University stays?

My husband and I, out of necessity, stayed at student accommodations of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow once a long time ago. It cured me of ever being that frugal again. The room had a wash basin but no toilet or bath. The women's bathrooms were a very, very long walk down a gloomy corridor, not pleasant in the middle of the night.

There was a group of seniors staying there at the time, I think a Saga tour group, on the other hand, who seemed perfectly happy with the place. They played bingo and had sing songs and were noisily cheerful.

We stayed at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. It was very basic but a great price in an expensive city. I'd probably do it again.

I stayed at Wadham, Oxford last summer for one night. My intention was to attend the open-air Shakespeare production in their garden. Unfortunately, Eurostar was severely delayed that day from Paris, and I was way too tired to attend the play. The room was nice though with very narrow beds. There was an ensuite. The second unfortunate aspect of my stay was that a whole group or class of high school girls was also using the college as accommodation. Their transportation or tour required them to decamp at 3 AM with luggage bumping down the stairs right outside my room. I believe a lot of this goes on in Oxford. Check if your university stay location is equally popular with travelling high school groups.

I stayed in one not in Europe but in Toronto, and had a positive experience, great location, and good value. I think universities (and convents) make good, affordable (but basic) accommodations. My "dorm room" in Toronto was very clean and modern, and it was right off the streetcar line. I would have never thought of it but I saw it on booking.com and it had really good reviews..so I said, why not?!

I've not done it in Europe either but, like Agnes, I have done it in Canada. Stayed in dorms in Toronto, Halifax, and Charlottetown PEI and all of them were good experiences. All three were well located and very inexpensive. I lucked out in all of them and never had to share a bathroom. I'd do it again.

There have been some posters on here that have stayed in dorms at London School of Economics and reported positive experiences. Here's a couple of threads on the subject.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/london-school-of-economics-bdc7f13b-ea77-4cca-827a-53694ba934c0
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/to-the-north/who-has-stayed-at-london-school-of-economics

Hi,

"...university stays for accommodations in Europe?" Yes, I did a couple of stays years ago in Germany. The first was at a dorm at the University of Munich, the second was at a dorm at the University in Bonn, one night at each. At that time, just basic but pleasant accommodations.

My wife and I stayed in Christ Church and Keble Colleges in Oxford - and loved it. Bedrooms pretty basic but more than compensated by the view of the quad and the dining hall for breakfast. We booked through www.universityrooms.com which has rooms all over Europe, North America, Australia - we will definitely use again because university rooms are pretty cheap - and are in central locations.

Last fall we rented an apartment from UoL Accommodates to stay for a week while we visited our daughter who was studying in London. Huge old apartment, very basic, in a great location. Having a kitchen and in-apartment clothes washer was great. No breakfast, no housekeeping, lots and lots of stairs. Some student noise at night. A few other caveats that you would have to weigh for yourself: There was no place to leave bags until check-in time, which was firm. We had to go with our bags to an office for the keys, then walk again to get to the apartment. The first apartment we rented had no hot water - it was broken - and we had a huge hassle of having to move apartments late at night when we were exhausted by our overseas travel and had already bought groceries and partially unpacked. There was not just another room down the hall, or onsite help to resolve the issue. It was a slightly tough one to handle that day and we were fortunate that they had an empty apartment to move us to and we didn't have to move again, which was fantastic. We would definitely do it again if we go to London for a week or more. For a short trip, the considerable savings would still not have been worth it. If you have a family with kids though, and want to spread out in an apartment, this would be a HUGE winner.