As you might gather, I have been back on the road as we look at the entrants for our 2010 Tourism Awards, (More about that in a few days time,) so I have been staying in hotels again.
The current hotel is a fairly old fashioned 3 star hotel, conveniently located right in the centre. You [...]

VAT is charged on nearly everything. And when you stay at a hotel 17.5% is payable by the hotel to the tax coffers. It is a uniform tax payable wherever you are in our countries unlike the United States where taxes vary state by state. But In France, the VAT on visiting attractions is only 5.5% and from the beginning of 2010, Germany will only charge hotels 7% VAT instead of the normal 19%.

Now 40 British M.P’s have signed a motion calling on our government to cut the VAT that accommodation providers and attractions pay.

I write this rumble kneeling on the floor with my laptop on top of a small chest of drawers pushed up against the television. Why? No chairs in this hotel room so you sit on the bed or the floor. A small problem set against all the benefits. This hotel is small, old and completely untainted by modern hotel management thinking. No massive deference to me, the guest, just ordinary civility.

Breakfast this morning was just that. “Do you want breakfast,” I was asked. No choice just bacon, sausage, mushroom, baked beans, fried egg and toast. Whether I should have some fruit and satisfy those health soothsayers who are warning of my imminent demise didn’t come into it. No choice between white, wholemeal or brown bread. But there was orange juice!

This isn’t quite in the league of Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple but at least I can say this really happened.

At the moment I am in Australia and just back from 4 days in the southernmost state of Tasmania. (more in the Destinations section of Cd-Traveller shortly). We’d been down to a cheese making farm and decided to bring three different cheeses back to Sydney for the family to try. To keep it cool we had put the cheese in the hotel room fridge (yes I know you shouldn’t use fridges but we all do) along with some bottled water we had bought and some chocolate.

You can tell I have been staying in hotels quite a bit again. Things are beginning to annoy me.

Take hotel basins or sinks. They feature all sorts of fancy taps and places to put the soap. Some are more pieces of art than the old conventional type of sink being almost to pretty to use. You just stare and admire them.

While I am on a bit of a hotel theme (having stayed in 5 in the last three weeks), I have a moan about breakfast in hotels. Not about the food although that varies of course.No, my moan is about the tables. If you go into breakfast on your own or with a partner you [...]

Being in Miami, I thought I would spend a few days in Miami Beach which is a long strip of land connected by bridges to Miami proper. Obviously this is the beach area and the beaches are gorgeous. Long, long wide strips of sand being lapped or thrashed, depending on the weather, by emerald green seas. Yes it looks that good. I am not exaggerating.