I almost didn’t go to Dubai. Sounds dramatic, I know, but hear me out. I’d been watching flight prices from London for about three weeks, refreshing Skyscanner like it owed me money, and every time I looked, the cheapest option was hovering around £480 return. That’s not exactly budget travel territory. I was this close…

Picture this: it’s 11pm, I’m in my pajamas, laptop balanced on my knees, and I’ve been refreshing flight prices between London and Mumbai for the better part of an hour. My tea’s gone cold. I’ve got seventeen tabs open. And every time I think I’ve found something decent, I click through to the actual booking…

I almost didn’t book the trip. I’d been staring at flight prices between London and Delhi for two weeks straight, watching the numbers fluctuate like some kind of cruel game, and honestly? I was starting to think everyone who said “India is so affordable” had forgotten to account for the part where you actually have…

I remember standing outside Soldier Field before a Bears game a couple of years ago, watching people stream in from every direction, and thinking — okay, where exactly did all these people stay last night? Because I’d just spent about two hours the week before trying to figure out the same thing, and let me…

Last summer I spent four days in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood, and I’m genuinely still thinking about it — not just because the Cubs won that Friday night game, but because I managed to find a really solid hotel two blocks from the stadium for under $110 a night. During baseball season. In Chicago. Yeah, I…

Last spring, I had a four-day window between freelance projects and I did something I almost never do — I decided to treat myself to a proper city trip. No couch surfing, no shared hostel dorms, no Airbnb in a neighborhood that requires three transfers and some optimism. I wanted to be downtown, close to…

I’ll be honest — when I first heard “boutique lifestyle hotel in the heart of Chicago,” my brain immediately translated that to “way outside your budget, Ava.” I’ve been doing this budget travel thing for eight years now, and I’ve learned to be appropriately skeptical of anything that sounds too polished. But the Cambria Hotel…

My first time hearing about the Hoxton Hotel Chicago, I kind of rolled my eyes a little. I’d seen the Hoxton brand pop up in London and Amsterdam and Paris, always with that effortlessly cool aesthetic and the kind of lobby that makes you want to sit there for four hours drinking coffee and pretending…

Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park: How I Scored a Luxury Stay Without Paying Full Price I’ll be real with you — I’m not usually the person recommending five-star hotels. My whole thing is stretching a dollar until it screams. But last spring, I ended up at the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park for two nights, and I…

I almost didn’t stay at the Kinzie Hotel Chicago. When I first pulled it up during a trip-planning session at my kitchen table in Austin — back before I fully committed to the nomad life — the nightly rate made me close the tab pretty quickly and go back to scrolling through hostels. But then…