in search of darn good digs

During our road trip this summer in the southwest U.S., we had the chance to spend three nights at Albuquerque’s newest boutique hotel, the fabulous Hotel Andaluz – as part of our search for the best independently owned hotels around the world for budget-minded travelers.

We were living in luxury for close to $100 a night, [...]

Do you ever read those glossy travel magazines and think to yourself, ‘Oh, how I’d love to stay in a fabulous ice castle or undersea lodge – if only I had a gazillion dollars?’ Sometimes it’s fun to live vicariously through sleek photos, but we at Darn Good Digs have put together a list of [...]

When Lena from Amman, Jordan stumbled upon Darn Good Digs, she noticed a gaping hole in our guide to the world’s best independently owned hotels for budget-minded travelers.  Where were all the hotels in the Middle East?  Well, thanks to Lena, we will be adding a fabulous small hotel in Damascus, Syria, the Beit Rose [...]

After reading Arthur Frommer’s blog post about Darn Good Digs, Kathy from Ankara, Turkey decided to nominate her favorite digs in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  Kathy spent one month at the Sri Pat Guest House with her daughter, and she could not more highly recommend the Sri Pat or its friendly staff.  We just published Kathy’s [...]

Over the past year we truly enjoyed reading about Sarah Lavender Smith’s family travels around the world on her blog, Away Together.  We have the added bonus, here at Darn Good Digs, of receiving new nominations from Sarah every few months as she clues us in to her favorite hotels along the way.  Sarah has [...]

Nadia Latif of Travel Intelligence has uncovered for Darn Good Digs an intimate three-roomed riad in the heart of Fez’s labyrinthine medina.  From the moment we received the nomination of Riad Numero 9 from Nadia, a self-described hotel junkie, we knew we had found an extraordinary small hotel.  She emailed us, “I visited it last [...]

Gary Diedrichs from Green Traveler Guides recently nominated the eco-friendly Balamku Inn on the Beach in Mahahual, Quintana Roo, Mexico, as one of his all-time favorite independently owned hotels.   The Green Traveler Guides, launched by Gary and his wife Peggy, are all about traveling well with the lightest possible carbon footprint. They do old-fashioned [...]

One of the great benefits of putting together a guide to travelers’ favorite places to stay is receiving a new nomination in our in-box.  It’s a little bit like receiving a surprise gift.  After all, we depend on travelers from around the world to take the time to nominate their all-time favorite places (with rooms [...]

Vento di Rose is a true labor of love. The owners, Emanuela and Emidio, are some of the kindest and most generous people we have ever met. Their home and bed and breakfast is a beautifully restored Italian country house with views of medieval hilltop towns in every direction. And as if this weren’t enough, [...]

Where do you want to travel next?
 
We’ve spent most of the winter here in Brooklyn researching the hundreds of nominations we received recently, and we’re psyched by all the new digs we’ve added.  Beyin Beach Resort in Ghana is on our new must-visit list.  So are the two fabulous cave hotels in central Turkey, Gamirasu [...]