All booked for Chimay

Agreed. My mate Niall calls F1s "Hotel Portaloo" and he's right.

 

Erm regarding Chimay and possible excursions on to Switzerland. The CFH
exchange rate is 1.75ish. How does that look form an affordability POV
on the ground. Ace? Hotels look okish at that rate.

If it looks expensive may as well get wasted in 'Dam. Krasnapolsky and
**** the exchange rate. Who is in?!!

 

....unless you're Ogden.

 

I'm not sure that'd help.

Unless you mean to use them as a sort of anal cork.

 

Sheesh, I didn't realise it was still that bad. Best leave my pounds
where they are for a while longer then.

Well it depends a lot on where you are, of course, but Switzerland is
quite odd for having a large number of reasonably-priced hotels,
generally the small family-run ones. You can generally find something
under a hundred francs for a twin room, even in 'resort' towns.

As an example one of the cheaper ones in Engelberg
http://chuchichaeschtli.redmill.ch/ comes in at just 55 francs (per
person in the summmer season, breakfast and taxes included. Its
restaurant is rather good too, although here is where things seem
expensive by comparison - food prices in CH are high throughout, and
there's nothing like as much price variation as there is in hotel
prices.

Don't bother with web hotel searches, as most of the smaller ones
aren't listed on the hotel booking websites - instead choose your town
and find the local web site, or a tourist office one, and list hotels
from there, booking by phone. Unlike French ones they're generally
happy to take a phone boooking without faxed confirmation, and they'll
all speak enough English to make a booking.

Oh, and of course, if you're in our vicinity (south Alsace) there's
tons of camping space in the garden next to the swimming pool. Or in
Engelberg we can sleep up to eight people, or more if folks doss on
the floor.

 

Cheers, thanks.

 

The exception seems to be if you go demi-pension. The dinner menu will
be limited, but the Swiss hotels don't seem to charge much more for
this than B&B - at least in our limited experience.

 

Yes, if you can get half-board it will usually only be at something
like +20chf for dinner, which is _much_ less than you'd pay elsewhere.
Limited or no choice, although the Swiss deal with veggies very well,
as I guess you've found out by now, as long as they like potatoes and
cheese.

Another option for the really pikey biker are the youth hostels, to be
found all over the country, which are, I'm told, somewhat more
hotel-like than the YHA ones I remember from decades back. Cheap and
cheerful, but clean and warm.