hotel ratings
 

I have looked at Fodors and Frommers hotel ratings. Are there any other guide books that rate hotels that seem trustworthy? ((C))

Hi Jed
Try the Lonely Planet guide book especially for Australia. There are some big gaps in choice with some of the others.

The "Rough Guide" is also good. It lists a range of places not just the budget ones as you might think from the name. It is also particularly good on culture and history, and other tit-bits of info that add to the bigger picture. If you are thinking of buying rather than borrowing, and are not travelling widely, then LP might have an edge as they publish guides for each state, as well as Australia as a whole, whereas RG only does a chunky volume for the whole country.

Cheers

PS Rough Guide cover many (most) other countries - and if you are not needing a lot of info about public transport connex are often better than LP (imho!!).

Thanks - I will look into them. ((F))

I forgot to say that we were considering NZ for next year.

I just returned from NZ last week and we stayed at the Holiday Inn in Christchurch. It was nice, but no A/C, only heater. It's also hard to find since Oxford Terrace is a "split street". We stayed at the Mercure St. Moritz in Queenstown which was very nice. The Rydges is also a nice hotel there right on the lake(Whakatipu).
In Auckland we stayed at the Mercure Windsor hotel which is in the heart of the city and I DO NOT recommend staying there!! The room was okay, but skimpy with NO dresser, our second floor bathroom window opened onto a pitch and gravel landing full of air condintioning units, the sink faucet was loose and swiveled all over, the room smelled heavily of smoke and they used an even more offensive air "freshener" to kill the smoke smell. There is a HEMP store in the basement of the hotel which we found offensive, lots of homeless in the area as well.
The people all over the country were nice though and it made the trip a fabulous one.

You've got me intrigued, galoha - what exactly were they selling in this hemp store? Offensive funny cigarettes or inoffensive items made from hemp?