Accommodation
There are essentially three types of place to stay. There are those that fulfil their obligations in a commercial way and leave you feeling throughout your stay like the paying customer that you are. And there are those few great places where you are welcomed in and treated as a friend, cliché though this may now have become, and where paying at the end of your visit is a pleasurable surprise. And of course there is a third category where paying for your stay is a disagreeable inevitability!
It is a particular irony of the accommodation world that no price is ever put on the essential qualities of a place - people, atmosphere, charm. These ideas are too woolly perhaps to quantify, but this is where one's real enjoyment of a place to stay stems from. You are asked to pay instead for tangible facilities like marble bathrooms and en-suite showers.
This is a fallacy that we try to dismantle in all our guides, which is why you will find places at all reasonable price levels. Expensive does not mean good. And nor does cheap (however appealing the word may sound!). If a place costs plenty then it will probably offer facilities in keeping with the price. But that does not mean you will have any fun. Some very expensive places forget that they are providing a service and look down their noses at their own guests. At the other end of the spectrum, the very cheapest places are often cheap for good reasons. Sometimes for spectacular reasons!
Character and genuine hospitality, the extra qualities we search for, are found spaced evenly across the price spectrum. Nowhere in this guide cuts corners at the risk of your displeasure. We give equal billing to each place we choose, no matter if it is a gorgeous lodge or a home-spun B&B.
At the top end, the most jewel-encrusted, nay 'boutique' places may drip with luxurious trimmings, but have retained their sense of atmosphere and humour, are friendly and informal and nearly all are still owned and managed by the same people. ('Boutique' always used to mean a 'small clothes shop in France', but it has sneaked into accommodation vocab somewhere along the line.)
Equally, there are places in the book that do not have much in the way of luxury, but easily compensate with unique settings, wonderful views and charming hosts.
We are hoping that those of you who normally only plump for luxury at a price will use this guide to vary their holiday a little and stay at a few of the wonderful family-run farms and B&Bs. And that those who usually go cheap as possible will splash out once in a while on a more luxurious option. This book allows for great flexibility in terms of price and style of accommodation. We do not wish to divide the world into budget and luxury, only great and not great enough.
It is the quality of experience that draws us in and this is not determined by how much you pay. In the end I know that you will really like the owners in this book, many of whom we now count as friends. And you will certainly make friends yourselves if you stick to the Greenwood trail.
Things to do and places to eat
What we wanted from the outset was a new kind of guide that showcased genuinely exciting things to do and places to eat, rather than exhaustively listing a bewildering series of possibilities accounting for all ages and tastes... and leaving you to take pot luck.
Thus the common denominator for all entries has been the positive attitude of the owners or staff. We are looking at all times for people who enjoy what they do, but who also take genuine pleasure in looking after their customers. This is our approach with the accommodation guides, and we have applied exactly the same philosophy (a grand word I know!) to restaurants, cafés, wineries, tour guides, jet-boat operators, caving experts, bird-watching enthusiasts etc. The lists of Things we Like and Things we Don't Like on the homepage sums up our prejudices as neatly as we know how.
Who is the Guide Aimed at?
Anyone looking for a unique personal experience from their holiday, who is prepared to leave the beaten track... but would rather not at the same time sacrifice too much on creature comfort. We put a great deal of emphasis on the charm of the people that are behind each entry, whether it be a restaurant or a walking guide. You can find both cheap and expensive restaurants run by relaxed and amusing people. So long as a place sees hospitality as its real goal then our radar starts to bleep.
If this approach appeals then the book is for you. The guide is not really aimed at backpackers for whom cheapness is paramount... or at 'high-rollers' for whom expensiveness is paramount!
We have taken the view that you are better served by a limited number of great options, than by an exhaustive list of ALL the options. We have done the hard work for you, and as with our accommodation, pared down the range of possibilities to just those that you can rely on.
