Accomadation review

Almost every time we stayed somewhere, we got an email not long after from the booking website asking us to rate the hotel. Now a large part of researching what hotel to stay at was based upon looking up reviews that other people had made - after all, you're much more likely to get a more accurate and unbiased view of the hotel that way. I'm pleased to say that the research paid off well, and none of our hotels were duds.

As I drew so heavily on other people's comments in sorting out our accommodation, I feel it is only right that I should make comments on our stay too. I will go and do this on the booking websites, but first I'll put them in this blog, partly to collect my thoughts and partly to recommend the places to you, the readers, in case you ever follow, even in part, our footsteps this summer.

Bear in mind what we were after - cheap, simple accommodation, preferably with a good location (this could mean near the train station, or even 15 minutes on a tram from the city centre). It needed to be a double (or sometimes, a twin or bunk bed) private room. Breakfast facilities was important to us, and we had a budget to stick to - under €75 a night for both of us, including breakfast. We only went over this at two locations - one was Paris (€76) and the other was Switzerland, which was over €100 a night once you converted it from Swiss Francs. However, we were only there 2 nights, it was an amazing hotel, and Switzerland is very expensive... a 2-bed private room in the local hostel was only something like 20% cheaper!

So, without further ado...

Frankfurt (1 night) : Hotel Europa Frankfurt. This hotel is 2 minutes walk from the station. The room was pretty small, but the breakfast serving hours were very generous :) Our room faced a main street, so it was a bit noisy, but we still fell asleep without any problems. 8/13
Leipzig (4 nights) : Guesthouse Apartments Leipzig. 15 minutes tram ride away from the City Centre - the tram station is really close to the hotel. The area didn't feel the nicest, but it wasn't any bother. We had a massive room (and kitchen) at a tiny price. The guy who ran it was nice & friendly; slight fly infestation though! 10/13
Munich (2 nights) : Munich YHA Hostel (Park). There are two official YHA hostels in Munich; this one was a bit further out of town but very well linked via the metro. We had a room with 1 bunk bed... had to keep the window closed else loads of flies came in! Breakfast & dinner included but it remains a mystery to us what exactly was in the container labelled "juice"... 9/13
Vienna (4 nights) : Wombat hostel (the lounge). This hostel company have won many awards over time, and they provided for everything... laundry facilities on site, a kitchen to use, a cheap & nutritious breakfast, a clean & simple double-room (with fans), internet on site and a very convenient location. Any complaints were very minor. 12/13
Venice (3 nights) : Pretty cheap offering - partly due to the location, a 15 minute bus ride from Venice itself. Definitely worth it compared to the prices for staying in Venice itself. Room had a very noisy fridge in it which did affect my sleeping quite a bit. Nice room though and the breakfast was alright. 8/13
Rome (3 nights) : Bavaria B&B. More of a hostel, I think we had the only double room. Lovely hosts though 2 bathrooms between a possible 20 people can get a bit crowded! Excellent location; free internet was very nice. 9/13
Milan (1 night) : American B&B (though possibly changing its name to Albergo B&B or something like that). Room was quite nice, location was a little out of the way and the breakfast was almost entirely pre-packaged! Staff a bit moody. Fine for one night but I wouldn't want to stay there longer. 6/13
St. Moritz (2 nights) : Muottas Muragl. This stunningly located hotel was at the top of a mountain railway - it's covered in snow and has skiers and the like all over it in the winter. Fantastic views of the area. The hotel itself was straightforward and fine - also the main host woman was really nice & helpful. Would definitely go back, only this time more prepared for mountain sickness! 13/13
Barcelona (2 nights) : Barcelona B&B. No really, that's the whole name of the place! Lovely host, lovely room, all nicely decorated. A free internet connection, and breakfast was at the family breakfast table with other guests. Very close to a metro station, seemed a nice area of town. 11/13
Andorra (2 nights) : Hotel Florida. First thing is, the room STANK of smoke, it was horrible. They had no non-smoking rooms and said it was like this throughout Andorra, though I have my doubts. Other than that, it was compact but nice, and the breakfast was one of the best we encountered. 5/13 because of the smoke, 11/13 otherwise
Carcassonne (1 night) : Hotel Astoria. Booked off the back of a recommendation from our Lonely Planet guide, this ended up being just what we wanted - a cheap, clean & tidy place near the train station, as we had an early train the next day. Basic breakfast - room was adequate, and it was very cheap. 10/13
Avignon (1 night) : Hotel Park. Booked after we asked the tourist information office for somewhere cheap. Centrally located, again very cheap (though breakfast was quite expensive and basic). Room was a good size and shower was fine. 10/13
Paris (3 nights) : Hotel de Paris. The staff here never seemed to smile! A little bit out of town (thankfully reflected in the price), but right next to the metro so not a problem. The room was fairly large and the breakfast fairly basic (though pretty standard for our experience of France). Would consider using again. 8/13

I think if we ever went to these places again, then we would probably go back to the hotels in Barcelona, St. Moritz and Vienna. For the others, we would certainly consider where we stayed but might look for somewhere different.

Planning our route

Europe's a big place - where to go? As previously mentioned, the idea of the holiday has been around for a long while, but plotting where to go exactly has only been a last 12-month kind of thing, mostly done this year really. So, how did we decide?

- Going to further-away places. We tried to avoid places that were too close to the UK, as they would be easier to have separate holidays to. We will have passes to go anywhere in Europe; so might as well go a long way.
- If either of us wanted to go somewhere, then we would go there - even if the other person had already been there.
- Mainly stick to cities - served by faster trains, of course.

So with those theories in place, our route planning went something like this. First up, Rebecca wants to go to Colditz, this is near Leipzig so we decided to stay there (some interesting things & places nearby too). I wanted to go to Venice, as it is a truly unique location. Also I wanted to go to Andorra - I've been there before briefly and thought it was very pretty, so wanted to take Rebecca there too. Rebecca wanted to go to Versailles (near Paris) so that was fine and it obviously doesn't take much effort to fit that into the itinerary at the start or end of the journey. Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted that this breaks our "don't go to places too close to the UK" rule, but we have had a holiday to Paris before and didn't visit Versailles (I have been there before) and we agreed on that holiday that we would go to Versailles on the Big Trip. It's a nice place anyway, and apparently now free for under-26 EU residents :)

With the "must-visits" in, Rome and Vienna soon got added to the list as generally famous places with much to see, and also they fitted in reasonably with our existing locations. Also I stumbled across this hotel whilst on the excellent seat61.com website, and when I showed it to Rebecca she agreed that we should definitely go there if possible. Looking at all these places on a map, we had most of the route sorted. The remaining places we plan to go to (Munich, Barcelona, Milan, Frankfurt) were basically chosen due to being en-route between other places and also for generally looking like interesting places to visit (well, less so Milan, but we're only staying there one night). And thus was the itinerary finalised; well apart from two nights in south France, which we are not deciding on until we get there, just to be a little crazy :)

How it all began

I suppose the first proper post on here should be - where did the idea for the holiday come from?

I've enjoyed train journeys for as long as I remember - from the very rare journeys when I was a child to the main mode of long-distance transport it has been for me since I was a student. For me, train travel is fun, and I think it was sometime whilst being a student that I thought it would be fun to spend a month on trains, going around Europe and seeing lots of places.

At the end of my second year, I spent 10 days in France with a couple of friends from university - going by train to 4 different cities. It was probably the most fun I've had on a holiday in my life and only reinforced my vague dreamings of a holiday around Europe. But that's all they were - vague dreamings. For a start, where would all the money come from? And I would need at least one person to come along too - part of the fun of the France holiday was being with friends, being able to pick who to go on holiday with rather than going with the family every time.

Then along came Rebecca. We fell in love and we were soon engaged. At some point during our engagement, I mentioned to hear my dream of spending a month going round Europe by train, and she agreed that it sounded a wonderful idea. Excellent! So I had someone to go with :) (I should make clear this is not the reason why I married her!)

The money was, of course, still an issue, so back then in 2006, we set ourselves a date of late Summer 2009 to enact our plan. The reason for the late summer was that it hopefully wouldn't be too hot (neither of us are fans of anything over 25 degrees really), and secondly the fact it was in 2009 would give us plenty of time to save up money for it. 2010 was not really an option - as then we would both be 26 and thus be adults rather than youths in the inter-railing universe, adding £352 to the cost of two inter-rail passes (price correct as of posting).

And now we're almost there, late summer 2009! To say I'm excited after all this waiting and anticipation doesn't quite cover it.