lovetotravel2

I know the castle and palace hotels tend to be quite expensive. Just curious if anyone has ever stayed in a relatively "reasonably" priced castle or palace hotel that would be
a fun experience for our 14 year old daughter. At the moment we are open to suggestions for the "destination." We're still in the dreaming stage.

RufusTFirefly

What do you consider reasonably priced? To us, up to $125 a night is reasonable. To Donald Trump, that might not be so.

Anyway,near Rothenburg o.d. Tauber in Bavaria is a castle hotel called Burg Colmberg in the town of Colmberg. We thought it reasonable.

http://www.burg-colmberg.de/index_e.html

StCirq

We've stayed at a host of castles in France, none of them any more expensive than a reasonably nice hotel. Many of the Relais & Châteaux properties are castles; so are some of the Best Westerns. And then there's the Châteaux & Hotels de France (www.chateauxhotels.com). If you check out those organizations, some of which have hotels in countries other than France, I'm sure you'll see that you don't have to spend a fortune to stay in a castle in Europe. Now a palace - I bet that would be expensive! But I don't know of any that take in guests.

lovetotravel2

These days, yes, $125.00 would be quite reasonable! Goodness, we just paid $129.00 for a MOTEL in Cambria, CA and it did not even have pictures on the walls!
Thanks for the great suggestions so far!

Fodorite018

One place we have stayed with our children was in Scotland at the Kildrummy Castle Hotel. We loved it! The old castle ruins were next to us and we had a great view out our windows. The hotel was very accommodating and we would definitely recommend it.

RufusTFirefly

loveto--If you decide to go to Germany, I can recommend wonderful places to stay in Hohenschwangau (where Ludwig's Neuschwanstein castle is located) and Beilstein on the Mosel at prices within your reasonable range. However, these are not castle hotels.

lincasanova

check out the spanish parador system at www.paradores.es

depending on what time of year, you can get some of these great places for about 60 euros/night.
look into their 5 night special also.

i especially like ALARCON and OROPESA. both about two hours from madrid but in opposite directions.

Kayb95

Check out the Landmark Trust in the UK (<b>www.landmarktrust.org.uk</b. They have a lot of really cool old places (some castles!) to rent for self-catering stays.

Iregeo

Great idea with the Spanish paradors. The one in Jaen was very beautiful and, although a reproduction of a 13th century castle, it sure seemed authentic. And reasonable, too, if I recall correctly.

Thornbury Castle, just outside of Bristol, England, is beautiful and authentic, but probably upwards of $400/night. Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed it for the 24 hours or so that we stayed there.

Good luck!

janis

You've got some great suggestions so far.

Also check out the National Trust (for England/Wales) and National Trust for Scotland - the same sorts of properties as the Landmark Trust. Some are flats w/i castles, some are in gatehouses, some are gottages on the grounds.

But the best Landmark Trust and Nat'l Trust places tend to book up well ahead so you do need to plan.

Some examples - the Landmark Trust has two flat for rent inside Hampton Court Palace, while the Nat'l Trust for Scotland has several flats from VERY expensive down to pretty economical at Culzean Castle on the Ayrshire coast.

Doble_Vergasser

Try Bienvenue au Chateaux. They have about 135 listings. Mostly in Western France. They have a website. We stayed at the Chateau de Fontaine Etoupefour (near Caen, Normandy). They have one room and one small siute. The Count and Countess are wonderful hosts.

sheila

Also try Cottages and Castles, large Holiday Homes in Scotland and Scott's Castle Holidays. Oh, and www.sportingestates.com

nytraveler

We have stayed in several chateaux in France that would be great for a teen to explore. And the rates were quite reasonable. You just need to be sure to pick the authentic family owned places vs the super luxe resort types (they will blow the budget completely).

Georgine

A castle stay is always a priority on my list, if there are any to be found in our area of travel while in Europe

The advice you have received so far ---France, Portugal and Spain all have great oppurtunities for &quot;classic&quot; palace ,castle or chateaux stays.

Don't overlook Germany, however. It has a large concentration of &quot;castle&quot; stay oppurtuniites flying into Frankfurt and then heading Northwest along the Rhine, due north, east, northeast as well as southeast from Frankfurt---You will find castle hotels as far east as the Czech and Poland borders.

It takes a bit of searching, but there are large numbers of castle stay oppurtunities, and many to be had at very reasonable rates.

On a recent trip to Germany, our entire itinerary was based on staying at a different castle every night.

Another area where they are many &quot;catle stay&quot; oppurtunities is Northern Italy, just across the border from Austria----in the area of Merano, Trento and the Western Dolomites.

These are the places that fairytales come to life!!! You can make your dream a reality.

Carmen

We enjoyed staying in Oberwesel along the Rhine River at the Auf Schoenburg castle hotel. We stayed with our 9 and 12 year olds in the &quot;honeymoon suite,&quot; which was ideal, with a queen size bed for us, plus two separate fold out beds. It was two levels, with a sitting area and spacious, modern bathroom. The grounds, view and building are spectacular. I don't know the rate now, but when we stayed in 2001, it was $250, which I thought was very reasonable. It's also very convenient to great sightseeing in other towns on the Rhine.