vilakins | Holiday question

Holiday question

During our holiday, we want to stay in reasonably comfortable accommodation but not spend a lot. Can people tell me, are B&Bs a good cheap way to go, or are pubs a better deal? I heard of people on hiking, sorry, rambling holidays just turning up at village pubs and getting a room. Is this likely and easy? We'll have a rental car so we can drive to the next village easily enough.

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I heard of people on hiking, sorry, rambling holidays just turning up at village pubs and getting a room. Is this likely and easy?

Certainly not everywhere. Where pubs have rooms, they're generally good places to stay, but pubs in small villages are quite unlikely to have rooms unless it's a very touristy place, in which case they could well be full. I'd check ahead myself - one thing a lot of those places do now have is web sites.

If you are in a town or high tourist area in normal working hours (9.00-5.00) go to the Tourist Information Center. They will have information on accommodation not only for there immediate area but leaflets at least for a wide area around them and for other areas as well, judging from our own TIC in Newport. Turning up in an unknown village and taking pot luck could lead you to an interesting experience of the Chinese curse variety. Personally I would go the B&B route as Pubs can be noisy and not as comfortable since accommodation is a secondary income to them so they don't give it as much attention as the B&Bs do.

Why don't you stay at Youth Hostels? Some of them do double rooms now and they are very clean and super cheap. You also meet some really nice people in them ...

What's the deal with them? Do you have to join up, and do chores? Is there an age limit?

We have cheap backpacker hostels here, but I don't want to share rooms with strangers any more. I've been kept up all night with noisy people or lonely ones wanting to tell me their life story a little too often in the past. :-(

I hadn't thought of Youth Hostels but then the last time I had anything to do with them was when I was at college. We used them on a field trip to Scotland and it was definitely communal back then but there was no age bar as our tutors came with us and they were at least in their forties and one in his fifties. Further information can be found on www.hosteluk.com, I know they have change radically in the last 30 years

The prices you gave me for some inns in your area a while back weren't that much more than YHA prices so I think I'll be able to find something if I look.

...hiking, sorry, rambling...

Don't Kiwis call it 'tramping' anymore? I know that'll get one sniggered at (or worse) in the US, but I thought we were too bloody-minded to let that change our vocab.

As for accommodation, I haven't much to add to the advice you've already had. My parents are members of YHA in NZ, and they have hostels all over the world. You have to pay a subscription, though. UK site here. NZ site here.

Don't Kiwis call it 'tramping' anymore?

Yes, New Zealanders still do (I hate being called a kiwi; I'm a human who has no trouble with the extra two syllables) but I didn't think anyone but you would understand it. :-) I rather like the English term myself, or the German 'wandern' which I did a lot of when I lived there. Rambling and wandering are more my style, taking my time to enjoy the views and my companion's conversation rather than the competitive "I'm fitter and faster than you" attitude you often get here.

I know hostels have improved but I've had a look around and there are cheaper inns and guest houses which aren't much more than youth hostels and we can be sure of a room to ourselves and somewhere to leave our stuff. I'm sure we'll find something. I'm a bit loath to book ahead as I like to be flexible.

Many pubs don't offer accomodation, so if you aren't sure of where to stay you may be better off with B&Bs or hostels. In addition to the other link, you might check http://www.yha.org.uk/Home/Home_Page/index.html since youth hostels are open to anyone, and there are hostels listed there which might not appear on other sites. It might be worth searching for B&Bs ahead of time if you're looking for a good deal. tuckedup.com (http://www.tuckedup.com/uk/) seems to offer a handy and simple search. Talking of lighthouses, btw, is this place (http://www.tuckedup.com/stayat/112/The_West_Usk_Lighthouse.php) where you're staying in Newport? :-D

I'd offer a night's kip at our family home in Bristol, but the one spare room is currently full of junk, leaving just the double futon in my own loft room (I sleep on the floor myself, 'cause the futon's a waste of space.) Feel free to give us a call if you get stuck though.

Yes, I saw that and no, we're not staying there unless Greg really wants to; it's a bit pricey. He's always been fascinated by lighthouses so we thought if we found a B&B in one we'd consider it. We only found a couple though. We'll have to go to Wellington and stay in the one there some day.

I'm sure we'll find something around Bristol or Bath; if not, we're staying with

linda_joyce near Newport and that's not all that far away.

I'd forgotten about The Lighthouse, when we natives think of the Lighthouse we tend to think of the pub and the caravan park. At £90 for two per night it is the expensive end of lodgings but having looked at its web site I might even treat myself to a night there when my boat comes in. It was still a working lighthouse when I first saw it, back in the days when dinosaurs walked the Earth, and the view of the sea is not as idyllic as they give the impression, both the Usk and the Severn being muddy, the tide always seems to be out when I'm down there and mudflats are not the most beautiful things in the world to look at. The view across the estuary being industrial doesn't help it either, but considering you are barely 5 miles from the town center it really is very rural down there.

Oh I dunno. Mudflats have their charm :-D The squiggly ones by the Avon make all sorts of interesting shapes -- even moreso when they 'grow' onto the riverside path. Shame about the shopping trollies though.

Ye, there used to be a Tesco in Newport town center and the mud flats by the town bridge were the shopping trolley burial grounds.You still see a few but they are from Marks or BHS and far fewer, their customers don't have the same urge to watch shopping trolleys drown. Does Bristol have wading pigeons, we do, they scavenge for algae and other biological detritus on the town mud flats.

Pigeons on the mud? No, not really. Just shedloads of seagulls eating unidentifiable stuff. :-)

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