Getaroom Travel Bites

France sets you off on an adventure suited to your pace! Be it enjoying the high life in one of the world’s major capitals or enjoying a laid-back holiday in the countryside. Each region promises a hearty serving of the French culture!

Paris needs no introduction as its famed glitz is recognisable around the world. Walking past such renowned landmarks as Champs Elysees and Eiffel Tower or admiring art inside the Louvre are just some of the activities that still rank high in the tourist trail. From the capital, you can hie off to other fabulous retreats.

Not far from Paris are the scenic valleys of the Loire region! The French Riviera, with its year-round warm weather, welcomes visitors who flock to resorts in Cannes and Nice hoping to catch a golden tan. More sunny escapes follow when you reach Provence. The historic cities of Marseille, Avignon, Arles, Nimes offer explorations into France’s heritage.

To get into the heart of the French cuisine, you can spend some time in Lyon, Burgundy and Bordeaux where fine food and fine wines meet. If skiing is your top priority, the Alps and Pyrenees regions are the main destinations to look into. More picturesque encounters await travelers in lovely cities of Strasbourg, Lille and Toulouse.

Hotels in France

Last Minute Hotel Deals in France

France Country Guide

Youth Hostels in France

Things to Do in France

Car Rental in France

I have personally stayed at the Forrest Hotel and Apartments (aka The Forrest Motor Inn) about 10-12 times over the past 14 years, so I thought it was appropriate to write a quick review.

Why do I keep going back? Well, there are two major reasons - price and location.

The Forrest Hotel is a relatively cheap hotel. For much of the year (when Floriade isn’t on), you can get a room at the hotel for $110 a night. That’s bloody cheap compared to other well-situated hotels in the vicinity of the Forrest Hotel.

There are certainly other hotels in Canberra that are cheaper than this (eg. the Formule One hotel out on the Federal highway), but few can offer the central location that the Forrest provides. My wife has commuted this year to work and her office in Barton is a mere 200m walk from the hotel. Indeed, Barton, Parkes, Forrest and Manuka are home to many government departments and businesses, all within walking distance of the Forrest Motor Inn. Not to mention the great cafes, bars and restaurants of Manuka and Kingston. And the plethora of national institutions - National Gallery, National Library, High Court, etc. - in the parliamentary triangle.

In terms of hotel and room amenities, there’s nothing that really gets the traveller too excited. The hotel is really a motel - two storeys with car parking right out front. The ‘drive up to your door’ arrangement means that early departees/late arrivals will wake you from your slumber. Beware the ‘grey nomads’ on their round-Australia trip who deem it necessary to warm up their diesel engine at 5am for 30 minutes in the car space outside your door…after all, they have to be in Newcastle by sundown.

Inside the rooms are always clean and well-serviced - another plus for the Forrest. All rooms have Foxtel and adequate (albeit quite old) heating / cooling systems. Heating is particularly important as the hotel gets extremely cold in the middle of winter. Each room is subtley different (I sound like an air hostess) and some rooms are better than others - indeed, the last room that I stayed in had a broken lock on the front door. The time before I was lucky enough to score a double suite - two adjoining rooms with kitchen facilities.

The no-frills nature of the hotel dictates that there is no mini-bar, which I personally don’t mind, but there are always two free bottles of still water in the fridge. A nice touch.

The bathrooms are pretty simple too - there are no soaps or accessories to steal. There is a soap dispenser in the shower, though, and this sort of reminds me of being an inpatient at a hospital. But remember we’re only paying $110 a night…

Downstairs, the hotel has a restaurant which doesn’t seem to be very popular, at least at night. I’ve not eaten there for dinner, but breakfast was good, although perhaps disproportionately expensive to the room rate.

So, will I be using the Forrest Hotel and Apartments again? Yes, in fact, I am staying there in two weeks’ time. Nice and convenient and cheap.

But if you are staying for leisure and your budget permits, I would consider upgrading to one of the more salubrious hotels in the vicinity.

Book the Forrest Hotel and Apartments here…
Other Canberra hotels…
Things to Do in Canberra…

Last weekend we travelled to Melbourne to watch our footy team play and thought that we’d splurge by staying at the Sofitel Mansion and Spa at Werribee Park. 

Set in the heart of beautiful Werribee Park, the Sofitel Mansion and Spa Hotel is adjacent to the historic Chirnside Mansion (a 60-room Italianate mansion built by Scottish squatters in 1874-77), Victoria’s Open Range Zoo, National Equestrian Centre, Werribee Park Golf Course and the Victorian State Rose Garden.  It’s a wonderful little precinct and house guests are provided with a pass to enjoy the park during their stay.

My wife and I have previously visited the Chirnside Mansion and thought that it would be a good place to check out for a couple of days and to reminisce about old times when I was posted to nearby RAAF Point Cook.

By the way, we’re not luxury hotel snobs – this is probably the second time that I have ever stayed in a five-star hotel, so this review will not be ‘hoity-toity’ with snobbish criticisms about the quality of the provided bathroom accessories or other finer details expected by five-star regulars…

Now, the name ‘Werribee’ is not synonymous with luxury.  Werribee is certainly no Toorak or South Yarra.  It’s about 25km to the south-west of Melbourne in one of the city’s population growth corridors and it is perhaps best known by outsiders for its sewage treatment plant, which treats over half of Melbourne’s sewage.   As a former resident of the area, I never actually visited the treatment plant but breezy summer afternoons confirm that the plant actually does exist somewhere in the vicinity.

True to form, Melbourne put on a wet Friday for our arrival and the inclement weather made the access road extremely muddy.  The gravel hotel car park was also sodden which made it a bit of challenge not to traipse mud in from outside.  It was quite incongruous to walk into a wonderful old building, complete with majestic clock-tower and grand foyer, having trudged through the mud outside. 

The long, muddy access road is my only real criticism of the hotel and I suppose it would not have come to light had the weather been fine.  Although the prospect of fine weather in Melbourne during winter is quite remote…maybe it’s time to seal the road, although I expect that it would be a costly exercise for the hotel.

We were warmly welcomed at the front desk and the reception staff showed us to our room and gave us a tour of the facilities – I’m certainly not used to that in the hotels I normally stay at.  The room, whilst small, was – in my vernancular – quite ‘gucci’ and modern.  The best thing about the room was the European-style doona and fluffy pillows, which provided me with 3 nights of golden slumber.  My only gripes were that the television size was not befitting a five-star hotel (it was one of those small flatscreen computer monitor style TVs) and the room itself was a little cramped.  Structurally the building was designed to accommodate Catholic seminary students, so there was probably not a lot that could be done to change the room configuration.

Although I forgot to bring my bathers (again), I improvised with my underwear and headed to the indoor pool soon after settling in.  It’s a fantastic pool – 17m long in a purpose built pool hall, nicely heated for winter, with spa jets at one end.   Don’t you hate how boxer shorts seem to fall off when swimming?  Luckily I swam alone.  Adjacent to the pool are a small gym and a steam room.

That evening we checked out Joseph’s Restaurant and opted for the three-courser for $80 per head – as Accor Advantage Plus card holders we get a 50% discount on food, although this deal is not available on Saturday nights.  The service and food was top notch – particularly the eye fillet and the oyster selection, accompanied by a pinot noir from the on-site Shadowfax winery.  On a subsequent evening, we ate in the bar area and the chicken curry was great, washed down with several Prickly Moses wheat beers from the tap.  Breakfast was included in our package with a-la-carte hot breakfasts accompanied by a lavish continental breakfast spread.  Another thumbs up from me.

Overall, it was a great stay – nice accommodation, good amenities, tasty food, helpful staff.  The cost for the Winter Package was $199 per night using an Accor Advantage Plus discount card.  I recommend the hotel and I hope that I have the opportunity to stay there again in the future.

Book at the Sofitel Mansion and Spa Werribee Park

Hotels in Melbourne

Things to Do in Melbourne

Car Rental in Melbourne

Tiger Airways has been operating in Australia since the start of the year - it is our unofficial fourth domestic carrier after Qantas, Virgin Blue and Rex.  My first experience with Tiger last weekend wasn’t flash - in fact, I will consider paying extra to fly on Qantas next time around, particularly if flying out of Melbourne.

My first gripe - Terminal 4 at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport.  It doesn’t deserve to be called a terminal - it’s a shed.  A big, cold, ugly shed.  The arrival area looks like a prison exercise yard.  It’s probably not Tiger’s fault, but isn’t there room in the main terminal to accommodate another domestic airline?  They only fly a handful of flights a day from Melbourne.

My wife and I arrived at Terminal 4 two hours before departure time, so that we wouldn’t get struck off the aircraft manifest - this is a Tiger requirement.  We proceeded to wait in a long, slow-moving queue for over 45 minutes, as two check-in staff took their time to process everybody.  It seems that slugging every second person for excess baggage charges takes time - not to mention the requirement to tag every piece of cabin luggage (why?).  After 45 minutes or so, a third check-in station opened up and the lines started moving more freely.  My question is: why insist that everybody is to be at the terminal two hours before departure if much of this lead time is spent in a queue?  Indeed, those passengers who came later were rewarded by spending far less time in the queue, because there were more stations open upon their arrival!  Another thing - how come Virgin and Qantas can process their passengers in significantly less time?  Is it because most Tiger passengers have never flown before, I wonder?

Before I go on - I must say that the Tiger check-in procedure at Adelaide was much more efficient.  There was no tagging of cabin baggage.  The issuing of boarding passes / checking of baggage was conducted quickly and painlessly.

But back to my Melbourne experience.  After a wait in Tiger’s salubrious departure area (!), we were asked to board (or should I say, commence the long, cold trek from the departure gate to the aircraft - if you are wheelchair-bound, then I recommend flying Qantas) .  The ground crew announced that passengers were to board in stages - rows 1-15 last etc.  Unfortunately, the aircraft flight attendants were expecting to receive passengers through both the front and rear doors, except nobody told the passengers.  What ensued was a very long line of passengers at the front of the aircraft, followed soon after by a ground staff member running up and down the line, yelling over the roar of the jet engines: ‘If you’re in row 15-30, please go to the rear stairs’.  As you can imagine, people went everywhere.  A dog’s breakfast.  And despite us arriving at the airport more than two hours ahead of departure, we still ended up departing late.

My laborious journey was made worse by the loud people playing Uno behind me the whole trip, the overhead lockers filled to the brim with box upon box of Krispy Kreme donuts (why don’t Krispy Kreme just open up a shop in Adelaide and spare us all?), and the multiple attempts at humour by the customer service officer (particularly the ‘dig’ at Adelaide). 

I suppose I shouldn’t complain - that’s what you should expect when you buy dirt cheap airfares.  Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for competition which ensures that prices remain reasonable on each of our domestic airlines.

We’d like to hear about your experiences with Tiger Airways - or with any airline for that matter…

Sweden is a fitting example of how nature’s beauty can give the sheer thrill of a lifetime! Look forward to green forests, majestic glaciers and most importantly, the dazzling Northern Lights making your holiday a step closer to perfection.

The country’s glittering cities beckon with its cosmopolitan vibe and at the same time putting you in step with historic sights so often described in Swede history and culture. Gothenburg offers a look into the Sweden’s seafaring adventures with its maritime attractions. Same goes for port city of Malmo which also gives a sampling of Danish influences in the locals way of life. The bridge that connects the city to Copenhagen in Denmark is just one of its tourism efforts in reclaiming the seafront. The capital, Stockholm, preserves its old-world traditions whilst staying in tune with the modern times. Here you’ll find medieval attractions, parks and museums.

Ready to meet the challenges outdoors in Sweden? In the northernmost section lies the Lapland, home to the untamed wilderness areas, the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, and splendid skiing resorts. The midnight sun also makes for a sparkling light show for a couple of months every year. Down South, the sights paint a verdant getaway for those who love nature at its best.

• Hotels in Sweden
• Sweden Country Guide
• Things to Do in Sweden
• Youth Hostels in Sweden
• Car Rental in Sweden

Belgium holds historical grandeur as witness to some portion of Europe’s illustrious past. This country not only speaks of greatness in that aspect but through art, architecture and being the seat of the European Parliament.

Brussels holds Renaissance showpieces in a thriving cosmopolitan atmosphere throughout. Brugge is lavishly set in a surreal vista. Here you have canals, cobblestone streets, charming city squares and Gothic buildings to gaze at. While in Ghent, prepare for picturesque attractions such as fine examples of Baroque architecture, wonderful flea markets, museums and the cathedral. Antwerp is mainly known for its contributions to fashion design and as a hub of the diamond trade. The surroundings remain quaint and an army of museums are delightful additions to one’s itinerary.

While in Belgium, don’t forget to sample two of its masterpieces, beer and chocolates! Tours to breweries are a must and a trip to Leonidas and Godiva is needless to say, essential!

• Hotels in Belgium
• Belgium Country Guide
• Things to Do in Belgium
• Youth Hostels in Belgium
• Car Rental in Belgium