Touring in France
Apr 18th, 2009, 03:24 AM
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Touring in France
HI I am driving from Calais to Biarritz in early June with no overnight accomodation booked, can anybody advise on the best Travel Hotels to stay at and how early in the evening it is necessary to book in to ensure they are not fully booked up?
Apr 18th, 2009, 12:45 PM
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Apr 18th, 2009, 02:17 PM
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There are probably 20,000 hotels & B&Bs between Calais & Biarritz.
Get the Michelin Red Guide for France. At about 3pm, figure out where you want to stay for the night. Find a hotel in the guide & call them.
Base your itinerary on where you want to sleep - not on any specific hotel. Your eyes will be shut most of the time at the hotel anyway. If we're staying in a place for 1 night, we usually book the least expensive hotel in the Red Guide. If we stay 2 nights in the same place, we'll upgrade a little.
Stu Dudley
Get the Michelin Red Guide for France. At about 3pm, figure out where you want to stay for the night. Find a hotel in the guide & call them.
Base your itinerary on where you want to sleep - not on any specific hotel. Your eyes will be shut most of the time at the hotel anyway. If we're staying in a place for 1 night, we usually book the least expensive hotel in the Red Guide. If we stay 2 nights in the same place, we'll upgrade a little.
Stu Dudley
Apr 18th, 2009, 03:25 PM
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Sorry, I don't get this.
I checked on mappy.fr, which says the distance is about 1060 km and the time required is 11 hours.
So at most you need one overnight stop and need have no more than 5.5 hours of driving on any one of your 2 days on the road.
In that case, why would you not want to choose a destination and a hotel in advance? (Whether you choose to make a reservation or not is a separate issue.)
If you are resolved to keep maximum flexibility during your driving day, however, I'd answer your question as follows:
Some popular chains found all along the motorways of France are Ibis, Kyriad (at the higher end) and Formule 1, PremiereClasse at the lower end (ie "Pod" hotels of utterly Spartan character but clean and safe).
If you landed up at one of these at (say) 6 pm, you should have a very good chance of finding a room.
Then you will have a long, dull evening in a cheap hotel, probably with no decent restaurant nearby.
I checked on mappy.fr, which says the distance is about 1060 km and the time required is 11 hours.
So at most you need one overnight stop and need have no more than 5.5 hours of driving on any one of your 2 days on the road.
In that case, why would you not want to choose a destination and a hotel in advance? (Whether you choose to make a reservation or not is a separate issue.)
If you are resolved to keep maximum flexibility during your driving day, however, I'd answer your question as follows:
Some popular chains found all along the motorways of France are Ibis, Kyriad (at the higher end) and Formule 1, PremiereClasse at the lower end (ie "Pod" hotels of utterly Spartan character but clean and safe).
If you landed up at one of these at (say) 6 pm, you should have a very good chance of finding a room.
Then you will have a long, dull evening in a cheap hotel, probably with no decent restaurant nearby.
Apr 18th, 2009, 04:22 PM
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I take a list with me and call ahead the same day. This past summer we did not even call ahead, just asked if they had a room available when we arrived. But this is probably not possible in very popular places such as the Dordogne and the Provence.
Apr 18th, 2009, 04:25 PM
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When we drove around some very remote parts of the Languedoc in March, at a time when few tourists were about, we had a hard time getting into places we'd researched in the Michelin Red Guide and Hachette if we didn't call by noon...and even then.
Is there some reason you can't plan better?
Is there some reason you can't plan better?
Apr 19th, 2009, 03:14 PM
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Tedgale
You quote Mappy 11 hours etc, That is if I want to get on a motorway at 75 MPH and not see France and not enjoy the journey.
It is our intention to see the country enjoy the journey over 3 days 2 nights, we will stop at towns and villages and have a look round, stay a couple of hours have a nice lunch visit magkets etc., we do not wish to commit to being anywhere other than near Biarritz 3 days later.
WE will stay wherever we end up each day but need to judge how early we need to look for accomodation.
You quote Mappy 11 hours etc, That is if I want to get on a motorway at 75 MPH and not see France and not enjoy the journey.
It is our intention to see the country enjoy the journey over 3 days 2 nights, we will stop at towns and villages and have a look round, stay a couple of hours have a nice lunch visit magkets etc., we do not wish to commit to being anywhere other than near Biarritz 3 days later.
WE will stay wherever we end up each day but need to judge how early we need to look for accomodation.
Apr 19th, 2009, 04:54 PM
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We had no problems finding accommodations in La Rochelle in June, So while the Landes and the coast north of Biarritz might pose problems, I think that you should be able to simply stop for the evening around 5 and be able to find something.
Apr 20th, 2009, 07:18 AM
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For years I used to travel that way myself, esp in the pre-internet days. I no longer do it, as I prefer to know I will have somewhere nice to stay at the end of the day.
But if you want to find sme-day lodgings, you can, as others suggest, buy a Michelin guide or, if you want more ample descriptions and an assurance of a place with character, get one of the Rivage guides in English. Their Guides de Charme series is excellent; there's one for "charming small hotels" and one for "charming B&Bs".
With B&Bs, I would call no later than mid-day at latest, however.
But if you want to find sme-day lodgings, you can, as others suggest, buy a Michelin guide or, if you want more ample descriptions and an assurance of a place with character, get one of the Rivage guides in English. Their Guides de Charme series is excellent; there's one for "charming small hotels" and one for "charming B&Bs".
With B&Bs, I would call no later than mid-day at latest, however.
Apr 20th, 2009, 07:31 AM
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I do it more like Michael. Part of my itinerary planning is to create a list of potential places to stay along my route. On travel days, I call ahead (about 10am) to where I expect to stop for the night. Sometimes I have to call a few places before finding something available but I never go homeless.
