Road trip around France without planning, hassle?

[Alex@POD]

I'm off to France in a week. I have booked the crossings but that's as far as I got, due to work commitments and other busy weekends I've only managed to work out a rough route I want to follow.

We are taking the bike, so while I'd be happy camping wherever we end up, we simply don't have space for the camping gear. Would it be crazy to consider finding a B&B once we get somewhere? The weather and the previous day's ride will affect how far we want to go on a given day, and I'd rather not plan days that see us arriving at 10PM completely shattered...

We usually take the car and have space for camping stuff, plus my wife can sleep if she needs to and therefore stays in a better mood.

So, bite the bullet, plan some accommodation and hope it doesn't end up too far away, or wing it and hope we find something once we get there?

[BoRED S2upid]

Go for it. Formula 1 hotel chain is your friend always secure parking, always cheap and clean and in every city.

[RaptureJames]

The only thing that would need planning is avoiding/managing all the bloody toll roads!

[sparkythecat]

You'll find accommodation on the day, but the problem with doing it on the fly is that you waste a lot of time actually seeking it out and sometimes staying in digs that you wouldn't ordinarily consider suitable.

[Truckosaurus]

In these days of the internet on your telephone there's no reason not to book each night's accommodation over breakfast or lunch the same day.

[wezo]

Go for it, done it loads of times myself and you are out of peak season now, so not likely to have a problem with availability. Every largeish size place has a Tourist Information Centre and they will book you a reasonable priced room locally if you ask - it could be open to abuse and backhanders, but I've never had a problem in 20+ years of doing it.

Makes life so much more exciting, just try and get wherever you are going before about 8pm is all I would say.

[Alex@POD]

That's good to know, thanks for the input. I think winging it will give us the flexibility we need on this, and if it is a fairly common practice we shouldn't have any issues...

[anonymous-user]

I did a short trip and just used a mixture of tripadvisor / booking.com

Worked out at a coffee break where I would end up, checked a few reviews and booked online.


Worked out great.

[Silver993tt]

BoRED S2upid said:

Go for it. Formula 1 hotel chain is your friend always secure parking, always cheap and clean and in every city.

Why go to bland chain hotels when abroad? If you traveling on a bike (just 2 of you) you don't have to pre-book anywhere. Just start looking at around 5-6pm and you'll find loads of small guest houses in villages/towns with rooms free. We do that several times a year in Austria/Germany/Slovenia/Croatia. We haven't pre-booked or bothered 'research' with stuff like tripadvisor for years and always found the smaller guest houses/apartments great because you can see the physical location for real and check out the rooms before you commit to taking one.


IMO pre-booking really limits (and sometimes ruins) a trip.

Edited by Silver993tt on Sunday 30th August 07:34

[Rosscow]

Silver993tt said:

BoRED S2upid said:

Go for it. Formula 1 hotel chain is your friend always secure parking, always cheap and clean and in every city.

Why go to bland chain hotels when abroad? If you traveling on a bike (just 2 of you) you don't have to pre-book anywhere. Just start looking at around 5-6pm and you'll find loads of small guest houses in villages/towns with rooms free. We do that several times a year in Austria/Germany/Slovenia/Croatia. We haven't pre-booked or bothered 'research' with stuff like tripadvisor for years and always found the smaller guest houses/apartments great because you can see the physical location for real and check out the rooms before you commit to taking one.


IMO pre-booking really limits (and sometimes ruins) a trip.

Edited by Silver993tt on Sunday 30th August 07:34

I agree, especially when you're on a bike and can park anywhere.

Had several trips round Spain and Portugal on motorbikes and never bothered booking any accommodation.

[marcg]

Pull off the motorway and look for small dark blue signs saying "chambres d'hotes". This is a national scheme where locals provide a double bedroom with access to a private bathroom, dinner with the host family and breakfast. Fantastic opportunity to meet people as well as get home cooking. We did this with our mx5 ten years ago in mid august. If the first place didn't have space they phoned around and someone else in the village put us up. We went from calais to bordeaux to the alps in high season with nothing booked in advance.

[BoRED S2upid]

Silver993tt said:

BoRED S2upid said:

Go for it. Formula 1 hotel chain is your friend always secure parking, always cheap and clean and in every city.

Why go to bland chain hotels when abroad? If you traveling on a bike (just 2 of you) you don't have to pre-book anywhere. Just start looking at around 5-6pm and you'll find loads of small guest houses in villages/towns with rooms free. We do that several times a year in Austria/Germany/Slovenia/Croatia. We haven't pre-booked or bothered 'research' with stuff like tripadvisor for years and always found the smaller guest houses/apartments great because you can see the physical location for real and check out the rooms before you commit to taking one.


IMO pre-booking really limits (and sometimes ruins) a trip.

Edited by Silver993tt on Sunday 30th August 07:34

It's just a cheap reliable hotel chain that's all over France and is easy to find if he's stuck one night. It would be a rubbish trip if you just stuck to these.

[NDA]

I've done this several times through France - it's good fun.

My rule of thumb was to start looking for a place around 4pm and to travel a maximum of 200 miles a day..... The 4pm rule left time to enjoy the surroundings of the base. Usually found a place within the hour.

France should be moderately free of tourists given the kids are about to return to school.

[matsoc]

It can be done without planning at all too but during these kind of trips we generally give a look on the iPhone at breakfast time ot during the day to look for something suitable for the night, there are many chambres d'hôtes around France that are really nice.

[z4RRSchris]

did two weeks just gone using booking.com for a mixture of three and four star hotels.

book two nights in advance so at least you have some comfort.

[Alex@POD]

Thanks for all the replies, I've been away in the back of beyond and not been able to comment, there wasn't even any basic phone signal...

I'm much more confident about this now, I'm not even too bothered about the last word in comfort as long as I have a dry place to sleep... I'll definitely play it by ear and see what happens day to day.

I'm interested to hear from the people who voted for planning it, what puts you off leaving it to the last minute?

[Hi]

I would also vote for just play it by ear, no need to book stuff in advance and leaves you the flexibility of not having to travel to a set destination by a set time.

Also I would strongly advise to avoid the hotel f1 chain like the plague, you will probably catch the plague if you go anywhere near them! I have no idea how they are allowed to operate as a business with such filthy rooms. I went on a trip down through france and had booked in advance a hotel f1 stay for each of the 7 nights, every single night we had to find alternative accommodation as the rooms were not clean enough to use, bed sheets were dirty and stained at every single one we stopped at, definitely one to avoid.

[anothernameitist]

I used to use F1 many years ago.

Unfortunately they have gone into astronomical decent and I'd never use them as a minimum an IBIS budget or a refurbed Premier classe

[Alex@POD]

I stayed in an F1 a couple of years ago, I remember booking it and looking forward to it, on the strength of a stay in the same hotel some 10 years before that. Bottom line, I won't be booking one of those again in a hurry!

Very practical and cheap, but they have gone downhill a lot...

[rupert the dog]

anothernameitist said:

I used to use F1 many years ago.

Unfortunately they have gone into astronomical decent and I'd never use them as a minimum an IBIS budget or a refurbed Premier classe

Yes, we found the same re F1 hotels, used to be decent budget options, now most of them don't even have a bathroom. Watch out for Logis hotels, a chain of independents. Mostly good value for money and decent food (although we did stay in a stinker in Arles earlier this year!) We travelled through Italy and France with no bookings except ferries and first night in France, only had a problem once. Go for it, you'll love it.