at the local temple to thank them for attracting tourists. Their treats include fruit veg, ice lollies, sausages, Pringles and even coca cola cans.

Do a Google Image search for 'Monkey Buffet' to see some crazy photos of monkeys drinking coke and clambering over lavish mountains of food.

Snow

Winter into spring is of course a time when a lot of people go skiing. Anyone who's done it will know it can be a bit pricey. One tip for bringing the costs down is to look out for the less expensive weeks to go. Traditionally, the cheapest week to ski is the second week of January and you can also find some good deals in December. February gets a lot more expensive.

Another good tip is to think outside the main skiing areas and look for countries with developing ski scenes. Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Macedonia are outside the Eurozone and a week's lift pass can cost as little as £60.

If only everyday was like Sunday...

Here's a good tip - in a lot of European cities galleries, museums and stuff like that are often free on Sundays, so try and make sure your trip includes a Sunday and save your culture-vulturing for then.

A few things you can see free on a Sunday: The Prado Gallery in Madrid, museums in Lisbon, the Museum of Modern Art in Valencia, the Vatican Museum in Rome - including the Sistine Chapel (only the last Sunday of every month) and The Louvre (only the first Sunday of every month - though it's free all the time if you are under 26 or a teacher).

In Berlin it's slightly different - museums are free on Thursday evenings after 6pm. Check out if there are any freebie times where you're going - it's a brilliant thing to know to save yourself often expensive entrance fees.

Free holiday reading...

I can even get you free books on your travels. Check out this website. It's another online community - this one's for swapping books once you've read them. You put a sticker on the book you've finished with a code on that lets you track the book's movements once you've released it - either by sending it to someone or just leaving it somewhere random for a stranger to pick up - will it make it around the world?

Most cities will have 'official book crossing zones' where you can meet up with other book crossers and find books to read - so if you're travelling check out in advance where they are to grab some free holiday reading or get rid of the ones you've read already on your travels.

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