Offbeat Lodging Options: A Treetop in Turkey, a Drainpipe on the Danube

From the practical to the unusual, consider these ways to cut costs:

· Sleep on a train. A sleeper car can cost less than a hotel if you factor in transportation, plus you wake up at your destination. The 13 1/2 -hour Madrid-to-Paris four-person bunk economy fare is $110. Budapest to Bucharest is 13 1/2 hours and costs $171 first-class in a three-bunk berth. Rail passes can halve the cost. Check http://www.raileurope.com.

· Sleep on a boat. Some cities, including Prague and Copenhagen, have anchored boat hotels. Budapest Boat Hotel Fortuna ( http://www.ohb.hu/fortuna/index.en.html) on the Danube River offers doubles with private bath from $69.50, plus below-deck, shared-bath hostel beds from $31. Buffet breakfast is included, and the boat is close to all sights and the tram.

· Rent a lighthouse. In Croatia along the Adriatic Sea, a lighthouse apartment on Lastovo island starts at $684 for seven nights (800-662-7628, http://www.croatiatravel.com).

· Sleep in a tree. At Kadir's Tree Houses ( http://www.kadirstreehouse.org) on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, $20 buys a dorm bed; a bungalow for up to three people costs $30, breakfast and dinner included.

· Sleep in a barn. Britain's Youth Hostel Association ( http://www.yha.org.uk) has simple beauties scattered throughout fields and forests from about $12 per person a night. In England's Peak District, stay at Birchover, a stone house on a beef farm; showers and toilets are nearby. A barn in Edale at Cotefield Farm is a mile from pubs and shopping. Some barns have minimum numbers for bookings.

· Sleep in a drainpipe. In a Linz, Austria, park next to the Danube River, Das Park Hotel ( http://www.dasparkhotel.net) consists of three repurposed concrete pipes in a park. A bed fills the space wall to wall, but there's electricity and Internet, plus public toilets nearby. Pay what you want; people usually leave between $11 and $31. What started almost three years ago as an artist's urban project has morphed into a tourist magnet May through October.

· Stay at a working farm. Italy's agritourism program ( http://www.agriturismo.com) has rural cottages on farms throughout the country. In Umbria, for example, prices start at $25 a person on Sacchia, a sheep and deer farm. You don't have to do any work.

-- S.K.S.