How to Sleep Cheap, From Cruises to Convents

Rent an Apartment

Renting an apartment can be cheaper than a hotel for a group if you're staying a week or more; a kitchen cuts dining costs. Kemp Prugh, 62, of Vienna and his parents stayed in an apartment in Kandersteg, Switzerland, about 30 miles south of Interlaken, for a month last fall. It cost about $75 a night through Untours (888-868-6871, http://www.untours.com), which helps independent travelers live like residents in 14 European countries. Untours, in business 33 years, provides on-the-ground support: A local tells you where to shop for groceries, how to take the bus, etc. In October, a double hotel room in Kandersteg starts at $109 in two-star Silencehotel Edelweiss; at Sunstar Hotel Wenger, it's $258. Prugh's rental cost at least $34 less per day, or almost $1,000 over a month.

Untours rentals can be bundled with airfare, but it's optional. Spokeswoman Kim Paschen says the Swiss Heartland-Swiss Ticino Sampler, which includes 14 nights in an apartment, round-trip air and ground transportation, is typical. In September it's $1,584 ($2,494 with airfare), staying in studios in Locarno and Sachseln. On Expedia, a double in Locarno's Hotel Dell Angelo starts at $157 a night, or $1,099 for a week; in Sachseln, Kruez Sachseln Hotel is $236 a night, or $1,652 for a week. Hotels for 14 days would cost at least $2,751, or about $400 less than the apartment package for two people, but eating meals in restaurants would easily exceed that amount.

Because of the shrinking dollar, Tuscany travel is down this year, Paschen says, but travel to Umbria, in central Italy, is up. In October, an apartment on a farm in Spello, 10 miles from Assisi, costs $1,699 per person for two weeks through Untours. On Expedia, a double at Green Hotel Assisi, in a renovated farmhouse, costs about $57 a night -- about $840 for two weeks, proving that sometimes a hotel is cheaper. By comparison, two weeks at the budget hotel Elite in Florence ( http://www.hotelelitefirenze.com) with private bath would cost $1,960.

Some of the best values now, Paschen says, are in the harbor town of Nafplio, in the Peloponnese area in Greece: A house in an orange grove costs $1,659 for two weeks. But sometimes the choice is between a slower pace and the big city, because in Athens two weeks at the 1 1/2 -star Alma Hotel in Omonia Square ( http://www.almahotel.net) costs $938, but the three-star King Jason near the Plaka ( http://www.kingjasonhotelathens.com) costs $1,722.

Other sources for European apartment and house rentals:

· Rentalo, 877-710-5914, http://www.rentalo.com. London offerings include a South Kensington studio in a Victorian townhouse on a quiet residential street near Gloucester Road tube station for $198 a night. In Lisbon, a sunny three-bed, two-bath on the third floor of a refurbished 18th-century building starts at $162 a night and sleeps nine. The catch: No elevator.

· Citadines Apart'Hotel, 011-33-1-41-05-7905, http://www.citadines.com. Rentals in eight European countries. In Lyon, a fully furnished apartment in October is $223 a night for four people.

· HIT Apartments, 011-48-22-351-2222 http://www.staypoland.com/en/warsaw/hotel/hit_apartamenty.html. One basic, fully furnished Warsaw apartment goes for $72 a night in May. The midrange Hotel Atos is $77 per double on Expedia, $66 on Hotels.com, proving that it pays to shop around, and $100 gets you into the five-star Sofitel Victoria Warsaw.