around the world – Gaya Travels

Ideas Where to Stay in Utrecht The Netherlands

Very often choosing your accommodation in a city you are about to visit takes a lot of time and effort and cannot be overlooked, because it can be of great importance to your experience during your visit.

Here is my attempt to lend all of you a helping hand in choosing this in a city I have some experience with.

I have been travelling to Utrecht in The Netherlands for quite a few years now and I have stayed in several very nice hotels during my visits to this beautiful city in The Netherlands.

Utrecht is the fourth-largest city in The Netherlands, with population of approximately 360,000 and it is situated in the very centre of mainland Netherlands. It has the largest railway station in the country, which makes it very easily accessible from all the international airports – Amsterdam Schiphol, Rotterdam The Hague Airport and Eindhoven Airport.

Utrecht has a lot to offer to tourists. It is not Amsterdam but at least for me that is definitely an advantage. It is quieter, less crowded, but still has all you can expect from a city in The Netherlands. Canals, canal houses, boat tours, museums and other cultural points of interest – Utrecht has all of this and more. And there are a few things Utrecht is unique with. The most prominent landmark of the city, easily visible from any point, is the Dom Tower – the church tower of the Saint Martin’s cathedral, now known as the Dom church. It is the tallest belfry in The Netherlands with its 112 meters. Another landmark is the Old Canal (Oudegracht). What makes it unique is that it is lined with wharfs – the basements of the canal houses run below the street and have access to the water, thus making the street on two levels along the canal. There are many cosy restaurants and cafes nowadays in those basements and during the warmer months you can enjoy a meal or a drink on the tables situated on the wharfs next to the water.

Utrecht is also home to several museums, like the museum of Dutch children’s favourite book character, the little rabbit Miffy or the Railway Museum. Utrecht’s cultural life is so rich it falls second in the country only to Amsterdam. A lot of music festivals and other events – different exhibitions and conferences – take place in Utrecht every year.

I have always tried to find a hotel that is conveniently located both in the centre of the city and not very far from the largest exhibition centre in the city, Jaarbeurs. It is also essential that the hotel is located near the Central railway station, which is not so difficult also, as the station is situated mere steps form the old city centre and an easy 20-minute walk from Jaarbeurs.

Mind you, this is not a budget list of hotels as this has never been my focal point when choosing a hotel in this particular location.

I have stayed in several hotels in Utrecht and I am not going to rank them, because all of them were very nice and I have no complaints and only positive experiences from all of them. Here is a list of the hotels in Utrecht I have stayed in.

Park Plaza Utrecht is a 4-star hotel located next to the Central Station. I have stayed there in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. The hotel is very comfortable. Rooms are provided with everything you might need during your stay and they are very spacy. And the staff is really the best, no exaggeration – they are very friendly and helpful. It takes approximately 20 minutes to walk to the city centre and the same time in the opposite direction to reach Jaarbeurs. Since my last stay there in 2018 the hotel has gone through a major renovation of its ground floor and reception area which I am guessing made it even more comfortable. What I myself found as best feature in this wonderful in any way hotel were the coffee machines with coffee capsules in the rooms. I like to have my coffee first thing in the morning, before breakfast, before anything else.

In 2019 I stayed in a wonderful hotel located a bit further away from the city centre and Jaarbeurs (the only such occasion during my visits in Utrecht), but there is no point in writing about it here, as it permanently closed since.

In 2020, few weeks before the world went into lockdown, I had the chance to visit Utrecht for the last time before the years of suspended music events and little to no travel. This year I stayed in a more budget accommodation – Stayokay Utrecht Centrum – a wonderful hostel in the very heart of the old city centre, 5-10 minute walk from the Central Station and approximately 30-minute walk from Jaarbeurs. The hostel offers both shared and private rooms. I stayed in a private room with its own private bathroom facilities, where also towels and shampoo/soap are provided. Every room is designed in a unique way, inspired by the city of Utrecht and its canals and Dom Tower. For families with children there is a private suite dedicated to children’s favourite rabbit Miffy. Rooms are smaller but comfortable, and immaculately clean, as is the case in every hotel I have stayed in Utrecht. The hostel offers a wonderful breakfast in a cosy café – The 5^th, located on the second floor of the hostel building – a social meeting point for young people in this University City.

My latest visit so far was in March 2023. I stayed in a new hotel (during my last visit in 2020 it was not ready to welcome guests yet). Hampton by Hilton Utrecht Central Station has a unique location. It is situated in the Hoog Catharijne Mall, which in turn is located next to the Central Station. Below the mall runs a water canal and you can see the boats through the glass floors on the ground floor. The mall is an easy 20-minute walk from Jaarbeurs. Being located in a trade centre makes the hotel very comfortable – food stores, restaurants and cafes are all within easy reach. Rooms are big and cosy, with everything provided. Breakfast is included in the price and it is varied and sumptuous.

This is my experience with hotels in Utrecht that I wanted to share with you. I hope I was helpful.

Whatever your reason, go to Utrecht. It is a wonderful city and has a lot to offer for every taste.

On my way to a new adventure

Dear friends,

I now it has been a long time since you last heard from me, but I have been busy (to be able to travel, as we all know, you need to have money, and to have enough money, you need to work, and work takes your time). But! In a few days I am going on a new adventure and I will do my best to keep you informed about it as it happens! This will be a new experience for me, so don’t be very harsh if I am not able to achieve much (in posting about my adventures every single day during the trip). As to where I am going – next blog post will tell you 🙂

I will also post many photos in my Instagram account (you can follow me, if you want – the link to my Instagram account is in the Contact me section of this page, on the right hand side, or simply follow this link:

https://www.instagram.com/lidiyaaleksandrova/

I hope you enjoy following me during my travels!

How about an around the world travel while sitting in your sofa?

Traveling is always a good idea but unfortunately, sometimes it is just not possible. No matter if the reason for this is lack of time, or money, or both, or something completely different, sometimes we just have to stay at home.

What can make this easier to live through? Books. Yes, reading is a good way of traveling while staying at home. Especially when you are reading a book about someone else’s travels. And if the places the author visits through the book are new for you, the feeling is even more intense. You sit on your couch and at the same time you travel to far away exotic places where you still haven’t been.

No, I am not trying to say this can replace the actual going to a new place. But it can be a fair substitute when there is nothing else you can do.

Let me tell you about one of my favorite books about traveling.

It is called “The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour around the World” by Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett & Amanda Pressner.

As the title says, this is the story of three friends, three American girls who decide to travel around the world for one year. This is a biographical travel story. It is written by all three of them, Jennifer, Holly and Amanda, each writing about a different part of their shared journey. Each chapter in the book is written by one of the girls, the next – by another, and so on. This way of writing makes the book really fascinating.

The book is so well written, that it instantly makes you want to visit all the places they go to, even the ones you have never even thought of visiting before. And everything is so vividly depicted that you immediately feel you are there with them, the hidden fourth member of the group.

The story is not only about travel, but also about finding yourself and who you want to be and what you want to do with your life.

It all begins, as all good and memorable journeys should, with a long period of planning and preparations. For the long year of travel each girl should give up on something – a job, a career, a boyfriend, a life. Is the sacrifice worth it? All readers should find the answer for themselves. After all, isn’t it always like this – you give up on something to gain something else, something new, and sometimes the thing you gave up on comes back to you.

The book follows the adventures of Amanda, Holly and Jenn as they dedicate a whole year of their life to traveling around the world.

During this year they visit more than 10 countries, on 4 continents.

They start from South America, where they first visit Peru, taking their time to enjoy its most famous sights, like Machu Picchu, the Amazon River and its capital, Lima. After that they visit Brazil, dedicating time to get to know this beautiful country by staying in the city of Salvador, the capital of Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia.

The journey continues in Africa, where the girls live for a period of one month in a Maasai village in Kenya and work there as volunteers in a charity program.

After that they go to Asia. The first country they visit is India, where they go to an ashram. One of the girls, Holly, stays there for a whole month, and the other two keep her company for a week. After that, being not so keen on yoga and meditation practices, as Holly is, they go to the beautiful seaside in India’s smallest state, Goa, for a sea-vacation-party getaway.

The trip then gets the three girls to different countries in this part of Asia. Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia. Each gives the girls new impressions, new memories and new things to think over and to wonder about. They also go to Thailand, where they visit the infamous island of Phuket, and the world-famous capital of the country, the ambivalent city of Bangkok.

The journey through Southeast Asia gets its logical final point on the tranquil island of Bali.

For the final months of their journey the girls visit New Zealand and Australia, where they live with locals, raft down waterfalls, race with the tide, hike a glacier, and do breath taking (not metaphorically speaking) bungee jumps, and many more. In Australia the girls travel with a big van that was given to them by a local insurance company, in exchange for doing some writing about their travels in the company’s blog.

When the year of travels gets to its end, you, the reader, almost feel physical pain (at least I did) that this extraordinary adventure is over.

I have read this extraordinary book so many times, I cannot count. I love the feeling it gives me. I love the idea of leaving everything – the stress of everyday life, all the familiar places and people behind and just go. What can be better than to do it with friends who are as passionate as you about learning new things, visiting new places, meeting new people?

Even if most of us can’t afford to do it in reality, we can all do it by getting in the shoes of those three girls and do it in our imagination, just by reading this wonderful book.

If you want to know more about The Lost Girls, visit their website and blog:

www.lostgirlsworld.com

And finally, and I want to make this as clear as possible, this is not in any way an advertisement about the book (in a commercial sense) but please, if you like reading and traveling, do yourself a favor and read this book.