comforttravel@less$

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Hotel reservations in Le Havre electronic glitch…

Keep in mind, it took me years of wrong turns and stormy seas to find out what I offer to you when you continue reading this comforttravel@less$ blog—a how to enjoy your vacation no matter what goes wrong, count yourself lucky that you can take some time off from life's cares to get away from the sameness of same days on end.

After completing the booking logistics for my overnight in Frankfurt, I did have to decide on which hotel to book at my rest up destination, Le Havre.

I kept in mind that I aimed to avoid uncertainty about what services I could expect, and I searched for French hotel chains—I chose Mercure Hotels—their brand is well known in France and other destination countries worldwide—this chain brand does guarantee certain service features that include a hotel room with amenities commensurate with the 4 star rating. And from my online search, I determined that Mercure had a USA reservations number.

I was glad that I could make my inquiries person to person—I've found out from previous experience that the intricacies of booking online will make it harder to spot some factors that would discourage me from staying at a hotel.

According to the online research I did, this hotel is within a block of the train station. I knew that I would be arriving by train, and I could call to find out if I could obtain a better price for booking for 5 days—though first, I had to determine the going price for comparable hotels in Le Havre. The best way to do this is to get on to the popular hotel booking sites—I used my search engine's inquiry for "Le Havre, France hotels"—and I checked each listing re the dates I needed, then I found that all of them had a comparable price.

My next step, a call to the Mercure USA reservation center tollfree number.

And subsequently, I discovered that this call center was in the Philippines—the reservationist spoke English, but textbook, and not colloquial English. As we spoke I had to repeat my booking dates, and I was wary of a possible language barrier. I asked to be connected to the lead agent, she asked me to wait, and when she returned, she offered me a discounted price in American dollars at a $40 savings for each of 2 of the 5 days that I wanted, and $20 each discount for the other 3 days.

Of course, I knew that the price would be converted into Euros when I paid my credit card company (the price on the other sites was also quoted in Dollars)—although I didn't check as to whether I could obtain a better price for a 5-day stay, I knew that I would be dealing with a middle man, not directly with the Mercure chain—see my next post for more about an electronic glitch experience.

*Check out my Authors Guild maintained website to find out all about my me, read another one of my blogs, find links to my other blogs, and the books that I have written, also a way to contact me with your comments.

Check out my other Authors Guild maintained website to find out about my upcoming E-book travel guide series.

**I am a multitask writer, as I am also in the process of writing my latest fiction novel, Book II, PARIS WARP Jousting Devils And Dragons but this is a trilogy which explores the supernatural as it exists in tandem with the world as we know it.The trilogy starts with Book I, The Haunting And Paradise Taxi/print ISBN 9780615685434 print also available as E-book Nook Smashwords Edition ISBN 9780989053600 BarnesandNoble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-haunting-and-paradise-taxi-cynthia-lynn/1114061302?ean=2940044602069

Apple https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/haunting-paradise-taxi/id666549806 ; Sony;Kobo

I also offer travel advice for type "A" personalities…

In this posting, I'm taking a break from detailing more about my hotel reservations, to remind my readers that keeping your stress level to a minimum creates the best travel experience—for every personality, my advice will add to your comforttravel@less$.

You don't have to be a type "A" personality to plan a vacation carefully, in fact, if you are such a person, then you should devote enough time to do all you can to insure that your bookings will accomplish your purpose, which is to have a hassle free vacation. There's only one problem, traveling anywhere entails uncertainty. But then if you want certainty in life, there isn't any.

The uncertainty of unexpected events, crises, all things in life are out of an individual's control—let me reassure all type "A" personalities, if you do your travel planning as I suggest, then put your mind at ease—when planning a trip, or a vacation, and doing all I can to insure that it will be a good one, lowers my pre-trip stress level.

Then when something goes wrong, as it will and does in our everyday lives, I accept that this Murphy's Law (if something can go wrong it will), whatever happens will be out of my control, but I do whatever is necessary to right my metaphorically overturned boat and take steps to keep my balance in a sea of stormy waters.

Read my next post, I'll be back to my travel plans, and what I thought might be some electronic glitches, but I'll come back bushy tailed to tackle life on life's terms—though my next post will get down to basics, and more about the process of completing my travel plans.

Check out my other Authors Guild maintained website to find out about my upcoming E-book travel guide series.

**I am a multitask writer, as I am also in the process of writing my latest fiction novel, Book II, PARIS WARP Jousting Devils And Dragons but this is a trilogy which explores the supernatural as it exists in tandem with the world as we know it.The trilogy starts with Book I, The Haunting And Paradise Taxi/print ISBN 9780615685434 print also available as E-book Nook Smashwords Edition ISBN 9780989053600 BarnesandNoble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-haunting-and-paradise-taxi-cynthia-lynn/1114061302?ean=2940044602069
Apple https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/haunting-paradise-taxi/id666549806 ; Sony;Kobo

When making a travel booking research pays off…

The fact that the neighborhood adjacent to the central station and my Choice Hotel, The Clarion Collection, is a red light district came up when I did the research, re possible noise factor for room overlooking the district—I found that by requesting a corner room, I could avoid this possible interference with my sleep. This wasn't a problem for me, I have been in Frankfurt before, and I know the red light district is patrolled by the police—not because there are problems, the women who conduct their business want police protection handy. These women maintain shop front windows to advertise to prospective clients.

Engaging in prostitution is Frankfurt, Germany, is a legal business endeavor without any measurement of the morality. These are businesses that pay taxes to the city of Frankfurt. The city of Amsterdam has a similar district, and I've been there too—in both of these cities many tourists walk by in the daylight hours to see the store front displays of mostly beautiful women who sit comfortably aware that they are on view, they charge top price for their services, which are government controlled re health screenings and rate scale.

I was able to secure a good price plus the ability to cancel up to 24 hours prior to my reservation—I also was expecting that if I gave my credit card information, I would get an immediate e-mail acknowledgement with a list of service and features I could count on—and when I researched restaurants within walking distance, I found one featuring prime steaks at a very reasonable price, and I e-mailed the hotel directly (I obtained the address from the USA reservations) and asked them to book me a dinner reservation, also I asked for a corner room.

And I received an overnight courteous reply overnight, re the restaurant reservation I wanted, and that my request for a room location was noted.

More about the other hotels I choose, and my train reservations in my next post.

*Check out my Authors Guild maintained website to find out all about my me, read another one of my blogs, find links to my other blogs, and the books that I have written, also a way to contact me with your comments.

A primer about the choosing of a hotel…

Traveling is matter of pruning common sense toward the skeptical about what services are offered without a place to a corporate reputation to protect. To complain about the dishonest representation of a hotel's services, it's a mistake to be dependent on the hotel that may not care about their reputation. Whenever traveling either in the USA or overseas, I have found that hotel standards can be more easily determined by consulting a chain hotel's website for information re any hotel that is listed—look at the services provided, and what is guaranteed, the cancellation policy and special prices that may be available during certain times of year or days of the week.

There is always a USA tollfree number for a person to person questioning, which may not be available for a hotel that is not affiliated with a chain franchise or direct ownership by the chain corporation—even hotels that are owned by a franchise group have to maintain the corporate standards and guarantees.

Though, when overseas, it may be tempting to book a very picturesque private property, keep in mind that what is stated on the website or recommendation site may or may not be accurate. If you don't mind a bad night's stay because you are moving on to another destination, then there's no problem.

Keep in mind that individual properties offer lower prices for longer stays, and to book a lower price you will have to book more than 1 night. In my case, re booking a hotel in Frankfurt, where I plan to travel to from Hamburg so that I can adhere to my comforttravel@less$ without sacrificing serenity and a rest from traveling several hours by train meant using a chain hotel with a tollfree USA reservation service. My plan to depart for Paris re a direct train from there at 8:15 a.m., allows me the luxury of choosing a hotel within walking distance to the Frankfurt's central station.

From my research online, I discovered that I could get the services I want (private bathroom and room service if I want it, decent size room, 24 hour telephone service to the front desk, and a wakeup call + coffee maker) at the corporate chain Choice Hotels. I plan to wheel my luggage to this city within a city, the huge Hauptbahnhof, without a hassle—I was watching the price considering the competition for 3 star hotels within proximity to my point of departure for Paris, and I noticed that the Choice Hotel chain had a 3 star rating but the amenities were in my opinion worth a 4 star rating, with coffee maker in the room and small beverage refrigerator + room was a decent size with private bathroom also blow dryer for hair.

See my next post for more discoveries that I made about my choice of a Choice Hotel in Frankfurt.

*Check out my Authors Guild maintained website to find out all about my me, read another one of my blogs, find links to my other blogs, and the books that I have written, also a way to contact me with your comments.

the bugaboo, prepaid train tickets, and more…

Insofar as my experience with travel planning, the biggest problem I have encountered is this perpetual quandary: should I make train reservations when getting somewhere within a certain period of time is crucial. This is the first quandary that beset me in this back to back transatlantic cruise on the Queen Mary 2. With only 8 days to spare in-between the cruises, I didn't have any time to spare re standing on line queues that are always packed with eager travelers who have waited to make their plans until the last minute, or who needed to make changes to reservations that may or may not be changeable.

I had to choose to make my train reservations keeping mind that I wanted to have comforttravel@less$, which meant advance reservations at better prices. Let me be clear, I am never happy with cementing travel plans that may necessitate cancellation, and this having to pay in advance makes me leery of what I will lose if my plans are incorrect.

The fact is that there is no way to avoid advance planning if there is a set time for travel to be completed and for a return back home.

Though, to keep your losses (and there well may be some) to a minimum, setting up the hotels (or other places to stay) is a necessity. And for my blog readers, please note, that I am making these travel advice postings that happen to coincide with my current transatlantic cruise in short spurts—reading a talking head giving advice is tiresome for me, so I assume this applies to my readers too—read more about my hotel reservations in the next post.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

I make mistakes, too…

Needless to say, I make mistakes, too, and I knew I was barking up the wrong tree—in this case taking a ferry to a small English town with 1 train daily was unacceptable. Especially when I considered that the Ferry might be late, and I'd be stranded there unable to get the train until the following date late in the p.m., well after the Queen departed without me. But I decided that Le Havre was the perfect comforttravel@less$ rest up from train travel that would be stressful re luggage, keeping to train schedules, and having to find the right departure track in Hamburg's central station.

I started the next leg of my logistics plan, making the reservations for hotels and trains, from square 1, which was my landing in Hamburg.

First, I had to determine whether I could get a train to Paris from which major German city. Le Havre. As I determined from more online research, and though I knew nothing about Hamburg's cruise port, as I discovered, Hamburg built a newer more accommodating port for ships as big as the Queen—instead of Altoona which is a distance from Hamburg city, further on down the channel Hamburg opened a huge city-like cruise port that they call cruise center HaffenCity.

I looked for an online map (Google obliged) to show me how I'd get from there to Hamburg's central train station. I saw that with luggage, and my need for comfort, I had to take a taxi. More research online helped me determine that the cost wouldn't be excessive as Hamburg city is just about 15-20 minutes away from HaffenCity. I looked online for some information about Hamburg taxi fares, and determined that 20 Euros would be about the most it would cost. I could have opted for the commuter train as the train station is within walking distance, but I intended to keep my stress level low, and I'm was going to negotiate steps to get down into the station with my luggage.

More online research helped me determine that that Hamburg's central station is now also city-like in its scope— Hauptbahnhof (central station) is a new and glorious German engineering creation for what they like to think of as their 21^st century city. And I knew that I needed to find out which Germany city had a direct connection to Paris. The only city was Frankfurt, and it was possible to get there early enough to overnight.

To keep my comfort level, I knew better than to try to travel all day and into the night to get to Paris. I also looked at the train schedule from Frankfurt to Paris to Le Havre, a city within 2 hours of Paris and determined that I could leave for Paris at 8 a.m. or close to that hour, arrive in Paris at Paris Est train station. From there, I would have to find a way to get to the station (St. Lazare) that had direct trains to Le Havre.

This part of my preplan was important, because the hassle of traveling by train with luggage can be stressful—my aim remained the comforttravel@less$ , and it was necessary to make the train reservations as soon as possible to get the best fare—Rail Europe offered me a way to have my paper tickets in hand to take with me in my travel documents carrier. I wanted something that I could put around my neck and have the conveyance of reaching for what I needed without rummaging for it in a carryon or backpack, and I put this item on my "buy for trip" list.

I linked on line to the Rail Europe website that I had bookmarked in my favorites, from there I found the trains and schedules and picked which trains would be appropriate, then I took a break to figure out the next step in my preplan process—see my next post for more.

*Check out my Authors Guild maintained website to find out all about my me, read another one of my blogs, find links to my other blogs, and the books that I have written, also a way to contact me with your comments.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Travel plans can often take time

*A MESSAGE FOR MY READERS: I will be away from mid-August through October and I am setting out several posts that will have the same date which can be read as if posted at different times.

The thrust of this post how to achieve comforttravel@less$—travel plans can often take time, but trust me when I say that every moment spent is worthwhile—though of course my NO MORE HOTELS (TM) E-book destination city series will make it almost effortless to do this preplanning. In these destination city E-books—I intend to present the logistics of the preplan process for my readers. My reader can then access the internet (either on their reader, or laptop/desktop computer, to link on to the websites I suggest as best for making preplans. The first of these E-books No More Hotels In Paris is in the writing and research process—and I expect this book to be ready in time for vacation high season next year. Keep checking out my website http://www.nomorehotels.org for information and follow this blog for my progress.

Now, how to tackle preplanning logistics, as I did for this voyage on the Queen that needed doing for comforttravel@less$, and to get all of my hotel reservations, train tickets + determine where to rest up, it took me 6 days. I spent a few hours at a time to accomplish small portions of research online and then a few hours on the phone.

Here's what I did.

Keep in mind that I want value for my money, and to get it, I had to preplan smart, which means I had to know my final destination from the cruise port—Southampton for the return voyage on October 8. I had 8 days to get there. Yet, I didn't want to stay in Paris where I could get the Eurostar to London and from there get to Southampton, I wanted to stay somewhere close enough to allow me to leave the day before October 8, and spend October 7 overnight in Southampton to be ready to board the Queen at 12 noon.

I looked online for a map of France, as I determined that I needed to be in the proximity of Paris, but find a restful relaxing 7 days. I also was thinking about taking a ferry to Southampton from somewhere in France. But this turned out to be a bad idea, once I did more online search and determined that a ferry to Southampton was chancy.

AND NOW my readers, take a break, and see my next post to find out how I settled on the better way.

* *I am a multitask writer, as I am also in the process of writing my latest fiction novel, Book II, PARIS WARP Jousting Devils And Dragons but this is a trilogy which explores the supernatural as it exists in tandem with the world as we know it. The trilogy starts with Book I, The Haunting And Paradise Taxi/print ISBN 9780615685434 print also available as E-book Nook Smashwords Edition ISBN 9780989053600 BarnesandNoble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-haunting-and-paradise-taxi-cynthia-lynn/1114061302?ean=2940044602069 Apple https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/haunting-paradise-taxi/id666549806 ; Sony;Kobo /Sony/Kobo). Check out my websites maintained by Authors Guild: http://www.cynthialynn.org and http://www.nomorehotels.org .