Accommodation booked - now we wait !

A woman at work came to say her goodbyes today before heading off on 7 weeks holiday. We've been sharing the 'how many day till you go' conversation for a number of weeks now - her last day was exactly 100 days before mine although she's now gone and I still have 105 days till I finish up so I'm not sure what happened there...... I seem to have gained a working week somewhere along the way !

Still, it's only 75 actual work days to go !!!!

One of the things we've been discussing is our experiences with trying to book accommodation overseas. Most of the travelling we've done we have arranged ourselves and only use a travel agent for things that are just a bit too frustrating to do personally - like trying to book flights for 3 out of 4 people using F'Flyer points. If anyone knows a good travel agent(agency) that actually gives a shit please feel free to recommend - our experiences with them so far have left a bit of a sour taste.

Anyway ...... as far as booking accommodation goes we have really not had a lot of trouble arranging anything - we usually use a mix of Octopus Travel to find the initial prospects, check the reviews on Trip Advisor and then do a quick search on Google to see if the hotel has an official site so we can compare prices.

It's a bit of stuffing around I guess but the prices on Octopus have been pretty damn good plus they display the price for the total length of the stay, in your local currency, inclusive of all taxes and charges. We've always found the reviews on TripAdvisor to be very helpful also.

Where it's been a bit tricky this time is because of the length of time we are in Paris we needed to try to find an apartment rather than a hotel - 4 people in a hotel for 4 weeks was not going to be a good look ! Plus there is the cost of having to eat out for most meals etc.

After looking at hundreds of listings we finally found the perfect one - a block or so from the Louvre, 2 levels, 2 bedrooms (the 2nd bedroom for the girls has a sofa bed rather than a real bed but it's Paris, who cares ?!?! ) and all up it's incredibly better value than staying in a hotel for that length of time – it works out to about $225 Aussie dollars a day. I can recommend Paris Stay Apartments if you are looking for similar accommodation in Paris. We have found them to be very professional and easy to deal with from the word go.

For the 7 nights in New York we had originally booked a hotel but were not really fussed on the location. We ended up cancelling that when we found a better ( and much more expensive) hotel in a slightly better location but we really wanted to get an apartment for New York as well.

Last time in New York we had a hotel on 56th Street which was a good spot to be - not too long a walk to the centre of things etc ..... so we were hoping to get something between there and about 42nd Street. Both of the hotels were around 28th Street.

Finding a suitable apartment in New York was a bit more of a challenge than in Paris - for starters, almost nobody replies to emails and if they do, they do it in their own damn good time - not good when you are hanging out for a reply so you can get yourself organised. We've found that a high percentage of the short term rental apartments in NY are listed on multiple sites but the owners rarely update the availability on any of them so you have to send endless queries off to confirm availability and price.

A big thing for me with NY is that we are going to be there for New Years Eve and I REALLY wanted to be close to Times Square....... maybe not actually in Time Sq for the countdown, that many people and that level of security is a little off putting, but at least near it .... I am still a theatre slut after all :-) ...... and Times Sq at night is an almost overwhelming sight !

After trawling through endless apartment listings we finally gave up and booked the other hotel but the accommodation fairy must have been smiling on us because during a 'just one more look' search for an apartment brought up an apartment that not only seemed available, it was at a cheaper price than the hotel we had just booked and ... it was ON Broadway, IN Times Square !

Needless to say, an email was typed and sent off in record time with a reply from the owner the next day ..... so, to cut to the chase, it's now all done and dusted .... apartment is booked, deposit paid and considering where it is the price was fantastic ( certainly not cheap, but most definitely reasonable all things considered. )

That means that we now have all of the accom booked so it's just a waiting game for the next few months until D-Day arrives (D-Day = Departure Day).

I do recommend the sites linked above if you are trying to book OS accommodation - and reviews are especially important - please read them ..... Most of the reviews on Trip Advisor generally give a mix of good and bad and, really, any review is a personal and subjective thing, but after reading through a few for your hotel of choice you will get a gut feeling as to whether it is or isn't going to suit your needs.

Some pics of our apartment in Paris - this place in under $250 AUD/Day - if you are heading to Paris and plan on staying for more than a week then an apartment is likely to be a far cheaper option than a hotel

And a few pics of the apartment in NY ... the first pic is the view over Times Sq








If you are heading away for more than a week, consider an apartment over staying at a hotel ... the cost saving really can be significant, especially when you factor in the cost of having to eat in restaurants etc in a hotel. Aside from the cost saving, the aspect of shopping for day to day provisions is all part of the adventure :-)

Happy travels !