Palenque

For years i did impropmtu travel, getting hotels as i went. But now i always book ahead online - saves a lot of time hunting and pecking and saves money by locking in something in your budget ahead of time - so you don't arrive in Paris say during the Fashion Week and find nothing available but at outrageous prices. Or when i was without reservations arrove in Interlaken, Switzerland in September - normally not high season to find the Jungfrau Marathon was going on and everything was fully booked. Well i had a train pass so just moved on but i now like to have a booking so i get off the train and head right to the hotel - saving lots of time and apprehension as well.

sap

Plus, it's one thing to travel on-the-fly and on-the-cheap when you're solo or with a small group of other flexible adults. It's quite another consideration when you've got a child or two in tow.

ncounty

One of my favorite memories, Palenque, was arriving in Interlaken in 1984 at the train stop and pushing a button on a panel looking for a place to stay. It was so easy back then. Pushed a button, someone showed up to pick us up, it was inexpensive, and the room was lovely in someone's home with the most divine down comforters ever. Those were the days..... I try to be more prepared these days.

pookymimi

It's quite another consideration when you've got a child or two in tow....

Agreed!
I just passed an apartment with vie in Positano for an Hotel with swimming pool in Sorrento. I think we'll have more to do in Sorrento with all the outings that I decided to compromise in the small room for the swimming pool and access to everything. I think Positano will have to do another time.
Has anybody stayed in Sorrento?
I had the choice between Hotel Delfino and Hotel Minerva, I went with Minerva because it has everything around the corner.

I'm loosing sleep over this, I have most of the reservations Lisbon, San Sebastian, Barcelona, Rapallo, Manarola 5T, Sorrento, not sure what from there, maybe Capri for 2 days.

cferrb

Aaaah, down comforters in Interlaken. We found those after a week in youth hostels in Austria. Absolute heaven!

Palenque

ncounty - ah yeh i used those hotel booking boards outside the Interlaken train stations a lot in the past as well - until the Jungfrau Marathon snafu - the boards are still there and in non-peak season they make it easy - not sure most hotels will pick you up but they still have the green and red lights for vacancies or full with a free phone to connect to the place.

Many Swiss train stations have these as does Grindelwald.

ncounty

the Swiss have had this stuff fine tuned for quite some time now. My biggest travel contrast was flying from Karachi, Pakistan where I was in fear for my physical well-being to arriving in Zurich where they even have free rolling carts for your luggage that snap onto the escalator stairs so you can keep your cart as you go up and down the escalators.

Palenque

The Swiss wrote the book IMO on how to treat visitors - in hotels, restaurants and such amenities as ncounty describes in Zurich airport. And travel is as easy here as anywhere i've been due to this hospitality as well as loads of posted info and i guess also because it seems many Swiss speak English and even IME use it to communicate with other Swiss who may not speak both German and French or Italian but use English as a common tongue.

MomDDTravel

I was surprised Palenque at that very thing - we were treated SO well by everyone on our visit to Montreux. It was a "fill in" stopping there - as we needed to get from Paris to Italy and it seemed like a good stop. I can see how people return to Switzerland over and over.

SuzChicago

Oh no, Fodorite planning fever is worse than H1N1 as a dangerous communicable disease -- alas Pookymimi is now a planner (and losing sleep over it!) We've created a monster...

Nadia

...isn't that funny? But, I bet it has created a really good euphoric anticpation that she'll miss once the trip is over. One day, she'll read back and understand that the StCircs are really useful for motivation and the magnitude of this trip was really shocking. She really did a good job in getting it organized, in such a short time. I am not sure if she managed to keep her budget, but I think at this point a budget isn't going to stop her now ...

pookymimi

Nadia,
I'm almost done with all the booking (minus two) and I've created a blog to keep track of our trip once gone.

It's been stressing to say the least to find an average price for all the places we will stay so I don't go overboard with booking.

I may see the magnitude of this trip while traveling. It may be Latin mentality, we are spontaneous people and that is what I try to instill to my children, that keeps me positive looking forward to this trip.

I've been in the States for 15 years and I have a very different mentality from Americans, and I understand that for some I may be off the wall.

Everything is possible if you have the Will. I say that because I'm extremely resilient, I've gone through a lot here and I'm still standing.

I still don't thing that StCircs was helpul in any way, on the contrary I think he/she was callous and critical towards me.

MonicaRichards

pookymimi, I stayed in Sorrento on my honeymoon and I thought it was just grand. We were in a hotel up along the cliff road that led out of town, but we could still walk into it.

pookymimi

Monica,

Thanks! I might've seen that Hotel when looking to book, but I was afraid on booking as I didn't know how far was from town. Two Hotels together with a pool?

I booked on Hotel Minerva right by the water, I got a great rate for the Attic Room.

As of now I'm done with booking, what a relief not having to think where to stay nor spending more time surfing the web.

Hubby has been extremely upset with me because I've invested as he says a lot of time on this trip. (He doesn't know that most of you think I was crazy on thinking it was possible booking a trip this long in 2 weeks).

Nadia

Great! What did you decide to do with Rome, Capri and Greece.

pookymimi

Italy goes as..
Genova (not sure if we'll fly from Barcelona to Milan instead of the overnight ferry. I just saw some ridiculous rates raynair (Eu 9.00) for the 3 of us from the little airports of Ginora or Reus to Milan. From there we'll have to take the train to Genova.

We are staying in Rapallo 1-4, Manarola 4-9, Sorrento 9-16.
I have nothing after.

I've been considering going South to Greece, the rentals there are extremely cheap, but I'm not sure if I can squeeze a week before heading back to Rome.

We may just come back to Lake Como. I'm not sure yet what to do

Nadia

If you are scraping Greece, instead of going back to Lake Como, consider in Italy the Le Marche region. Lots of beautiful coastline to keep you happy for a week and easy to get to Rome.

ncounty

I just heard that they put a travel advisory on Greece. With all the unrest there currently, I would just stay put and explore Italy. I think there is so much to see and do there as it is.

Monica- I may have stayed at that hotel in Sorrento also!

Palenque

Agree with ncounty about Greece in the immediate future - has been rife with strikes and no fun being caught in a place where all the transports are on strike and even perhaps banks and ATMs, etc. Too chaotic right now for my likes.