The Rose Hotel (118 Surawongse Rd., Bangkok, 10500, THAILAND; phone [66] 02 266-8268-72, fax 266-8096 or visit www.rosehotelbkk.com) was a great little hotel for the price. I paid about THB1,600 ($40) for my single room in December ’05. The hotel is located in the heart of the night market and has a restaurant, Rose Hip Dining Space.
BILL KIZOREK
Lisle, IL
Of the cities we visited while touring Rajasthan, INDIA, in January ’06, we liked Jodhpur best of all. It was less touristy than the other places, and it had a great fort and a very lively market area with a clock tower.
Throughout our trip, we noticed that ATMs were few and far between. We used travelers’ checks.
The food everywhere was wonderful and cheap.
Here are six hotels we stayed at. All were quite satisfactory, and the rooms each had a private bath with a Western toilet.
On the island of Crete, we stayed at the Minoa Palace Resort Hotel (73014 Plantanias, Chania, Crete, GREECE; phone 011-30-28210-36500 or visit www.minoapalace-chania.gr) in September ’05. Our third-floor room with a king bed overlooked the garden and pool and (if we stood on tiptoe) the ocean. €170 ($210) included a fantastic buffet breakfast.
The dinner buffet surpassed any buffet we’ve been to in recent memory. It cost €48 ($59) including wine.
My husband, Howard, and I spent three weeks in southern ITALY in April ’06 and wish to share a unique treasure.
Casa Artè (San Marco 2900/2901, Calle del Frutariol 30124, Venice, ITALY; phone [39] 041 520 0882 or visit www.casaarte.info) — located in a relatively quiet area just west of Campo Santo Stefano. About a 10-minute walk west of St. Mark’s Square along a busy path, the main (and well-marked) route to the Accademia Bridge.
You may need to press the buzzer at the front door to be admitted; the entrance was usually kept locked during our stay. The hotel does not have an elevator.
By staying in an apartment for our week in Paris, my son and I saved a whole bunch of money! Compare the approximately $880 a week we spent to a couple of hundred dollars a night in a hotel — I’ll take an apartment anytime. Our stay was in April ’06. (My wife and I stayed in the apartment for two weeks a couple of years ago.)
We stayed at the B&B Torann na dTonn (Ventry, Dingle, County Kerry, IRELAND; phone 066-915992) for three nights in mid-May ’05. It’s located about two miles from Dingle on the Dingle loop,
Our room was on the second floor, with a most unbelievable view of the bay. You couldn’t find it as nice at the Ritz-Carlton, and the price was only $60 for two!
Our hostess was just wonderful. Her husband is a newscaster for a radio station.
In ENGLAND, an excellent hub from which we visited Avesbury, Stonehenge, Portsmouth, etc., was Shaftesbury, which is worth a stop in itself.
From our trip to COSTA RICA in October-November ’05, we highly recommend the following:
