Even if you manage to find bargain air fare for a European vacation, it’s often very hard these days to find hotels that are not extremely pricy by US standards. Less costly accommodations that are often equally (or more) attractive and well-located can be found in rental apartments in many European cities and vacation resort areas. Apartments usually are more spacious than hotels. Especially for longer stays, they can make for memorable vacations. Apartments also allow you the opportunity to prepare your own meals, a big benefit if you are on a budget or have special dietary requirements. Travel web site Venere.com is a great central jumping-off place to search for apartment vacancies all over Europe. Venere also has a very helpful user rating and review system that provides good detail about its apartment rental listings. Booking.com also has extensive listings under “Hotel Type—Apartment” and has a star rating system with plentiful and detailed user reviews. You can book apartment rentals online directly through these two travel sites. National tourist boards from a number of different nations also feature vacation apartment listings (icelandtouristboard.com, Croatian National Tourist Board www.htz.hr, visitdenmark.com and visitbelgium.com, to name a few).