tmac

My wife and I -both age 52- are planning a car tour of England and Scotland 6/22/00 thru 6/30/00. Do you think we need to book lodgings in advance or will we be able to find a good place when we arrive at each day's destination? Either way, can you recommend any lodgings in Canterbury,Cambridge,York,Carlisle,Glasgow, Edinburgh,Perth or Oxford?

Nigel Doran

I would book ahead. You are only going for a short time, so why eat up time once there trying to find a place to sleep? Alternatively, book the first and last nights only. <BR>Also, eight days might not give you the time to appreciate all there is to see in your rather ambitious itinerary. Even though the U K looks small, distances are still quite long. Driving from York to Edinburgh, for example, might take you anything up to 5 hours, given that you might not be fully confident at first on the roads etc. Traffic can get very busy. Why not concentrate on a smaller area?

Karen

I would not book ahead...you waste alot of valuable time searching for the location of your booked accomodation and meanwhile, you are passing by all sorts of terrific looking places with vacancy signs hanging out in front. I would have one for Edinburgh if you want to stay right downtown,which is preferable, but otherwise, you sure don't need one anywhere else...that is going to be a very, very fast trip for the number of miles you are going...you are going to have to beeline it to your destination, find your night's lodging and get a move on to see the sights...I would not waste more time looking for an already confirmed place.

Lee

<BR>We have never booked ahead and have never had a problem. But I would suggest perhaps booking your first and last night. <BR>If you do run into a problem, which I don't think you will, you can always go to the local tourist office and they will book a place for you. <BR>Have fun. <BR>

Guest

I recommend that if you book via the internet, you check the comments on the hotel first. I booked a hotel rated 3-stars through the internet that looked really nice, but it was quite awful. If you know of others' comments before you go, you'll get a more accurate idea of the condition of the hotel.

JJ

We did some of both on our 3 weeks trip last Sept. We found it more efficient to book ahead ( and get maps from Internet ads for places on Smooth Hounds Accommodations Directory ) www.s-h.systems.co.uk... then click on desired location for listing of offerings..... some with pictures as well as rates and location maps which I printed and took along). We found that having a destination and map to get to same saved us a lot of time at the end of a long day of sightseeing. We also decided to stay in each place at least 2 nights in order to have a full day of sightseeing. <BR> <BR>Our last week we left open and did not have reservations so that our schedule was more flexible. However, we spent a lot of time in the village tourist centers inquiring or riding through looking for a place to stay. However, I had "spotted" some in each town we were to visit and had descriptions on paper and in our travel book. <BR> <BR>So, there are definite advantages to both ways, but we were much more pleased with the places in which we had a reservation and felt we saved time. One can always cancel if you are not pleased with the accommodation you have reserved. We found it very tiring going from one place to another ( In Cotswolds, we had to look and look to find a room since the village seemed to be booked up when we arrived late in the afternoon). We finally found a place and , by then, we would have taken any half acceptable place. <BR> <BR>Good luck; have fun. <BR> <BR>JJ