Europe a la Carte Blog

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£9 rooms are available on the Travelodge UK site for stays between 1 December 2008 to 22 February 2009 in their Winter Sale. You can purchase online from 06:00 on Thursday 4 September 2008. You need to book at least 70 days in advance and pay in advance.

This is a great offer as you pay per room at the Travelodge, rather than per person, so a family room sleeping up to 2 adults and 2 kids for £9 is amazing.

I’d advise that you to get on the Travelodge site and book as soon as possible as rooms are bound to sell out fast at this low rate.

Good - great value at the Saver rate of £29 per room if you book at least 7 days in advance. Five minutes walk from Haymarket rail station and 2 minutes from bus stop, a ten minute walk from Princes Street.

Bad - very difficult to find parking nearby as it’s mainly residents parking bays. The large bedrooms and bathrooms may be rather chilly in Winter.

Rating out of 10 - 9 (at £29 Saver rate)

I stayed on a night at the Edinburgh Haymarket Travelodge on Sunday 31 August 2008. I booked online on the 13 August at the Saver rate of £29, non refundable and payable up front. This rate was for a family room which could sleep up to 2 adults and 2 kids.

I was allocated a room on the lower ground floor facing the back of the hotel. I was happy with the location of my room as it was very quiet. There are major diversions in Haymarket at present due to the construction of the new Edinburgh tram lines and the traffic currently passes in front to the hotel. My room was very spacious and did look pretty spartan with the basic furniture. As it’s an older building the rooms are of varying sizes and layouts. I’m not convinced that the small electric heater would suffice during a cold spell, especially as there is no heating in the bathroom.

It was impossible to find a metered parking place close to the hotel as the vast majority of parking is set aside for residents. I drove down the main road toward Murrayfield and turned first left into Stanhope Place where there are several metered parking spaces at a charge of 70 pence per hour charged from 8.30 until 17.30. It took around 10 minutes to walk back to the hotel from here. However unless your hotel offers free on site parking, parking is always going to be a issue with a city centre hotel in Edinburgh.

This Travelodge does offer a cooked breakfast. If you book online in advance the price is £6.75, otherwise it’s £7.50. Kids eat free with paying adults, so it’s a good deal for a family if 4 can have breakfast for £13.50. You can also book a two course dinner online in advance for £8.

In summary if you want to stay in central Edinburgh at a very low price, the Edinburgh Haymarket is a good bet if you book in advance outside peak season. Travelodge have 2 other hotels in the city centre Edinburgh Central, just off the Royal Mile and Edinburgh West End close to the Gallery of Modern Art and the Water of Leith Walkway.

Good - charming bedroom furnished in very appropriate style with beautiful view of Dollar Burn, good breakfast, very friendly staff

Bad - some of the public areas could do with refurbishment, old fashioned bathroom, a bit expensive at £55 for a single room.

Rating out of 10 - 8

Castle Campbell Hotel, Dollar

I stayed at the Castle Campbell Hotel in Dollar in the county of Clackmannanshire in central Scotland for one night in August 2008. The best rate I found at the hotel using the HotelsCombined price comparison site was £55 for a single with LateRooms. I checked on the hotels own site booking service and the price was £67.50.

My initial impression upon entering the hotel was that the public areas could do with refurbishment in particular the stair carpet looked very worn.

The very friendly young receptionist showed me to Skythorne, my room for the night. It was a small double room. As soon as I entered the room I felt quite at home and very serene in the charming country style decor. But it was the view of Dollar Burn from the window, made even more lovely by the window box which really impressed me. My room was at the side of the hotel. If you had a room at the front of the hotel there would probably be some road noise.

View from Skythorne, Castle Campbell Hotel

My first move was to make a cup of tea and there were 2 pieces of delicious home made shortbread on the hospitality tray. However the bathroom was rather old fashioned with quite a fiddly shower over the bath. The carpet in the bathroom was past its sell by date.

Breakfast was very good with some local strawberries and raspberries available. There were also a couple of fish options on the menu.

I enjoyed my stay at the Castle Campbell but I did feel it was little expensive especially given that the bathroom and the public areas need some attention.

In this guest post Jennifer Gregory advises travelllers to consider if a hostel will suit their needs.   Jennifer is a writer with a passion for travel. After completing her degrees in Social Work and eBusiness, she traveled through Europe, across America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. She now writes for On the Go Travel Blog.

My first trip across Europe was an amazing experience. I was on a limited budget and had little cash to spend on rental cars, cabs, expensive restaurants, and fancy hotels. Instead, I opted to hike, bike, eat locally, and spend my evenings in hostels.

Hostel by Ranciedad

Hostels are an inexpensive, and sometimes free, alternative to costly hotels or motels. While most hostels will meet your basic needs, they definitely don’t provide the amenities or accommodations you’ve come to expect from regular hotels. Hostels aren’t for everyone, and that’s ok.

It’s incredibly important, however, to determine whether or not staying in a hostel is going to be right for you before you leave on your trip. You don’t want to waste your time in Europe scrambling for a last-minute hotel room when you could be taking in the sights on what is likely going to be a once-in-a-lifetime vacation experience!

Take the following into consideration as you plan your trip:

Hostels provide travelers with a certain degree of flexibility. It’s often easier to find a hostel at a moment’s notice than it is to book a hotel room. While some hostels will allow you to make reservations in advance, some do not. Make sure you purchase a good guide book so that you’ll have information on all of the area’s hostels before you arrive. If you have a set agenda, making reservations in advance is recommended. Staying in hostels allows for a certain degree of flexibility in that you aren’t wedded to a particular destination each day or evening – you can change your travel schedule without worrying about hotel cancellation fees and late arrival charges. If you are anxious about not knowing where you’ll stay each night, hostels may not be the right choice.

Don’t be surprised when the hostel receptionist asks you if you’d like to sleep in a same-sex or co-ed room. Some hostels offer both types of rooms while others do not. Decide in advance and know what you’ll do if presented with this situation. This is most uncomfortable if you should happen to be traveling alone and find yourself at a hostel with co-ed rooms only. Otherwise, you’ll likely enjoy a same-sex room unless you are traveling in mixed company, in which case you might want to stay together.

You may have to rent sheets or purchase shower tokens. You’ll want to make sure you have flip-flops to wear in the showers, and you’ll have a limited amount of time to spend depending on the number of tokens you’ve purchased. Learn to shower quickly. If you can’t live without a 30 minute shower, you may be better off in a hotel.

Ask about the hostel’s opening and closing schedule. Arrive early enough to get a good night’s sleep while planning to rise early. Most of your roommates are likely to get up early, and they will start making noise, so it’s not likely that you’ll have an opportunity to sleep in late – ever. If you’re planning a leisurely vacation, and want the flexibility of sleeping late or getting up early, a hostel may not be the best choice.

There are, of course, quite a few things to consider when deciding whether or not to stay in a hostel during your travels. Be sure to research the area in which you’ll be traveling by checking out the websites or calling the hostels you might visit. Gather as much information as possible and, whether you choose a hostel or a discount hotel in Europe, you’ll always be prepared!

My comments - I think that there’s a lot of confusion about the definition of a hostel versus a budget hotel, I’ve written about this in the Wandalust post,” Hostels - Doss Houses or Trendy Budget Accommodation“. I stayed at the Generator Hostel in Berlin when I attended the ITB in March 2008, mainly because hotel prices were so inflated due to the Travel Fair and I wasn’t prepared to pay more than 100 euro per night for a hotel room.

I stayed at the new Travelodge in Falkirk in central Scotland last week and was horrified at just how close to the motorway it’s located. Now I do accept that Travelodges will be close to major roads and I’m not expecting the peaceful rural idyll BUT there are limits to just how close is too close for comfort.

A lorry speeds past the Falkirk Travelodge

When I checked in I was allocated a room on the first floor at the back of the hotel facing the motorway. I knew I’d never be able to sleep with the constant whoosing sounds, I reckoned the bedroom window was 5 metres from the motorway. Now it is possible to insulate against exterior noise as when I stayed at citizenM hotel right next to Amsterdam airport, no noise entered the room but this is not the case at the Falkirk Travelodge.

I went back down to the front desk and the charming receptionist was able to give me a room at the front as the hotel was pretty empty. I asked her if other guests had complained about the road noise and she said there had been complaints which had been passed onto head office. I’d hate to be in her shoes when the hotel is more than half full and irate guests can’t be moved to the quieter side.

Falkirk Travelodge car park

What I can’t understand is why the building was constructed so close to the motorway when the car park stretches in the front, the car park could have next to the motorway and the hotel built at the far end of the car park, where I was standing when I took the photo. It seems to me that the cars can enjoy a more restful night that the human guests.

Now I’m a big fan of Travelodge, they’re my favourite UK hotel budget chain because of their low prices and generally good standards but I’ll be carefully checking the exact location of Travelodges when I stay at one for the first time from now on.

As modern tourists we tend to travel fast. We fly in, grab a hotel room (or hostel bed), see all the tourist sights, try a local meal or two and zip back home again. We stay within cities, we are surrounded by other tourists and we do it all in a hurry before our days or cash run out. We don’t soak in ambience, we dive bomb into it and think that the few drops clinging to our hair are equivalent to the pruney-skin permeation of a long and leisurely exposure.

Personally I’m an exponent of slow travel, a term I thought was particularly nifty until I googled it when writing this article and discovered that I didn’t coin the phrase. My version of slow travel is camping. Travelling leisurely through the back country, off the highways and into smaller towns. Getting to meet the locals in an environment (the communal lifestyle of a campsite) which encourages interactions (unlike the private sterility of a hotel room).

Camping lets you soak in the atmosphere

Of course camping isn’t always feasible. If you go with your own car, caravan or mobile home you are limited by how far you can drive in the allotted holiday travel time. Driving three days across Europe only to have four days there and a three day return journey is not anyone’s idea of fun. Some ways around that are to look at carrying your car on the train – something which saves time, stress and petrol. You can also carry the minimum camping gear with you on a flight and locally hire a car or just rely on public transport to get you around. Or you can rent the entire get up once you arrive.

But the prices do start paying out, especially if you are travelling for a longer period. The average European campsite costs 15€-20€ per night, including electricity, with each person costing around 2€ extra. Showers may or may not be an additional cost (usually 0.50 – 1€). This is similar to a bed in a dorm room of an inner city hostel for one person, but in a group becomes extremely cheap and is far more appropriate for travelling with a family. Finding campsites is easy – decent maps of the country will have many marked and usually your home automobile club will have lists of international campsites, ones which they have even checked out and rated.

You aren’t necessarily limited to remote campsites on the outskirts of town either. If you are travelling in a self-contained motor home there are many sites which allow for short stops, overnight stays and replenishing water/emptying waste. The E6 on the coast of northern Norway is dotted with them, in Germany they are called Stellplätze, in France Aires De Service, and many are free of charge.

The varying sizes of mobile homes

I’m not really encouraging the use of the large mobile homes. These white ships are gas-guzzlers, can be dangerous on narrow roads (especially when driven by people unused to the size) and cannot be driven into European city centres because of their size. Smaller vans, such as VW camping buses, can be and tenting means you have a car available for local trips without having to pack up your campsite every time.

Of course camping doesn’t work for everyone, nor does it work for every situation. It requires a certain amount of preparation and investment in gear, the availability of a little more time and a roughing-it mentality. While northern France’s freezing autumn rains may send even myself into the shelter of a local chateau, as a budget summer travel option it is a relaxed, slow travel affair.

Andrew Gibson the creator of DirectHolidayBookings.co.uk talks to Europe a la Carte about his holiday home listings site.

1) What is the aim of you site?

We aim to grow Direct Holiday Bookings into the largest holiday home site in Europe. We strongly believe that the site should be free to holiday home owners to advertise their properties on. There is no need to charge home owners to advertise and we believe that the quality of our site will attract people to list with us.

In todays economic climate home owners have to watch every penny that they spend and by offering our free service will certainly help them. The question that we feel holiday home owners should be asking the other holiday home sites is ‘Why do they charge?’

2) What prompted you to start the site?

I started the business because I had a holiday home in Florida and was sick of paying to advertise it and was not happy with the number of bookings that I got. In the end I decided that rather than sit about complaining, that I would build my own website. Hopefully Direct Holiday Bookings has learned from the mistakes that other sites have made.

3) What has been the hardest thing about setting up the site?

The hardest thing of having Direct Holiday Bookings has been to convince people that there is no catch in having a free site! You can not immagine my frustration with emails from homeowners wanting to know why we do not charge. I would love to be able to contact all of the holiday home owners out there and get them to ask the question from the other prospective - ‘Why should they pay when a new company like Direct Holiday Bookings can do it for free’.

4) What is the funniest thing that has happened to you setting up the site?

The funniest thing that has happened to me so far has been editing some of the photographs that we have been sent in. I always thought that I was quite open minded untill I saw some of the holiday pictures that we received!

5) Is there anything you would do differently with hindsight?

The only thing that I would do differently would have been to have launched the site earlier. We have had a great response to the site and now know from the number of home owners that we now have and the positive emails that we get, that the holiday home rental market has been waiting for a free site like ours for a long time.

My comments - It’s interesting to read about the problems that Andrew has had setting up a free listings service for holiday home owners. I have to admit I’d be sceptical too and wondering why a site would offer free listings as I’d think how could the listing site would make any money from their site. I had a look on the Direct Holiday Bookings site and evidently Andrew already runs an successful internet marketing company so he has no need to make a profit from supplying this property listing service.

HotelShop are offering 3 night family breaks at the Quality Hotel in Newcastle upon Tyne for only £249 per family until 30 September 2008. This rate includes breakfast, dinner and lunch for 2 adults and 2 kids (aged under 14)., which is great value at £83 per night for full board for a family. This rate was available for any three day period over the next few weeks when I checked on the Hotelshop site.

I think that Newcastle is a great location for a family break. I spent a few days there with our sons when they were young. There’s lots to do and see such as the Seven Stories the National Centre of Children Books and The Centre for Life. You can buy a Metro off peak day travel ticket for £3.70 per adult and £1 per child (aged under 16) or for £3.70 for the whole family on a Sunday.

Allison and Michael the founders of Darn Good Digs which features “out of sight inns for in the know travelers” talk to Europe a la Carte.

1 What is the aim of your web site?

The aim of our website is to create an unbiased and reliable list of extraordinary small hotels, inns, and bed and breakfasts around the world that aren’t outrageously priced. We also hope to support the world of independent travelers and independent travel businesses, so we only list places that are not owned by large corporate chains.

2 What prompted you to start your own web site?

We love to travel, and part of the fun of traveling for us is finding super cool, small places to stay for under $150, and preferably way under $150! But we’ve learned that finding such places isn’t always easy. Often times, travel websites provide so much information that it is difficult to sort out the best of the best accommodations, or they lure you with spectacular photographs of rooms that cost $500 per night. Over the years, we have stayed at some amazing, hard to find gems and we started Darn Good Digs as a way to share them with other like-minded travelers. We realized that our website would be a much richer travel resource if EVERYONE shared their all time favorite accommodations, and that’s how we came up with our idea of the nomination process. The best part of the website is definitely getting new nominations!

3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your own web site?

Without a doubt, the greatest challenge is finding time. We both have intense jobs and we have a three year old son who rightfully demands a lot attention, so Darn Good Digs has become our late night project.

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your website?

When we started our website, neither of us had a clue about computer programing so Michael can be the kind of head-strong person who likes to do things himself, and so he decided to teach himself HTML. He went to the Brooklyn library to check-out some computer programming and web design books. A few months later when we sent our source code to a computer-wiz friend, we realized that HTML had changed a bit from the 90’s when our library books had been published! Next time we’ll go to the bookstore and spend the few extra dollars to get something more up-to-date.

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

We’re not sure if there’s anything major that we’d do differently, but looking to the future we know we want to continue to add more content to the site and keep trying to improve the design. We plan on starting a blog soon about our search for Darn Good Digs, and we hope to inspire more and more travelers to nominate their favorite places!

My comments - Michael was pretty brave attempting to learn html, I have managed to grasp the absolute basics after years. You do have to know the basics though to run a website or blog even if you do have an IT consultant. It is hard to find the time to create and develop a website and/or blog when you have a day job and/or family commitments.

Let’s hope that Europe a la Carte readers can nominate some great accommodation in Europe on Darn Good Digs.