May
12

Accommodation in the Connemara

By · Comments (0)

There are many options available for those travelers wishing to stay for a few days or more in the Connemara region of Ireland in County Galway. These include:

Hotels

Hotel accommodation covers the full range of facilities likely to be required by anyone. The Connemara offers a range of hotel accommodation from 5 star down to budget accommodation.

Heritage Houses

Heritage houses are private country houses of historic interest offering high-class accommodation. The Connemara offers one or two of this form of accommodation.

Self Catering Accommodation

Heatherhill Cottages, LetterfrackRent your accommodation for the week (or more) and do all the cooking yourself! This way you can cater for a family for small cost and enjoy Connemara on a budget. Accommodation can range from mobile homes to large spacious houses.

When we visited the Connemara, we stayed at Heatherhill Cottages in Letterfrack. This facility offered a great base from which to explore the region, and Letterfrack itself is a lovely quiet village with all of the facilities needed to enjoy the experience within walking distance of our accommodation.

Heatherhill Cottages offers spacious accommodation (5 bedrooms) on three levels, with everything needed to enjoy the travel experience, including an open fireplace in which a peat fire can be lit.

Guesthouses

These vary from five bedroomed family houses, Georgian and Victorian residence to larger professionally serviced modern premises. Some guesthouses provide meals to non residents. Evening meals are available.

Hostels

Providing budget accommodation with excellent self-catering facilities. Many hostels are able to supply meals to guests upon request.

Country homes, Farmhouses and B&Bs

Country homes offer a wide selection of premises such as Georgian residences, modern bungalows, and traditional Irish homes- all with modern amenities and facilities. Farmhouse holidays are attractive for those wishing a temporary escape from the pressures of modern life. Most B&Bs are somewhat more modest, but offer rooms for accommodation, some with ensuite facilities. Evening meals can be provided in some premises if notice is given.

Caravan and Camping Sites

There are a number of caravan and camping sites in Connemara. These cater for tents, caravans and many also rent mobile homes.

Submitted by John Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Accommodation, Destinations, Vacations
Comments (0)
Apr
27

Sydney Australia – Love It Or Hate It!

By · Comments (0)

Australiasia’s leading accommodation website, Wotif.com (www.wotif.com) has announced the results of its annual business travel survey. They indicate that whilst business travelers may not have a great deal of choice about when, where and how often they travel, there are clear destination preferences.

Sydney, Australia’s largest city, showed a polarised preference, with most respondents listing Sydney as either their most favorite (32%) or least favorite (28%) destination for business trips.

Wotif.com Chief Executive Officer, Graeme Wood, commented:

“Despite these findings, Sydney continues to be Wotif.com’s top-selling destination.”

Melbourne was clearly the nation’s favorite destination for business travelers, with 40% of respondents listing the Victorian capital city as their preferred destination.

When surveyed about their preference for warmer climates, survey respondents also demonstrated a clear preference for warmer climates, with Queensland’s Cairns, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast favored ahead of other regional destinations offering cooler climates.

Business travelers are increasingly arranging their trips online with respondents signaling that price, simple navigation and the ability to make secure online payments were the driving factors for this continuing trend.

Wotif.com Chief Executive Officer, Graeme Wood, commented:

“A large proportion of business travel is organized at the eleventh-hour, making online accommodation bookings the easiest and cheapest option for business travelers.”

“Increasingly, we’re finding that companies, with corporate travel managers encourage their employees to check for a cheaper alternative online, prior to booking their accommodation,”

About two-thirds of the respondents listed a comfortable bed as the most important aspect of their business trip, with location, the inclusion of breakfast, free parking and internet access in rooms, the next most important factors.

At the other end of the scale, well-equipped business centers and complimentary gifts on arrival, e.g. wine or massages, were of little interest to the business travelers surveyed by Wotif.com.

Submitted by Barbara Walsh-Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Accommodation, Business, Destinations
Comments (0)
Apr
26

South America – A Great Value Summer Vacation Spot

By · Comments (0)

Want to travel to Europe this summer, but the budget won’t stretch that far?

Have you ever considered Buenos Aires as a European destination outside of Europe?

The people of Buenos Aires possess an elaborate and rich cultural identity, and value their European heritage.

Italian and German names outnumber Spanish, and the lifestyle and architecture are much more European than in any other location in South America.

Buenos aires city bears a strong resemblance to many European capitals – with wide tree-lined avenues, landscaped parks and squares, many elegant traditional European styled buildings, and also many narrow lane-ways meanderings through the city centre, and offering al fresco dining, entertainment with flamenco dancers,etc. Buenos Aires is also the site of the Teatro Colón, one of the world’s greatest opera houses.

The most popular tourist sites are found in the historic city center, around Montserrat and San Telmo.

The following extract from a Californian resident characterizes his experience of Buenos Aires:

“Even without seeing anything of great importance, it was a pleasure to just walk along the average everyday streets of Buenos Aires. Warm temperatures, the sun shining, the hustle and bustle of everyday life in a large city with all it’s attendant smells and noises and, let’s not forget, the (for us) completely different Spanish culture! After all, that is what traveling is all about or, as the French would say, ‘Vive la difference!’ We thoroughly enjoyed Buenos Aires – what more can I say?”

With over 200 accommodation options, from hostels and backpackers through to up-market 5 star venues -Buenos Aires can offer something for every vacationer. You will also find a tremendous variety of food outlets, from the walk-through casual eateries to magnificent fine dining, all at a reasonable cost.

Why not consider a trip down to Argentina this summer?

Submitted by Barbara Walsh-Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Accommodation, Destinations, Vacations
Comments (0)
Apr
19

Case Study: A Search For Accommodation In Italy

By · Comments (0)

Just last night I received a request from a close friend who is planning a trip to Italy at short notice, and asked me to assist her in locating suitable accommodation options for the trip.

She is traveling with her two adult daughters, and  is on a tight budget for the travels. Her requirements were:

  • locations close to tourist centres such as Florence, Rome, Sorrento, but not too hectic
  • they’ll have a hire car, so need parking availability
  • places to sit and relax whilst recharging batteries
  • pleasant surroundings, with plenty of garden space or views
  • dates of travel fixed – starting in 14 days
  • four different locations for a trip lasting 17 days
  • preferably a comfortable and well appointed ensuite room for all three to share

Time is tight, so I had no opportunity to look for early booking bargains, instead needed to look at available stock. Luckily, the trip comes before the high season, so short-term availability is less of a problem than it may have been, particularly when looking for options a short distance away from city centers.

I began the search using Google to search for “budget accommodation” in the areas of interest. Whilst such a simple search usually throws up a lot of inappropriate sites, a look both the search page and sponsored results can often prove useful. In the case of the search for Sorrento, the following sponsored link showed up:

55 B&B in Sorrento, Italy
Accommodation in Sorrento, prices
descriptions, map, Users Feedback
www.BBPlanet.it/B&B_Sorrento

I clicked on this link, and was able to find 2 or 3 properties from the site which fitted my friend’s requirements. I sent a request to 2 of these, and must say that I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly replies about availability and cost were received.

To sum up, within about three hours of internet searching, I had uncovered a number of options (each with availability on the required dates) that I was able to pass on to my friend, for her consideration and decision about which to book.

It obviously helps to know the region for which you are looking for somewhere to stay, but if you don’t a great option is to look up the area in a travel publication  such as Lonely Planet, Berlitz, Frommers, Fodors, etc. If you can’t access such a publication, then you can try an online search for information on the region’s characteristics using the term “travel guide” with the name of the city, town or region.

Best of luck with your travel plans.

Submitted by Barbara Walsh-Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Accommodation, Destinations
Comments (0)
Apr
18

“Bed and Breakfast” – A Different Accommodation Experience

By · Comments (0)

Bed & Breakfast accommodation is well established in Europe and North America as a way of travelling.

It enables a “view” of the travellers’ world that is not available from big city hotels or even the larger country hotels and motels.

Why choose a B&B? Several factors recommend a nice B&B, not the least of which is location.

The original bed & breakfasts were found in out-of-the-way towns or villages without enough trade to support an official inn.

Today, B&Bs offer a chance to visit these same isolated places while enjoying the local culture.

Not all bed-and-breakfasts are charming and historic, however, some are just what they advertise: a place to stay and a morning meal.

The price is usually an indicator of the charm quotient, and of course the internet allows potential visitors a look at many lodgings, both inside and out, before deciding.

There are a number of different types of bed and breakfast accommodation. These include homestay (the traditional B&B experience), farmstay, guest houses and self-contained cottages.

It was in England, Scotland and Ireland that the term “B&B” first came into use. Tourists will see a B&B sign in many windows there.

Bed and breakfasts have been very popular with the traveling public in Europe for years.

The term “bed and breakfast” is not used in many European countries. Terms such as paradors, pensions, gasthaus, minskukus, shukukos and pousados are used to describe what Americans and English-speaking Europeans think of as a bed and breakfast.

If you are looking for the opportunity to discover more about a local area, and enjoy a different style of accommodation, then do not hesitate to search for suitable B&B accommodation at your chosen location.

Submitted by John Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Accommodation, Destinations, Vacations
Comments (0)
Apr
11

How To Cut The Cost Of Your Trip To Europe

By · Comments (0)

We are currently planning and booking a trip over to Europe, and have become very aware of the cost impact of booking during the summer “High” season.

As an example, the following costs refer to weekly rates for a 2-bedroom apartment in the St Tropez area of France. The rental ranges from $769 from November to March, to $3,330 in July and August. However, costs during June and September are $1,951.

From this example, you can see how the choice of travel dates can have very significant impacts on the travel budget.

Where possible, you should also plan your travels in advance, thus taking advantage of advance purchase discounts and special deals on airfares.

Don’t forget to arrange seat allocation at the time of booking, if it is available from your chosen carrier.

Submitted by Barbara Walsh-Kumm www.onlinetravelconsultant.com

Categories : Accommodation, Air, Destinations, Vacations
Comments (0)
« Previous Page
Subscribe to Online Travel Consultant Blog

Get the latest updates delivered straight into your email inbox

Categories