About our choices

We choose our favorite places to stay in much the same way you do: a touch of home with the adventure and romance of a vacation. Most of these places are hotels, but we have also found B & B's, country inns, and several pensions that fit the formula. A few basic criteria that generally must be met for us to like a place are:

The room and bathroom must be clean.
The bed must be at least moderately firm.
The breakfast must be good enough so that we don't feel the need to go elsewhere.
The noise level at night must be low enough for us to sleep.

In addition, the establishment should exhibit a special charm due to its decor, location, ambience, or especially pleasant staff. In short, it should be a fun place to stay instead of just a place to sleep.

The listings contain as much contact information about the place as we have. Where we have our own page dedicated to a place, or if we know that a hotel has its own web page, we will include a link to that page.

Pricing

We generally stay in places that cost less than $100 per night for two people with breakfast and a private bath. But some places that we like have been as low as $30 per night and a few as high as $150 per night. The dollar amounts are estimates based on current (1997-98) listed prices and currency values.

Prices are for two people with breakfast and private bathroom as follows:

Very expensive: over $175 per night

Expensive: $125 - $175 per night

Moderate: $75 - $125 per night

Inexpensive: under $75 per night

For the The Universal Currency Converter, click here:

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Rainbow Ratings

The Portafortuna Rainbow Ratings are our own subjective ratings. Places that we have not stayed but have been suggested by other travelers are listed as "Traveler's Suggestions". If we know the official star rating of a place we will put it after the name.

The Rainbow Ratings can be interpreted as follows:

Listings (hotels, pensions, etc.)

Italy

France and Belgium

Germany and Switzerland

The United Kingdom