Hotel guides for Switzerland and Italy?
 

When we drive through France we rarely book hotels in advance, normally
relying on the Logis de France handbook to find suitable accommodation where
ever we happen to find ourselves at the end of a day. We find that large
towns are normally quite difficult to drive into (and park) and so we tend to
pick hotels near smaller towns or villages when we can. We find the Logis
organization excellent for this as the guide gives exactly the right kind of
information to choose a place to stay. (For anyone who doesn't know, the
Logis guide is a free publication from the French Tourism Department
published annually).

In May we are planning a trip to Venice (and beyond) and I was wondering if
anyone knows of a similar guide or handbook that will give this kind of
information about accommodation in Italy and/or Switzerland. What I am trying
to find is definitely *not* the "100 Charming Places to Stay in Italy" type
of guide. These are just too picky and don't have nearly enough entries. What
we like to be able to do on our travels is at around 3 pm wherever we find
ourselves, to be able to look up 2 or 3 hotels within 20 or 30 miles that we
can try. So I am looking for something with a large number of entries (the
Logis has around 3000 for France).

Incidentally I *have* looked at (and bought) the "Rough Guide", "Lonely
Planet" etc, but these all tend to concentrate on towns and assume you are
back-packing and travelling by train and bus. As I have said we tend to avoid
towns in our travels so these guides are sometimes helpful but not generally
ideal. (Also the Michelin Guide which we find rather up-market these days for
us).

Of course it would be ideal to have mobile internet access when abroad. I
have actually considered this but for various reasons it is just not
practicable at the moment. So I'm resigned to having my travelling library
with me for the foreseeable future when on the move. I have a feeling that
what I am looking for may just not exist, but if so it surprises me as it
seems to me that a "Logis" type guide is such an obvious thing to publish for
any country interested in promoting tourism.

--
Mike Lane (UK North Yorkshire)
To contact me replace invalid with mike underscore lane

Hotel guides for Switzerland and Italy?
 

When we drive through France we rarely book hotels in advance, normally
relying on the Logis de France handbook to find suitable accommodation
where ever we happen to find ourselves at the end of a day. [...]
In May we are planning a trip to Venice (and beyond) and I was wondering
if anyone knows of a similar guide or handbook that will give this kind
of information about accommodation in Italy and/or Switzerland. What I am
trying to find is definitely *not* the "100 Charming Places to Stay in
Italy" type of guide. These are just too picky and don't have nearly
enough entries. [...]
Incidentally I *have* looked at (and bought) the "Rough Guide", "Lonely
Planet" etc, but these all tend to concentrate on towns and assume you are
back-packing and travelling by train and bus. As I have said we tend to avoid
towns in our travels so these guides are sometimes helpful but not generally
ideal. (Also the Michelin Guide which we find rather up-market these days for
us).

Have you tried the Guide Routard? For places I've compared them (not
Italy or Switzerland) it's better on accommodation than Lonely Planet
or Rough Guide - more entries and blunter opinions. And certainly not
upmarket.

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === http://www.campin.me.uk ====
Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557
CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts

Hotel guides for Switzerland and Italy?
 

Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

When we drive through France we rarely book hotels in advance, normally
relying on the Logis de France handbook to find suitable accommodation
where ever we happen to find ourselves at the end of a day. [...] In
May we are planning a trip to Venice (and beyond) and I was wondering if
anyone knows of a similar guide or handbook that will give this kind of
information about accommodation in Italy and/or Switzerland. What I am
trying to find is definitely *not* the "100 Charming Places to Stay in
Italy" type of guide. These are just too picky and don't have nearly
enough entries. [...] Incidentally I *have* looked at (and bought) the
"Rough Guide", "Lonely Planet" etc, but these all tend to concentrate on
towns and assume you are back-packing and travelling by train and bus.
As I have said we tend to avoid towns in our travels so these guides are
sometimes helpful but not generally ideal. (Also the Michelin Guide
which we find rather up-market these days for us).

Have you tried the Guide Routard? For places I've compared them (not
Italy or Switzerland) it's better on accommodation than Lonely Planet
or Rough Guide - more entries and blunter opinions. And certainly not
upmarket.

I like Guide Routard, but the one I've used (Andalucia) still focussed
mainly on towns. Fine for us, but not for the OP I suspect.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate -www.davidhorne.net
(email address on website) "If people think God is interesting, the
onus is on them to show that there is anything there to talk about.
Otherwise they should just shut up about it." -Richard Dawkins

Hotel guides for Switzerland and Italy?
 

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:46:24 +0000, Jack Campin - bogus address wrote
(in article ):

Have you tried the Guide Routard? For places I've compared them (not
Italy or Switzerland) it's better on accommodation than Lonely Planet
or Rough Guide - more entries and blunter opinions. And certainly not
upmarket.

Thanks that looks like a definite possibility. I wonder if the guides are
available in bookshops in the UK at all? Ideally I'd like to see a copy
before buying

--
Mike Lane (UK North Yorkshire)
To contact me replace invalid with mike underscore lane

Hotel guides for Switzerland and Italy?
 

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:02:19 +0000, David Horne, _the_ chancellor (* wrote
(in article ):


I like Guide Routard, but the one I've used (Andalucia) still focussed
mainly on towns. Fine for us, but not for the OP I suspect.

Ah well, you may be right I'm afraid. As I said I'll look into it, but the
trouble is that whilst many of these guides have a few morsels of useful
information, we just can't take them all with us. The Holy Grail I am
searching for is one or two volumes with just hotel information in them and
very little else. (The Logis Guide comes close.)

By the way one other source I take with me is my trusty GPS. This has a
sizeable database of hotels covering most of Europe. The problem here is that
it doesn't contain any information about each entry apart from its name and
position. So one can turn up at the local Grand Palace or a dodgy doss-house.
Mind you there have been times when we would happily take either :-)

--
Mike Lane (UK North Yorkshire)
To contact me replace invalid with mike underscore lane

Hotel guides for Switzerland and Italy?
 

Mike Lane wrote:

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:02:19 +0000, David Horne, _the_ chancellor (* wrote
(in article ):


I like Guide Routard, but the one I've used (Andalucia) still focussed
mainly on towns. Fine for us, but not for the OP I suspect.

Ah well, you may be right I'm afraid. As I said I'll look into it, but the
trouble is that whilst many of these guides have a few morsels of useful
information, we just can't take them all with us. The Holy Grail I am
searching for is one or two volumes with just hotel information in them and
very little else. (The Logis Guide comes close.)

Something like the B&B guides you get for the UK?

By the way one other source I take with me is my trusty GPS. This has a
sizeable database of hotels covering most of Europe. The problem here is that
it doesn't contain any information about each entry apart from its name and
position. So one can turn up at the local Grand Palace or a dodgy doss-house.
Mind you there have been times when we would happily take either :-)

As I said, my experience in Italy is limited to towns, and I've
generally booked in advance. Recently in Sardinia, we just turned up in
a fairly quiet town (Dolgari) and just followed signs to a B&B. We were
very impressed at the quality of the room (and the view!) and that was
40 euro a night, including a good breakfast with great coffee! (Coffee
at Italian hotels has varied in quality in my experience.)

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate -www.davidhorne.net
(email address on website) "If people think God is interesting, the
onus is on them to show that there is anything there to talk about.
Otherwise they should just shut up about it." -Richard Dawkins

Hotel guides for Switzerland and Italy?
 

On 2008-03-12 05:14:31 -0700, Mike Lane said:

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:46:24 +0000, Jack Campin - bogus address wrote
(in article ):

Have you tried the Guide Routard? For places I've compared them (not
Italy or Switzerland) it's better on accommodation than Lonely Planet
or Rough Guide - more entries and blunter opinions. And certainly not
upmarket.

Thanks that looks like a definite possibility. I wonder if the guides are
available in bookshops in the UK at all? Ideally I'd like to see a copy
before buying

Have you checked out Touring Club Italiano? gb

Hotel guides for Switzerland and Italy?
 

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:13:30 +0000, David Horne, _the_ chancellor (* wrote
(in article ):

Recently in Sardinia, we just turned up in a fairly quiet town (Dolgari)
and just followed signs to a B&B. We were very impressed at the quality of
the room (and the view!) and that was 40 euro a night, including a good
breakfast with great coffee! (Coffee at Italian hotels has varied in
quality in my experience.)


Oh yes, this works quite well sometimes, I know. A couple of years ago we
found a delightful B&B in France just off our route by following a chambre
d'hôte sign on the roadside. Sometimes though it doesn't. Another time we
wasted an hour or more going several miles down an ever-deteriorating track
after following a similar signpost.

It's much easier of course in a tourist location for obvious reasons. Often
though we find ourselves in rather touristic deserts. The hotels then are
fewer and further between, usually of the commercial rather than tourist
type. Then one definitely needs guidance as to where to start looking.

--
Mike Lane (UK North Yorkshire)
To contact me replace invalid with mike underscore lane

Hotel guides for Switzerland and Italy?
 

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008, glen black wrote:

Have you checked out Touring Club Italiano? gb

Despite the fact I'm a proud member of TCI and a keen user of their
excellent guides (in italian), I'm not so keen on their
hotel-and-restaurant lists (they publish an updated version every so
often). Actually I'm not keen on hotel guides in general (I look for
other kind of guides, arts, history, nature, transport etc.).

I've seen the TCI hotel-and-restaurant guide only once (when it was
included in the yearly membership pack). I've also regularly seen the
short lists included in the normal "green" guides. I believe the
information is accurate, but the selection of hotels is on a more
expensive range that I'm used to when travelling privately (or, if you
want, the available offer is larger ... I've often travelled with TCI
organized tours, almost invariably in excellent hotels, and in several
cases the hotels they chose were not listed in their guides).

Anyhow this is TCI's web site http://www.touringclub.it/ There is an
"english" tab on top right. I usually consult the italian section so I'm
not sure how complete the english one is. I know that some of their
guides are also published in English (although the bulk of their
publications is for italians). Since a while they have also sites for
flight and hotel bookings. The latter should be
http://hotels.touringclub.it

I've used it only once to search for a not-so-expensive hotel in Rome,
but I got a better rate phoning the hotel directly (in general I'm wary
about online booking in this country).

--
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Hotel guides for Switzerland and Italy?
 

"Mike Lane" wrote in message
lworld.com...
When we drive through France we rarely book hotels in advance, normally
relying on the Logis de France handbook to find suitable accommodation
where
ever we happen to find ourselves at the end of a day. We find that large
towns are normally quite difficult to drive into (and park) and so we tend
to
pick hotels near smaller towns or villages when we can. We find the Logis
organization excellent for this as the guide gives exactly the right kind
of
information to choose a place to stay. (For anyone who doesn't know, the
Logis guide is a free publication from the French Tourism Department
published annually).

In May we are planning a trip to Venice (and beyond) and I was wondering
if
anyone knows of a similar guide or handbook that will give this kind of
information about accommodation in Italy and/or Switzerland. What I am
trying
to find is definitely *not* the "100 Charming Places to Stay in Italy"
type
of guide. These are just too picky and don't have nearly enough entries.
What
we like to be able to do on our travels is at around 3 pm wherever we find
ourselves, to be able to look up 2 or 3 hotels within 20 or 30 miles that
we
can try. So I am looking for something with a large number of entries (the
Logis has around 3000 for France).


snip

Most towns except the smallest have Tourism Offices that can help you find a
place to stay.

Marianne