No matter whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, where you stay can make all the difference to the success and pleasure of your trip.
Sometimes, you might choose a hotel that is on the outskirts of town, either because you are not familiar with the area or because you think the accommodation is less expensive away from the centre.
What you will often find is that this choice has made your daily excursions to places of interest or linking up with your business colleagues very inconvenient and totally out-of-the-way, causing you problems with transport and punctuality.
Your choice of a hotel on the outskirts of town may be miles away from where you are expected to be for your business or personal plans.
If you have traveled by plane and need to rely on public transportation to get to your destination, you will learn very quickly that public transport options may be extremely limited, which means that chances are you could spend a lot of your precious time waiting around. You may also discover the options of dining, sight-seeing and discovering places of interests are limited, because your accommodation is too far away.
From experience we know that staying in a downtown hotel is the best solution for all manner of reasons, the most important being simply because of the convenience factor.
When you stay in a downtown hotel it puts you smack bang right in the middle of everything; where you can enjoy the hub and flavor of the city and its inhabitants.
From restaurants, stores, tourist attractions, public transport to business centres and conference venues you will find them easier to access from a central city point.
Public transport hubs, almost anywhere in the world are always located in the centre of the city, adjacent to the downtown area. There will be many amenities and attractions within walking distance and if transport is needed, the ease of catching a cab, hopping on a bus or boarding a subway is usually pretty easy from a downtown hotel.
In cities around the world, the downtown area is always the heart of the city and this pivotal point will be very close to many places that a visitor would be interested in seeing, either for business or pleasure.
In most cities, if not all, the world of business is centered around the downtown area and when you stay in a downtown hotel, you are right in the middle of the action, so to speak.
The walk to a convention centre or office building can often be more convenient and enjoyable than taking public transport. If transport is required you will usually find a bus stop or train station close at hand.
If traveling by plane to your destination, the trip to and from the airport usually ends at a downtown terminus as airport shuttles and taxis have express routes to central areas making your trip easy and quick. For the downtown hotels, there is no need to call for a cab to the airport when the time comes to depart as the airport shuttles have the standard route, often leaving on the hour or even as often as every 15 minutes.
When it is time to check out and head home, the return trip to the airport can be so much easier when you can simply walk out the door of your hotel and board the shuttle to transport you to the airport.
Midge Hand
