Waiting for your flight may just have become more bareable

There is nothing easy about trying to grab a few hours’ sleep between connecting flights on those uncomfortable airport chairs, where plastic armrests and wafer thin foam pads hinder any chance of comfort. Combined with the drone of security and boarding announcement, excited children and stressed parents (not to mention the sounds and smells coming from the person next to you) it’s usually a long, trying and uncomfortable wait before you are able to board your flight for yet more insufficient rest.
While some airport terminals do have connecting hotels where you can gather a few hours of contented rest (probably the only time most of us would consider paying for a hotel by the hour), the rates are usually too steep for most to consider this an option.

An affordable solution is on the horizon however and may be coming to an airport (or even train or bus station) near you.

The Sleep Box is a budget friendly, compact hotel room featuring a modest 4sq meters of space, with single bed and a lockable door so weary travelers are able to grab a little rest in peace and security.

There are no en suite facilities and with just a plug needed to connect the rooms’ electricity, units are entirely mobile (think small garden shed with a bed inside) and can be installed in any space, without the need for extensive renovations or remodeling, making this new innovation not only practical but very affordable.

They are gradually being seen in hotels, hostels and even offices (for overworked employees) around Europe with plans to introduce these to the USA in 2012.

Prices range depending on location but are typically around $50 per night or $15 an hour for those in airport terminals.

Photo Credit: SleepBox

Hotel Opera in Paris, France

Travelling close to the holiday season can often put a strain on your budget, but the Concorde Hotels and Resort group is offering the chance to make your money go further.

Stay in any Concorde Hotel in Europe between now and March 31st and your Euros will go further with the Night Bonus Offer; guest will receive a daily voucher of €30 or €50 which can be put to use in the hotel’s restaurant or bars.

Plus, if you’re travelling in a group you can also combine the offer with the Friends and Family package: when you book two or more rooms you receive a complimentary breakfast and a 50% discount on the second room.

The Concorde Group have hotels in nine countries and 20 cities around the world including: Prague, Boston, Tokyo, Geneva, Barcelona, Cairo, and Berlin. Concorde hotels can also be found in eight French cities (Cannes, Lyon, Marseilles, Nice, Nimes, Strasbourg, Toulouse, and Paris). 

All the hotels offer a luxurious stay with modern rooms and top class facilities, traditional and international cuisine is also available in any of the hotels highly rated restaurants.

For more information or to book call reservations at
1-800-888-4747 or visit the  Concorde Hotels website.

Photo Credit: Concorde Hotels and Resorts

If you like wild Welsh countryside and wide sandy beaches bounded by cliffs and rock pools, the Gower peninsula on the southern coast of Wales is a great place to visit. We stayed at Pitton Cross Campsite, a family run camping and caravaning site that’s toward the western tip of the Gower Pensinsula and just a short drive from several different beaches and other attractions, all great in different ways.

Pitton Cross Campsite on the Gower in Wales

The campsite has well laid out spaces for caravans and tents close to the entrance area, but we stayed in the large field that was a little further down the track, with camping around the edges and plenty of space for games and running around in the centre of the field. There’s a small shop at the entrance that sells basic camping supplies, provisions and swimming and surfing gear and the shower and toilet block is located next door. The site is very family friendly with a family camping area and small childrens play area, with pitches divided by hedges and shrubs.

Rhossili Beach on the Gower in Wales

Pitton Cross Campsite is just within sight of the sea, and a little more protected for being set away from the cliffs – some of these coastal sites can be very windswept. You can walk over a few fields from the campsite and down to the rocky Ramsgrove cove which is pebbly rather than sandy, but it’s more of a small smuggler’s cove than somewhere that you’d lay out your deck chairs and picnic rugs for the day. You’re better to head for the rocky peninsula of Worm’s head, owned by the National Trust where you can walk across a rocky bar to the tip of the peninsula, or walk right down to beach which is a great place to while away the afternoon. Surprisingly for such a large and open beach, Rhossili seems to be quite uncrowded as many people are put off by the long walk down from the car park, but when you get there, there’s plenty of space for kite flying and beach games. Back up to the car park and you can stop for a daytime snack or evening meal at the Bay café with a sunny terrace overlooking the beach.

Port Eynon beach on the Gower peninsula

If you drive 10 minutes in the opposite direction from the camp site you’ll reach Port Eynon beach where there’s a large car park and the beach is more accessible with a YHA Youth Hostel housed in an old Life Boat station, right on the beach. Although the beach surroundings are more built up here, you can walk up onto the cliffs and through the yellow gorse or play around in the many rock pools or in the sand dunes.

We were also recommended to try Mewslade beach where you park in a field and walk down a small valley with a nature reserve, scrambling over the rocks and arriving at a fabulous beach with wide sandy stretches at low tide, rockpools and steep cliffs around. This is a good medium sized beach to settle down for a few hours and relax with a picnic or a good book.

I’d recommend Pitton Cross Camp Site as a well run and maintained family-friendly camp site, that’s ideal as a base to visit some of the lovely beaches of the Gower peninsula in South Wales. For other lodging ideas do take a look at our other reviews of lovely places to stay in Wales.

Pitton Cross Caravan & Camping,
Rhossili,
Gower,
Swansea,
SA3 1PH

Photo Credits: All photos by Heather on her travels on Flickr

In enchanting Hay-on-Wye, opposite the town clock, the Seven Stars offers something quite unusual for a British B&B: a heated swimming pool and a sauna. My daughters enjoyed it so much, they refused to get out of the pool in the morning and I had to have breakfast by myself. Their loss. Russell Sime, owner and award-winning chef, serves up a delicious Full Welsh breakfast: eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, smoked haddock, tea, toast, fruit compote, the lot.

Just a few hours’ drive from London, Hay-on-Wye makes a great weekend destination. Skirting the border between England and Wales, this little town is perhaps best known for being the world’s first book town and member of the International Book Towns Movement. Quirky book shops and shelves abound and books are often sold on a trust system. Along the walls of 12th century Hay Castle, brightly coloured books enliven the mysterious Norman citadel. Every year in May – June, the town hosts the Hay Festival of Literature & Arts.

Seven Stars is in the centre of town, well-placed for the Castle, the book shops, tea rooms, pubs and restaurants. We liked The Granary Cafe, right across the street, with its cheerful staff and comprehensive menu (including creative vegetarian fare). Next door to the B&B is a large old-fashioned toy shop, where my 7-year-old spent most of her holiday money.

We stayed in a large bright airy suite: a sitting room and two bedrooms, with thick stone walls, oak beams and creaky floors. This B&B has a soul; it’s as if history is alive in the walls of the 16th century house. Prices from GBP 39.95 per person double occupancy or GBP 94 for the suite, including breakfast and free use of the pool and sauna.

For more lodgings in magical Wales, have a look at our reviews here.

The Seven Stars
11 Broad Street
Hay-on-Wye
Herefordshire
HR3 5DB
Tel + 44 1497 820886
bookings@theseven-stars.co.uk

Review and photos by Anne-Sophie Redisch of Sophie’s World, twitter: SophieR