The Frugal Traveler's standard weekend budget of $500 rarely buys entree to such trendy zones, but a free-ranging Web search netted a boutique bargain: the Nuyorican Cafe had just opened the upper floors of its bright-blue building, a former Spanish convent, as an art-filled hotel called Da House.
Even though the general perception is that Singapore hotels are very expensive, it is still possible to find good deals and boutique bargains. .
Now a lively modern town with chain boutiques and bargain bookstores, San Benedetto has a beachside esplanade lined with rows of graceful palm trees, inexplicably celebrated because they grow in sand.
The city is also a shopping destination where you can still barter for a bargain, whether in the boutiques of Istiklal Caddessi, at the stalls of the Grand Bazaar, or the antique shops in the district of Cukurcuma.
Now Jude is on the internet dating not-so-merry go round, Tom is obsessed with boutique hotel bargains on Laterooms.com, and glamorous Talitha is refusing to countenance that 60 might be middle-aged.
For boutique B&B bargains, head south-east to Etruscan Chiusi, where Casa Toscana (+39 0578 222227, bandbcasatoscana.it, doubles €60 B&B) is a villa with spacious, colour-washed rooms.
But his most immediate adventure, he said, was to take his wife, Olivia, to Italy to hunt for good bargains in the boutiques.
Doubles from $175 room only, 125 Canal Street, New York, NY 10002, +1 212 390 8833, leonhotelnyc.com Visitors eager to stay in the heart of Manhattan should try to snag one of the bargain-priced rooms at this boutique hotel that opened in the garment district in 2014.
We did find one bargain, though not really at a boutique: the Frito pie, $4.15 at the Five and Dime General Store on the tourist-flooded plaza.
Somewhere between the overpriced boutique hotels and the bargain hostels lie the special places with great service, "buena onda" (a good vibe) and rates that make you assume there has been a misprint.
