OT Hotel reservations

DH is bugging me to get our reservations made for our trip in three
weeks to Edinburgh. Ok, ok, so I'm a little behind....he's just as
capable as I am and hasn't done it either.
Have any of you used Priceline.com to make reservations?

Don't bother prebooking unless you're arriving at some weird time of
night - late November is one of the quietest periods for the tourist
industry, every place you try will have spare rooms.

You'd be better asking on rec.travel.europe for this (or rather, google
that group for previous discussions first and *then* post a question).

I've lived in or near Edinburgh for most of the last 30 years so I know
the place as well as anybody. (But not golf. Just don't bother asking.
For what I think about golf, see
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/1990/01/01/a-pox-on-the-planet/)

There is one small LQS left - Patchworks in Morningside (Millar Crescent,
just off Morningside Road). The best general fabric shop is Mandor's in
Bellevue. There are good LQS's in Melrose and Linlithgow (an hour by bus
or 20 minutes by train away).

I would not suggest staying as far out as Balerno unless you really like
bus rides. (Tip - the best way to see Edinburgh is to use the Lothian
Buses all-day tickets, which you buy when you first get on - exact change,
about 2.50). Most tourists not in hotels stay in the Newington bed and
breakfast district, between Dalkeith Road and Minto Street. There are
a few other small clumps of B&Bs at similar distances from the centre.

One place that may not have made it into the guidebooks yet, and which
you may want to use if you're trying to save money, is the kitchen of
the mosque at Potterrow. They run an all-say lunch, several different
kinds of curry for 3 quid, eaten outdoors under awnings. There will be
some days when the weather would rule that out but I haven't met one yet.
Beats the socks off McDonalds for both quality and friendliness, anyway.

There are quite a few Asian shops in the area round that, including
Edinburgh Fabrics (very good for all sorts of odd haberdashery including
Indian decorative doodads) and a newly opened Turkish deli, the Nazar
Market, which sells all kinds of wonderful stuff at not much over the
price you'd pay in Turkey itself.

I think the most illuminating museums in Edinburgh are the small ones
in the Royal Mile - Gladstone's Land, Huntly House, The People's Story,
the Museum of Childhood. The Castle is a boring ripoff (Stirling Castle
is much more interesting) and Holyrood Palace is even worse.

There are great free (or free-with-coffee) views from the coffee bars
in the Jenners and John Lewis department stores.

Look round my website for where to find me...

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

Ummmm... I guess B&B's aren't for everyone. However, there is a degree
of thoughtfulness by the hosts as to how much interaction you want.
They do not breakfast with you, just provide and graciously serve food
of your choice, usually at an hour you prefer between, say 0730 and
0930hrs. If you can get over the idea of chatting with strangers, they
are a wealth of information for the local area - this is sometimes hard
to get from a hotel. You can still use all the travel guides.
Particularly in Scotland, Ireland and England, it is a window to how
the locals live, and the houses and bedrooms are usually charming. At
NewMills I mentioned, the bedrooms upstairs were huge with comfy chairs
and tables, coffee making facilities too. Some places are quite rural,
maybe a small farm, which could be fascinating.
I must say, that I researched them carefully on the 'net before booking
- wanting 4* establishments. B&B's really started 30/40 years ago in
England, and sometimes you drive down a street and every second house
is a B&B. But they are not all 4* and up. You need to search those
out on the internet. Photos are usually provided of bedrooms etc. We
also stayed at 'small mansions' B&Bs that were just fabulous, again, a
history lesson. Breakfast silver service almost in a beautiful antique
diningroom setting (table to set 16etc) and set for the two of you....
And met some wonderful travellers from your part of the world...

....having said all that, if you wanting room service, laundry, hotel
dining, step straight onto Main Street, then maybe this isn't for you.


You'll have a wonderful trip, no matter what, the more research you do,
the better it will be whilst still allowing for some degree of
flexibility. At this time of the year you are travelling, getting
reservations will not be a problem.
One tip, it is very slow driving around the UKso you need to allow
twice the time you thought you would to get from A to B. Specify auto.
shift for hire cars (not standard) as you'll have enough to worry about
on the wrong side of the road!

Too much information? Sorry!
Hugs
Bronnie

Kathy, being the resident travel agent for my husband's company, I am
constantly looking for "bargain" airline tickets, cheap hotel rooms or
discounts on cars. I have found it best just to go directly to the
hotel/car/airline website and book it there. There are times when I need an
off the wall airline ticket or something so I will go to Orbitz or
Travelocity to see what airlines go to the location I want, rather than
searching each individual website, but then I go to the airline website to
book it. Same with hotels and cars. In fact, I have found that Orbitz has
become increasingly more expensive than the airline/hotel/car websites.
Travelocity often offers the same price however they have so many
restrictions on changes or cancellations that it's more of a hassle to use
them.

Of course, the nature of my husband's business often requires last minute
changes to reservations so I need fully refundable/changeable reservations.
I have thought about using Priceline a couple of times but I detest the idea
of not being able to choose the time I fly or the type of room I get. I
don't like paying for the unknown in situations like this. But this is a
YMMV situation. I just would recommend going directly to the website to book
your reservations. Hope it all works out for you and you have a wonderful
time. But don't wait too long to make those reservations.

Mika
http://community.webshots.com/user/mikasdrms


"KJ" wrote in message
news:h1R9f.501743$x96.429929@attbi_s72...
DH is bugging me to get our reservations made for our trip in three weeks
to Edinburgh. Ok, ok, so I'm a little behind....he's just as capable as I
am and hasn't done it either.
Have any of you used Priceline.com to make reservations? What did you
think of the room you got? There can be such a difference in prices for
the same room, depending upon what "plan" or "code word" or "promotion"
you book the room with that I'm always concerned that I paid the premium
price. I'd like to save our $$ for other uses...shopping and meals.
I'll entertain all other options and suggestions also. You can tell I'm
not much of a traveller, huh?

--
Kathyl
remove "nospam" before mchsi
http://community.webshots.com/user/kathylquiltz

Thanks. That's my focus for the next couple of days(getting reservations
made). I think the Priceline thing has changed just a bit recently. It
appears you can see the offerings before you pay...but After you give them
the name of the reservation. I balked at that point though...afraid I would
be committed to something. My tickets were booked through the airline
website.
We held off making reservations thinking DD would have some ideas after she
had visited a while. But she hasn't had many ideas to offer. So I guess
it's time to do some serious checking. Thanks for the ideas. I think I'll
see if I can find some hotel names from these sites and then check them out
independently from there.
Thanks again for the observations.
Kathyl


"Mika" wrote in message
...
Kathy, being the resident travel agent for my husband's company, I am
constantly looking for "bargain" airline tickets, cheap hotel rooms or
discounts on cars. I have found it best just to go directly to the
hotel/car/airline website and book it there. There are times when I need
an off the wall airline ticket or something so I will go to Orbitz or
Travelocity to see what airlines go to the location I want, rather than
searching each individual website, but then I go to the airline website to
book it. Same with hotels and cars. In fact, I have found that Orbitz has
become increasingly more expensive than the airline/hotel/car websites.
Travelocity often offers the same price however they have so many
restrictions on changes or cancellations that it's more of a hassle to use
them.

Of course, the nature of my husband's business often requires last minute
changes to reservations so I need fully refundable/changeable
reservations. I have thought about using Priceline a couple of times but I
detest the idea of not being able to choose the time I fly or the type of
room I get. I don't like paying for the unknown in situations like this.
But this is a YMMV situation. I just would recommend going directly to the
website to book your reservations. Hope it all works out for you and you
have a wonderful time. But don't wait too long to make those reservations.

Mika
http://community.webshots.com/user/mikasdrms


"KJ" wrote in message
news:h1R9f.501743$x96.429929@attbi_s72...
DH is bugging me to get our reservations made for our trip in three weeks
to Edinburgh. Ok, ok, so I'm a little behind....he's just as capable as
I am and hasn't done it either.
Have any of you used Priceline.com to make reservations? What did you
think of the room you got? There can be such a difference in prices for
the same room, depending upon what "plan" or "code word" or "promotion"
you book the room with that I'm always concerned that I paid the premium
price. I'd like to save our $$ for other uses...shopping and meals.
I'll entertain all other options and suggestions also. You can tell I'm
not much of a traveller, huh?

--
Kathyl
remove "nospam" before mchsi
http://community.webshots.com/user/kathylquiltz

Tripadvisor.com has reviews that I have found really helpful.
Sometimes you can just tell the people writing in to complain are
difficult people, but I think if a hotel has enough reviews, it can
give you a good sense of the place.

I've never used priceline for the same reasons mentioned (too
inflexible), but I browse orbitz.com, travelzoo.com, travelocity.com,
smarterliving.com, etc. whenever I buy tickets.

Lynn

Thanks. I've never heard of that site. I'll check it out.
KJ
"quilter" wrote in message
oups.com...
Tripadvisor.com has reviews that I have found really helpful.
Sometimes you can just tell the people writing in to complain are
difficult people, but I think if a hotel has enough reviews, it can
give you a good sense of the place.

I've never used priceline for the same reasons mentioned (too
inflexible), but I browse orbitz.com, travelzoo.com, travelocity.com,
smarterliving.com, etc. whenever I buy tickets.

Lynn

Does it have to be a hotel? There are lots of B&Bs in Edinburgh, and they
tend to have lots of personality. That's not automatically a good thing, but
they would definitely be cheaper than a hotel.
Roberta in D

"KJ" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:h1R9f.501743$x96.429929@attbi_s72...
DH is bugging me to get our reservations made for our trip in three weeks
to Edinburgh. Ok, ok, so I'm a little behind....he's just as capable as I
am and hasn't done it either.
Have any of you used Priceline.com to make reservations? What did you
think of the room you got? There can be such a difference in prices for
the same room, depending upon what "plan" or "code word" or "promotion"
you book the room with that I'm always concerned that I paid the premium
price. I'd like to save our $$ for other uses...shopping and meals.
I'll entertain all other options and suggestions also. You can tell I'm
not much of a traveller, huh?

--
Kathyl
remove "nospam" before mchsi
http://community.webshots.com/user/kathylquiltz

B&Bs are fun! In Europe, they are usually a good deal for the
price. Over here, in USA, they tend to be way more expensive than
hotels, so Americans traveling abroad may avoid them. Give it a
go Kathyl! Maybe your DD can check it out for you before you
travel. Have fun. PAT

Roberta Zollner wrote:

Does it have to be a hotel? There are lots of B&Bs in Edinburgh, and they
tend to have lots of personality. That's not automatically a good thing, but
they would definitely be cheaper than a hotel.
Roberta in D

"KJ" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:h1R9f.501743$x96.429929@attbi_s72...

DH is bugging me to get our reservations made for our trip in three weeks
to Edinburgh. Ok, ok, so I'm a little behind....he's just as capable as I
am and hasn't done it either.

So, how does a B&B differ from a small hotel? I don't need room service, or
a pool or workout room. So in that regard I don't need a large expensive
hotel. We don't really want to be part of anyone's family though and I
guess that's what I think of when I picture a B&B. We don't vacation much,
as you can tell. Partly because this part of it is so stressful! Sheesh!
KJ

"Pat in Virginia" wrote in message
news:RF6af.10844$IB.7570@dukeread11...
B&Bs are fun! In Europe, they are usually a good deal for the price. Over
here, in USA, they tend to be way more expensive than hotels, so Americans
traveling abroad may avoid them. Give it a go Kathyl! Maybe your DD can
check it out for you before you travel. Have fun. PAT

Roberta Zollner wrote:

Does it have to be a hotel? There are lots of B&Bs in Edinburgh, and they
tend to have lots of personality. That's not automatically a good thing,
but they would definitely be cheaper than a hotel.
Roberta in D

"KJ" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:h1R9f.501743$x96.429929@attbi_s72...

DH is bugging me to get our reservations made for our trip in three weeks
to Edinburgh. Ok, ok, so I'm a little behind....he's just as capable as
I am and hasn't done it either.

A B&B is pretty much a rooming house. You have a bedroom and
bath. (Not necessarily en suite; not necessarily private!!)
Breakfast is served in the dining room, or other main room. You
don't become part of the family. Saying good morning is about all
that is required. That is about it. Plain and simple.
PAT in VA/USA

KJ wrote:

So, how does a B&B differ from a small hotel? I don't need room service, or
a pool or workout room. So in that regard I don't need a large expensive
hotel. We don't really want to be part of anyone's family though and I
guess that's what I think of when I picture a B&B. We don't vacation much,
as you can tell. Partly because this part of it is so stressful! Sheesh!
KJ