Venice is a place where you want to maximise your time and enjoy its unique atmosphere; a stay at the let me do both last summer. The hotel is a former monastery, home to Carmelite monks in the 15th century, and is just a three-minute walk from Santa Lucia station. It has a lovely courtyard, perfect for reading a Donna Leon detective book and sipping a spritz while waiting for the evening train to Rome, as I did.
The rooms have lovely classical paintings and polished wooden tables. You can also relax around the wood fire in the lounge where the monks used to have their Bible readings. Just a five-minute walk from the main station at Charleville-Mézières (a major town in the Ardennes, north-east of Reims), plays on the area’s links to the poet Arthur Rimbaud with individual modern designer rooms, a spa and a restaurant.
You can find copies of the poet’s books literally hanging around (on hooks) in the hotel or walk up to Place Ducal, the impressive square in the centre, and the nearby . Every week we ask our readers for recommendations from their travels. A selection of tips will be featured online and may appear in print.
To enter the latest competition visit the - in Narbonne, south-west of Montpellier, is a 10-minute walk from the station that brings you right into the heart of this beautiful city. We stayed here in the summer after getting stranded because of a cancelled connecting train. Our unplanned short stay became one of our favourite parts of the whole trip.
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