The Priory B&B, Burford, Oxfordshire

The Priory is mainly a restaurant, but now rooms are rented in buildings lining the courtyard in the back. They were booked completely as of the following Thursday so that determined the number of nights I would be staying in Burford (4). I was fortunate to find such a place. I wrote then that the room was around £40-50 a night including breakfast, a bargain by Burford's standards. Most hotels and B&Bs were booked up for at least part of the weekend, and prices quoted for them were mind-boggling. Burford House: £270-300. The available suite at The Bay Tree Hotel: £245 on Sunday, £174 on Monday. In Canadian dollars that would be about $280 to $480. I checked other B&Bs but had no luck.

On Sunday my room was one with a shared bathroom...

...but the next day I could move across the courtyard to a larger room with an all-important ensuite bathroom.

The courtyard

The rooms didn't come with a hair dryer. One of the young waitresses said there might be one around but she would bring in her better model from home. That's what I liked about this place - the people were so friendly and accommodating.

It likely wouldn't have been Glenn's cup of tea, being rather basic and rustic, but then that was part of its charm. It was certainly adequate and more lively (even though for two of the four nights I was the only one staying there) than the B&B in Oxford, and the rooms were much more spacious. He would have hated the shower in the 2nd room which was the kind we found in Greece - a shower open to the whole bathroom. The biggest drawback to this B&B was that there was no internet connection. Burford isn't a town that has Starbucks and the like. The only public place I could find for emailing was at the library but their times were very limited. However, the location of this B&B couldn't be more ideal - at the bottom of the hill, right on the main street.