Booking accommodation

I'm in the middle of booking a big road trip round America.

We're going in June and I know certain areas, especially around the National Parks like Yellowstone, can be booked up a year in advance so I'm booking hotels now.

I thought I'd share how I go about it with you.

Here is the list of websites that I'd recommend you sign up to before you start searching:

Quidco - www.quidco.com If you are not familiar with Quidco it is quite simple. You earn cash back on products and services you buy from companies that are linked to Quidco.

Trip Advisor - www.tripadvisor.com not only gives you reviews of hotels, restaurants and activites, it will also do price comparisons for hotels  if you put in your dates of travel.

These are the 2 main ones but I am also registered with booking.com www.booking.com, hotels.com www.hotels.com and expedia.www.expedia.com. Hotels.com gives you a free night stay for every 10 nights you book and stay for, Expedia gives you Nectar points (for those of us with a nectar card).

So here's what I did using my recent search for a hotel in New York.

1. Opened trip advisor and looked for hotels in New York for the dates I wanted to travel. You can view the hotels in various order ie price high to low, ranking etc. I usually look at hotels in price order low to high. I had an idea of the area I wanted to stay in (Times Square) so I looked on the map and found a couple I thought would be ideally located.
2. Read the reviews. I always think of myself as a middle of the road sort of person. That is I don't want the best or worst - just something in between. I read the best and worst reviews but tend to trust the more moderate, balanced reviews as they feel, to me, somewhat more believable. As you know from previous blogs I don't mind not having a view or a balcony but I really like an en suite so if I read "shared bathroom" I move onto the next hotel. 
3. Having chosen accommodation (Radio City Apartments in case you're interested) I looked at the price comparisons listed next to the dates I wanted to travel and noted that all booking agents listed (which co-incidentally were the 3 main ones I use) had the same price for my dates.
4. Opened Quidco and went through to each of the 3 companies to search via them and confirmed that the prices were all the same. They were. In the end I booked through Hotels.com because they were offering 12% cashback via Quidco (Booking.com was 6%) plus it was 2 more nights towards a free one.
5. I have a Clarity (Halifax) credit card which doesn't charge a currency transaction fee so always use this to book accommodation abroad.
6. I received an immediate confirmation from Hotels.com and within 24 hours I had an email from Quidco informing me the cash back on my £350 stay had been tracked and would be £42. 

Sometimes Trip Advisor can't list price comparisons and you have to book direct with the hotel. Always check if it's part of a chain and if so - do they have a loyalty scheme? If it does - register.

I did this for a hotel by Mount Rushmore. Simply by joining the loyalty scheme online I got $30 off the room I booked.

I really enjoy this whole process and can spend hours searching before I book anywhere.

Hope this may help some of you out there.

Boston next :-)

Jo 

Julia

I have osteo arthritis.

As my rheumotologist describes it, it is "generalised, widespread osteoarthritis" which means it is everywhere, every joint, every day.

It decidedly does not bring me joy, and as such is not really a topic for my blog, however it does have one huge thing in it's favour - because of it I found Julia.

Julia describes her treatments best - check out www.marmaladesearth.com

Julia provides massage therapy in the comfort of your own home so is perfect for anyone who may be anxious about leaving the house or going to new unfamiliar places. I tried various massage therapists before coming across Julia but for all of them I had to travel to their place of business. That's not an issue for me but following an hour of reflexology (treatment on your feet) the last thing I want to do is drive home - it rather defeats the object of having the treatment to be honest.

When Julia leaves I just plop onto my own sofa and enjoy the only period of time I have when I am pain free in my feet. Julia will blend oils to your personal taste (I'm an old Trog so the house usually smells of patchouli oil on a Friday evening) and always leaves me the left over oil so I can use it up in the days between treatments.

Just 2 points - Julia only provides treatments for women and you can't have her every other Friday as that's when she comes to me.

Jo

Accommodation - know yourself.

Booking accommodation - in the UK or abroad.

Most importantly - be honest with yourself and ask what do I really want out of a hotel room?

Now this may seem a stupid question - and you are probably thinking "errr a bed to sleep in" but bear with me.

If you are on a road trip, stopping off at hotels for one night at a time then you may well just need a bed to sleep in. If you are staying somewhere for 2 or more nights then other factors come into play. Here's what I mean..

1. Do you spend much time in your room?
2. Are you happy to share a bathroom or will you insist on an en suite?
3. Is a balcony or a view important to you, and if so - why?
4. Do you like small, intimate hotels where you get to know other people or do you like the anonymity of a large chain? 
5. Do you need a restaurant on site or breakfast included?

To give you an idea of what I mean I'll share some of the things I've learned about what matters to me and Hubby.

1. On a "Fly and Flop" holiday Hubby and I spend quite a lot of time in our rooms. We both like to get out of the sun mid day and, as I have some problems with my joints, I sometimes need to rest.
On a Road Trip holiday it's not so much of an issue as we are often staying only 1 night.

2. Given the choice I would never share a bathroom - with anyone- so I am happy to pay extra for an en suite. Even if it's for only 1 night.

3. We do not sit on balconies nor do we spend hours staring at views. I certainly wouldn't pay extra for a view. I remember my Dad's wife once paid extra for a room with a view and he made a point of pulling a chair up to the window and refusing to leave the room as he wanted to get his money's worth. Point made!

4. We are quite private people and prefer the anonymity of large hotel chains. Not to say we are unfriendly but we take time to relax on holiday and don't want to have to sit with strangers across a breakfast table from Day 1 having the "is this your first time here?" conversations.

5. Given the choice I like breakfast to be included - it's one less faff in the mornings. A perfectly acceptable alternative for us is a McDonalds or Subway nearby. Let's be honest that applies equally to travel at home and abroad as they are everywhere! (Interesting aside - there is no McDonald's in Iceland any more but there is Subway. I did hear that someone bought the last ever burger sold in McD before it closed and it's preserved - with a web cam on it - to monitor decay. May just be an urban myth but it's one I like).

Sometimes you don't have the choice and you just have to take what's available, but if you have the luxury of booking well in advance and know the answers to the above questions then you've a head start. Next time I'll look at the booking accommodation process I follow.

Jo

Planning a trip

As I mentioned in my last post I have 2 main types of holidays the "Fly and Flop" and the "Big Trip"

This blog post is about the second type.

Planning a trip is so exciting but totally overwhelming.
Using a real life example here's what I do - hopefully some of you may find it useful.

Decide - roughly- where you want to go or what you want to do.
For example it's my birthday in December and it's a biggy. To celebrate I decided I wanted to achieve one of my life's ambitions and see the Northern Lights (NL).

First thing I did was google "where's best to see the Northern Lights?"

Turns out there's quite a few places you can see them- including our very own Scotland, there's also Norway and Iceland. There's a few ways of seeing them too including cruising and city breaks.

I then ordered some holiday brochures for each of the various places to see the sorts of things that were on offer, Travel companies have been arranging the sorts of tours I like to do for years. It's always worth checking out where they go, how they get there and the activities they can provide. You can always copy their itineries tweaking them for your own preferences. I also borrowed some travel books from the local library - yes I know it's old school but if you've seen my other blog posts you know I like books!

After poring over the books and brochures I decided on Iceland and as all my research indicated you have to be away from artificial lighting to have the best chance of seeing the NL I thought - Road Trip!

Further research showed a road trip in Iceland is not that difficult to plan as there is only one main road "The One".

Destination and type of trip decided on I then hit the internet to research things to do and places to stay. My go to website is always Trip Advisor www.tripadvisor.com but I've also found some really useful stuff from fellow bloggers so it's worth just doing a generic google search.

It's then basic internet stuff to search for flights, book car hire and hotels for the trip.
Given that I'm driving around Iceland in November/December and lots of places are closed I decided to book all the accommodation before I get there - I believe some things are best not left to chance. I intend to cover Hotel booking in another post.

To sum up....

1. Decide on destination and type of trip
2. Order some travel brochures for ideas 
3. Research using your preferred media method - but I'd recommend as many different types as you can - including the low tech but very useful - talk to people!
4. Book your flights
5. Book your transport (if needed)
6. Book your accommodation
7. Book/plan activities

I'm going to cover topics such as:

• Things I never go abroad without
• Booking accommodation
• Loyalty schemes I'm a member of
• Hand luggage essentials
• Foreign currency

If anyone has any other travel topics they'd like me to blog about - let me know.

"Fly and Flop"

I heard the phrase "Fly and Flop somewhere (- can't remember for the life of me where so sorry can't credit it to anyone) and I use it a lot as I think it describes perfectly one of the 2 types of holiday I like to take.

It's a big world and I'm always reluctant to go to the same place twice but there are times when you want to go somewhere familiar to do nothing more than lie on a sun lounger, favourite tipple in hand and read a book (or work on your blog).

As I write this I am in Dalyan, Turkey in a little hotel called the Keysan Yunus (www.keysan.co.uk ). Little is the operative word here - it only has 23 rooms but it has a large pool, plenty of sunbeds, a well stocked bar and is run by a lovely, friendly family for whom nothing is too much trouble.

Here's a picture

I shy away from recommending hotels as everyone has individual tastes and what's right for me may be hideously wrong for you. Plus there's a fantastic website (www.tripadvisor.com) that will give you way more information than I can. All I will say is that this hotel and town suits me and hubby just fine.

I'm here for 2 weeks and hope to spend some of that time writing in (on?) my blog.
For now - my sunbed is calling.

Jo

My Bookcase

My bookcase represents a snapshot of all the things in life that bring me joy.

First of all there's books - love them. Love the feel, the smell, the fact I can drop them and not have a panic in case I've broken them (unlike my iPad or kindle). 

Secondly there's order and organisation. I am not a tidy person by nature but I do like things to be in some sort of system.

If you look at my bookcase you'll see a lot of space dedicated to Agatha Christie, a panda book section (and various items of panda- phernalia). Gardening, cooking and travel are also well represented. 

This is my first ever blog post courtesy of my fabulous niece Katy, and her wonderful girlfriend Sammy, who have just set me up on blogger. I have had very little input apart from going to the chippy for them but am now prepared to step up and blog like crazy.