BootsnAll Travel Community

Piggybacking onto the same spirit as the BnA Index of World Cities Idea, I'm wondering if anyone else would want to put together a *short* list of cheap/free tips for a city you know well & post that in the appropriate geographical board on BnA?

Here's the one I did on NYC.

I do realize that not everyone is as obsessively geeky as me on putting together lists like that/has a job as boring as mine, but if you have nothing better to do at work, it would be really handy to budget-strapped travelers like us to have a list of the cool free stuff in your city that one would know about if only one lived there. Especially *ahem* Paris. Cheap & free Paris would be really handy to a soon-to-be-first-time visitor from Brooklyn. Hint hint hint.

Any takers? I think every city has stuff like that -- the free cool museums, the really good cheap restaurants, the public programs, the flea markets, but newbie travelers to your city just won't know about it.

That's an awesome idea - and if I have any time I will help contribute to a Portland page.

I'd love to have a few cities broken down like that at my disposal.

Only city I'm that familiar with is Chicago. I'd be happy to contribute but I don't know that there'd be a big demand...

quote:

Originally posted by Freesia:
Only city I'm that familiar with is Chicago. I'd be happy to contribute but I don't know that there'd be a big demand...

Hey there Freesia. I definitely think Chicago would be really helpful, it's a great American city, lots of people go to visit.

Cool! Then count me in for Chicago.

I of course can do Zürich. It will be very short though!

quote:

Originally posted by Stoo:
I of course can do Zürich. It will be very short though!

Heh, your tips will be all the more useful to the poor budget-strapped traveler who ventures to expensive Zürich. Short is ok

I love this idea - fabulous... While we try to figure out a way to make this something "official," may I also suggest that when you've come up with a guide to the cheap & free stuff in your city of choice you also submit it as a travel article? Those guides reach a whole other audience than the people who read the message boards, so it's yet another way to get that info out there. If you have any questions about writing for us, let me know!

I'll volunteer to cover Phoenix and Tucson --

Christina, would you like cheap and free things that go on all the time, or should seasonal things be included as well? There are about 100 more cheap and free things to do in October than July.

quote:

Originally posted by AmazingJulesVerne:
I'll volunteer to cover Phoenix and Tucson --

Christina, would you like cheap and free things that go on all the time, or should seasonal things be included as well? There are about 100 more cheap and free things to do in October than July.

Hiya Jules,

I'd do both -- you can put some sort of indicator that it's for a certain time -- or maybe just have a separate category for seasonal cheap & free stuff that's chronological. Whatever you think makes sense.

Funny to see the different time frame -- of course the desert SW is not going to have lots of outdoor summertime concerts, eh? October is just about the time we're starting to shiver in our boots here & roll up the picnic blankets.

Hurrah people are interested!

Do we have a deadline?

I'd do one for Boston!

As always, I can do one for Manila

I could do Antwerp. In fact I allready did: http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/01-05/antwerp-belgium-may-2001.html Though the museums are only free one day a month now I think

quote:

Originally posted by Freesia:
Do we have a deadline?

I hereby proclaim the creation of these Cheap & Free city guides to be "loosey goosey." In other words, do it however you want to. You can use the categories of the NYC one as a model if you like (or not), feel free to treat yours as a work in progress (I keep updating mine as I hear about stuff).

Feel free to make it subjective to your taste -- I've picked out a few things that are probably most cool to people like myself. Obscure & weird stuff is fun to put in too -- so long as it's relatively cheap or free.

The only guidelines I'd say are:

- Title your post "Cheap & Free __(city name)__", so it will be easy to search for.
- Post it in the geographic area, not in Member Forum (i.e. Cheap & Free Paris would be posted on the Europe board -- I hold out hope...).
- If it's not free, aim for items fitting a shoestring or backpacker budget. It's your post, so make exceptions as you see fit.

quote:

Originally posted by nina9702:
As always, I can do one for Manila

ohhh drooool.... is there going to be siaopao involved?

quote:

Originally posted by christina-in-brooklyn:

quote:

Originally posted by nina9702:
As always, I can do one for Manila

ohhh drooool.... is there going to be siaopao involved?

For you, I'll put in a couple!

quote:

Originally posted by nina9702:

quote:

Originally posted by christina-in-brooklyn:

quote:

Originally posted by nina9702:
As always, I can do one for Manila

ohhh drooool.... is there going to be siaopao involved?

For you, I'll put in a couple!

Salamat Nina. My parents used to go on dates at some little hole-in-the-wall mami-siaopao (chicken mami noodle soup + steamed meat buns for everyone wondering what that is) joint in Manila. She used to tell stories about how good it was. of course she didn't remember the name, and I'm sure it's long gone anyway even if she'd told us the name, but I just thought of it when you posted.

Howdy BnA peeps.

So anyone made any progress on your guides? I know there doesn't seem like there's incentive when it's loosey goosey, but think of the travelers who can benefit. And I'll make a master posting of links to your "Cheap and Free" guides.

Anyone have stuff to start posting?

It doesn't have to be complete right now, just something to get it started, you can add more later so it's not overwhelming to do all at once. Perhaps you can start your basic posts with some eats, drink, hostels, entertainment, and miscellaneous, even if it's just a placeholder post, & flesh it out later with editing the posts. (So that if people post more stuff, they won't separate your master posts). Email your friends in your cities too & ask for tips.

Cheers!

Don't know how I missed this post back in August, but I think these guides are a great idea and I'd be happy to do one for San Diego.

Jillian