As if planning the itinerary wasn't hard enough, trying to find relatively cheap places to stay is proving to be equally difficult.
Various websites were pointed out in a travel article in the New York Times which proved helpful. Among them: Air B&B, CrashPadder, Couch Surfer as well as hostel and back-packer sites. Since this is meant to be done on a frugal traveler budget the idea of staying at even a two-star hotel was dismissed. I reminded myself that I wanted to mingle with the people -- real people and they're rarely found in the posh hotels ... haha. I bought it!
Focusing on Air B&B was easy as there were lots of good listings. Still, one must do some research and a visit to Trip Advisor is always helpful. Best to learn what others think of places. CrashPadder is very similar to Air B&B though I was less inclined to use it. Couch Surfer, while an interesting concept seemed to be geared more toward the 20-something crowd needing to keep accommodations expenses to a minimum so as to have more money for drinking?
I'm working through various options, the results yet to be determined ...
