twoflower

My DW and I are driving the UK in September, and would appreciate recommendations for accommodation. Preferably low-budget inns or B&Bs (say £22-£25 per person). Likely overnight stopovers are:
Cambridge
Lincoln
Durham
Grassington or Ilkley
Bridgnorth or Bewdley or Great Malvern
Oxford or Abingdon
Ilfracombe
Somewhere in the Roseland Peninsula (Cornwall)
Kingsbridge
Dorchester
Chichester
Rye

Thanks, look forward to your ideas.

twoflower

Just in case the name is unfamiliar to some people, the Roseland Peninsula is that part of Cornwall between St Austell and St Mawes.

One of the big attractions (apart from beautiful coastal scenery around Mevagissey & other places) is the Lost Gardens of Helidon.

nona1

Look on Smoothound.co.uk for b&bs by area and budget.

Also, if you just want clean, cheap and cheerful, look at the chains such as Travel Inn.

ron

My first thought is that your budget is low. Those £45 to £50 B&B double rooms sound like 1999-2000 prices. I think you are going to find you will need to pay £55 to £65 for decent, basic en-suite accommodation.

The only place amongst your destinations that I have stayed in recently is Chichester. I liked the Litten House B&B, http://www.littenho.demon.co.uk/
Its price is £52.50 double, but its rooms are not ensuite.

Lost Gardens of Heligan, not Helidon.

PalenQ

Cambridge has a very low-cost hotel right by the train station - B&Bs in places like Oxford and Cambridge IME will be way more than your hope.

Maria_H

I know a lot of people prefer "character" accommodation but sometimes cheap and cheerful can be more like cheap and nasty, unless you get a personal recommendation. Travel Inns and similar provide a constant, decent standard of accommodation that can be booked online.

www.premierinn.com
www.travelodge.co.uk

hetismij

Have a look at www.laterooms.com - they often have inns listed and have good prices. Another site which has deals on hotels/inns is www.hotels.co.uk.
A cheap clean place for an overnight is are chains like Travellodge. Really nothing special, but if you book early enough there are amazing deals to be had.

semiramis

I also recommend checking out Smoothhound for B&Bs:
http://www.smoothhound.co.uk/shs.html

We have used them in the past and as long as you go with 3* or better, you should get a decent B&B. I have also found that when driving - B&Bs OUTSIDE of towns are generally cheaper (and usually have better parking and oddly are nicer) than those actually IN towns. Also consider B&Bs in lesser known towns near more well-known towns (for example we stayed at a lovely B&B in Ely the last time we were in the Cambridge area (if I can find the name I will post it for you)).

semiramis

Found it! It's a bit more expensive than your budget but it really is quite nice:
http://www.smoothhound.co.uk/hotels/springfields.html

We had a room with a private bath (not actually in the room but about two feet down the hall and it was stictly for our use - we had the key) - large and spotless). The grounds are very pretty, parking is excellent and the rooms are very private. The bathrooms have everything you could possibly want or need.

Judging from my research for our upcoming trip I would guess that you can get B&Bs of comparable quality to springfields for between 30-35 pounds for person and the occasional bargain for about 25 pounds per person.

Cholmondley_Warner

I stayed in Rye a few weeks ago. I stayed at the Regent Motel which was clean and comfortable. It was £35 a night. It doesn't do breakfast of any description, but is very near some nice cafes.

twoflower

Thanks everyone for these trips. Some posters are worried about my price range being low or outdated. This was the price range that worked for me in late 2003 - and the standard was always good. My first port of call when arriving in any town was the local Tourist Information Office. I would tell them my budget, they would wince, then they would find me a perfectly good B&B within that budget.

Of course prices will have moved since 2003, but not by too much I hope, because £50 is $130 in my money, which is more than I would pay for good hotel accommodation at home. Put it this way, my readings and TTP indicate it might still be do-able. I hope so. I guess we'll see.

But thanks for all the suggestions. They will help get me started in my researches.

ron

It seems that you are acknowledging that your price expectation was on the low side back in '03 (they would wince). The UK CPI for hotels, cafes and restaurants has risen 17% since then. So £44 to £50 should now be around £51 to £58.50.

But, given that you had such great success using the TICs, why not continue to follow that strategy?

twoflower

Yes, ron, I will do that. I was just looking for backup strategies and suggestions as well. And of course we might not always arrive early enough to catch the TIO still open.

You're right - of course it is Heligan. What was I thinking of? Ah, I know - there's a country town not far from where I live called Helidon!!

twoflower

Actually, checking back on my notes, back in 2003 I was getting out-of-London B&Bs for £20-£23 per person, so I guess I've already made some adjustment in setting my target at £22-£25. This latter figure was in fact obtained from a UK fodorite posting in another thread (not mine) on a similar topic only a week or so ago.

I guess one must beware of averages. Whatever the statistics say, I do know - because I have just booked my London accommodation after researching more than 50 establishments to do so - that B&Bs there, at the lower end of the price range (those around Paddington/Hyde Park), have not moved by so much as £1 since I did a similar exercise when planning my 2003 trip and every year since (because this upcoming 2008 trip has on the cards every year since!!).

So I hope my expectations for out-of-London B&Bs at the budget end of the scale may not be so far out of line after all? I guess I'll find out soon enough!!

PalenQ

i STAY IN a B&B in Eltham, 20 mins train ride from London Bridge for 24.50 pounds with unlimited breafast and in my searches that's rock bottom for London - for a B&B not a BedSit - a far different creature.

Yes there are B&Bs in your price range but in placeslike Cambridge, Oxford you'll pay much more IME

Go into the Tourist Information Centre (TIC) for each town and they usually have a comprehensive list of all B&Bs, etc. and see what prices are.

twoflower

Thanks PalenQ, that is indeed what I do. I find that calling in to the Tourist Office when I hit town (usually mid-afternoon or later), puts you in a good position. OK, many are booked out by then, but those that are not are very negotiable, because they realise it's either accept you at the price you're offering, or very likely remain empty.

I should add I don't do this in a hard-nosed or offensive way. I simply explain my budget apologetically as dictated by shocking exchange rates (a permanent situation for us Aussies & Kiwis, not the temporary glitch that it is for Americans at the moment), and most hosts are happy to let a room for something, rather than say no and get nothing.

One of the upsides of not prebooking, I guess!

PalenQ

2flower - yes i have done the same many times in TICs and usually get something in my range (low) - I've found in a few places like Oxford in summer many things may be all booked but generally not

TICs also have a Book-a-Bed Ahead scheme where they book thru hundreds of other town's TIC - but there is a 5 pound fee last time i checked - but good if going to a busy place in peak period i guess.

And B&Bs are great for drivers as they often line roads into towns

rogeruktm

I just returned from a 10 day solo trip. My average rate for a single was 40 pounds per night. Have to admit that even at that rate, some of the places were not that good. In London I paid 65 pounds for a decent single room.

annhig

Hi twoflower,

I think that you will be pushed to find B&B for £25 max pp on the Roseland, even in September, as there is very little of it. eventually I found Trewithian Farm near st. mawes for £25 pp. per night. [www.trewthianfarm.co.uk] Never stayed there of course as we live in Cornwall.

if you were prepared to stay at Looe or Mevagissey there is a lot more choice. alternatively, you could stay in Falmouth and get the boat over, or in/near Truro and drive down.

regards, ann

twoflower

Yes, maybe £25 p/p p/n is a bit hopeful - especially for the more popular places, but it's a starting point. I have just pre-booked one near Cambridge for £27.50 p/p p/n. (Not our usual style to prebook, but we're there on wife's birthday and would like to settle in without fuss and hit the town!).

For the rest, we'll see how it goes on the day(s). As you say, having a car is convenient because we can go a little out of town if we have to. In 2003 I was being quoted £40 everywhere I tried in Bath, but out of town at Corston I got a B&B for £25 (in a farm property tenanted by a young couple but owned by Prince Charles, no less)!

We do understand the host's perspective. We ran a B&B ourselves (in NZ in the 90's), which I hope helps us negotiate these matters sensitively and respectfully.