Beccarose

How feasible is it to play lodging by ear? I have an idea of where we want to go but a lot of these places we have not been before and I'd rather not book 2-3 nights in a place only to get there and see we don't like it and want to move on but be stuck staying there anyway. When we did our UK tour back in 1999 we did a lot of our lodging on the fly. Is this still possible? I understand if it's a more popular place we may have a difficult time finding vacancies but will it be impossible? We don't need a lot of space and don't really have any particulars, just a place to stay.

To be specific, we are flying into London, and I know (or think? correct me if I am wrong) we need to have London pre-booked and then heading south and going along the coast to Cornwall and then heading as far as we can toward Manchester- but mostly we will be judging it all as we go- the type of thing where you're driving along and decide as you go where to stop for the night. Is this even possible?

Editing to add this will be a summer trip- that probably matters in replies.

fulwood

tripadvisor is good for reviews on places..

Editha

I would expect to have more bad experiences if I don't book in advance than if I do. I have booked in advance and then walked out when the Bed and Breakfast turned out to be awful. But that has happened to me only once. There are very good sites on the internet now, with reviews, so you are booking in advance with a lot of information, whereas if you just turn up in a town you have to accept whatever you can get.

I always go to the official tourism site and start there. Cornwall for example: http://www.visitcornwall.com/. I also use tripadvisor, but some of the reviews are put on by the hotels themselves.

Pistolpete2

Most English schools will "go back" around the first week in September so, IF you are heading for Cornwall around or just after then (note: not sure exactly what you mean by Summer as September to my mind is still Summer) you should be Ok going on-speck.

B&Bs and budget hotels (Premier Inn and Travelodge) tend to be much fuller at weekends than during the week so the weekends could be an issue is you are not booked ahead. The places that are not busy in what is high season and at weekends do not really bode well for quality, IMHO.

How many of you will be traveling? We often find it hard to get family rooms which sleep three or more at the right price, if at all. Note that Premier Inns and Travelodges* (they have these in Cornwall too) sleep a family of four (kids must be under sixteen) in one room for the price of a double and kids eat breakfast for free. It might just be worth doing proper planning for the weekends, leaving weekdays more open.

*You also get better pricing if you can book 21 days or more ahead - but it is non-refundable.

We use the Travelodge at Southwark when in London but it is getting more popular these days - prices are on a yield management system so vary with demand like the budget airlines. Will also be using Travelodge in Brighton and Tunbridge Wells this year - both typically have decent pricing on weekdays.

Check Travelodge at Beckington near Bath if you need to break your journey between South Coast and Cornwall with Bath side-trip. Also Travelodges in Torquay and Paignton.

In general I agree with the other posters that tripadvisor is worth using failing anything else because you are at least not going in completely blind.

Unfortunately tripadvisor doesn't cover everybody, and is most definitely a matter of taste, and your own research, if you still have the time when in a rush at the last moment, can sometimes prove to produce a better turn of events. I've fundamentally disagreed with tripadvisor as being consensus both too positive and too negative on a number of occasions, particularly where the reviewers were one-off visitors while I had the chance to check on a regular basis, quite aside from the possibility that somebody was on there waxing lyrical of themselves.

Editha

There have also been reported cases of bad reviews on tripadvisor being placed by rival hotels or restaurants.

I use tripadvisor, but with caution. I've actually found it more reliable for the UK than in Europe or Canada.

Pistolpete2

I know, horrible isn't it!

I try to get a feel for regions, be it for lodging or eateries etc., from very regular down-to-earth posters who live in that region, where they clearly care about the degree of detail that they go into for the assistance of other readers, whilst myself taking care that their profile roughly matches my own in terms of age-group and travel traits/desires.

Beccarose

Thanks- actually what I meant is if we planned to (just an example here) say stay in Hastings for 3 days but got there and realized we did not want to stay there after all, is it possible to float into another town and assume there will be some lodging? For comparison sake, we live on an island in the US, it's touristy but it's still generally possible to get lodging at the spur of the moment, it may not necessarily be the town you were hoping for but the next town over should have something.
There are 5 of us, and yes, I realize that makes it much harder, it's 2 adults and 3 kids 16 and under. Are we fooling ourselves in thinking we should be able to manage alright without reservations? Like I said we are wanting to explore- get good feelings of towns as possible places to move to, I'd hate to have some place/town be on the list only to get there and see we don't want to consider it after all but still have to stay there because we had reservations.
Tripadvisor is definitely on our list as a semi-good source of deciding if a place is suitable but what we really want it to not be tied down to an itinerary. If we decide to spend a week in Cornwall instead of 3 days, I'd like to be able to do that.

Pistolpete2

Frankly, I think that it is going to be a "reach" for you to get accomm for all five of you on spec in season on a regular basis - I'm guessing then that it would probably be two rooms and not one big family room. You could be hunting high and low just to find a place.

Just some thoughts here:

Is it not better for you to come up with the rough list of the places that you want to check out in each region

South Coast, I'm guessing is now Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton
Devon is Torquay, Paignton plus?
Cornwall, not sure what you want on the list
Manchester, Knutsford, Nantwich, Chester, Wirral etc etc

You will probably need a day in transit between South Coast and Devon unless you plan to set-off very early in the morning due to traffic AND the direct routes into Devon/Cornwall (A303/M3 etc.) lead out of London and are UP from the coast so you need to travel a way to get to them.

You would definitely need somewhere to stop between Cornwall and Manchester as it is a roundabout route via periphery of Birmingham to get there.

Then at least try to book something as a central base so that you can cover all the roughly desired spots in each region. Plus, this way do not have to check out of your overnight spot each and every morning. Look at the fast/trunk road networks in your areas to explore and use these as the basis for your plan to get to see the places.

Also, maybe add a luxury/bonus destination in each region which you can then sacrifice for the sake of further time needed to check out one of the other spots on the list, if need be.

For example,

Stay somewhere around Lewes and then use that place to explore all of Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton and even Lewes. On the last day, check out Brighton before heading on along the A27 and stay in a spot near Salisbury before heading on down to Torquay the next day.

allow three days for Torquay area staying in one spot

Head into Cornwall along North Cornwall coast to see the Moors and attractive fishing ports

Find somewhere in Camborne/Redruth area to use as your base for exploring

St Ives, Land's End, St Mawes maybe, Truro, Helston, Porthleven, The Lizard

The roads are decent enough that you should be able to get around and see plenty without too much strain, and also see some beaches.

On the way to Manchester, find somewhere around Worcester and allow maybe two nights to explore that area which includes Herefordshire, Malvern and maybe a bit of Gloucestershire.

Use the same concept up near Manchester

Leave some gaps so that you can add things if necessary but try to work out where it is likely feasible to find a place if need be.

It's just a thought!

BTW, are you thinking of Cornwall in terms of a place to settle?

Pistolpete2

Just further to this,

Most B&Bs will require a deposit from you or your credit card to secure the booking and this is at least partially non-refundable if you change your arrangements but Premier Inn (cancel by 1:00pm) Travelodge (cancel by 12:00 noon) and Holiday Inn Express (typically cancel by 4:00 pm) offer more flexibility if you book their flexible rates and have to cancel.

Editha

I've used b&b's quite a lot in the last few years. They often ask for my credit card details when I book, but not always, and I can't think of an occasion when they've actually taken a deposit before I arrive.

Pistolpete2

For me it varies, it's either the one or the other, but the point is that if you are a no-show you will get charged in some fashion in almost every case in season, because they have held a room for you (at least two in this case) and will not be able to replace the lost revenue.

Looking at a few websites in England, it seems pretty typical that you secure your booking with a credit card (sometimes a deposit) and if you cancel within 48 hours of the scheduled check-in time you either lose the whole booked amount (net of any deposit already paid - which of course you also lose) or the first night's stay.

Of course the credit card security is also there to ensure that you actually pay your bill and don't do a "runner" after you've stayed but before you've paid on the morning of scheduled departure.

Beccarose

Thanks for that, some good ideas.

You're right, we will probably have to manage with 2 rooms, but odds are we will have to manage with 2 rooms even if we booked in advance.

Yes, Cornwall is on our list of considerations- can I ask why you asked? I'm always curious what others have to say about places.

We don't need anything fancy, just a place to lay our heads at night, we're always up for an adventure and if some place turns out to offer an adventure that's only a good thing. We stayed in one place somewhere in England that ended up being directly over a pub- it was loud, it was hot, it was smokey, it wasn't our idea of what we had hoped it would be but we still remember that place well with fond memories. It's the misadventures that tend to add so much spice to trips.

Pistolpete2

I'm only mentioning the two room requirement because two adjacent (one would think) rooms is a tough call last minute whereas ahead of time they either have it or they don't and if they don't you have time to find the one that does.

We laugh (now) at the couple of nights we once spent at The London Inn in Padstow right above the main bar in a noisy smokey room with nasty bed linen but the place has happily been done up in recent times and might be a good call for an overnight stay. The pub is a lovely social centre and hopefully still has excellent fresh crab sandwiches.

I know Cornwall well having gone every year just about from 1951 to 1975 inclusive and one of my sisters lives there. I was looking to buy there in the late nineties but up near Bodmin Moor but was put off due to maintenance issues due to the well-above average rainfall between the North Cornwall coast and the moorland.

It was on our list because of schools/colleges in Truro which is a vibrant enough place that we could live there but our prerequisite is really sailing activity in the short-term, hence the particular interest. Sadly the Merrivale Charcuterie is no longer in existence in Truro. I still have a romantic notion about the West Country in general and Cornwall in particular so that in spite of the almost finalised plan to now settle near Exeter we would still want to have good access to Cornwall so that we can visit as and when.

You can get to a number of places by air from Newquay Airport which helps but it is a bit of a hike by rail to "civilisation" and this puts many (particularly those who want to pop up to London for the day) off, plus it is rather too rural - in its way of thinking - for many tastes too but of course others are attracted by the slower pace of things and why not indeed. Cornwall still has a romantic feel about it, particularly in foul weather - as in Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca or Jamaica Inn!

You are wanting to rent and renting is a good proposition down there relative to many places in the UK in that a property valued at 200,000 pounds might rent for 500-600 a month, but 800 a month or more closer to business centres. Your animals would be better catered for down there as well.

Beccarose

Thanks, good thought! Funny (almost scary) how much I assume things! Here I thought it would not matter when we would have to get 2 rooms anyway... then again being in a separate area of a hotel than the kids actually sounds sort of nice...

I may just be picking your brain on places to stay, seeing if you have any thoughts!

London, last time we were there we stayed at Hotel Ibis at Heathrow and good grief what an experience! My husband is petrified of driving in London so we will have to find some way of working around all of this...

Pistolpete2

I'm not sure that hotels will necessarily allow you to be in a separate area from your young kids hence the need to have availability of two adjacent rooms, unless one adult is assigned to each room.

Your comments ref driving are the main reason that I am discouraging looking for accommodation on spec. The Uk is just not like the US in terms of checkerboard towns where the navigation is fairly easy to work out and you could spend a large amount of the time well and truly lost unless you are using satnav and even then. Looking for a place to stay in a town the size of Eastbourne, Hastings or Brighton in the late afternoon is going to mean dealing with a fair amount of heavy traffic - not Hyde Park Corner or Marble Arch but still hectic.

I don't think that it makes any sense to be in charge of a rental car while staying in London. Far better to pick a hotel close to public transport that will cover your main areas of interest and use that to reduce both cost and stress, particularly as a family. Get closer in than Heathrow.