How to find which suburban hotels are well connected by public transport?

[Feuillesmortes]

When I am looking for information about hotels that are outside city centres, I often use tripadvisor to help me find out about public transport connectivity.

As an example, medium sized towns in France always have budget hotels in the outskirts. Some hotels can be 5km out and impossible to get to without taxi, and others are next to a bus stop with 10 minute day/night frequency.

But tripadvisor often falls short; many travellers seem to think that taxi is the only way. The hotel websites are largely useless as often say 10 mins from a particular landmark, without specifying whether that's by car or otherwise.

What do other people use? Lonely Planet forums? Local residents' groups on Facebook?

 

[py_megapixel]

I tend to look on nearby roads on Google Maps. This icon indicates a bus stop and you can click on it to get service information.


Google generally has a pretty good idea of what the service is like, but there will usually also be links to the service operators so you can check the timetables on their websites if you want to be sure.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Establishments named 'Station Hotel' usually tend to be in reasonable proximity to a nearby railway station.

Not 100% always though, and there's often little indication of the hotel's relative attractiveness or perceived value-for-money.

 

[Dai Corner]

You could trying phoning them. They may even offer to pick you up from the station if public transport is poor.

 

[AndrewE]

I use Traveline a lot. https://www.traveline.info/
Give it the postcode of a potential choice or destination and it will pick out a variety of public transport options. It's especially good when (e.g.) you have no idea which trunk road will be best for bus services for a hotel in between 2!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Use the Google Maps journey planner to plan a public transport journey to it.

 

[Gloster]

One thing to be beware of is an hotel that on a map appears to be convenient to a bus or tram stop, but when you get there you find it faces the other way and to reach the front entrance you have to go on a route march. On one occasion this was nearly two kilometres around an industrial estate, and I had guessed correctly as to which road to take.

 

[Spaceflower]

Establishments named 'Station Hotel' usually tend to be in reasonable proximity to a nearby railway station.

Not 100% always though, and there's often little indication of the hotel's relative attractiveness or perceived value-for-money.

Yeah, I reckon you could stay at this one pretty cheaply Might be waiting a while for a train though....

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.co.uk

That place always struggled. We accidentally strayed in once and the landlord managed to rope us into a pool team. We were the stereotypical rag tag team - we could've had our own film if we actually ever managed to win a match. Two era, two leagues, no wins. I only used to do it for the free food. Good times and good laughs though.

 

[Dai Corner]

Yeah, I reckon you could stay at this one pretty cheaply Might be waiting a while for a train though....

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.co.uk

Another with a railway-related name. No trains any more but frequent buses from Newbridge and Newport.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

 

[30907]

I use Traveline a lot. https://www.traveline.info/
Give it the postcode of a potential choice or destination and it will pick out a variety of public transport options. It's especially good when (e.g.) you have no idea which trunk road will be best for bus services for a hotel in between 2!

And some mainland Europe rail sites will do this - certainly DB, OeBB, and I think SBB and Idos.cz ...

 

[bspahh]

Before the virus, when I would travel for business, I would start by searching for accommodation with www.ebookers.com or www.expedia.com (they both basically run on the same data - I would use the one offering most cashback from Quidco/Topcashback).

You can search around a place name, and then add filters for the price range, star rating and ranking from reviews. Then switch to the map view and see which places come up. I will be travelling on a specific date, so I don't want to spend time looking at hotels which are fully booked. If there is a hotel that I really want to use, then it will sometimes be available if you book directly.

Ebookers and Expedia don't list every hotel chain. If I'm paying and not travelling for work, then I'll also check some of the budget chains like Travelodge and Premier Inn.

To get information on public transport connections from an airport, I find the www.wikivoyage.org the best, as it gives you a summary of the various options.

Then for links to public transport, I would try https://www.google.co.uk/maps and https://www.rome2rio.com/ as they don't all cover the same transport networks, or handle journeys which switch between different modes of transport. rome2rio is good for ideas for routes to take, but I wouldn't use it to get a specific itinerary.

If I know I'm going to use a train, then I'll use https://www.bahn.com/en initially, so I don't have to learn a new site. https://www.seat61.com/ is good for rail journeys, but not so good for connections to airports.

wikivoyage will often have a link to the WWW site for the local public transport authority,which will have more information on updated timetables, how to buy a ticket etc.

Its good to then read Tripadvisor reviews for a hotel, to see if they mention problems.

 

[XAM2175]

Establishments named 'Station Hotel' usually tend to be in reasonable proximity to a nearby railway station.

Do this in Australia and you'll find a large number of PT-connected pubs but very few actual hotels

 

[Feuillesmortes]

Thanks very much for your replies. For future trips then, I will check:

Google maps
Traveline (UK)
Wikivoyage
bahn.de (continental)