Europe offers a wide range of accommodations: hotels (from small to large, and simple to swanky), cozy B&Bs, characteristic guest houses, cheap hostels, and rental apartments, plus creative accommodations such as monasteries, campgrounds, free couches, house-swaps, and even airport sofas. B&Bs are generally small, warm, and family-run, and offer a personal touch at a reasonable price. And unlike American bed-and-breakfasts, which are usually frilly, fancy places that cost just as much as hotels,

I love a centrally located hotel, and I nailed that this month at Hotel Europa. Using the hotel as a springboard, I worked with local guides to update the Madrid chapter of my Spain guidebook. The room, while basic, was perfect for me and my makeshift office — and the view wasn’t bad. My daily routine: 10:00 to 3:00 out in the streets with my guide “doing the town,” quick late lunch, a little inputting, and a short break — and then 6:00 to 11:00 with another guide to review eateries and evening

In Madrid I love to have a room with a tiny balcony overlooking the Times Square of all of Spain, Puerta del Sol. This square, like so many in Europe, has gone from a traffic nightmare to a park-like people zone. Within a 10-minute walk I can (and did) visit the third greatest palace in Europe (Madrid’s Royal Palace), my favorite collection of paintings under any single roof in Europe (at the Prado Museum), and the ultimate town square (Plaza Mayor). And even more exciting, I went to a tiny muse