It is really easy to book hotels in Europe through the internet, so you can easily track down accommodation in any European city despite the fact that Europe is obviously a large area and hotels vary tremendously from country to country.
Booking Considerations
While it is not possible to generalize about Europe, it is possible to give some hints and advice about booking hotels in Europe in general:
The first thing to bear in mind, even if it seems a little obvious, is, does the staff speak English? If you call the hotel and no one can speak to you, or you go online and the website is difficult to understand due to very bad English, then, unless you speak the language of the country, it is probably best to avoid that hotel, since communications will be difficult.
Capital cities usually have the most expensive accommodations in the country, so if money is really tight try to stay just outside the capital, and travel in each day.
It can often be helpful to try and find out if the hotel has a restaurant, since if it does, you know that on the evenings when you're too tired to go out, you can just slip downstairs and find some (hopefully) good food awaiting.
Remember that in some of the countries that are now part of Europe but used to be part of the Eastern block, hotel standards may vary. The big, international hotels may be of comparable standards, but the smaller, independently run ones can often be quite different, based on the host. This often makes a refreshing change from the very 'typical' hotel room, so don't discount these types of hotels.
Europe is Different!
If you are going to book hotels in Europe, always bear in mind that each country is unique, with its own culture and often its own language, so each country may require different information when you make a booking. But after all, that all adds to the excitement of the trip, doesn't it?
UK rail fares have gone up again. This time by more than 6%. Looking for ways of saving on transport fare will help cushion the hardship predicted for this year 2011.
We bring you some practical tips and tricks to helps save you pounds on you journey!
Buy Advance Ticket before you travel. You could save well over 40% even up to the night before traveling. Just Look for train ticket offers online or call your nearest train station to make a reservation for advance ticket up to the night before you travel.
It is always better to book advance train tickets as soon as you know you will travel, up to 12 weeks before, to get the best deal
Look for singles instead of return tickets. They are sometimes cheaper than buying the full return tickets. A full return ticket from London to Manchester return for example will cost from £76 to 285 for a non first class travel return. If bought as singles, you could pay only £48 total for the same journey!
Consider splitting your ticket purchase for the journey. You can try this here at The Trainline Site before buying
What about going travelling by Megabus instead of train, if you have the time to spare? You can get 10,000 free seats on Megabus - special offer till April 2011 to many destinations in the UK, or even pay from £1 to $5 for journeys any where in the UK. Go to their site and look for deals
Travelling to Scotland or over and across the channels to Europe? Consider taking the Eurolines to Europe and National Express to over a 1000 UK destinations and save on travel money.
