Traveling around Europe
 

We are traveling to Amsterdam in May.We plan on renting a car and traveling through Holland, Germany,Austria,North Italy, France, Switzerland and Belgium.We are needing places to stay for four adults at a good price. I am looking for information on B&B, Hotels etc.Any information will be appreciated.

I know you'll get lots of suggestions, but you'd have better results if you study a guidebook or two, make some preliminary selections based on your own interests, and then come back to this site with more specific questions about route, cities of interest, hotels in each, a tentative division of times to spend in each place, an expression of what your key interests (art, hiking, scenery, etc.) are. Asking for info on hotels & B&B's in 6 different countries is (in my opinion) a bit too open-ended.

HOw long a trip? Lot of countries unless it is an extended trip.

Buy the Karen Brown book on European Inns and Itineraries or her individual books on each country. We have used them and found them to be a good source of info. Basically your question is too broad to give any good feedback as you have not planned your route or what towns you will be in. Go back to the drawing board and do some planning and them try again with specific towns.

Besides the Karen Brown books, I would recommend:<BR><BR>www.karenbrown.com<BR><BR>www.logis-de-france.fr (click on British flag for English)<BR><BR>www.venere.com<BR><BR>But impossible to advise without your spelling out more concretely "a good price".<BR><BR>and I agree - - you need a minimum of 25 days - - preferably more to have any purpose in going to seven different countries. You could also fill 25 days (or 95) in just France, or Germany.<BR><BR>I would recommend eliminating 2-3 of the countries unless you are "just passing through" (for example, Munich to Venice) - - or Lake Como to the Black Forest.<BR><BR>And pick a place (in France! or northern Italy) and rent a little villa for a week. You might find that it a week at a villa can be no more expensive than 2-3 nights in a hotel.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

to the top for Chris<BR>

We are going to be traveling for 31 days.We may not make all the countries that I listed. We enjoy the country side and meeting the local people. We wanted to know the best way to find a place to stay while traveling.Amsterdam will be our first stop.

I'll reiterate:<BR><BR>&lt;&lt; But impossible to advise without your spelling out more concretely "a good price" &gt;&gt;<BR><BR>Still, I will take the liberty of assuming that you are not seeking lodging in the bottom quartile, price-wise, nor the top quartile - - else you might have said so.<BR><BR>I recommend that you have one or more "bibles" of lodging, if you want to "wing it"<BR><BR>You can get a printed directory from<BR><BR>www.logis-de-france.fr<BR><BR>and a similar (but much smaller)affilation inb Italy called www.charmerelax.com (but I don't know if they have a published book.<BR><BR>There are also books from the Romantik "chain" (affiliation) - - though these are a bit higher priced<BR><BR>and Ringhotels in Germany (also above the 50th %ile on price, but not the top quartile).<BR><BR>And finally "Europe's Wonderful Little Hotels" or the aforementioned Karen Brown books.<BR>

Chris, I usually start by getting out my European Road Atlas and plotting a tentative route of the places I want to see. Then I get on line at viamichelin.com or mapblast.com and see how far it is between the major cities on my itinerary. Sometimes I realize that the travel distance is too far to do in one day so I then look for a place to overnight. Once you get your itinerary tentatively set, then you can start looking at hotels and/or possible alternative routes to incorporate other sights you might have overlooked initially. It takes a little time, but the research is half the fun in my opinion. Good luck.

Are there any other free books like those cited above for Logis de France?<BR>

Hi<BR><BR>It's a lot of travelling, but the roads are quiet in May.<BR><BR>Europe has cheap hotel chains, similar to Motel 6 etc.<BR><BR>Some are in many countries, others limited to a few.<BR><BR>This group has different brands across the world (inc Motel 6 !) at different price levels -<BR><BR>http://www.accor.com/sa/default.asp<BR><BR><BR>Peter<BR><BR>

up up<BR>

In Spain there are a number of hotel voucher networks which offer double rooms for as little as 50 USD a night. Some of these networks include hotels outside of Spain. One excellent network is Bancotel (www.bancotel.es)

Is there a published book of all the Paradors to carry with us as we try a "wing it" trip through Spain?<BR>

The parador website is at www.parador.es<BR>In addition,there is a free directory in spanish & english covering all the paradors in Spain. Don't know for sure but maybe their reservation centers in the US can provide some brochures :<BR>800 223 1356, 800 634 1188