Does anyone have any unique, cheap sleeps in Europe (main centres) they'd recommend? I've heard that there are some excellent hostels in castles etc, but on reading my guide books, I'm yet to come up with names. Those special places seem to be very well hidden in my guidebooks!

There are very few castles in main centres. That may be the explanation.

There are a few threads on the hostel forum at Eurotrip.com that discuss unique hostels.

There is a hostel in the Castle at Bacharach on the Rhine and also one in the fortress in Kokblenz. (I have stayed in the one in B. - it was nice but full of little kids when I was there in june many years ago)

There is also one in an old mill in Rothenburg ob Tauber that was decent.

Thanks for the sage advice! Will follow up on that link, Will. Thankyou all, especially for your recommendations bigtyke.

I haven't tried this myself, but some people like staying in convents in cities in Italy. OUTside the centers, you might like to stay in some of the agriturismo places. They are not necessarily cheap, but many of them are.

Bellbird: Two German castle-hostels have been mentioned so far, but Germany is particularly rich hunting ground when it comes to hostels in historic buildings; there are about 60 castle-hostels and many others housed in old mills, villas, and the like. The very first hostel ever is still operating in Altena (Burg Altena.) Here is a list of German castle-hostels, organized by state (Baden-Wurttemberg, Bayern, etc.):

www.larpinfo.de/larpi41.htm#Rheinland

The hostel in Diez is currently closed for renovation.

For more information on German hostels in English, you can go to www.djh.de and search for the hostel by castle name or by town name.