Hotel Location Opinions

[JHo123]

Hi there, we're looking to stay in a city in Europe next year and wondered about anyone's experience staying in hotels outside of city centres as a family, is it worth the effort to stay in locations like this if it means a longer trip into middle of town, where the action is?

Potential cities are London, Paris or Barcelona.

Depends what you want from the holiday?

I think it's fine if you find a nice area on easy transport links with nice restaurants.

A city is usually quite spread out so you will want to travel around anyway and you pay £££ to stay centrally only to then move around anyway. All of those cities have lots to see so there's no great benefit to staying bang in the centre.

My experience is that it works as long as you research the area, local amenities and transport links.

In Barcelona we stayed in excellent serviced apartments in the Eixample neighbourhood. We were next to the metro so it was really easy to get in and out of the city and there were some bars, restaurants and shops close by so if the DC were tired after a full day there was somewhere to eat without traipsing back into the city.

The advantage for us was more space and it was quieter, I guess the trade-off is the convenience of being able to pop back to the hotel during the day - once we were out we were out!

Interesting thanks, I wondered if staying outside of the city center would be more authentic, what's your experience?

London is huge; there isn't really a city centre per se. More like zones: West End, Southwark, Chelsea etc. Staying outside is cheaper, but definitely not more authentic! Most important thing is logistics and being close to a tube station.

Paris is much smaller, and the sights are dotted all over. Metro stations are everywhere, and plenty of the main attractions can be walked between. You can stay in the outskirts (eg the very pretty château towns like Saint-Germain en Laye) and be up in town in 30 mins, but I'd opt for an area like Canal St Martin as Paris is so beautiful and lit up at night.