Welcome to the Transeurotrek - walking across Europe
Germany Munsterland to Brandenburg
Places to stay overnight on the trek
Every night we stay somewhere different and we have developed particular requirements from our now vast experience. We like to find accommodation on the route or within striking distance. We avoid cities as it involves too much urban walking with traffic hazards and more importantly usually an uninteresting and unvaried trek along streeets. We prefer small family run hotels in country towns. This provides us with personal attention as well as access to shops to buy food for the following day, a teashop if we arrive early enough, possibly a cash machine and fresh supplies. This is very important in France and Italy where we can top up the often inadequate breakfast. We prefer accommodation which serve evening meals so we don’t have to go out after a long days walk. We like functional rather than ‘fancy’ rooms, en suite, quiet, clean and warm with plenty of radiator space to dry our clothes overnight. In summer it is great to have insect screens on the windows though this is rare. We do not much like air conditioning and thankfully this is even rarer. Extra towels are great to facilitate our quaint practice of rolling our washing in them to squeeze out the water and assist overnight drying! We always manage to wash and dry our clothes each night.
We have stayed at so many places that I write only about accommodation which we have enjoyed. It is unusual to have bad accommodation, though at least once on a trip is expected. What we like would not always suit someone on a car-borne touring trip when a high level of luxury is often sought. Mostly we stay in locations away from tourist destinations and the accommodation available is not greatly targetted at tourists. The majority of the places we stay in do not ordinarily or indeed ever host British guests. So our list of acccommodation is a good guide to places to stay in areas outside main tourist areas and to find out more about the country.
I note places which we found so enjoyable that we would consider returning. This is usually because of the welcome, quality of the room or for the cuisine - sometimes for all factors. Often our hosts enhance our experience by telling us about the area - its culture, history and economy. This is a good reason to choose smaller more personal hotels, guesthouses or B&Bs.
Each country poses a different challenge in accommodation finding. When our trek began in 2003 none had websites and email. I made bookings by telephone and fax from tourist office brochures. I soon learned about each country's governance structure which determined who produced the brouchures. This can be the town, region, tourist area, national park, national government or a private organisation. Now the internet is the main source of possibilities and email the main way of confirmation of bookings. Though the source of the internet sites still varies country by country. The approach to internet design varies greatly across countries. Some countries are strong on design and others on practicality. This makes a big difference to the relative ease of locating accommodation. Remembering that we are walking, precision on the location of accommodation is vital as a variation of a kilometre or more is significant at the end of a tiring day. Some internet maps, particularly Google, prove to be quite unreliable and care needs to be taken in confirming the location of the accommodation.
Each country and areas within a country take different approaches to booking. In some countries or areas a phone call suffices with no need for any form of confirmation or deposit. In other areas a confirmatory email is essential and/or with a deposit or credit card details. Sometimes they are not too careful with security when asking for credit card details.
Accommodation in France
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