A pit stop for the night (Formule 1 Hotels in general)

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	Formule 1 Hotels in general
Date:	04/08/09 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relatively cheap and in most cities

Disadvantages: Beds can be a bit hard, people tend to wake up early, crap TV!

Formule 1 is sort of like a hostel but without the friendly staff and with private rooms and a bunch of French people who like smoking. Whilst the French hotel chain does have some hotels outside of the country, it's the French highways and suburbs of cities that are dominated by this simple but effective place to stay.

I've nearly always arrived in the evening to this French budget hotel chain and the receptionists seem notoriously hard to find. Some of them even have electronic check ins where you have a vending machine, pay it money and out pops the key to your room.

You'll most likely find bunk beds and a TV with endless awful programs on it, few people seem to venture outside of their hotel rooms once they've arrived there. That's probably due to them being on the outskirts and the distance into the nearby town or city is usually quite a bit. If you are looking for one, it's a wise idea to hunt out an industrial estate since that's normally where they seem to be, they are in theory in convenient locations for people on the road but in reality they are often quite difficult to find.

For a very basic and cheap hotel where it's usually impossible to have a lie in due to the hordes of twittering French in the morning, it's actually quite expensive these days compared to the quality you can find in hostels. It's very much a driver's hotel, free of creature comforts, arrive there late, have a shower and a sleep and ply yourself with the breakfast and coffee in the morning before setting off on another driving adventure. Make sure you take the key with you, if you go out because the doors lock automatically.. in which case it's usually.. oh merde!

Summary: Bon Voyage!