Accommodations Worldwide

Great Britain

We did a 10-night self-driving tour of SCOTLAND in May ’05 and, without exception, saw great scenery, met wonderful people and dined well. We rented a mid-sized Ford Mondeo automatic in Edinburgh from Arnold Clark Automobiles, Ltd. (call 0141 422 2700 or visit www.arnoldclarkrental.co.uk), chosen because full insurance coverage and VAT was included at a reasonable rate: £190 (near $343) for eight days. Arnold Clark has two locations in Edinburgh, one of which serves the Edinburgh airport via van pickup.

We booked all of the accommodations ourselves six to eight weeks before the trip. We found this difficult, since about 33% never responded. We later were told that many owners of the smaller B&Bs and guest houses were not around in mid- to late March to handle our May reservations. (Another thing — most of the sites were not “secured,” so we handled credit card guarantees by splitting the information between two messages.)

Whether it was a hotel, guest house or B&B, the accommodation included facilities en suite and a full breakfast cooked to order.

• We started in Edinburgh and stayed near Princes Street at the 24 Northumberland Guest House (visit www.ingrams.co.uk), where our twin room cost £90 ($162). The only drawback was that the free on-site parking was limited to one or two cars.

There were many good restaurants nearby. Our choice was La Lanterna on Hanover Street, specializing in southern Italian style meals.

• Heading northwest from Edinburgh, our first stop was Dorrington Lodge (www.dorrington-lodge.com), located on the A82 between Glencoe and Ballachulish. The double rate was £50 ($90). This was the only lodging that reserved on faith. No deposit was required, and the room was waiting for us when we arrived.

• The lodge owner, Graham Hayden, recommended dinner at the Bulas Bar & Bistro Restaurant (www.freedomglen.co.uk/ballachulish/bulas), located in the Ballachulish Hotel. A large facility, which appeared to handle tour groups staying for the evening, it proved to be very good, offering a large and varied selection. Their signature meals (bulas) come in seafood, meat or vegetarian varieties and arrive steaming in Highland pots. The total for our appetizers and main courses came to £33.

• Our next stop was on the Isle of Skye, our having taken the ferry from Mallaig. We stayed at the newly renovated Toravaig House Hotel (www.skyehotel.co.uk), between Armadale and Broadford. The rate of £150 ($271) included an excellent 3-course dinner — an important feature in this area with a limited number of restaurants.

• From Skye we headed to Inverness. There, our accommodations were at the Ness Bank Guest House (visit www.nessbankguesthouse.co.uk), a small facility close to the heart of town with a view of the river. The room was “tired” but functional (£60). There was no sitting room, limiting chances to meet the other guests to only breakfast.

• The staff was pleasant and helpful, recommending the Mustard Seed for dinner and the Hootenanny Pub for a Scottish music session. The Mustard Seed offered a large dinner selection, and reservations, even in shoulder season, are a must. Dinners, with wine included, ran £57 for two — a steep price but in line with most other restaurants in the area.

• We roamed the Inverness area, visiting Loch Ness, Culloden, Fort George, Clava Cairns and Cawdor Castle before moving on to the Foyers Bay House (www.foyersbay. co.uk), about 20 miles south of Inverness on the south side of Loch Ness. In a lovely location, near Foyers Falls, we had dinner in the beautiful, glass-enclosed conservatory. The room and excellent 3-course dinner came to £88 for both of us.

• Heading south, our next stay was in Pitlochry at the Westlands Hotel (visit www.westlandshotel.co.uk), close to the main part of a very busy town (£88).

• While the hotel had a restaurant, we opted for The Fern, enjoying a menu that included Turkish and other Mediterranean specialties. Dinner ran £41 for two, including a glass of wine, appetizer, entrée, dessert and coffee for each of us.

• Stirling was our next stop and our accommodations were the very comfortable Castlecroft B&B (www.castlecroft.uk.com), located just beneath the castle. Convenient to the castle area, with offstreet parking, its strong point was the new owners, Julie and Keith Hargreaves. They were willing to spend the time to recommend the sights, give driving directions and just chat about what it takes to run a B&B in Scotland. The room was clean and comfortable, with a small en suite bathroom. The rate for a twin was £55.

• Dining at the Birds & Bees Restaurant in Stirling proved to be very average in their food preparation but reasonably priced for the area. Appetizers, entrées and desserts for two cost £36.

• Back in Edinburgh, at the end of our Scotland visit, we stayed at the Radisson SAS Hotel (www.radisson.com), located right on High Street about halfway between Edinburgh Castle and Holyroodhouse Palace. This is a great location, but it comes with a high price (depending on season, a double can range from £105 to £150, or $189-$270). Keep looking at the Radisson website for their special bargain rates.

• Dinners at Ciao Roma and Creelers were excellent. At Ciao Roma, entrées and coffee for two cost £44, and at Creelers, which offers a large selection of fresh seafood, the fabulous fish cake appetizers and fresh fish dinners of halibut and salmon totaled £43.

— DAVID & SARA HARRIS, Silver Spring, MD

Europe

If you’re looking for a hotel in the vicinity of Siracusa, Sicily, ITALY, here’s one the guidebooks haven’t caught up with yet: Lady Lusya (Feudo Spinagallo, Siracusa, Sicily; phone +39 [0] 931-710-277 or visit www.ladylusya.it).

The owners, Lucy and Piero Truini, have converted a beautiful villa, used in the 19th century as the residence of a cardinal, into a stunning hotel and restaurant that feels more like a B&B.

In its location just outside the town of Cassibile, about a 20-minute drive south of Siracusa, we found this 4-star property the perfect place to relax (especially around or in the large outdoor pool) after working up a sweat touring the nearby antiquities.

The rooms are air-conditioned, the restaurant serves very good, authentic Sicilian cuisine (with a fine assortment of Sicilian and imported wines) and the surrounding farmland makes for a very tranquil setting. When we were there, in August ’05, a special Saturday night poolside dinner was offered, with live music under the stars.

Per-person prices range from €56 ($67) in low season to €80 ($97) in high season for a standard double room. In high season, half board is €110 ($133) per person, with full board offered at €130 ($157).

Lucy was born in the United States and speaks excellent English; Piero, a physics professor, has studied at Yale and seems to take particular enjoyment in hosting American visitors. Our stay with them was a true highlight of our Sicilian holiday.

— RICK & ARLENE SINDING, Princeton, NJ

My husband, George, and I spent an absolutely marvelous four weeks (mid-October through mid-November ’04) at La Chimera, the beautiful home of Rosella and Carlo Cervi (Voc. Casanuova 3, Località Fraccano, 06012 Città di Castello [Perugia], ITALY; phone/fax 001 039 0758 550786, e-mail lachimera.rosella@libero.it or visit www.tolachimera.com).

We found this enchanting place through an ad in ITN and, after viewing the website, contacted Rosella via e-mail.

After the hustle and bustle of Rome, La Chimera was so beautiful and relaxing, it was hard to tear ourselves away for the day trips to Assisi, Cortona, Perugia, Gubbio, Spoleto, Spello, Florence, Siena and more, all within easy driving distance.

There were only two of us, but the main-floor apartment that we had, with four bedrooms and two baths, would accommodate seven. A smaller upstairs apartment with two more double bedrooms is available which would accommodate even more friends and family.

The main living area has comfortable seating overlooking the pool and gardens plus the green hillsides. For those who think they need it, there is satellite television. The huge kitchen has all the modern conveniences and features a large, rustic fireplace. If you are really ambitious and love to cook for the large group while on vacation, the dining table will seat 12. The veranda’s wide overhangs make it possible to use even in the hardest downpour.

In the “corner” of Umbria right next door to Tuscany, La Chimera is located in the hills eight kilometers above the ancient walled city of Città di Castello. It was so quiet and secluded that we had no trouble hearing the cooing of the doves that Carlo keeps as pets.

Rosella and Carlo are wonderful hosts. Rosella’s English is excellent, and she graciously helped us with some difficult negotiations at an auto repair shop following a slight fender-bender. She went with us to the shop to make sure we didn’t get “lost in translation.” She even managed to find an Italian-speaking insurance agent at the main office in Paris.

Rosella also showed us the best buys in the twice-weekly market in Città di Castello and where to get our own bottles filled with a fine local wine for fewer euros than bottled water costs here in the USA.

She also provided a list of the fall festivals going on in the hill towns of both Tuscany and Umbria. We enjoyed the activities connected with the truffle and chestnut harvests, but our favorite was the weeklong chocolate celebration in Perugia.

I have severe arthritis, and this beautiful apartment made the perfect place for us since it was all on one floor. The extremely reasonable off-season price of €1,600 ($1,982) for the month (exclusive of heating costs) made it possible for us to slow down and truly enjoy the Italian way of life.

We made many day trips and enjoyed the luxury of “coming home” to La Chimera, nestled in the green heart of Italy. With its central location, we could easily travel east to towns on the Adriatic Sea, go west to Tuscany, go south to the hill towns of Umbria and north to St. Francis’ retreat of LaVerna, all without bag-dragging every day.

Any apprehension we had about committing for four weeks to a place we had never seen evaporated completely when we saw La Chimera and met Rosella and Carlo. We would love to tell anyone more about it. Contact us by e-mail at goodperk59@yahoo.com.

— KAREN GOODALE, Glen Burnie, MD

We recommend the following from a May-June ’04 European trip. (2005 rates are shown.)

• Europ Hotel (Augustijnenrei 18, B-8000, Brugge, BELGIUM; phone + 32 [0] 50 33 79 75 or visit www.hoteleurop.com) is in the middle of Brugge’s Old Town, only a short walk from Market Square and all the major sights.

Rather small rooms. Considered a 2-star hotel and more like a 3-star, I would say. Breakfast was served in a large, cheery room. (2005 rates, single room from €55-€79 [$66-$95], double room from €66-€87 [$80-$105].)

• An inexpensive place to stay in Paris is the 2-star Hotel Altona (166 rue du Faubourg, Poissoniére, 75010, Paris, FRANCE; phone 33 1 487 86824 or visit www.hotelaltona.com). The Barbés-Rochenchouart Métro is very close. It’s also near the Sacré-Coeur and the Gare du Nord station.

Rooms were average size and a bit worn. Simple but functional. Continental breakfast was included in the rates. (In 2005, single from €65 [$78], double from €75 [$91], triple from €92 [$111].)

— KARYN DéMARTELAERE, Chandler, AZ

Asia

One of our favorite places to stay in INDIA during our November-December ’04 trip was the Jagat Niwas Palace Hotel (Lalghati, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India; phone +91 0294 2420133 or visit www.traveludaipur.com/jagatniwas.htm).

A converted haveli, it is hidden on the lakeshore at the end of winding streets in the Old Town, tucked up quite near the City Palace and with views across the lake to the fabulous “floating” Lake Palace Hotel in Lake Pichola (or it would have been floating if the lake hadn’t dried up; there were cattle and donkeys grazing on the lake bed around the hotel).

The Jagat Niwas has rooms accessed from terraces surrounding two courtyards. A truly amazing assortment of cantilevered staircases (said to be easily defensible against invaders in earlier, more dangerous times) challenges guests to an adventurous maze as they try new routes from their rooms to the dining room or the lobby courtyard.

Our room, No. 106, was quite fine as well as large, with two seating alcoves, one with bay windows. At the far end was a small hall leading to a dressing room and a large bathroom. We had a large and efficient air-conditioner, which proved welcome. Our one regret is that we did not have a view of the lake, but in checking further it seemed that the only rooms with such a view were quite small and not likely to be comfortable.

(Prices through March 31, 2006, are Rs1,250 [$28] standard single/double, Rs1,895 [$42] deluxe, Rs2,650 [$59] superior-deluxe and Rs3,300 [$74] suite.)

The dining room was on the same level as Room 106, but it was impossible to get from one to the other without climbing and descending at least two staircases. The dining room was open to the air, with the best views of the lake and the Lake Palace Hotel from cushioned alcoves projecting from the facade. (On a dining terrace above the dining room, puppet shows were presented nightly whenever the puppeteer could gather an audience.)

Service in the dining room was excellent. The food was certainly not so spicy as we’d hoped but not so bland as we’d come to expect of food in India prepared for Westerners. The breakfasts were the standard toast and omelet.

The location of the Jagat Niwas proved good for us, because we were able to explore on foot nearly everything we wanted to see in Udaipur. We walked with no difficulty to Sunset Point, the Clock Tower, the spice market, Chandpol and, of course, the City Palace and Jagdish Temple.

Only for the adventure of it, and to save time, did we take an auto-rickshaw from the spice market back to the hotel. Traffic in Udaipur was so bad, though, and the Jagat Niwas was buried so deep in the old city, that we did cancel a trip to neighboring Eklingji and Nagda.

— CLYDE F. HOLT, Hinesburg, VT