Hotel guides for Switzerland and Italy?

On Thu, 13 Mar 2008, Mike Lane wrote:

Try it! Book yer own life!

I can understand this way and the peace of mind it gives, but it just
wouldn't suit our normal type of trip.

I fully appreciate the idea of being able to choose how many days to
stay in a particular place in near real time or have a flexible
itinerary. I used to travel that way when I was younger (in UK, Benelux,
Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia), travelling by train and
benefitting of the fact a local tourist office would be available at
arrival, not far from the station, open and dealing with on-the-spot
booking for the same evening. We were almost invariably satisfied
with the accomodation they supplied (only case of disappointment
Stockholm). The only risk was arriving too late the tourist office could
be closed. In a couple of cases (Linz, Nuernberg) an hotel near the
station did it. In another case (Windermere) the office was closed but
had a nice list of accomodations with phone numbers in the window. Only
in Salisbury (our train hit a cow and was delayed) the office was closed
and we ended up in a sort-of-ambiguous place.

The idea of having a rigid schedule like this that one must stick to
whatever happens, simply appals me.

Well, if one wants a rigid schedule one can take an organized tour. They
are not necessarily bad if they are well organized, and lately I've been
almost invariable travelling with TCI organized tours. Getting older one
appreciates comfort ...

Also when we did a trip on our own to the tip of Denmark, we preferred
to book in advance (mainly because we were warned it would have been
high season), and in that case we managed very nicely by e-mail.

Much as we enjoy the uncertainty of our normal trips, up to now I have
always been a little disappointed by our experiences in Italy compared
to other countries and I feel we could arrange this better. Perhaps we
need a separate trip there by train and bus which we could organize
more thoroughly.

I guess that depends on which part of Italy. Train and bus should give
sufficient flexibility at least in the North or Centre-North. Definitely
you cannot trust to find a tourist office near the station, or open when
you get there (anyhow, just as further info, minor places can have their
own office, usually called "Pro Loco" ... people there can be quite more
helpful [being local voluntaries] than staff of a big office, but the
opening hours can be limited). Also knowing the local language helps.
Once we got to Siena (the station is quite far from the centre) and just
asked a taxi driver about a decent hotel in the centre. In Capo di Ponte
(Camonica valley, prehistoric rock engravings, small village) we just
entered a trattoria and found a room there. Another time we were
planning a mountain hut trek on the "via dei Monti Lariani" but in
september we found that the first 4 huts were closed, and at about 6 pm
we were up on a pass and decided to go down to the nearest village, to
find that the two hotels there were closed, so we entered in a bar and
hitched a lift to a place further down (which had bus connection).

I've seen ads on TV for services available to cell phone users which
will locate hotels (or other things) near the place where you are. I'm
not sure whether some satellite navigator database provide such sort of
information. Maybe these can be useful to you, if you "insist" in
travelling by car.

Only beware if you stop in dark night near Frittole :-)


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On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:05:50 +0000, Giovanni Drogo wrote
(in article gr.vans.vg):



I fully appreciate the idea of being able to choose how many days to
stay in a particular place in near real time or have a flexible
itinerary. I used to travel that way when I was younger (in UK, Benelux,
Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia....
[Lots of useful observations and advice snipped]

Thanks for all your thoughts. I found that very interesting and useful.

I think my problem with Italy comes from the fact that I expected for some
reason that a car would be more useful there than anywhere else. (I don't
know why really - just the reputation of Italy as a motor mad country). In
fact the reverse seems to be true. Italy is a bit like England in that
respect - a car is more of a liability than anything else. France is very
nice to drive around, I find; Germany and Austria are OK, and Greece is
marvellous. We can get to places in Greece with our own car that I would
never attempt by public transport.

Last year I thought I would have a final attempt at motoring long distance in
Italy and came back from Brindisi west across Italy to the Naples area
(avoiding Naples itself of course). We planned to follow the old Via Appia
for a hundred miles or so which I thought would be quite scenic and
interesting. In fact the road itself was appalling and kept going through
very busy little towns which were hardly marked on our maps, which had no
clear route through or round and took ages to navigate past. I remember
though that we stayed in quite a nice little place called Picerno on the way.
The next day we drove all day in torrential rain and reached the Riviera by
evening where we stayed at a stunning place above Finale Ligure with an
amazing view over the coast. Unfortunately it was by then extremely cold
(very odd for early June) and we couldn't properly appreciate it. The
overnight stops were quite reasonable, but the driving in between I found
very tiresome.

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

Some random thoughts on this thread. I've wandered around Italy by
public transport on several long trips. The trains are easy to find out
about and go a lot of places but not everywhere. Often there are
connecting buses but not everywhere and rarely on a Sunday. The buses
are more difficult to get definite information on. Public transport is
absurdly cheap by UK standards.

I have found that in some Southern Italian cities, tourist offices can
be well hidden and bus timetables seem to be company confidential. Guide
books like LP and Rough help with this.

The government tourist system of information in Italy seems much more
locally organised than elsewhere in Europe. The tourist office in the
main city of one region will have little or no knowledge of hotels in a
neighbouring region. If you smile sweetly and persist, they may drag a
vast out-of-date tome from a hidden cupboard.

As you mention, France has a government sponsored list which covers the
whole country. Spain has this too, as does Belgium. I'm not sure of
other countries.

--
Andrew Nightingale of Cambridge (UK)

Unfortunately this comes as to late to help you, but hopefully it can be of benefit to others visiting this thread. We have a site devoted to hotels in each of these countries he

http://www.anitalyhotel.com
http://www.aswitzerlandhotel.com

Happy travels...