Hostels Across Europe

Although we didn't stay at this one we were next door in a hotel and thought how brilliant to be staying much cheaper next door. The Hostel in London was on Euston street, 3 blocks from Euston Station, 3 from St. Pancras and 4 from King's Cross station. Not smack downtown, but great local for getting anywhere!

Julia, my Berlin favorites are the Radisson SAS (walking distance to museums and nightlife), Park Inn Alexanderplatz (great view from the higher floor rooms), the NH Hotel Berlin Mitte (perfect location in the heart of Mitte and walking distance to main sights), the Marriott on Beilsheim Square (across from the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdam sq.) or that new Best Western downtown or Central in Albrecht St.

In London, I can recommend the Ace Hotel in the Kensignton area. You can check out there website --http://www.ace-hotel.co.uk/index.html . It's clean, quiet, comfortable, and a couple blocks from the West Kensington tube station.

Julia, do a Google search for "ruta de los pueblos blancos". [You will find a lot of pages on it, many with English translations.]

This is a route through the whitewashed villages in the mountains of Cadiz province, [southern] Spain. We did this in 2003 and loved it. We rented a car in Jerez de la Frontera, and spent 3 days on the route. Among the places we visited were Arcos de la Frontera, Ronda, Setenil, Zahara de la Frontera, and Grazalema.

I'm not sure what kind of atmosphere you're looking for but here's a list of some good places -

Paris - Perfect Hostel, www.paris-hostel.biz. Very nice and clean hostel/hotel in Montmartre neighborhood. Free breakfast.

London - Piccadilly Backpackers is very central, in Piccadilly Circus. Big and loud though.
If you're looking for something in a quieter area, Smart Hyde Park Inn is just north of Hyde Park in Bayswater, cheap beds. Dover Castle Hostel is just south of the Tower of London in Southwark - also very cheap beds.

Loved Hostal Esparteros in Madrid - very cheap en-suite rooms, great location in Puerta del Sol, clean and friendly.

In Florence - Instituto Gould - beautiful hotel/hostel. Just south of the river, about 15 min. walk from Duomo. Great views and quiet neighborhood, very affordable from 26 euro per person for a double. http://www.istitutogould.it/

In Rome we stayed at Liliput - friendly and clean.
Good location. http://www.lilliputhostel.com/

Hostel reviews:

http://www.bug.co.uk/reviews/hostels/Europe/index.htm

http://www.hostelz.com/

Hope these help.

Cant help w hostels as we stayed in hostels in cities othe rthan u plan to stay. As for places to see-- in France visit Narbonne in the South along rail line from Barcelona to Marseilles. In Spain, go to Ronda, Merida and Cadiz

another great place is La Coruha in the far northwest corner of Spain

in my experience -

berlin: hostel globetrotter odyssee (u want to stay in east Berlin)
florence: hostel archi rossi
paris: consider the hotel nesle for a unique experience (read my review on tripadvisor)
rome: allesandro legends, the beehive
london: ace hostel (w. kensington)
madrid: hostal casilla (very kind owner!)

I spent weeks researching for myself, the one piece of advice i can give you on the websites (hostelz, etc) is when reading reviews consider WHO is writing the review. but for the most part, the numbers don't lie.

london was a choice - either stay near the bus station downtown with all the noise or stay a little futher out from the 'action'. turned out that we were using the tube every day anyways, so staying at the ace wasnt a bad move.

if you're going through the riviera, i hear Nice is a great place to visit.

btw, you're going at a great time of year.

I stayed at the Le Montclair in Montemartre and enjoyed it. It also gave me a chance to see that section of Paris. I did a night time walking tour with a girl I met in my room and it was pretty awesome. Quite safe too. Also recommend doing bike tours of the cities. It is a lot of fun.
For Amsterdam, my boyfriend and I were looked for a place to stay at the travel info center (across from the main train station) and had a women offer us a room in her house. So we ended up being able to stay in a real Amsterdam style house for a night! Some of the best places you will find are the ones you find when you get there, and not having booked it before. Lots of locals are good people and willing to put you up in their house.
In southern France (just outside of Avignon), rent a car and do a wine tour. Less touristy and loads of fun....if you like wine. Even if you don't....still cool. And Carcasonne, little walled town in southern France. No tourists.