Hotels and Lodging

Le Petit Versailles (Route du Château, 24220 Beynac et Cazenac, FRANCE; phone +33 [0]6 71 88 59 72, www.lepetit versailles.fr) was our favorite accommodation on our 7-week trip to France in the fall of 2008. Beynac is in the Dordogne region of France.

My husband, Bill, and I had a double room with a pretty view of the countryside. A fantastic multicourse breakfast was included in the price of €60 ($79) per night.

We travel to Europe a lot and prefer to stay in economical B&Bs with atmosphere. This is the best one we’ve ever stayed at!

by Jeanette Dewey, Abington, PA

We asked independent travelers to tell how they go about finding nonreserved rooms when they arrive someplace they’ve never been to overseas. We printed responses in the January ’09 issue. Here are a few more.

If you have something to add, write to Winging It Finding a Hotel, c/o ITN, 2116 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818, or e-mail editor@intltravelnews.com (include the address at which you receive ITN). ITN prints no items on destinations in the United States.

To arrange our trip to Peru, April 28-May 13, 2009, my husband, Graham, and I followed a reader’s recommendation (March ’08, pg. 55) and decided to use the services of Eliu Campos and ECS Travel (Los Pinos St. 156 Of 502, Miraflores, Lima 18, Peru; phone +51 1 242 9716, e-mail info@ecstravel.com or visit www.ecstravel.com).

We are very glad we did. Prompt in responding to e-mails and very responsive to our wishes, Mr. Campos put together an excellent custom tour for us.

In the April 2009 issue, ITN readers, including some tour operators, weighed in on the subject of “tour companies and single supplements.” A variety of opinions and explanations were expressed.

Cruising the canals of Europe in a narrowboat and seeing a part of the continent that not too many people see was a dream of mine. I liked the idea of operating a boat by ourselves rather than being on a floating hotel, and going at the high speed of two to three miles per hour would be easy.

My traveling companion, Pam, and I decided to rent a narrowboat for a week and tour an area of southern France. Incidentally, the amount of French that we could speak was very tiny.

On a trip to COSTA RICA in March ’08, my wife, Sandra, and I stayed four nights at Hotel Casa Alegre (Santa Ana, Costa Rica; phone 506 2 235 5485, www.hotelcasaalegre.com. Note: there are no street addresses, but the website has directions to the hotel).

Santa Ana is a quiet, small town a few miles out of San José (which we thought rather dirty and poorer-looking) and only 10 miles from Juan Santamaria International Airport. The town has a picturesque town plaza and church.

My husband, Douglas, and I stayed at Villa Alviani Anna (Via delle Rotonda 9 [ingresso Via Rota 8], 80067, Sorrento, ITALY; phone/fax +39 0818073785, cell +39 3337947741 or visit http://villalvianianna.com), March 19-30, 2009. The location is excellent, a 10-minute walk from the central bus and train station (Circumvesuviana line). For those with a car, parking is available on the property.

While our experience of small hotels, especially in Provence, is that great hospitality is a given, we received the ultimate in helpfulness at Au Saint Roch Hotel et Jardin (9 rue Paul Mérindol, 84000 Avignon, FRANCE; phone +33 [0] 4 90 16 50 00, fax 90 82 78 30, www.hotelstroch-avignon.com). My husband and I and our daughter and son-in-law were traveling together in May ’08.

It was midnight when my husband, Skip, and son, George, and I checked into the Best Western Premier Foresta Hotel (Herserudsvaegen 22, Box 1324, Lidingö, SE-18125, SWEDEN; phone +46 [0] 8 50550500, fax 550 590, www.bestwestern.com).

The front desk manager Marcus Jonnson welcomed us with kindness and good cheer. Four days later, he checked us out with sandwiches and coffee at 6:30 a.m.; the buffet was not yet open and he wanted us to have something to eat before we started our travel home to the USA. He was hospitality made manifest.