Campanile Bruges / Brugge - Bruges, Belgium     

Booked by telephone and asked the chap if SatNav would find it easily - "Oh Yes" he said - "Oh No" was what I found ! My usually clunky but accurate Garmin 2610 proudly displayed a Hotel symbol - but could we find it ?! Wish I'd read the reviews. Anyway....... Good peaceful location, tidy comfortable room. A rather morose guy at reception announced that the town was 2.5 km away but helpfully showed us where the bus went from. Good night's sleep in general, slow check out meant we missed our train in Calais by a few minutes. Far better stop off straight off the boat/train than most places that are nearer. Felt it was bit expensive though. Good Brekkie.

Before we left home I put the postcode and street into mappy.com and viamichelin.com. We got within a stones throw of the hotel and then ran into all sorts of problems! So beware. Don't rely on Internet directions. Just come off the autoroute from Ostende/Dunkerque at the Loppem exit, up the N397 to St Michiel area, cross the expressway and the hotel is on the right not far past the junction with the expressway. As a hotel it's a decent , soulless base. It was clean, the bed was comfortable though the cover was a bit past its best. TV, coffee/tea facilities were welcome, as was the hair-dryer. Shower over bath - good and powerful. Plenty to eat at buffet breakfast cheese, ham, yoghourt, cereals, croissants, pains au raison - we saw two guests cooking egg and bacon on a griddle in the dining room!!! We chose it as a cheap base because, having the car with us, we needed parking. However, having found easy parking in Bruges, next time we'd probably stay inside the city.