Where do we sleep tonight? A highly idiosyncratic review of accommodations we encountered along the road


Getting a room for the night is right up there with getting three squares a day in my book. However, we feel that serendipity is the best part of travel and making reservations eliminates a lot of flexibility, so we end up living with a bit of uncertainty. This bothers Al a whole lot more than it bothers me and I keep telling him, it will all work out. I was right although once or twice even I had my doubts about when we'd get to bed.

Price was a major criteria for us since when you are travelling for a long period, those euros can sure add up. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and pay a little more, but it really irritated me when I felt we got taken, which was fortunately only a couple of times and then always at a chain hotel.

We were fortunate to be traveling in the 'off-season' which makes a tremendous difference in rates in some area. It's hard to believe, but the 'season' in much of Europe is August. Period. Sometimes there will be a bump in prices in July, mainly in the latter half of the month. For example, the price of our hotel room in Conil, Spain, doubled in price during the month of August and while this was an extreme example, we saw some pretty large price differentials between in-season and off-season. Some areas will also jack up the prices during Easter week which is another major holiday season in Europe.

Americans are often surprised by the size of rooms and bathrooms in Europe: small and smaller. Sometimes in a B&B you will get a huge room and sometimes in an over-priced hotel you will get a tiny one. Sometimes we've had trouble finding a place for both our luggage and ourselves. Most often, you not only get a small room, you get a double bed. Not a queen, a double. If you're lucky, it doesn't sag too much. In newer hotels and occasionally in B&Bs, the bed will be made of two twins , which is unimaginable luxury. Rediscover cuddling, although when the temperature is 90, that's not such an attractive idea. I also couldn't understand why, during the hottest summer in 60 years, hotels in Germany give you a winter-weight duvet with no top sheet.

The bathroom will be inconvenient by US standards, count on it, especially when it has been shoe-horned into a corner. Because these are old buildings, the plumbing is always under the tub or shower enclosure, which means that you have to step up. Since European tubs tend to be deeper than US tubs, this can mean a really big step. You will not get a washcloth, of course, and if you are lucky, the bath towel will be large enough to get you dry although this was rarely a problem at B&Bs, just hotels. Actually, except for a couple that were really shoe-horned in, the bathrooms in the B&Bs were generally every bit as good as if not better than those in hotels.

The variety of ways to flush a toilet fascinates me. We never saw a European toilet with a lever like in the US. There might be a button or a little handle that you pull up or one of many other possibilities and sometimes you have to take a moment to figure out what you're supposed to do, especially in a public toilet. Sometimes you run into a toilet that has a electric 'macerator' to reduce everything to tiny pieces to fit into tiny pipes. Every time you flush in the middle of the night, the whole world hears that grinding sound.

Electric outlets are another major issue. Almost every country has its own type of plug configuration, so we had to take along five adaptors. I have both a hairdryer and curling iron that will run on the 220-volt systems that are used in Europe. What was frustrating, however, is that apparently the GFI circuit does not exist for 220 and it is often very difficult to find a plug for the hair-dryer anywhere near the bathroom. Sometimes the building is so old that you can understand the lack of wiring but sometimes I think they eliminate outlets to cut down on the electricity cost. Since it looks like Europeans tend not to blow-dry their hair, it probably isn't an issue for them like it is for me.

In England I was told the absence of bathroom outlets was because of building code requirements which also dictate that instead of having a light switch inside the bathroom, you have a light cord instead. Very 1940. However, what kind of building codes are in effect and what kind of enforcement is applied is an interesting question because we saw way too much stuff that couldn't possibly have been code. Not just in private residences but also in commercial hotels. We also talked to people who had done extensive conversions and were told that the local authorities only worry about the exterior modifications and that there was no inspection requirement for the interior. I think they do some of these things just because they always have and who knew they would need hair dryer plugs in 1940?

You will generally not find air conditioning which is a real problem when it gets so hot. Our hotel in Paris was a welcome exception. Europeans tend to open their windows for ventilation and they don't believe in window screens. The only window screens we saw were in Belgium, at both the places we stayed, so maybe they have a different attitude there. Finding a quiet location is particularly important when you are going to be sleeping with the window open.

Because it would be Easter week, I had made reservations via the Internet for our first week in Portugal, first at a hotel in Lisbon, then at a B&B in Cascais. We ended up staying at hotels for the rest of our visit in that country because we didn't see obvious alternatives and the hotels were inexpensive and convenient. Even though it was the Easter holiday, the prices were not raised and we felt that Portugal had the best hotel values.

Spain was hard to understand. When we stayed at a fabulous B&B outside of Zalamea de Real, our hostess there explained because of the patterns of settlement in Spain, especially during the Franco years, there are not so many old buildings suitable for conversion to B&Bs as there are in France, for example.

We encountered the most frustration finding a room in Spain primarily because we simply didn't understand their way of doing things. One day we drove many more miles than we should have simply because I expected that there would be accommodations in towns that had nothing at all. On the other hand, we ended up that night in a 4-star hotel for 60 euros, so it wasn't all bad.

We also apparently didn't understand the Spanish star-rating system correctly and thought that it would be a direct equivalent of the French system. In France we look for two-star hotels, which are generally the minimum rating you will see in a hotel. However, we found that a three-star could be affordable in Spain, at least in the off-season.

It's hard to do when you're not fluent in the language, but we found that simply asking was a good way to find a room. For example, we landed in the 4-star hotel because when we stopped at the only hotel we could find (a 3-star), they were having a wedding and the clerk suggested we might not want to stay if we wanted to sleep. So I asked, can you help me find another room? She could and did. Of course, she couldn't quite give us directions to the hotel, which was in the middle of a city, but she said, follow the signs to such-and-such then ask anyone on the street. Can you believe that actually worked with my Spanish?

When we were at the mining museum in Minas de Riotinto, I asked where we could stay since there are nothing but very small towns in the area. They whipped out a list of accommodations and made the phone calls for us. This time too the directions were a bit vague, as in, well, take a left at the light and then I think it's down there somewhere. Fortunately, we had a brochure with a picture of the house and after wandering down an unpaved road, there it was, sitting in a fold in the countryside amid some olive trees. One of the best places we found anywhere.

In Trujillo, after striking out a couple of times, we parked and walked down the street. There was a row of restaurants with a waiter standing in each doorway, but I happened to notice that next to each door was a government-issue hotel plaque, so I asked the first waiter if they had a room. He whisked us inside, reached behind the bar counter, produced a room key and pointed to an unmarked door at the end of the bar. We opened it, went up the narrow stairs and found a regular if small hotel upstairs, probably 25 rooms. We would never have guessed that these were all hotels by driving by on the street. They all had names like Miguel's, or Pablo's, no mention of 'hotel' on the sign.

France, on the other hand, is by far the easiest country in which to locate accommodations, unless it is August. Even then, you can go to the Tourist Information office and if there are any rooms left in town, they will know and they will make the phone calls.

There are something over 7,000 B&Bs in France and everyone of them will have a sign, or multiple signs directing you over hill and down dale. You just drive up and ask if they have a room. The accommodations vary wildly but are almost always a great value and you have the opportunity to interact with your hosts. We loved trying to hold conversations and we found out lots of things that would otherwise have totally escaped us.

There are enough B&B options that we learned to be selective on location. Driving down a tiny road is a plus because it means that you'll have less traffic right outside your bedroom window, although you might have a tractor or a rooster. In Millau, we had to drive up a narrow road with a long grade that always had our little Peugeot threatening to overheat, but the view was fantastic and the quiet unbeatable.

You also need to think about where you're going to have dinner when you select a B&B. If you're too far out in the countryside, you might have to drive miles to find a restaurant. We passed up some good locations for this reason. However, in more remote areas, B&B's often serve dinner too, so if the sign also includes the word 'table', it's worth checking on. We've enjoyed some excellent home cooking that way.

It amazes us how many people have converted part of their home into guest accommodations. I can't help but think that this is a really good way to stiff the tax man. They never ask your name and rarely ask what country you are from and of course there is never such a thing as a receipt. All cash. On the other hand, they will introduce themselves and will welcome you into their home, or at least into part of it. You can get tips on sightseeing and restaurants and learn about the local area. Your hosts will always smile at breakfast and it is expected that you will stop by to say goodbye and shake hands when you leave. You wouldn't just walk away from a friend's house, now, would you?

Another kind of accommodation in France is the 'gite', a cottage or apartment that is rented by the week. It's usually harder to find these without advance reservations, but we've done it more than once. In a gite, you don't get breakfast but Al loves to go to the bakery in the morning to buy a baguette. A kitchen allows a nice change from restaurant food and since the supermarket has a selection of ready-made foods not even imaginable in the US, you still don't have to cook.

France also has a huge number of old hotels of the one and two-star variety, sometimes no-star. These are predictably 'quaint' but often not much more expensive than a B&B, although with fewer of the advantages and they usually nail you on the breakfast. They are generally family-run and often close one day a week. In Chabanais, we asked if we could stay another day and the owner hesitated, saying that it would be their closed day. But he couldn't pass up the revenue, so he showed us how to get in and out of the side door and let us keep the room. We had the place to ourselves that night and it was nice and quiet. The downside is that the beds are often as old as the building.

We don't have a lot of experience with Italy because our visit was so short. On the mountain roads between Bolzano and Cortina, there were a lot of 'zimmer' (B&B) signs pointing off the highway, but since we weren't ready to stop, we didn't investigate. In hindsight, we might have been better off if we had done so.

The first place we stayed in Italy was a B&B that was right along the road above Lago di Garda and after that, we stayed in hotels. No problem finding hotels--you just drive along and pick the number of stars you want to pay for and ask if they have a room. The Italian hotels have the number of stars prominently displayed on their hotel sign.

The last place in Italy was a pension near the Austrian border where we had both dinner and breakfast. We weren't sure they were even open when we drove up, but the husband was reading the paper on the front terrace and agreed to let us have a room. There was only one other party staying there. We had followed signs off the highway, thinking that it would be a nice quiet place but we didn't anticipate just how quiet. The meals were German and wonderful.

As I've mentioned in another entry, Germany is an odd place for the tourist. If you are in one of the busy tourist areas, there are lots of 'zimmer' (B&B's) as well as hotels. But if you get outside the tourist areas and cities, the pickings are pretty slim if you want something other than a regulation hotel. In the Bavarian Alps, along the Rhine and Moselle, no shortage of places to stay. But along the Romantische Road, practically nothing. I guess they all go to France and Italy. The B&Bs where we have stayed in Germany have been invariably wonderful and I have to say that their idea of breakfast includes a lot more food than in France.

Belgium also has lots of B&B's. We followed the sign to one way up a narrow road and it was one of the best we've stayed at. For breakfast, we had soft-boiled eggs from the chicken house across the driveway. We would have stayed another day but the room was already booked. I had hoped to stay somewhere near the beach the next night, but for some stupid reason, we were not prepared for the fact that the beach resorts would be as crammed as they were. Al was getting pretty stressed by the time that we circled back to Brughes and located a reasonably-priced hotel on the edge of the historic area.

In the Alsace, we had gone to the B&B where we stayed on the previous trip and they were full, but the host called a buddy who came and led us to his house. At Etaple, we found the place we had stayed on our very first trip to France but we couldn't raise anyone to give us a room, so we fell back on the tourist office who made several calls on our behalf before finding us a B&B in a residential neighborhood. We would have never found that one on a drive-by because it was in the residential neighborhood, there were no signs out on the road, and the sign on the property was not visible until you actually walked in through the hedge. Nonetheless, they were full every night.

If you have a cell-phone that works in Europe and if you can speak the language, you can get a guide to B&Bs, at least in France, and call ahead, which is what French people do. Many places are also on the internet, which is only good if you know where you are going to be at a given time. Neither of these were options for us, so we had to wing it.

We have not used guidebooks to select accommodations primarily because guidebooks are geared toward travelers who use public transportation and who stay in the middle of a city. When you're driving, the last thing you want to do is drive into the middle of a city. A couple of times that we have followed guidebook recommendations, they were not what we expected. Whether that is the guidebook's fault or ours, I can't say.

How do we pick a place to stay? It depends on whether we are in transit or not. If we are just passing through, sometimes it's easier to flop in a cheap chain hotel than to try to find the perfect room. But if we roll into an area and say, hey, we want to spend some time here, then we have to think about where we want to be. If it's late in the day, we might take a room in a small hotel and then scout out B&B possibilities the next day. Sometimes the hotel is in a good location and we just stay put.

Since we have determined that about six hours a day of sightseeing is all we can handle, having a place to come back to during the day for a rest is important to us. But sometimes you just don't have a great choice and you make do. On this trip, we never had an actively bad room, just a couple of over-priced hotels, so I think that our approach works pretty well.