We put Brazilian 3/4" teak down in our living room, dining room, and home office area. Worked out very well. Didn't pay the 2.49/ft, though we did over 1000 sq ft. We had a local place order it for us for just a bit more. We did rip out the old oak that was in there, so we offset the cost a bit by doing a lot of the work ourselves.
We seriously considered bamboo, but we ended up wanting something a bit darker than the bamboo we saw.
For the kitchen, we went with a tile layout. Smaller square tile under where the cabinets went. Then a line of 2" square tiles. Both those tiles made a nice border around the kitchen and breakfast area. Then the inner most tiles were 16" tiles set on the diagonal. The tiles match the backsplash my wife and I did above the counters.
I can post pics of the flooring we did if anybody cares, but I don't wanna pollute a bamboo thread with tile and teak.