scott1957

We are planning a 10-day trip to England and Paris in July and are struggling to find hotel rooms for our family of 5 (including three kids ages 11-17). Current plan is to stay in London, York, Stratford, Bath, and Paris. Getting two hotel rooms per night is cost-prohibitive. In past trips in the U.S. we have occassionally checked in with 4 and hoped the hotel wouldn't notice the 5th, but we really don't want to take that chance in Europe if we can help it.

Are there any websites that would be helpful in our quest? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Mimar

I was about to suggest looking into apartments until I saw you're going to 5 places in 10 days. That's just too many stops in a short trip. And the stops are too short for apartment rentals. Better you make 2 stops: London and Paris. You can do day trips from London.

sassy_cat

You will need 2 rooms in most of those places and larger suites often cost more than 2 rooms. The kids are old enough to share a room without a parent.
European hotel rooms tend to be small and designed for 2! Larger ones can accommodate 4 but they're not as common.

I suggest you book asap to get the best rates and choose cheaper hotels.

Travelodge is a good cheap option in the UK. Check out their website for deals. Some are on the outskirts of towns and only convenient if you're driving.
The Travelodge in Bath is excellent; right in the town centre.



Yes, 5 places in 10 days is crazy... drive through Stratford on your way to an overnight in Bath, skip York or take a long day trip and spend more time in London and Paris.
Get an apartment in Paris if possible to cut accommodation AND food costs. Try www.vacationinparis.com

Good luck

yk

5 places in 10 days?

Look into hotels that offer "family rooms". Or, cut down the number of places and rent one apt for London (5 nights) and another one for Paris (5 nights). This will work out the best for your budget, since you can eat breakfast there, prepare sandwiches for lunch, and even cook dinner at night.

travelroo

I think you are right not to chance a 5th in the room. Small rooms usually won't work with that in mind anyway. The apartment idea is good or something in family suite or 2 rooms adjoined might work. You will just have to find something in your budget We often travel with our family and have used www.francejourneys.com for our rooms, they seem to always come up with something for us in Europe that works.

WillTravel

I agree that there are too many stops, and this tends to make both adults and kids cranky. It also reduces your sightseeing time.

Another option is hostels. Your family might have to book a dorm with six beds in order to have privacy, but it might be worth it. Or you could book a dorm with four beds, and let the 17-year-old mix with the rest of the guests in another dorm. Take a look at this article:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/04/19...19hostels.html

If you do this, you should probably book directly with the hostel to confirm you will be given one room of your own.

jetsetj

An apartment is what you need.
Its fun. Its cost effective.
Have the kids help shop for local foods to cook.
You will feel more apart of the scene.

denise8101214

I agree with the apartment. I have traveled with my family of 6 and think the apartment for the longer time is the way to go. If you are looking for hotels, I would start with this:

http://www.venere.com/

You can specify the number of people and the number of rooms so you will be able to see IF there are rooms available for 5 for your time periods.

nytraveler

Hotel rooms in europe are much smaller than in the US in general and most rooms have 1 double bed for 2 people. There is no way you can fit 5 adults in one room. You will either have to get 2 rooms (one double and one triple) or a suite (usually more than 2 rooms).

Agree if you change your itinerary an apartment makes more ssnse.

Guenmai

Get an apartment in Paris. I'm just one person and do so. I went with vacationinparis.com and had a really nice apartment. I had #122 in the 6th, which would be too small for you, but if you click on the "luxury" section, there's one in the 6th that's big. I just happened to curiously check that one out, some months ago, and noticed the size of it since it's in the area that I prefer to stay in and it's a 3-minute walk from the one I had. Plus, as far as I remember, the big one that I was looking into was the largest one that they had listed at that time.

Another company is homeaway.com.

There's a whole apartment thread on the France forum with lists of companies and poster opinions.

vacationinparis.com is a really excellent company. They're located in N.J. and payment is in U.S. dollars, plus they send out the apartment keys about 2 weeks before your scheduled check in. Happy Travels!

rogeruktm

My opinion is to stay in London and do train day trips to York, Bath and Stratford. Rent an apartment for a week in London, train to Paris and then fly home from Paris. Your plan is ok if just one person, but in July it could be had getting a place at all, let alone for five. I do wish you the best and I am sure it will all work out.

Christina

I guess the day trips from London might work, although YOrk is pretty far and I think trains aren't that cheap in the UK that you would come out ahead monetarily doing that. I might be wrong, but 10 people making train trips every day will add up. I didn't think trains in the UK were that cheap. Do you have some plans already as to how you are getting between these places?

You may have to get over the idea that you insist on five (mostly) adults staying in one hotel room. Those kids are too big to sneak in without notice.

I don't know of any website that will help specifically. Hostels might not be a bad idea, actually, given you want something very cheap apparently and aren't going to be any place that long. I don't know London hotels that well, but here is a cheap place in Paris that actually has a room for five:

http://www.hotel-marignan.com/

schart2000

Scott

I also have a family of 5, ages 16,14 and 13 and its a tough one - almost always. All hotels will never let more than 4 in a room for fire safety issues but some airport ones will give you connecting deals. Best one I had recently was at Heathrow at Pounds 109 total and they can be searched for under family room Heathrow on search engines.

I've worked overseas for 30 years so am always on the lookout for these kind of tips.


If you have a car you should try Travelodge (cheap basic chain throughout UK) but you get what you pay for. Clean bed and sofa bed, bathroom/shower and TV. No room service but mostly near/attached to motorway service stations. You may still get rooms at 19 Pounds per night. Family room and a double but sometimes both can be family for exactly the same price. BUT you really need a car as these places can be on the edges of major locations. But worth every penny.

If you are indeed doing this by train and I'm guessing you are from the States visit a British Travel Authority shop to see if their is still a visit Britain rail ticket as you can save a fortune even if you plan to stay a week in the UK.

Ironically I'm looking at Paris myself and best option seems to be apartments for up to 6 people

Best regards

Simon

KTtravel

You didn't really ask but I'm going to chime in as well that you are making far too many stops in too short of a time to have a pleasant trip. You will be spending too much time traveling from place to place and checking in and out of hotels. London and Paris are easily worth 5 days each and you could do a day trip or two if you really felt the need.

I'm peeking at a guidebook I have and see the the Elizabeth Hotel in London has a family room for 5 as does the Cherry Court Hotel. I can't speak about either place from personal experience but I hope this helps. If these hotels are booked you could probably email them and ask if they know of other places they could recommend with family rooms.

Good luck!

KTtravel

One more suggestion: you might try the Citadines apartments.

Lbrown444

I traveled to Europe with my husband and 3 kids a couple years ago to London, Belgium, France Switzerland and Italy for 3 weeks. We rented a car, and planned all the hotels ahead via the internet. We too could not afford and did not really need 2 rooms. It took a lot of planning, but I found the best way to book hotels that would accommodate our family in one room was to search the internet for hotels that looked appealing, and then to e-mail the hotel directly about our situation to see if they had a room that could accommodate us. It was absolutely no use trying to book via a 3rd party website. Because of this personal communication, we also got a better sense of the level of customer service that characterized each hotel. For each hotel we booked, we asked for an e-mail confirming the rate and number of guests and bed arrangement so there would be no question when we arrived. We did not stay anywhere for more than 3 nights- and I do not regret it one bit. The hotel in London was the Holiday Inn - the one just south of Hyde Park. It was comfortable and in a great location. Renting an apartment also sounds like a great (and maybe easier) option but I have no experience with that. Have a great trip!!

SandyNielsen

You'll get better results, and might find a hotel directly, if you do a Google search with the words: sleeps 5 family room plus the city where you want to stay.

There are hotels with large rooms, but they are hard to find.

Good luck!

ElendilPickle

I'll second the recommendations for hostel family rooms - check www.yha.org.uk - or Travelodge - www.travelodge.co.uk

I also agree you are trying to cram an awful lot into your 10 days, and if that includes the days you're flying, you really only have eight days.

See if you can fly into one of the London airports and spend half your time there. Maybe plan *one* day trip to Stratford, York, or Bath. Then take the Eurostar to Paris and fly home from there.

Lee Ann

jkbritt

Look at the Accor hotel chain. Ibis, Etap and Hotelformule1(bath/toilet-down the hall) can be cheap rooms. Each room sleeps 3 so two rooms would work. Room costs are as low as 44E per room in Hotelformule1.

janisj

jkbritt: The OPs trip was this month doubt they are still looking (Roomfor5 topped it to flog his website)

Roomfor5: advertising is not allowed on Fodors . . .