Terri July 31st, 2008
With the dollar weaker than ever, here is some good news. You can still find decent hotels in Paris for under 100 Euros. They may not have all the amenities, but they do have clean rooms with en-suite bathrooms.
Terri July 23rd, 2008
More than 52 hotels and resorts located throughout Europe in the World Hotel chain are eliminating the Euro-to-US dollar exchange rate for bookings made within the United States. A US traveler booking a stay for EUR €150 per night, for example, will only pay USD 150 – a saving of about a 40% (at today’s exchange rate.)
Terri August 29th, 2007
It is always fun to hear about new hotels opening or old hotels being refurbished. I love staying in hotels…the more posh, the better. However in our household, the budget reigns supreme, so sometimes I just live vicariously through the hotel descriptions in their news releases and websites. The following are not recommendations, just announcements.
Terri June 22nd, 2007
In a new venture by some former Expedia executives, you can now go to one site, TVTrip.com , to see videos for competing hotels. You can comparison-shop 1,500 hotels in Paris, London, Madrid, Brussels, and Berlin by video, and tour their neighborhoods as well. This is a beta site with future plans to add additional hotels and cities, traveler reviews, and eventually allow travelers to up-load their own videos. I viewed a few hotels where I have stayed, and think they do a great job of portraying the hotels accurately. They also seem to offer some great pricing on the hotels they show.
Terri March 13th, 2007
Paolo Tosolini has produced a great tutorial on how to use the Google Maps and the Microsoft Virtual Earth programs. Google Maps is a free service and Virtual Earth can be purchased from Microsoft. Microsoft offers a free map program with fewer features called Maps Live, which is not covered in the tutorial. A native of Italy, Paolo uses Italy as an example to show how you can see tourist sights , businesses and more on these two powerful programs. Most interesting to me is the driving directions feature. You can get street-by-street directions to various cities with just a few clicks of the mouse. Paolo explains it all simply right on the screen with his great You Tube demonstration. He also writes a blog called Italy from the Inside, which is also worth a visit.
Terri March 9th, 2007
Finding lodging in Paris is not a problem as long as you have unlimited funds and you are booking early. But it seems that most people are looking for the quintessentially charming yet inexpensive French hotel.
Terri March 3rd, 2007
If you are a fan of Trip Advisor - and we sure are - you may be interested in their list of the Top 10 Hidden Gems in Europe for 2006.
Terri February 13th, 2007
Epinions, usually thought of for reviews of consumer electronics and other goods, has a great section on Europe, where people offer up their opinions about everything from museums to entire regions. There are some gems of information in there.
Terri November 26th, 2006
Hotels-Finder is a very handy Google tool for locating hotels throughout Europe. It uses Google maps, which lets you drill down to almost any city you want. Once you zoom in close enough on a particular town or city, you can view the precise locations of most popular hotels.
Terri October 13th, 2006
TripAdvisor is probably the largest, most comprehensive travel review site on the Internet. Few things are as powerful for hotel research than honest customer reviews, and lots of ‘em!
