huh?

been looking at nicer places to stay for a couple days while we're in Spain. ha, fat chance. in this month's Conde Nast Traveler, they list the World's Best 700 Places to Stay - nine of them are in Spain.

the hotels on this massive list are rated on a scale of 1-100; the majority of 'em rate higher than 80. it's like getting a 'B' in school... anyway, the price designation is from one to four dollar signs.

well, the two places we thought would be somewhat affordable to splurge and spend a couple nights...really aren't. our choices had two dollar signs, which would fall in the moderate range if they were restaurants, right? big...fat...ha!

hotels on this list that have two dollar signs fall into the $200-$299 a night class. geez! we've never even spent that on a hotel in the USA! and the most we ever spent in Latin America was $70/night to stay at the Novo Mar in Veracruz, Mexico. and only because all of the affordable places were booked!

looks like it's back to researching budget places in our Spain guidebooks. man, for people who are accustomed to spending $10-$30 a night for accomodations in the 'other' Spanish speaking countries, the shellshock (sticker shock?) of the Euro is going to be a challenge.

sigh