Hotels in eastern Europe -- Recommendations welcomed

Hello, all: I'm currently planning my trip next month to eastern Europe. I
begin in Vienna and end three weeks later in Sofia. No fixed plans for in
between, but thanks to some great comments in this newsgroup, I'm thinking
of this as a loose itinerary:

Vienna
Budapest
Eger
Subotica
Belgrade
Sarajevo?
Mostar?
Nis
Sofia
Plovdiv

I know. Way too much for three weeks. I'll scale it down as I go.

I'm a little discouraged, though, with my research into hotels. Everyone
told me "Oh, eastern Europe is so cheap." Well, I've tried the usual
suspects: priceline.com, hotels.com, expedia.com, bestwestern.com, etc.
For a decent hotel close to the sights I'm getting results at $200-250+ a
night. Too much! I'm not after anything fancy, but clean and nice and
obviously much less expensive than $250+/night.

So I'd be very grateful if people could share their own travel experiences
and know of nice hotels in any of the above cities that are reasonably
priced.

Many thanks to everyone in advance!

David in Toronto

WPB <yes_no@maybe.com> wrote:
> Vienna

I'm not sure Austrians would look too kindly on being called eastern Europe
but never mind :) I've found the Ibis on Mariahilfer Guertel very good for
the price (approx 100 euros with breakfast, car parking extra). The location
is good for general sightseeing - it's on the "wrong" end of the
Mariahilferstrasse, the main shopping street, which means that it's on the
end of that street which is *not* near the old city center but 2 km away.
However, that's either a nice walk or 2-3 subway stations away.

> Mostar?

Basically you have 2 large hotels to choose from. One is the more fancy 5
star hotel Bevanda in which I haven't stayed and I don't know the room
prices, and the other is hotel Ero, a 3-star (I think) oldish hotel in which
I did stay this spring. I think rooms were also about 100 euros (with
breakfast & car parking), and the hotel is very 80-ies (e.g. no card key,
just a normal door key) but quite satisfactory.

I'd definitely recommend not skipping Mostar, it is a very unique town.

I think google will very quickly give you links to these hotels.

--
UnreaL.
[ Standard disclaimers apply. Personal opinions only. May explode in fire. ]

Thank you for the tips! You're right--I wasn't thinking of Vienna as
eastern Europe. It's simply my launching off point. I'll see the big
Van Gogh exhibition and then leave because I've been to Vienna before
and have seen most of the sights. I'm more interested in "parts
unknown."

Thanks again!

David
__________________________________________________ ___________

Goran UnreaL Krajnovic <unreal@fly.srk.fer.hr> wrote in
news:g9mn5j$ba9$1@ss408.t-com.hr:

> WPB <yes_no@maybe.com> wrote:
>> Vienna
>
> I'm not sure Austrians would look too kindly on being called eastern
> Europe but never mind :) I've found the Ibis on Mariahilfer Guertel
> very good for the price (approx 100 euros with breakfast, car parking
> extra). The location is good for general sightseeing - it's on the
> "wrong" end of the Mariahilferstrasse, the main shopping street, which
> means that it's on the end of that street which is *not* near the old
> city center but 2 km away. However, that's either a nice walk or 2-3
> subway stations away.
>
>> Mostar?
>
> Basically you have 2 large hotels to choose from. One is the more
> fancy 5 star hotel Bevanda in which I haven't stayed and I don't know
> the room prices, and the other is hotel Ero, a 3-star (I think) oldish
> hotel in which I did stay this spring. I think rooms were also about
> 100 euros (with breakfast & car parking), and the hotel is very 80-ies
> (e.g. no card key, just a normal door key) but quite satisfactory.
>
> I'd definitely recommend not skipping Mostar, it is a very unique
> town.
>
> I think google will very quickly give you links to these hotels.