Boutique hotels?

Prior to going abroad, I had never been exposed to the term “boutique hotel” and certainly had never stayed in one before. Boutique hotel is a term used to describe a hotel with anywhere from 10-100 rooms that is focused on offering services in a comfortable and welcoming setting. Although boutique hotels are present around the United States, boutique hotels are much more prominent in Europe.

Seeing as I studied abroad on a very limited college budget, hotel accommodations were always a struggle when planning our next adventure. As you know, hostels are typically the cheapest bet, but after weeks and weeks of traveling, hostels didn’t always cut it. With that in mind, most well-known and popular hotels were consistently way out of our price range.

However, after doing some research on hotels in Turkey, my friends and I stumbled upon a few boutique hotels that appeared much more reasonably priced than any of the other hotels we had found. None of us were familiar with a boutique hotel, but with funds running low, we figured we would give it a shot!

Upon arriving in Antalya, Turkey, we hailed a cab to the Déjà Vu boutique hotel, where a bunch of our friends had booked rooms. We were blown away at the luxury of the individual rooms and the hotel in general. Déjà Vu only had about 15 rooms and the hotel staff was extremely nice and accommodating, making our stay better than we could’ve imagined.

All in all, boutique hotels were certainly a saving grace during my time abroad. Each boutique hotel left us with a new and unique experience that I know we would have never received from a typical hotel.

So, regardless of whether your travel plans are in the United States or out of the country, be sure to look into the option of boutique hotels… They are way more common than you think!