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Northern France cheap acommodation and cities??

Hi guys!! In big part thanks to you I have decided and I'll be going to Paris and Northern France on late october and early november!! :) :)

Now the fun begin and I have to start to planning the trip. My biggest concern is to keep the trip to a tight budget, specially about acommodation, since it's what rises the budget the most. I have been checking but the biggest problem I have is the lack of hostels on northern France. The cities I have checked at least showed no matches for them. I don't have a specific itinerary yet. Among the places I wanna go is St. Malo, Mont St, Michelle. I would like to go to see the Bayeux tapestry. If I can I travel more I would like to go a litlle farther and get to places like Nantes. Like I said, I'm on a very tight budget, so I preffer to stay on hostels. And I don't have my own transportation, so I'm gonna be sticking whith buses and trains.

I was wondering if you have any suggestions. Maybe cities that I can use as base to travel to the places I wanna go that are a little bit cheaper. Or if you know of any hostels that I haven't found online yet. Maybe you know of other cheap acommodation, like hotels or guesthouses. Any suggestion would be greatly aprecciatted. I still get a litte lost on this part of the planning. The Paris part is a piece of cake but this is still racking my mind. hehehe

THANKS!! I love this forum and people here are so helpful. :)

Posted by
809 posts

Val, last year my daughter and I tried Bedycasa - it's a homestay/apartment rental thing, maybe something like AirBnB [which I've never used]. We were in southern France - stayed 3 nights in Montpellier and 3 in Avignon in homestays - but there are listings all over; I found 5 in the Bayeux area and a lot more in Caen and St Malo for some random dates in late October. We enjoyed it, but it is homestay not hotel so be prepared; at our first place, the cat dropped by to visit periodically and his litter box was in the bathroom. We like cats so no problem for us but you should read the reviews carefully and be sure you are happy with what is offered. We had access to the refrigerator, which was nice for breakfast juice and yogurt; I think we could have done some cooking, if we so chose, but we ate lunch and dinner out. if you are interested, send me a PM; I have some tips to make it easier.

Good luck with your trip! We were in northern France in 2003 and I have many great memories.

Posted by
10 posts

Thanks for the info!!

Wonderful, sadly I will only be going a couple of days, so the places I mentioned, are the one that are the basic ones on my itinerary. I may add more, but only if the are on the way and able to add them without too much damage on my budget. I was mainly asking about other ciites, maybe a litlle less touristy but still close to the places I want to go, that i could use as a base that may have some form of cheap acommodation, like hostels. I tried hostelworld, but didn`t found hostels on the places I looked. Places like Caen, Rennes, Nantes seem to not have hostels.

Kathleen, I had never heard of that option! I just checked the site. What I don`t have very clear is how reliable are the houses you are staying. So how was your experience? I would like to know how you checked if the place was good to stay before going.
And thanks!! I will be sending a PM! It's always nice to get more tips from people that have already gone.

Posted by
16893 posts

The French youth hostel association has locations organized by region at http://www.fuaj.org/en/ but some on the coast (Caen, MSM area) are not open past September. Many hotels and B&Bs will have low-season discounts, so do ask, or explore rates online. Rick's France book will list a few fine, low-frills hotel options, such as Hotel Le Maupassant in Bayeux, single with shared bath €38.