I get it, I'm a princess

Our goal has been to find hotels that are cute, clean, and cheap. Is that so much to ask? On the travel portion of our time in South America, we found it worked well to make a reservation in advance for one night and then shop around for hotels when we got their if the hotel was not what our book promised. We just had to make sure we had secure reservations for big travel times like semana santa.

Accommodation prices in South America

It seems that most travelers backpacking around South America have the same budget for hotels, usually around US $30/night for a double. Clearly, staying in a hostel dorm provides a cheaper option. Since there's so much demand at the same price point, we found that bumping our budget up $10-$15 provided a huge jump in quality. Goodbye roach motel with a saggy mattress, hello clean comfortable hotel with a real shower! For us, the price jump was worth it since we spent a fair time around the hotel trying to study and work. For the more graphically inclined:

A few great-value South American hotel recommendations

A few hotels on our travels truly stood out above the others for their price to quality ratio. Our favorites were relatively small boutique hotels on a budget. The biggest criteria for us besides the price was cleanliness, a good mattress, a nice shower, and bonus for internet.

• Posada de la Flor in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. This hotel is adorable (and its website doesn't do it justice). It's super clean, comfortable, and close to the old part of town. Breakfast is in a nice cafeteria and we enjoyed several nights sipping cerveza on the lovely terrace.

• Hotel Los Sauces in Cafayate, Argentina. We spent the first night at Hotel Confort in Cafayate, which was decidedly neither comfortable nor cheap (which would have allowed us to put up with the fleabag). The next morning we went hotel shopping, and found a real gem at a decent price at Hotel Los Sauces. The rooms were incredibly clean and comfortable, and opened out onto a beautiful garden with a pool. We got a standard room, but the deluxe rooms with a king-sized bed, tons of room, and a large terrace overlooking the garden with views of the mountains were very reasonably priced. The breakfast is complete for Argentina (don't think eggs and bacon) and is served in a lovely dining room our outside on the patio. The owner is incredible, and we couldn't have asked for more hospitality.

• Hotel del Convento is an extremely well-run boutique hotel in Salta, Argentina. The room are huge with high ceilings and the bathrooms are top-quality (although no bathtub). Several rooms, including ours, step out onto a lovely courtyard where you can enjoy your breakfast or an evening cocktail. This is probably one of the best value hotels I've ever stayed at. Plus, it has wifi!