Hotel suggestions France Italy Switzerland

[Skribble]

Thinking about a touring hoiliday next april any recomendations for hotels with rooms for 2 plus 2 kids.

Kids will be 6 and 9 so I don't need baby friendly.

Any itinery advice, we are thinking of crossing at Calais down to Switzerland, then Italy as far as Florence perhaps and back via South of France.

Or we may just have a stop over and stay in one place in SOuth of France for at least 7 nights.

Hope you have a DVD player - that's a long journey! We stayed at a great place on Lake Lucerne a couple of years ago with a duplex room. Can't remember the name but it was an Ara bella Sheraton. We've been back from S of France via Vienna and via Switzerland. Now prefer easiest option. Last trip - 1200 miles. 1150 imo. The Italian Lakes are great on a more positive note - less old people-ish than I thought.

Hi
Before we had kids we did Dover-Calais, then down through Germany, into northern Italy, across the top of Italy and back up through France... by motorbike. Had a numb bum for weeks afterwards! Can't recommend hotels, though, as we stayed with friends mostly. However, in Florence we had a good experience staying in the Pensione Sorelle Bandini in Piazza Santo Spirito (it's in Oltr'Arno - on the other side of the river from 'the sights' - but still pretty close to the main parts of the town). We stayed with a baby, so not sure about older kids, but the room was very large and the people very helpful. I would also recommend crossing the mountains from Italy to France (the road that goes from Cuneo to Barcelonnette)... very beautiful (and I hate tunnels on motorbikes... the fumes, the claustrophobia!) - though we did it with very low petrol and ended up coasting down all the mountains to save fuel, which was a bit worrying! (Fill up in Cuneo as there's no petrol for miles after that.) However, I've just re-read your message and you want to go via Switzerland, so probably not all that relevant. Have fun, anyway.

Thanks'

We're not decided on a route yet, hubby toured these areas as a kid and has a few places he wants to revisited. The websites for caravans etc don't seem to have prices for 2006 so we may heve to wait until the 2006 brochures come out.

We are thinking of a couple of hotel or B&B stopovers on route and a campsite for a week in south of france or Lake Garda

If you did not want to do the campsite in France - friends of my dh have a gite and it looks fab.

here

just as another option.

Also look at www.gites-de-france.fr, full listing in English for Gites & B&B throughout France. Most can be booked on-line.

For Switzerland it depends what you are looking fro. There is a smattering of roadside hotel chains - Ibis, Novotel etc - but if you know roughly whch town you might want to stop at the tourist information website would usually list everything from 5* to B and B's. Apart from the Arabella Sheratons previouuly mentioned, there are Best Westerns and Sunstar chains, usually based in larger towns or resorts so if you fancied stopping over for a few days in the mountains or lakeside you would be well catered for there.

www.MySwitzerland.com is a good place to start searching for information to help guide you as to what areas you may want to consider and has listings of Kinderhotels which have special child activities and play areas. The Swiss cities are smaller and more compact than many UK ones, with historical areas, excellent tram and bus links and a variety of restaurants so you could explore for a day or so. Warning : some hotels (I've heard of some in Zurich particuarly) don't/won't do family rooms but they can be found elsewhere and we haven't come across a problem in 4 years.

Thanks all,

We have looked at gites but want to head as far south as poss, that one looks lovely though. Switzerland is looking pricey as the campsites that offer overnight stops at £20 for a mobile home don't oppen until may.

We are waiting until 14th of june to see what we can get with ryanair and fly to pisa and hire a car. THis may be a much more relaxing holiday than the driving option as we have half of Scotland and all of england before we even get to dover. So we may do a week in Itlay and a week near Nice or Cannes. Port Grimaud looks good.

DH was hoping for good temperatures, South of France in April seems to average about 18 C, anyone experienced South of France or Lake Garda in April.

Skribble
Look at the ThomsonFly website for cheap flights to Tuscany from Doncaster (yes, Doncaster!). They had some going to £5 this year (inevitably at a time when I couldn't go!). Not sure when flights for next year will be available, but worth a look.
Good luck.

Thanks elbell,

I'm holding out for ryan air, do doncaster is abit further away