One of my favourite things about travelling is actually the part before the travels; it’s the travel planning. I love deciding where to go, what to do, where to stay and where to eat. I like to plan a rough itinerary and then I love that excitement just before you leave as you pack your bags and set off.
Having said this, I also love spontaneous travels. It’s great to pack a bag and set off on an unknown adventure. It reminds me of my backpacking days (which now seem like a distant memory!)
I was really lucky that I got to indulge in my two favourite types of travel during my trivago App Family Travel Challenge.
In case you missed it, trivago set me a challenge to take a trip and use their new app to find my accommodation. My first nights accommodation was to be booked in advance and my second night was to be booked at the very last minute.
I was travelling with my mum and George and they’re two very picky customers. We had a long list of things we needed from a hotel:
- Baby-friendly
- Spacious enough for all three of us
- In great locations
- Lots of facilities
- Near to a beach for at least one night (mum’s request)
- Unusual and quirky for at least one night (my request)
- With a travel cot and room service (George’s request)
We weren’t asking for much, were we….?
So, how did we get on?
Once we’d decided we wanted to be in North Wales, finding out perfect hotels was actually pretty easy.
Using the trivago app
When using the trivago app you have the option of choosing a single, double, group or family room so the app only brings up suitable options. You can view all the hotels on a map so that makes finding the perfect location easy. You then refine your search to include things like the beach, a spa or a pool. It’s so easy to use that even my mum could do it (sorry, Mum!)
Our first night
For our first night we stayed in Portmeirion and had everything we could have wished for. We had two double bedrooms, a living room, two balconies, a travel cot and a great room service menu.
Our second night
Our second night was a little tricker because this was the one we were booking at the very last minute. This made me nervous, very nervous!
We had such a picky list of things we wanted, would we really be able to find them all the night before we needed them? We also didn’t want to travel too far so it had to be fairly close to Portmeirion.
Thankfully, we found the perfect place at Bron Eifion Country House. We didn’t have two rooms here, just a large twin room. The room was lovely and spacious but we’d been spoiled in Portmeirion and missed having that extra room and a living room.
If you want to see for yourself how we got on, I made this little video from our trip.
You can download the new trivago app using the buttons below. Go on, who know what kind of travel adventure it could lead to...