Himachal Pradesh
Occupying three upstairs floors on the right of the street leading up to the Chaurasi temples, Mahadev has rooms ranging from dingy and windowless to…
Must-see hotels in India
Kolkata (Calcutta)
The main strengths of this family-oriented place are the hallway seating areas and the striking use of wooden door surrounds to create M-shape designs…
Bihar
One hundred metres down the road opposite the bus stand, this is the cleanest and most welcoming of the cheapies in the town centre. Simple but colourful…
New Delhi
With a handy central location and reasonably comfortable rooms, the Corus is a convenient but fusty choice. Ask to see a few of the rooms, as the lower…
Mumbai (Bombay)
A crumbling, colonial-era building on prime Colaba real estate, where owner Raj tows a line between welcoming and wishy washy. Rooms are spartanly…
Parvati Valley
Signposted up an alley just off the central old-town bazaar, this green family-run house has just five simple, musty rooms, but prices stay the same year…
Kolkata (Calcutta)
This colourful little 10-room guesthouse has naive murals and laminates in the foyer, and stencil designs in the comparatively cute rooms that are far…
Uttarakhand
At the southern end of the Mall, just past the tourist office, the Savoy is in a quiet location. Some cheaper downstairs rooms are simple, musty affairs,…
Tamil Nadu
Attached to an outdoor meeting hall, this bizarre but friendly place has two clean, modern-ish, neon-blue-lit rooms (with kettles, hot water and air…
Bhubaneswar
These large but simple rooms are a place for ultra-shoestringers to rest for a few hours before catching a train. Rooms are in a quiet corner of the…
Spiti
Probably the cheapest deal in town is the simple triple room in this concrete cube fronting a traditional family home. Bed sheets are clean, and reaching…
Spiti
Three inexpensive but very clean bare-box rooms are accessed off an equally bare green corridor within a squat two-storey building. That's 90m down from…
Gujarat & Diu
This pilgrim rest house, with very basic rooms, will let foreign couples (and only couples – no single travellers of either sex) stay if it's not too busy…
Meghalaya
The pleasantly quiet Tourist Lodge commands outstanding views but has amateurish service. Baghmara is a small town on the Someshwari River, close to the…
Old Delhi (Shahjahanabad)
On a street parallel to Main Bazaar in Paharganj, this hotel has a charming name but a dour welcome, and windowless, smallish rooms in shades of tired…
Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh
Turn right out of the bus stand and walk 100m to find this place with small, bare-bones, tolerably clean rooms. It has a dimly lit bar-restaurant where…
Panaji
With a nice location opposite Ourem Creek, Sona is a sound but pretty boring choice in a good area, and probably a fraction overpriced. Not all of the 30…
Bihar
A decent place for overnighting in Raxaul, with decent air-con rooms with modern bathrooms, and very basic non-air-con rooms with tap-and-bucket showers…
Manali
The three floors of slightly worn rooms share broad terraces with plastic-chair seats that soak up the sunshine, making it possible to forgive the…
Bihar
If you get stuck for the night in Gaya, this hotel is the best value of a cluster of hotels directly opposite the train station. It has decent-sized but…
West Bengal
The Relax is the best budget option in Madarihat, with eight simple yet well-kept doubles that lack air-conditioning but come with hot-water bathrooms…
Uttar Pradesh
This institutional-feeling place has basic, scruffy and stained rooms, but the bathrooms have sit-down toilets and hot water – it's doable. Look at a few…
Dharamsala
With all the charm of a 1970s school, this HPTDC hotel's main attraction is its central yet quiet location and the sunset views from its broad if…
Sarnath
This simple guesthouse is run by a grandfatherly doctor of geography, whose wife whips up home-cooked pure veg thalis (₹180). The five dusty rooms have…
Punjab (India)
Above the road linking Kesgarh Sahib to the fort, Hotel Paramount Residency has overly spartan rooms that are far from clean and really isn't worth the…
Bihar
The cheapest hotel we could find that welcomed foreigners, Clark Inn has simple budget rooms with TVs and squat toilets, or bigger and cleaner rooms with…
Rishikesh
Clean, friendly and cheap – this family-run place hits the trifecta. Rooms are simple and pleasant, and each has use of its own little kitchen (gas is…
Panaji
Contrasting starkly with its heritage neighbours, this characterless blue-and-white corner place doesn’t look very appealing but at this price it’s not…
Odisha
If you get stuck in Angul, Hotel Santi overlooking the bus stand has passable rooms. It can also arrange a car and driver for you to visit Satkosia;…
Port Blair
Overlooking the bay, this slightly modern hotel is fine if you get one of the sea-facing rooms or wood-panelled rooftop 'cottages', which have more…
Kalimpong
This simple but decent cheapie is slap bang in the town centre, offering bright, clean rooms and hot water in buckets for the attached bathrooms. The…
Tamil Nadu
This dive of a hotel has two things going for it: price (though it's hard to call it good value), and absolutely perfect views from the top-floor rooms,…
Srinagar & the Kashmir Valley
This house directly above the temple ruins offers big bare rooms which can sleep up to eight – put your sleeping bag and mattress on the floor. Look for…
Parvati Valley
This large, all-wood guesthouse sits right at the top of the village just 50m short of the viewpoint ridge. One of Malana's most popular budget places…
Northeast States
Rooms at this government-run lodge 200m from the Rudra Sagar ghat are shabby, though some are air-conditioned and have lake-facing balconies. Hot water is…
YMCA International Guest House
Madurai
Convenient to the temple, Madurai's well-managed YMCA guesthouse offers basic, worn rooms that can be very loud street-side. If you want AC, you can do…
Spiti
Simple if very authentic, this local four-room homestay is set beside the steps leading from the lower to the upper sections of the old gompa. Hot water…
Uttar Pradesh
Definitely the best choice of the noisy hotels in front of the railway station. Rooms are on the small side but are modern. The room service and 24-hour…
Margao
The omnipresent GTDC’s outfit in town is an acceptable but dull choice, with cleanish rooms and a good location opposite the Municipal Library. Persistent…
Calangute & Baga
Among the palms south of the main entrance to Calangute Beach, low-key Coco Banana has been providing a retreat for travellers for many years. Rooms are…
