leanbackhostel.com

I don’t usually write blogs promoting websites as I like to be impartial, but I do have a pretty good tip if you’re looking to book hotels. Use Booking.com.

I have come across the website quite a few times when searching for hotels. I’ve just booked my 4th holiday of the year (okay, it may sound like I’m boasting but I haven’t had a day off since August and my latest trip is during the Christmas break anyway) and its the second time this year I’ve used Booking.com. The website comes up all the time, if you search from hotels in the UK, in America, around Europe, it always appears in the search engines such as Google. Many of the voucher codes websites offer deals on using the website or booking through them so keep an eye out for the best offers.

Currently the website has over 73,000 hotels worldwide and is about as competitive on price as you’ll find. If you know of any other sites that are equally good please add a comment and let me know.

I go skiing every year with friends from school and University and 3 years ago I went to Tignes Le Lac. Tignes Le Lac is situated in France next door to neighbouring resort Tignes Val Claret. Tignes is the perfect destination for skiing as it has good slopes for all levels of skier from beginner to expert, and once you reach the top of the mountain you can ski down into Val D’Isere.

Val D’Isere is one of the most popular resorts in France and is actually a bit more lively than Tignes, but Tignes is cheaper to stay and the ski accommodation and ski chalets are unbelievable. We stayed in a new build, so new in fact that when we booked it there were no pictures on the website we booked through. They simply put an artists impression of the fully catered for, 5 star ski chalet and we just took a chance. There were 14 of us, sharing 7 rooms.

Once we arrived, we got breakfast, apres ski lunch and a 3 course meal every evening. The ski accommodation was the most luxury I have stayed in and was made complete with a Sauna and Steam Room perfect for unwinding after a hard day on the slopes. Most of the new luxury build ski chalets in Tignes Le Lac are ’ski to your door’ which takes the strain out of walking through the resort with ski boots and skis.

Tignes Le Lac offers great skiing and ski chalets

Back in 2002 I set off on a 9 month trip around the world (well a little bit of it). I went to Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. On my travels I stayed in a mix of different types of accommodation; hotels, apartments, hostels, beach huts and tents.

In Hong Kong I stayed in a hotel for 7 nights on Hong Kong Island. It was worth starting the trip with a bit of luxury as I knew there would be far worse places to follow.

I then moved on to Australia, where me and my mate spend 2 months in Sydney in an apartment with 2 girls we knew from the UK. The place was complete with swimming pool, sauna, gym and roof terrace. We then bought a car and drove 26km around the country staying in hostels in the cities and campsites win the desert.

We then did the hostel thing in New Zealand when a couple we were travelling with decided they wanted a bit of privacy and got a camper van and drove round both islands.

In Singapore, and Malaysia it was hostels all the way, and then to Thailand where we ended the trip in a beach hut on Ko Pha Ngan. Although we were pretty skint by this point even the cold water showers didn’t dampen the spirit. It’s well worth going backpacking – even on a shoe string budget.

I love skiing and have been on 4 trips over the past 4 years. My first ski holiday since I was 16 with school saw me tackle the Austrian slopes in Kitzbuhel. My brother and I went with a few mates and stayed just outside the town centre in a small chalet privately owned by an Austrian family.

The year after I went to Tignes in France, which is over the mountain from Val D’Isere where I stayed in a luxury chalet that was fully catered for with 14 friends.

The last 2 years I’ve been to Cervinia in Italy where we stayed at a very nice hotel called Hotel Compagnoni. It was family owned with breakfast included although we had to go out for evening meals. The rooms, food, and staff were amazingly friendly and it’s ideal for the ’ski to your door’ life that makes the week long trip a lot easier. I’d recommend this hotel to anyone, and give it a 4 out of 5 overall. Cervinia is an ideal location if you want to save money on your accommodation and then ski across the border to Switzerland to take full advantage of the slopes over there.

If you are looking for a great place to stay in London for a long weekend or a trip down to see friends or do a spot of shopping then look no further that The Bloomsbury Hotel. The hotel is located on Great Russell Street and is a stone throw away from Tottenham Court Road tube station, and Oxford Street. Located in the West End it is a perfect location for people going to the theatre, and about 900 metres from Leicester Square, Covent Garden and all the shops along Oxford Street and Carnaby Street.

London is the perfect destination for a long weekend and The Bloomsbury Hotel has an award winning restaurant to make it the perfect 4 star location. Prices are around £130 for a double room.

The address is 16-22 Great Russell Street, Camden, WC1B 3NN London.

I mentioned in my blog yesterday that I was looking into hotels in New York as I’m going on a 4 day trip over Christmas with my girlfriend.

Well last night, I booked the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Times Square. I’m so excited, it was a little bit more expensive that some of the other hotels but at 1173 US dollars for 3 nights I think it’s well worth it. We went for a King Room high up in the hotel which has views either over Times Square, Hudson River or the famous Manhattan Skyline. The hotel has recently undergone an $85 million renovation and has bars and restaurants and all the facilities you could possibly want.

Just check out the pictures to get an idea of what the views are like.

The Crowne Plaza has fantastic views across Manhattan, Times Square and the Hudson River.

Stunning Views Across New York

I’m currently looking at hotels in New York as I’ve just booked flights for boxing day from Heathrow Airport. The problem is that there are so many to chose from. I want to stay in somewhere nice as it’s my first time to New York and although I’ve listened to stories saying you only use the hotel as a place to sleep for the night as you are out walking all day long, I still like my comforts and would rather stay in luxury ifor my 4 day holiday rather than somewhere average.

I’m currently looking around Times Square which seems like a pretty good location with the Westin Times Square and the Hilton both quite high on the list. I don’t want to stay too far out of the action and both these hotels get really good reviews on the top booking sites on the Internet. Luckily I got my flights a few weeks ago and have been doing my research into hotels ever since. I think I’ll need to be quick though, there seem to be rooms getting booked up all the time.

If you have been to New York and can recommend anywhere in particular, please add a comment and let me know.

I went backpacking back in 2002-2003 around Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and had really good experience of staying in hostels. You hear some nightmare stories from time to time of people getting bed bugs, people snoring loudly, people invading your privacy etc but I had no bad experiences at all.

My favourite hostel was in Melbourne, a hostel called the Exford Hotel which was a proper laugh, full of people up for a good time. Me and my mate were travelling with a couple so they got a room for the 2 of them, whereas we went for a 4 person room because it was cheaper. The 2 other room mates were real part animals and the benefit of the hostel was that there was a pub/bar downstairs complete with pool table and juke box and the bar seemed to be open 24 hours a day.

We had many a good night having a few too many beers and blasting out Oasis on the juke box to remind us of our roots. We even got kicked out of the pub one night for playing too much Oasis, but they took it on the chin and let us back in the same night! We were in Melbourne to coincide with the F1 Grand Prix and saw David Coulthard win the race that year.

If you’re going to Melbourne and are on a budget you can do far worse than the Exford Hotel.