About this Site

"well written, witty, factual, detailed and practical"
Arthur Frommer's Outspoken Encyclopedia of Travel

"Forget expedia, travelocity, or gorp. If you want to examine the best travel web site, it's 'The Budget Traveller's Guide to Sleeping in Airports'"
Outside Magazine

and as mentioned in dozens of articles, news programs and, how can we forget, the game show Hollywood Squares

The Budget Traveller's Guide to Sleeping in Airports and the Cheap Like Me Travel Society are the demented concoctions of Donna McSherry, a Canadian, who had too much time on her hands back in 1996.  

It all really started in the summer of 1994 when Donna travelled to Ireland and Northern Ireland proving to the locals that Canadians really are tight with a buck.  The following year, she ventured off to Switzerland.  During these trips, she came up with many of the tips you'll find from the Cheap Like Me Travel Society.  She brought her own peanut butter, she accepted car rides from strangers (women drivers only...please she's cheap, not dumb), she pretended nothing was wrong when a hostel owner only charged her for one nights stay when he should have charged for two, she accepted a free lunch from a guide at a castle in Ireland, she took the bus between cities, she claimed to be a student even though she was NOT, and she slept in a few airports to save money on hotels.  With all this experience, one would think she was a professional.  Although there were many a great budget traveller before her, Donna, unemployed at the time and clearly the only budget traveller who had no life and nothing but time on her hands to come up with all these crazy ideas, created a web site chronicling her travels.  A few weeks later and no closer to getting a paying job, she created the Budget Traveller's Guide to Sleeping in Airports (BTGSA) and the Cheap Like Me Travel Society (CLMTS). 

In the beginning, she had to beg people to visit the BTGSA.   Obviously with only her 3 listings, this was no great database by any stretch of the imagination.  However, she persevered and soon people started sending their stories.  She still remembers the first person who sent his listings.  Today there are over 5100 listings, with more always waiting to be added. 

Donna does not claim to be the budget traveller guru, but when it comes to travelling and not spending any money doing so, she's got a few good ideas.  Her proudest accomplishment is this web site.  Over 10 years ago she was killing time, trying to be funny and learning web site design.  Never in a million years did she think that people would actually visit her web site. 

Whether by coincidence or browser error, thank you to everyone who has visited this site, contributed to, made fun of and learned from this site and its premise!

Donna McSherry is now a thirty-something wannabe photographer who is on the verge of starting something new and very exciting in her career.  She is currently a travel agent specializing in South America.  She lives in Toronto, Canada.  Next stop in her travels: Colombia and Ecuador in August/September 2008.   email: editor[at]sleepinginairports.com contact me on FACEBOOK

archives: Donna, can you spell?