With printer paper, the better the paper, the more your digital images look like traditional print photographs. If your printer can accept different kinds of paper, you need to evaluate the quality you need versus the cost of the paper:
Start with printer paper from the manufacturer of your printer.
That paper is specifically engineered to work with your printer’s inks. The prints you make with that paper can give you a baseline from which you can compare results on other brands.
Try out other types of printer paper.
Stick with paper from well-known manufacturers — avoid the store brands.
Look into special paper kits that enable you to put images on everything but paper.
You can find kits to create calendars, stickers, greeting cards, transparencies (for use in overhead projectors), and all sorts of other stuff. Some printers even offer accessory kits for printing your photos on coffee mugs and t-shirts.
If you use an inkjet printer, try out some of the new textured papers.
These papers have surfaces that mimic traditional watercolor paper (as shown in this figure), canvas, and the like.