All stories about "Budget"

After losing nearly 1 billion

After losing nearly 1 billion Hong Kong dollars since its launch in October 2006, Oasis, a Hong Kong-based budget airline, has closed. The flying money pit, which operated daily flights from Hong Kong to Vancouver and London, applied for liquidation Wednesday. The airline has suspended all flights and is seeking new investors. [CNN]

Miami Beach is blessed with

Miami Beach is blessed with some of the country's costliest boutique hotels, restaurants and clubs. But that doesn't mean you can't survive a trip to Miami on a budget. The Sunday Times has advice on how you can snag a South Beach condo rather than stay at the Setai and save big, as well as other frugal-traveler recommendations. [NY Times]

Five Ways to Live Cheaply in New York: For Reals

Damn, have warm embraces ballooned in price to the point we need a Free Hugs campaign? Like all things New York, inflation and market fluctuations are painfully felt here, but don't give up on your waiter-turned-famous-actor dreams! Since I moved here five years ago, I've read numerous articles and lists that claim to point out brilliantly thrifty ways to survive in this so-called "Greatest City in the World." Here's a common fault: either the suggestions are too obvious (buy a monthly subway pass, cook instead of eating out) or just plain stupid (eradicate your nightlife, find a cheap, closet-like, rat-filled apartment next to a highway and two hours from work). How about some realistic and viable suggestions to save money while preserving some semblance of "quality of life"? My five-item list can be adapted to non-NYC locales, but this particularly bloodsucking city actually has some unique cost-cutting opportunities if you're sticking it out until you make it big. (photo)

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It's All About the Munchs: Oslo On the Cheap

Once again The Economist has named the most expensive cities in the world, and Oslo won the dubious distinction of being the most outrageously expensive metropolis in all the land. It was followed closely by Paris and Copenhagen, Denmark and London. Tokyo which was first in '05 and second last year dropped down to number five, and New York, the most expensive city in the U.S. is way down at 28. Any reasonable person would cancel all plans to go to Norway this year, or all of Europe for that matter. However, you love a challenge. You invite the budgeting acrobatics. So to help you out, here's Gridskipper's budget guide to Oslo.

Fish markets, ethnic cuisine, and free art after the jump.

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Brazil B&B Babylon

In a move that would make Frugal Traveler Matt Gross proud, the Times (UK) sent Marcus Trower to Rio check out the "Cama e Café", a sort of Brazilian homestay network that let's you rent rooms in houses/B&Bs and party with the locals. All good, that, and useful information too. But then Trower goes and mucks it all up by leading the story with one of the oldest, hackneyed pronunciation jokes in the business:

Do you like bitches?' asks Carlos, at the office of his company, Cama e Café, as he quizzes me in detail on my preferences so he can find a matching host for a weekend stay in Santa Teresa, Rio. A conspiratorial discussion about the beauty of the local women is a conversational staple between men in Brazil who are meeting for the first time, yet how strange, I think, that Carlos, a man in his thirties who shows no outward signs of a predilection for 50 Cent, should suddenly break into rapper lingo like this. 'Bitches?' I repeat, surprised. 'Yes,' he says. 'Do you like to go to the bitch?'

What had happened, it turned out, is that Carlos was actually Brazilian and speaking English with an accent so what he meant to say was beach! Ah, another example of the English wit. Oscar Wilde would be proud.

Cama e Café [Official site]
Making friends in Rio's B&Bs [Times UK]

[Ian Mount]

Previously: Metacarnival Gallery, How Civilized Are You?, All For One And One Forro, Undaunted Our Hero Tussles With Deleterious Meat, Estrella De Lapa: Cool, Calm Collected

Miami On Ten Dollars a Day

Miamibeach 411 has a hilariously and poignantly useful guide to eating in that New York of Florida, Miami. Loosely based on the supposition that you're broke and wasted, the guide still doles out some useful tips for Shylock types regardless of how much is in your Roth IRA. Among our favorites is this one:

A wide array of SoBe hotels offer free continental breakfasts, and few if any bother checking to see if you are a guest. Just walk in looking like you know what you are doing, grab some muffins and OJ, sit on the patio, and leave when you are done. The Essex House on 10th and Collins offers a particularly nice atmosphere and lax security, not to mention some killer banana-nut muffins. The trick is getting to these buffets before 10 AM when they shut down. Call it motivation for an early start.

. Among the meals you actually do pay for, Matt Meltzer recommends David's Cuban Cafe, Chicken Kitchen. Under no circumstances he says should you eat "Beach Chicken" which he defines as "any alleged poultry product sitting in the counter of a deli, convenience store, auto mechanic or dry cleaner." We're pretty sure buying food at an auto mechanic is a bad decision no matter how cheap or hungry you are.

Eating in Miami for $10 a Day [MiamiBeach 411]

Previously: Pimp My Fridge: Is This Really What's Going On?, The Good. The Bad and the Ugly, Gridskipper's Miami Souper Bowl Miami, Dave Barry: The Man Who Makes Chevy Chase Looks Funny

New York on $5

Forget New York on $40 a day or a dinner for under $25. What do you do if you are just ass broke in one of the most expensive cities (we're no. 10) in the world? Here are eleven worthwhile things to do for under $5. It's not wine and caviar but at least it gets you out of your miserably cramped apartment for awhile.

NuBlu: Hidden away on an unassuming block on Avenue C (on the Puerto Rican side not the B&T bar hopping side) and demarcated by only a blue light and a bouncer at the door, NuBlu is a hip music venue and bar. They feature video, minimalist electonica, and an energetic dance happy crowd. They specialize in Brazilian music, a population that has perfected the art of being poor and happy. Cover is $5 if you come before 10 pm.

Gray's Papaya: Still the best deal in town, Gray's Papaya offers two dogs and a soda for only $2.75.

Continue reading "New York on $5"

London's Hoxton Hotel: Luxury, Zane.

London's newly-opened Hoxton Hotel was, until recently, running a £1 a night room promotion that sold out in a Justin Timberlake concert. Despair not. For £59 a night, the "urban lounge" is still a bargain. The rooms come with flat screen tellies, "sumptuous duck down duvets" and fresh milk in the fridge. Free WiFi blankets the hotel like the aforementioned duvets and quirkiness (seen above), like the fine frette linen sheets on the bed, is spread evenly throughout. The lobby has nice budgety design touches (pop-art faux-taxidermy instead of real). Suprisingly, the rooms don't feel minimalist by necessity (as the budget price tag may imply) but by design. The hotel is conveniently located. According to the website, within "staggering distance" from some of London's best pubs and merely a "500m sprint away" from the gym.

Hoxton Hotels

Previously: Pricey Sex Toys in London, Music Tours: London Part I, Britons Preserve Historic Tradition of Pillaging, Architours: London and LA, Lose Some Pounds in London, Christmas in Londontown

Things to do in Budapest When You're Broke

I always thought Budapest was cheap but apparently, when you're broke nothing's cheap enough. Pestiside, a Hungarian website, recently featured activities for those light in the wallet. Suggestions run from the tame (going to the ornate Szabo state library to read Harper's) to the less than legal (dining and dashing from Champs Sport bar) to the religiously ambiguous (eating with the Krishnas). But beggars can't be choosers, even where the GDP per capita is US$16,300.

The Cheapskates Guide To Living Large In Budapest [via Pestiside]

Previously: Kis Gerbeaud, Worst of Budapest, Cafe Gusto, Public Transit In Hundary...Orgasmic