Hotel or camping during a cycling tour?

[Gravity Aided]

Je parle un peu français , assez pour obtenir un diplôme universitaire . À Peine

 

[MichaelW2]

I mix and match to suit: hostels, pensiones, hotels, motels, tourist farms, mountain huts, camping barns, campsites, campsite huts, wild camping, tarp camping.

I bought my first solo tent when I failed to find any free hotel rooms in Santander (some conference) and I found the freedom really good.
It is nice to sample local cuisine in smaller pensiones, you get a home-cooking style.

 

[crazyjoe101]

Hotels for me. Power. Wifi. Towel rails for drying clothing after washing it.

No need to plan any further ahead than that day: I logon to hotels.com, laterooms.com and bedandbreakfast.com each morning to find and book a hotel for that night.

Have you ever had trouble not being able to find somewhere to put the bike?

 

[screenman]

Touring would not be for me, but if I ever get a mad moment it will be hotels all the way.

 

[Jefferson Meriwether]

My last (And so far only.) cycle tour I did a bit of wild camping and a fair bit of guest houses/pubs/hostels plus staying with family/friends along the way; I enjoyed doing camping as much as proper accommodation. I'm looking forward to doing nothing but camping on my next tour.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

it has to be a tent -

1. I love being and sleeping outdoor
2. Indoor accommodation requires a level of pre-planning that to me kills much of the spontaneity of my style of touring
3. I hate Hotels
4. I am too mean to pay hotel prices
5. My stove sets off the smoke detectors in hotel rooms

this is me every time.
My husband does not share the same philosophy though and if he has been wet through for a week or so, I have to allow him the option of a B&B....

 

[CopperBrompton]

Have you ever had trouble not being able to find somewhere to put the bike?

Nope, and I mostly tour on the trike! I always say that I need a garage for the trike, and usually that's what is provided. A few times they've made alternative arrangements.

Very occasionally, they've only been able to offer an outdoor area, but I don't mind that given these are places well off the beaten track. For example, our accommodation here was in the summerhouse of a large garden. The bikes were directly outside and well hidden from the (very quiet, rural) road.

With Travelodges and the like, I just wheel it into the room – do it with sufficient confidence and no-one challenges you.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Nope, and I mostly tour on the trike! I always say that I need a garage for the trike, and usually that's what is provided. A few times they've made alternative arrangements.

Very occasionally, they've only been able to offer an outdoor area, but I don't mind that given these are places well off the beaten track. For example, our accommodation here was in the summerhouse of a large garden. The bikes were directly outside and well hidden from the (very quiet, rural) road.

With Travelodges and the like, I just wheel it into the room – do it with sufficient confidence and no-one challenges you.

good to know given my recent purchase!

 

[MarkF]

I like and enjoy camping, but I like drinking in bars more, and at the end of day's cycling touring I like nothing better than to hit a few bars, meeting people, watching people and boozing. A campsite bar doesn't really do it for me, nor does a hike or ride "into town", comfort doesn't really come into it, rooms (not hotel rooms) are near bars so I stay mainly in rooms.

Don't know why pre-planning is required, I've never booked a room in my life.

 

[CopperBrompton]

Don't know why pre-planning is required, I've never booked a room in my life.

You get much better rates booking ahead, but on cycle tours I only ever book in the morning for that night's stay.

 

[neil_merseyside]

We use hotels or B&B's, we are slow enough anyway and all the extra stuff for camping would only make it worse, oh and on the ground in a 'cell' - nope from both of us!
For me the lack of darkness in a tent drove me to distraction when I was a boy scout in proper thick canopied tent - can't imagine a modern one!
For the boss however the lack of a hair dryer and a bath is beyond the pale.

 

[Alex H]

Nope, and I mostly tour on the trike! I always say that I need a garage for the trike, and usually that's what is provided. A few times they've made alternative arrangements.

Very occasionally, they've only been able to offer an outdoor area, but I don't mind that given these are places well off the beaten track. For example, our accommodation here was in the summerhouse of a large garden. The bikes were directly outside and well hidden from the (very quiet, rural) road.

With Travelodges and the like, I just wheel it into the room – do it with sufficient confidence and no-one challenges you.

This is the same for us and our tandem. Now that we live in France, we have not done so much touring, but it would be hotels only - camping is for boy/girl scouts

I always ask for safe storage for the bike and have wheeled it through restaurant dining rooms, kept it overnight in a hotel kitchen, in the reception of a very posh hotel in Bayeux and on one occasion it had it's own room in a chateau

 

[MarkF]

You get much better rates booking ahead, but on cycle tours I only ever book in the morning for that night's stay.

But I doubt even 10% of the rooms I stay in are possible to book ahead. I just go in a bar and ask, usually it's above that, or another bar, they are not places with websites or often any any visible advertising. Tbh even it was possible, I like wondering where I'll I'll end up, I don't enjoy planning.

 

[Hill Wimp]

Both and it depends where i am touring.

India was a mixture of small hotels and beach huts.
Europe has previously been a mixture of camping, b&bs and park benches.

This summer Europe will be the same but minus the park bench.

 

[CopperBrompton]

I don't enjoy planning

Sounds like you'd enjoy the Dutch cycling holiday of some guys I met on the ferry once: their plan was to wake up each morning and cycle downwind.