Travel Accommodation: Hotel, Bed & Breakfast Inn or Apartment

     One thing not so exciting about going on vacation in Europe (and in big cities like New York) is having to stay in tiny hotel rooms. Unless you're willing to pay a premium for a bigger room, you would have to put up with barely enough space to move around, walking sideways at times to get to the other side of the room. Don't bother looking for a closet because there's none. What you'll see are a few hooks on the wall; and every time you need to take out some clothes, you'll have to lift your heavy 30" suitcase and put it up on the bed! You're lucky if you get a teeny tiny table for whatever purpose it might serve you. The only thing that would make you feel better about the room is thinking about those capsule hotels in Japan!
     Don't get me wrong. I'm adventurous enough to be willing to try one of those Japanese "capsules" once in my lifetime just for the heck of it! But if I had a choice, I would rather not stay for more than 3 nights in a claustrophobically small room. That being the case, I was delighted to learn about 2 popular and trustworthy vacation rental websites, vrbo.com and homeaway.com. I checked them out and found very nice, modern and spacious apartments for less than the price you'll pay for 3-star hotel rooms in Europe. Hence, having planned to stay in Aix-en-Provence and Paris for a week each, my husband, Ken, and I decided to try short-term vacation rentals for our next European vacation. Amenities would normally include tea, coffee, cooking utensils and seasonings, bed linens and towels. However, just like some hotels and B&Bs in Europe, some vacation rentals may not provide wash cloths or face towels (Travel Tip: bring your own just in case).
     When looking for a place to stay in Europe, there are things that travelers need to know:
(1) Some accommodations, especially in older buildings or homes, don't have showers, only tubs.
(2) The bottom floor of a building is the ground floor; the next floor (2nd floor for Americans) is what Europeans call the "1st floor".
(3) Some places don't have air-conditioning (it could get uncomfortable staying there in the summer).
(4) Older buildings may not have "lifts" or elevators (quite inconvenient for those with heavy luggage that have to be carried 3 or 4 floors up), and those that have them may have tiny 1- or 2-person cars (it may require a couple of trips to take all luggage up an upper level room or apartment).
(5) Some apartments have washing machines but no dryers, and some don't even have both.
(6) Some vacation rentals only have pull-out couches or sofa beds (which can be uncomfortable sometimes); others only have double or full beds (which some would consider too small for a couple).
(7) Vacation rentals in popular tourist destinations need to be reserved at least 6 months ahead; rental calendars of the nicer ones that have very good reviews and aren't too pricey for the quality of the rentals get filled up fast; you need to book them 7 or 8 months ahead especially during the peak season!
(8) Many buildings (hotels included) in Europe don't have fire alarms, smoke detectors, sprinklers and fire escapes (in Paris, for instance, many old buildings are firetraps especially those that back up to another building or opens up to an inner courtyard at the back).
(9) It's better to book accommodations with reviews and to check out its surroundings on Google to make sure that the exterior at least is as advertised.
     For our 2-night stay in Geneva, Switzerland, we chose the Hotel Rotary Geneva - M Gallery Collection, a boutique hotel located in the city center on the Rive Droite (Right Bank), close to Gare Cornavin, and a short walk to Lake Geneva ("Lac Leman" to the locals). We booked the hotel through Expedia which offered a good price for the quality of the hotel. We didn't try the expensive breakfast offered at the hotel's restaurant. Instead, we walked each morning to a Starbucks overlooking Lake Geneva for delicious French (or Swiss?) pastries, coffee and the divine hot chocolate drink they served there!

Lobby of the Hotel Rotary Geneva (Geneva, Switzerland)

The beautiful ceiling at the lobby of the Hotel Rotary Geneva
(Geneva, Switzerland)

    In Aix-en-Provence, France, we found a beautifully-decorated 2-bedroom apartment located in the new Sextius-Mirabeau Quarter, an area close to the historical center but with newer residential and commercial buildings. The apartment was on the "1st floor" (European) of a very modern building, with a huge covered terrace, videophone, and all the conveniences and features that we were looking for (wifi, lift, washing machine & dryer, dishwasher, shower, queen bed, private underground garage, and, outside the bathroom, a mirror above a small console table that I could use as a "vanity table").
     Everything we needed was close by: a Monoprix where we bought groceries, wine shops, bakeries, restaurants (including one that was open till late night), a pizzeria (also open till late night and offered home delivery from 7-10:30pm), and even an electronic store called FNAC where we bought a converter (to replace the one we brought that I forgot to take off the power outlet of the train we took from Geneva). The only negatives that we encountered, though we didn't consider them that much of a big deal, were: only one gadget at a time could connect to the wifi, clothes were still a little damp when taken out of the dryer (though we were provided with lots of hangers and there was plenty of space in the 2 closets to hang the slightly damp clothes overnight), and it was a little difficult to park our compact rental car inside the tiny individual underground private garage (Lesson learned: When booking a rental car in Europe, it's best to get a sub-compact or economy car, and not to ever accept a bigger car upgrade!).

Ken trying to park our rental car
inside the tiny private garage

 

The Living-Dining-Kitchen (top left), Covered Terrace (bottom), 1 of the 2
Bedrooms (top right), & the Private Underground Garage (bottom right) of
 the stylish Sextius-Mirabeau apartment we rented in Aix-en-Provence

     In Paris, our ground-floor apartment on Rue Cler also had everything we wanted, except that the absence of a fire escape made me feel quite apprehensive. Also, the shower drain would get clogged (which got worse at the end of our stay---of course, we could have let the owner know about it but we didn't bother and instead, decided to endure it!), and the dryer of the washing machine-dryer combo wasn't working. However, we loved being so close to everything especially to the "Tour Eiffel"! And being on a market street, we got to observe and experience the typical Parisian life. We didn't get the chance to cook but we could easily buy fruits and desserts in the neighborhood stores. Ken would also go out each morning to buy freshly-baked croissants in a Boulangerie a few doors away. One morning, on his way out to buy our breakfast, he was greeted by cartfuls of beautiful newly-delivered flowers of every kind and color! He told me that it was like walking out into a garden! Too bad he wasn't able to take a picture of that amazing and lovely sight!

We called this the
 "Austin Powers" bedroom

The Living-Dining-Kitchen (top right & bottom) and Basement Bedroom (top left)
of the Rue Cler apartment we rented in Paris, France

     As for our accommodation in Honfleur, we decided to try "Le Fond de la Cour", a budget-friendly Bed & Breakfast that had very good reviews on Tripadvisor. We stayed there for 4 nights and chose the lowest-priced and smallest (30 sq. meters) first floor studio since it looked nice enough on the inn's website photos. That was also the only room I saw with a mirror outside the bathroom hanging above a table (my "vanity table" substitute). However, our arrival was followed by one disappointment after another.
     Having the inn's open electrical box inside our room with the fat black electrical wires in full view was a little unsettling (Ken joked that we could turn off power to the whole place!). Later, we discovered that the hand-held shower in the bathroom wouldn't stay steady (turning on the shower would make it flop down) and we could hear all movement in the room above ours (though only for the first 2 nights of our stay because the guests must have checked out and the room didn't get occupied till we left). The wifi signal inside our room was also very weak. When we asked the innkeeper about this, she told us that it was due to the weather and that wifi signal in the office/reception room and in the dining room was stronger. I wondered why none of the Tripadvisor reviewers mentioned those things. I guess we need to keep in mind that we do get what we pay for most of the time.
     We thought of upgrading but we didn't bother because despite the negatives and although our room was pretty basic, it wasn't too small and the negatives were tolerable. However, we probably would have felt differently if we were staying there for a week. As a matter of fact, I started getting tired of the place on the 4th day of our stay in Honfleur. The wet, cold and gloomy English-like weather, as well as the fact that our umbrella was stolen at the Musee Eugene Boudin one rainy day, didn't help matters. The saving grace was the daily breakfast which could not be faulted, and the inn's location which was an easy walking distance to the town center. As for parking, it was tough to find one around the inn. However, there was a private garage nearby that guests at the inn could rent for 10 Euros per day, but it had to be reserved in advance through the inn. We were so glad that we didn't take a chance and decided to reserve a space in the private garage before we left for Europe!

The charming courtyard of Le Fond de La Cour, the B&B where we stayed in Honfleur, France. A view of the
inn's courtyard greets guests from the covered entrance of the inn. Our ground floor Studio was located to the
right of the entrance, with a view of the street on one side and a view of the courtyard on the opposite side.

      Unlike most hotels that could be booked and paid online with a credit card, most vacation rentals and B&Bs in Europe would only accept cash. Some would require a downpayment of up to 50% of the total amount due through Paypal (which also charges a 20 Euro service fee), with the balance payable 1 or 2 weeks before arrival or when you arrive. Other rentals have additional charges like cleaning fees and check-in fees, and sometimes, an additional charge if you arrive late. Some even require a deposit, the amount depending on how valuable the decors and furnishings are inside the vacation rental. While looking for a Paris apartment online, I found one that required a deposit of 2,000 Euros because the rental housed valuable artworks and antiques!
     In our case, the owner of our apartment in Aix-en-Provence asked to be paid the full rent amount in cash (Euros, of course) upon our arrival, plus 50 Euros for a week's use of their private garage. There was a public garage close by but the parking fee was more (something like 80 or 100 Euros per week) and it wasn't as secure as the private garage in our apartment building. In Paris, we paid 50% downpayment through Paypal, the balance we paid in cash when we arrived. For the B&B in Honfleur, one night's stay was to be paid through Paypal, with the option to pay the balance 2 weeks before arrival or in Euros upon arrival.