When we drive through France we rarely book hotels in advance, normally
relying on the Logis de France handbook to find suitable accommodation where
ever we happen to find ourselves at the end of a day. We find that large
towns are normally quite difficult to drive into (and park) and so we tend to
pick hotels near smaller towns or villages when we can. We find the Logis
organization excellent for this as the guide gives exactly the right kind of
information to choose a place to stay. (For anyone who doesn't know, the
Logis guide is a free publication from the French Tourism Department
published annually).
In May we are planning a trip to Venice (and beyond) and I was wondering if
anyone knows of a similar guide or handbook that will give this kind of
information about accommodation in Italy and/or Switzerland. What I am trying
to find is definitely *not* the "100 Charming Places to Stay in Italy" type
of guide. These are just too picky and don't have nearly enough entries. What
we like to be able to do on our travels is at around 3 pm wherever we find
ourselves, to be able to look up 2 or 3 hotels within 20 or 30 miles that we
can try. So I am looking for something with a large number of entries (the
Logis has around 3000 for France).
Incidentally I *have* looked at (and bought) the "Rough Guide", "Lonely
Planet" etc, but these all tend to concentrate on towns and assume you are
back-packing and travelling by train and bus. As I have said we tend to avoid
towns in our travels so these guides are sometimes helpful but not generally
ideal. (Also the Michelin Guide which we find rather up-market these days for
us).
Of course it would be ideal to have mobile internet access when abroad. I
have actually considered this but for various reasons it is just not
practicable at the moment. So I'm resigned to having my travelling library
with me for the foreseeable future when on the move. I have a feeling that
what I am looking for may just not exist, but if so it surprises me as it
seems to me that a "Logis" type guide is such an obvious thing to publish for
any country interested in promoting tourism.
--
Mike Lane (UK North Yorkshire)
To contact me replace invalid with mike underscore lane
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