Accommodations Worldwide

Great Britain

We spent the night of June 27, ’04, at the B&B Churchill Guest House (6 Castle Hill Rd., Dover, Kent, CT16 1QN, U.K.; phone +44 [0] 1304 208365, e-mail ch6chr@aol.com or visit www. albetclevehomestead.com). This is not to be confused with the Churchill Hotel, which is downtown in Dover and quite a bit more pricey.

I recommend Churchill House very highly. We found it to be delightful, well furnished, comfortable and very conveniently located. Prices ranged from £35 ($65) for a single with facilities en suite to £70 ($130) for the “Clementine” room with a king-size four-poster bed.

The property is strictly nonsmoking. (The owners, Alastair and Betty Dimech, have another property, the Cleveland Guest House, which allows smoking.)

• Alastair suggested we walk a block and a half to Dino’s Italian Restaurant (58 Castle St., Dover, Kent; phone 204678) for dinner. Dino’s offered a number of excellent choices. We had a very fine meal for £25 ($37) per person; this included two nice bottles of Chianti and the tip.

We’re looking forward to returning to Dover soon to spend a week seeing the World War II sights and the nearby countryside, including Canterbury.

— JOHN CARPENTER, Walloon Lake, MI

Europe

We traveled in FRANCE in September and October ’04.

• The small country inn Le Weekend (D-110, Pont-du-Châtel 29260 Lesneven [Brittany], France; phone 33-2-98-25-40-57) is located in a pasture and farm area with an old mill across the road. It is quiet, with delightful hosts, M/M Froger. English is spoken. There is private parking.

Bicycling groups make this an overnight stop. It is an excellent location for visiting the Armoric and Pink Granite coasts and Brest in northwest France.

The rate was €38 ($50) per night for a double. Our total bill for two nights, including breakfasts as well as dinners with wine, was €147 ($195). The restaurant at the inn serves excellent regional dishes. Dinner, with wine, cost us €18 per person.

• The Hotel du Mail (8, rue des Ursules, 49100 Angers, France) — located on a quiet street, two blocks from the city center and only five minutes’ walk from shopping streets.

This was a 16th-century stage stop. Now the hotel is totally modernized. The rate was €61 ($81) per night for a double with a private bath. Breakfast was €6. Parking in court.

There are many unique attractions in Angers and the local people are very hospitable. The hotel is only a 15-minute walk from Angers Castle, which was King Richard the Lion Heart and Eleanor of Aquitaine’s favorite. It is our favorite too, in all of France.

• The hotel and restaurant Campanile Vandoeuvre Les Nancy (Ave de la Foret de Hayezac de Brabois, 54500 Vandoeuvre Les Nancy, France; phone 33-3-83-44-66-00) is very easy to find from the highway, on the west side of Nancy in a pleasant, woodsy location.

U.S. motel-like with parking in front of the room. €40 ($53) plus tax for a double. Friendly management, with some English spoken.

Campanile is a chain of modest but reliable hotels/motels. Their restaurants serve regional specialties and offer buffet dinners with a wide variety of salads and meat. Dinner was €8-€13 per person.

The prices I’ve given do not include tax, which was about 20% for meals and 5% on rooms.

— RAY & MARY HANSEN, Kirkland, WA

We’ve been going to Paris two or three times a year since 1999. We stay at one of the charming apartments offered by Vacation In Paris (10 Wildwood Trail, Newton, NJ 07860; 973/948-3535 or www.vacationinparis.com). As a computer semiliterate, I enjoy their website because it is so easy to use.

We’ve stayed in different Vacation In Paris apartments. Their selection of about 50 runs the gamut of price ranges and Parisian locations, our most favored locale being the seventh arrondissement.

As on our stay in September ’04, the price has been in the $140-per-night range for a one-bedroom. That rate included everything! There were no other charges.

— ALEXIAN GREGORY, Verona, NJ

If, like myself, you find the Périgord region to be the soul of FRANCE, you’ll want to spend more than just a couple of days there. In June ’04 my wife and I stayed six nights at the newly renovated La Tour de Cause (Pont-de-Cause, 24250 Castelnaud-La Chapelle, France. From the U.S., April 15-Oct. 15, call 011 33 553 30 30 51; during winter, call 707/527-5051 [Santa Rosa, California]. E-mail info@latourde cause.com or visit www.latourdecause.com), located in the tiny village of Pont-de-Cause, just over a mile from Castelnaud and two miles from Beynac, where the river scene in “Chocolat” was filmed.

Albert and Caitlin Woodbury, gifted master builders and hoteliers, have transformed an old house and barn into five luxurious chambres d’hôtes. To achieve this transformation, no expense was spared, from the mammoth bathrooms to the exposed beams made from local woods. If you base yourself there for a few days, you’ll soon consider yourself a member of the community — a fairly easy feat considering that Pont-de-Cause has only 20 buildings.

Caitlin speaks excellent French and can lend you books and maps for a day’s outing to help you find medieval châteaux, picturesque villages, prehistoric caves and those infamous markets. In fact, she might even accompany you to the day’s brocante (antique fair).

Because the village is off any major road, a good night’s sleep is guaranteed. From 8:30 to 10:30 in the morning there’s a wonderful breakfast: strawberries picked from the nearby woods, breads from the area’s best baker, yogurt, cheeses and a fabulous assortment of jams.

The premises include secure parking, a huge pool, a garden and an area in which to play boules. The Woodburys currently request a minimum 2-night stay; €75 ($97) per room per night includes breakfast. In 2005, La Tour de Cause is open May 1-Oct. 15.

— MICHAEL J. MOUAT, Santa Rosa, CA

Landhotel Am Zault (Gerresheimer Landstrasse 40, 40627 Düsseldorf-Unterbach; GERMANY; phone 02-11-20-94-0 or visit www.amzault.de) — a superb inn in a peaceful location on the edge of a lovely, leafy village. It’s about six kilometers from the (new) Neanderthal Museum.

In early October ’04 the rate for two nights for a double was €333 ($442), including all meals (with wine) for two days and all miscellaneous charges. English-speaking staff.

— RAY & MARY HANSEN, Kirkland, WA

We traveled to Vienna in December ’04 and stayed in a wonderful place for four nights. The price was beyond belief at the pension Hotel Stadthalle (Hackengasse 20 u. 33 A-1150, Vienna, AUSTRIA; phone + 43 [1] 982 72 32 or visit www. hotelstadthalle.at).

We did not stay in the hotel building but in their pension, about a 2-minute walk from the hotel. One double room without shower/W.C. was €52 ($67) per room and night, including all service charges and taxes.

The rooms were equipped simply (no TV, phone or radio; phone available at the hotel) but were newly renovated and comfortable. The rooms are huge and included a sofa, chairs, desk, table and good windows and a large storage area for clothing. The shower and toilet were near the room and their use was free of charge. We never once had to wait for their use.

We could take breakfast right at the hotel for €8 ($10) or there was a small market one block from the pension where we could purchase the makings for breakfast or buy fruit, drinks and sandwiches to take out.

A maid came in the daytime and tidied up our room; we made sure to leave her a small tip for her efforts.

The pension is situated in a very quiet location, near the Schoenbrunn Palace and the west train station and close to the famous shopping area at Mariahilferstrasse. It is within easy reach of the city center (five minutes by subway No. 3). The hotel will help with tickets to special events, if you wish.

This is a very safe area to walk after dark. There was also a trolley about a block away. The U-Bahn connections were superb, and we found no good reason to find accommodations closer in at what would have been a much higher price. Even at Christmas, the price went up to only €85 per night and room for two persons, and the breakfast buffet was included!

The breakfast area in the hotel was marvelous with its painted walls of scenes of Vienna. We’ve stayed at Hotel Stadthalle twice; both times it was uncrowded. (It must be too good a secret!) We highly recommend this place.

Readers with questions about the pension or what we did in Vienna are welcome to e-mail us at eldrberry@geneseeit.com.

— CHERIE & JIM SCUDDER, East Bethany, NY

Our family group of 11 (seven adults and four teenagers) spent a week in Tuscany at Villa Cavasonno (Via Delle Colline 15, 50050, Montaione, FI., ITALY) in June ’03.

Villa Cavasonno exceeded our most optimistic expectations with respect to location, facilities, amenities and overall cleanliness and ambiance. We rented the villa through Rentvillas.com (700 E. Main St., Ventura, CA, 93001; phone 800/726-6702, e-mail mail@rentvillas.com or visit www.rentvillas.com). After reviewing the available villas on the website, we selected Villa Cavasonno based on its description, price and availability.

Fully fenced and gated, the villa is located on an estate of 2½ acres about one kilometer from the town of Montaione, 45 kilometers from Florence and 22 kilometers from San Gimignano. The villa overlooks countryside with vineyards and olive groves.

The main house is 2-story, about 2,600 square feet. The ground floor includes a large, well-furnished living/dining area with vaulted ceilings, a W.C. and a fully equipped kitchen with a cooktop, oven, refrigerator, small freezer and dishwasher plus a table large enough to seat eight or 10. The upstairs has four large bedrooms, one double and three twins, with two large, modern, tiled baths with tub/showers.

An adjacent annex building of about 1,400 square feet provided two more double bedrooms and a bath with a walk-in shower. There was a washing machine on the ground floor. Upstairs, reached by both interior and exterior stairways, there was a large living room with a fireplace plus an eat-in kitchen. The downstairs bedrooms and bath were ideal for me because of my bad knees, and the grandkids used the upstairs room as their lounge/game room.

The grounds were landscaped and immaculately maintained and there was a beautiful swimming pool surrounded by terra-cotta tile. Lounges, tables and sun umbrellas were set up around the pool, and we ate all our evening meals there. Outdoor lighting created a “resort” type of atmosphere. The covered patio had a barbecue and a wood-burning pizza oven.

There was a full-time gardener and a caretaker on site who was helpful if any minor problem came up. A representative met us on arrival and showed us how to use everything, including the remote-controlled gates.

The owner, Andrea Cerbioni, came by to meet us and offer us any assistance we might need. Everything worked fine when we were there except one day when the phone went dead and the local phone company was slow in restoring service. Fortunately, we had rented cell phones for use in Italy.

One nice feature that came in handy was the ample supply of Chianti wines. Apparently, the owner has an arrangement with a local winery that cultivates the vineyards on his property, and bottles of wine are made available to renters at very reasonable prices ($6 for an excellent Chianti Riserva). We made frequent use of this supply.

The small town of Montaione was close enough to walk to. There was a co-op supermarket, banks with ATMs, a couple of bars and several restaurants. We had a very nice farewell dinner at Ristorante Carpe Diem (Viale da Filicaia 65/67, Montaione; phone 0571 69 78 88) — expensive.

The rental price for the villa varies by season.* For June 21-28, ’03, we paid $3,760 plus a €110 ($135) cleanup fee. This represented a great value for 11 people for a week. We would not hesitate to return.

— CHET DiPOL, Woodland Hills, CA

*In 2005, the minimum low-season price of a week’s rental at Villa Cavasonno is $3,260, and the maximum high-season price is $5,374. The price in June is $4,707.

In spite of the of the fact that I have traveled in ITALY many times, it was only on my trip in May ’04 that I discovered the perfect way to start a trip north from Rome to Tuscany (or wherever).

Rather than jumping in your rented car and driving as far as you can go, only postponing your jet lag, instead, from the airport in Rome, take Aurelia SS1 (the autostrada) to the turnoff for Ceri, about an hour north. Leaving the freeway, you are immediately “out in the country” where, in the tiny town of Cerveteri, you will have made a resevation at Il Borgo di Ceri B&B (piazza Immacolata 17-18-19, Ceri di Cerveteri [Roma}; phone +39 06 99207208 or mobile phone +39 328 4222294, e-mail info@borgoceri.it or visit www.borgoceri.it).

Il Borgo di Ceri is an ancient yet completely restored stone house. In the back you can look out across fields and forests. You are in the heart of the pre-Roman Etruscan region and there are Etruscan ruins nearby to explore.

I paid a very reasonable €35 ($46) per night, including a self-serve breakfast (fixings were in the fridge). Il Borgo’s owner, Enzo Cera, treated me to a limoncello made from grapefruit-sized lemons in his garden.

The house faces a tiny piazza with at least two excellent, moderately priced trattorias.

— RUTH GOTTSTEIN, Volcano, CA

I’d like to mention three places we stayed at in ITALY in May and June ’04. The first two are in Rome: one we stayed in at the beginning of the trip and one at the end; each was comfortable, but the difference in location was significant.

• Hotel Italia (Via Venezia 18, 00184 Roma, Italy; phone ++ 39 06-4828355, fax ++ 39 06-4745550 or visit www.hotelitaliaroma.it) — walking distance from the train station where you arrive on the train from the airport.

The room had a shower/bath, satellite TV and hair dryer. The breakfast room/bar was comfortable, and the included breakfast was good. We paid €100 ($129), the special rate for Rick Steves’ readers, all inclusive.

From this hotel, on a quiet side street, you can easily walk to the Colosseum, and it’s a short walk to buses or the metro. However, it’s quite a long walk to the other major sites in Rome.

• Pantheon View B&B (Via del Seminario 87, 00186 Roma; phone ++39 06 699 0294, e-mail pantheonview@romeby.com or visit www.romeby.com/pantheonview) — ideal location, just steps away from the Pantheon and a short walk from Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and bus lines. They arranged a very reasonable private van to the airport for our party of five on departure.

The “view” of the Pantheon is sometimes partial, and in some rooms it’s nonexistent, but the rooms were pleasant, with small balconies and a few antiques plus TV and hair dryer. €130 ($168) for a double.

Breakfast was “serve yourself” and better eaten on your balcony than in the tiny breakfast room.

The staffs at both of these Rome hotels were very pleasant and helpful, and we enjoyed our stay at both places. Pick on the basis of your preference for location and price. Both places require payment in cash.

• In Venice, we were very happy with our annex suite at Hotel Bernardi-Semenzato (S.S. Apostoli, 4363-66, 30121 Venezia, Italy; phone [041] 52 27 257, fax [041] 52 22 424, e-mail info@hotelbernardi.com or visit www.hotelbernardi.com) — a short walk from the Ca d’Oro vaporetto stop and parallel to the Strada Nova, a main street.

Our suite, suitable for four or five persons, had two very large bedrooms and one bath. Without breakfast, the cost for the suite for five persons was €170 ($220). A double room in the main hotel would have been €87 ($112).

This place was chosen as a “little wonder hotel” by Budget Travel magazine.

— MARGO WILSON, Scottsdale, AZ

Hotel Irene (Paroikia Island, 84400 GREECE; phone 22840-21476, fax 22840-22741, e-mail hotirene@otenet.gr or visit www.hotelirene.gr) — located on Livadia Beach, just 500 meters from town, making for a quiet and intimate stay.

This is a friendly and family-owned business operated with pride of ownership. The hosts, Irene and Stayros Alifieris, offer van service and will pick you up at the airport or ferry terminal. They speak English very well and were always concerned for our well-being.

There are rooms in the hotel itself and studios in a garden setting right across from the beach. The studios were well furnished with kitchen accessories, and the rooms were large with extra-large balconies. The rates in May ’04 were €30 ($40) for a double room and €35 for a studio for two people. Continental breakfast, €5.

— RON HEIMLICH, San Diego, CA