Where to stay in Gdansk, Warsaw, Prague & Budapest | Airbnb & Hostels

Going Interrailing can be an amazing but potentially quite expensive experience accommodation wise. Luckily, with hostels pretty much everywhere nowadays and Airbnb slowly taking over the holiday accommodation business, it's becoming increasingly easier to find great places to stay at on a budget. One of my favourite part about organising the whole trip with my friends was looking for cute places to stay at in the different cities we visited. Since we travelled in a group of five, accommodation costs were already lower as they tend to be cheaper the more people you are. Since we loved all the accommodations we stayed in during our city trips (so I won't be addressing the place we stayed in in Croatia, even though we liked that one too), I thought I'd share the different flats and the hostel we stayed in!

GDANSK

In Gdansk, we stayed at Ulrika's apartment, situated right in the middle of the beautiful old town in Gdansk. Given its central location, everything was just a short walk away, which made our stay there very easy and comfortable. On top of that, we had the most amazing terrace, giving us an amazing view over the rooftops of Gdansk and making it the perfect spot to have breakfast in the morning sun or snuggle up with blankets, pizza and music in the evening. The only thing you have to watch out with in the apartment, is not to fall down (or up) the stairs when going for a nightly trip to the bathroom...
(This apartment is unfortunately not to be found on Airbnb anymore at the moment, possibly because it's almost winter now but I'll keep an eye out and check back every now and then to see if it's back on Airbnb in the future)

WARSAW

In Warsaw, we stayed in Olga's penthouse, a little bit outside of the city centre, requiring us to take the metro for a ten minute ride (not a big problem though, especially as the transport is quite cheap in Poland). The style of the apartment is probably what I liked most, as I loved the way it was furnished, as I felt like the owners put a lot of thought and love into what it eventually ended up looking like. For maximum comfort, I would advise for a maximum of four to five people to stay in this apartment, as everyone has a proper bed that way (one of us slept on a pull out couch because we were five) and no one had to sleep on only a mattress. 

PRAGUE

Prague was the only city where we didn't rent an apartment through Airbnb but stayed in a hostel. My friend (who travelled with us) had heard good things from several people about the Santini Hostel, so we opted for it as well, as the prices were quite decent, especially considering that we were located right in the middle of Prague's old town. This means that once again, we could do most of our exploring by foot. We stayed in a six bed bedroom, meaning that we had another person sleeping in our room for one night (we stayed there for two nights), but that didn't create any inconveniences. The hostel itself was beautiful and very clean, the only I (and my fellow vegan friend) have to criticise is the poor choice breakfast-wise. Since we stayed in apartments in all the other cities, we always bought our own food for breakfast, whereas breakfast was provided at the hostel. The only available things, however, were ready made sandwiches (not particularly vegan friendly..), two kinds of cereal, cow's milk, juice and tea. We eventually brought our own milk to have for breakfast, which helped a lot.

BUDAPEST

Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures of our apartment in Budapest, but you will find a lot of pictures of it when you look for Antoine's apartment on Airbnb. Again, the location of the apartment was absolutely fantastic as it was very centric and - which I loved most - in the University quarter of the city. During our stay, University had just started again in Budapest, so we were surrounded by people our age going to classes or enjoying the end of summer and its warmth on small terraces drinking coffee and chatting. Even though there was a bit of miscommunication at our arrival, our apartment in Budapest was very roomy and had a big bathroom as well as a separate toilet.