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Nearly booked for the accommodations
Feb. 3rd, 2014 08:21 amYou know what I'm like trying to pick a hotel... it's overwhelming and stressful, trying to decide on a hotel, location, what are the rooms like, reading between the lines of the reviews, will it be ok? Graham is quite happy for me to do all the booking and deciding and he's always liked where we've stayed. He knows I do like to do the organizing and I do send him links to check out and get his opinion just the same. Anyway, on Saturday after i got my hair cut I went to the travel agent.
Yes, I know the world wide web is out there and there are no end of booking websites. That's the problem. There are too many. Sometimes I get lucky and find something good, in the location we want and the budget we want without too much trouble and I'll book it myself. But travel agents can also get good or better rates than even on the lowest sites like Expedia or booking.com etc. They have their own booking agents that they deal with though the drawback is that those agents aren't going to have access to all the hotels that are out there. It doesn't hurt to check with them though. I generally do lots of web searching and make a short list of about 6 - 10 hotels then try to narrow it down. So I suggest those to the travel agent and see if there are any she can access. This time at least one was at her fingertips and she found another that I had seen but hadn't noted. She's put through for availability on those two. Both with wifi, both with breakfast included, one seems to have smaller rooms than the other though neither is a palace. We aren't too bothered but don't want a closet either if possible.
She also booked the Eurostar and found us a nice hotel in London for a lot cheaper than I would have found it because i looked after I got home. That hotel website had their cheapest rate at nearly $80 more than what we paid and the cheapest elsewhere was still about 25 or 30 dollars more. It's a Radisson Blu Edwardian and it's near Euston Station/top of Tottenham Court Road, a four star hotel and they call themselves luxury though to me Luxury is something like the Ritz or Claridges or Four Seasons. Anyway it'll be nice. It's got wifi and full breakfast as well and cancellation though still charging first night $$. I've already got cancellation for the plane tickets but I may see what else i can add on to it once everything is booked. Eurostar for sure and anything that will cost if it has to get cancelled.
Once all the hotels are booked, we can look at getting a car for a week in Manchester, and then when we figure out what we're doing for sure, see what we can book online. I think we're going to go to the Tower of London and there are 2 for 1 vouchers you can get with a rail ticket. Graham will have one of those for getting back to Manchester so we might be able to take advantage of that one. As long as you don't both need to have a ticket or we could get transport day passes at the train station and that would work. I do have two Oyster cards for London transport that we usually top up but i'll get the paper cards if necessary. We'll have half of Saturday and all Sunday so maybe we'll go on the Sunday though it's Easter weekend and both days will probably be insane at tourist attractions like that. Maybe aim to get there when it first opens. Note to self.
Yes, I know the world wide web is out there and there are no end of booking websites. That's the problem. There are too many. Sometimes I get lucky and find something good, in the location we want and the budget we want without too much trouble and I'll book it myself. But travel agents can also get good or better rates than even on the lowest sites like Expedia or booking.com etc. They have their own booking agents that they deal with though the drawback is that those agents aren't going to have access to all the hotels that are out there. It doesn't hurt to check with them though. I generally do lots of web searching and make a short list of about 6 - 10 hotels then try to narrow it down. So I suggest those to the travel agent and see if there are any she can access. This time at least one was at her fingertips and she found another that I had seen but hadn't noted. She's put through for availability on those two. Both with wifi, both with breakfast included, one seems to have smaller rooms than the other though neither is a palace. We aren't too bothered but don't want a closet either if possible.
She also booked the Eurostar and found us a nice hotel in London for a lot cheaper than I would have found it because i looked after I got home. That hotel website had their cheapest rate at nearly $80 more than what we paid and the cheapest elsewhere was still about 25 or 30 dollars more. It's a Radisson Blu Edwardian and it's near Euston Station/top of Tottenham Court Road, a four star hotel and they call themselves luxury though to me Luxury is something like the Ritz or Claridges or Four Seasons. Anyway it'll be nice. It's got wifi and full breakfast as well and cancellation though still charging first night $$. I've already got cancellation for the plane tickets but I may see what else i can add on to it once everything is booked. Eurostar for sure and anything that will cost if it has to get cancelled.
Once all the hotels are booked, we can look at getting a car for a week in Manchester, and then when we figure out what we're doing for sure, see what we can book online. I think we're going to go to the Tower of London and there are 2 for 1 vouchers you can get with a rail ticket. Graham will have one of those for getting back to Manchester so we might be able to take advantage of that one. As long as you don't both need to have a ticket or we could get transport day passes at the train station and that would work. I do have two Oyster cards for London transport that we usually top up but i'll get the paper cards if necessary. We'll have half of Saturday and all Sunday so maybe we'll go on the Sunday though it's Easter weekend and both days will probably be insane at tourist attractions like that. Maybe aim to get there when it first opens. Note to self.
