Customer Reviews

Good Night and God Bless: A Guide to Convent & Monastery Accommodation in Europe: Austria, Czech Republic, Italy

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As I was travelling in 2009 throughout Italy, I found the section of this book on Rome particularly helpful, informative and saved me lots of time. As I was travelling alone, this book gave detailed sightseeing guides with interesting history that enabled me to plan my days discovering the eternal city. I visited more places and learned about the background and what to look out for before I went to the basilicas, cathedrals, museuems, other places of of interest, including the 100 year old gelati parlour - that I would not have been aware of otherwise. While I had already booked my accommodation before I found this book, it is a valuable guide to travel with. I highly recommend it and I look forward to the next two volumes as well. I noticed the range of accommodation options was extensive, from very cheap convent accommodation to more up market. There is something for everyone. I wish I had the second volume when I travelled to France but it wasn't in print at the time. The author has researched thoroughly and it's a credit to her.

Staying with the sisters or mixing with the monks may not be everyone's idea of a home-stay or a hotel vacation, but hang on a minute, how many people actually know that you can? Well Trish Clark's excellently presented and beautifully researched little 'bible', Good Night and God Bless, has news for you. In this, her first book, she looks at monasteries and Christian run hotels in Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy and ensures that this hitherto 'niche market' will now become much better known to many more intrepid travellers, who are looking for cheap, clean, comfortable, and centrally located lodgings throughout Europe. And they all come with a take-it-or-leave-it religious fare which allows the lodger to partake in age old ceremonies, prayer or pilgrimage, or simply as a place to stay for a night or four, in single, double multiple rooms - and generally within a bell-ring of attractions that every tourist wants to see.

Good Night and God Bless is well set out with brief but generally more practical and helpful information on places of lodgement than you would find in most tourist guides. But there is more. There is information on spiritual retreats and pilgrimages as well as a potted history of each facility, but there are also introductory passages on cities and regions and a further section on the attractions of each locale including sites, hikes and ski-trails, spas and health facilities, and of course a very useful good food guide, There are practical tips for travellers including guidance on customs, when best to visit, and shopping. It is a delightfully easy and chatty read with a good index and well set out references, addresses and telephone numbers, and best of all, it fits easily into a carry-on or a back-pack.

Good Night and God Bless has pioneered an insight into a different sort of travel and surely, given the spread of religious institutions over many centuries, and now the propensity of people to travel as never before, the old role of monasteries taking in travellers will now appeal to a whole new group of 'pilgrims'. Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy are but a new beginning and I am sure that a whole host of countries beckon a similar treatment from Trish Clark's great knowledge of religion and its institutions, and her keen eye for detail.

Winfred Peppinck
Bahrain

Traveling around Europe on a budget doesn't have to mean skimping on accommodations. Sure, you could stay at a youth hostel, but you might find it more cozy at one of the many convents and monasteries who accept overnight guests. And you'll be surprised by the many health spa amenities they offer, in addition to lodging.

In Good Night and God Bless, Trish Clark provides a guide to travel in Austria, the Czech Replublic, and Italy. Within each geographic section, there are open houses who welcome everyone, some that are only open to women or men, and those who also offer spiritual refreshment to travelers. Descriptions and contact information for each of the convents and monasteries is provided, along with some interesting sites to see while visiting.

Overall, this is a great travel guide with lots of information that would be hard to find anywhere else. But there were two things this book lacked, in my opinion. I would have loved to see some photos of the accommodations offered, and website addresses would have been helpful, even though many of the sites are written in other languages.

Trish Clark clearly did a lot of research on this subject, and has created a helpful and comprehensive travel guide. If you're thinking of visiting these countries and are interested in great, inexpensive lodging or a spiritual retreat, I highly recommend this book.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

The index to this guide to convents, monasteries, open houses and spiritual retreats of Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy gives one but the barest outline of the wealth of contents of Good Night & God Bless. Apart from answering the usual questions of where, what and how much, a sense of cultural and historical awareness permeates the text. Want to know where Empress Elizabeth was assassinated, where to seek out the most awe-inspiring classical music or liveliest disco, or where to buy locally grown organic fruit and herbal teas? Look no further than Good Night & God Bless: A Guide to Convent and Monastery Accommodation in Europe.

A neat pocket guide to the best alternative tourism routes through three major European countries, this logically structured work is a soothing panacea to the overwhelming plethora of travel books that pulsate off the shelves in ever increasing numbers. Presenting her work in pleasingly demarcated paragraphs, Trish Clark describes the accommodation, ranging from the relatively simple to the discretely luxurious, provided by religious houses that have found the need to become financially viable amid the increasing commercialism of the 21st century.

A brief introduction to each country and region, including a map and a few color photographs of the most distinctive sites, is followed by a few pages on each of the leading open houses. Trish describes exactly what a tourist is likely to experience while staying there. Venturing beyond a brief overview of the services and specialties provided, she explores the surroundings of each open house in turn, suggesting which places of interest, food and drink and sporting and cultural events the prospective traveler might most enjoy.

For those of a more contemplative frame of mind, Trish describes the spiritual retreats and pilgrimages that can be undertaken in Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic. She also provides the contact details for additional accommodation, so that the array of potentially spiritually uplifting accommodation is reasonably extensive.

Good Night & God Bless: A Guide to Convent and Monastery Accommodation in Europe is the ideal guide for those seeking more than the conventional tourist fare - make the most of your next trip to Europe by contemplating the contemplative and return home refreshed and spiritually restored. Volume Two of Good Night & God Bless, which covers the accommodation provided in the religious houses of France, Ireland and the United Kingdom, is due out in January 2010. Personally, I can't wait!

"Good Night & God Bless" dropped into my hands directly from heaven on the wings of angels, or so it seemed.

In it, Trish Clark gives us heavenly insider information on convent and monastery accommodations in three of the most romantic and picturesque countries in Europe: Austria, the Czech Republic, and...ah!...Italy.

The actual hard information in the margins is so complete and good that it preempts questions arising from her wonderful descriptions of these remarkable lodging opportunities in the main text. The author even divides information for readers seeking spiritual retreats or those just wanting to soak up the ambiance of these sacred places.

You don't have to be a monk to sleep in a 13th century monastery in Tuscany, with a balcony overlooking a quiet, rose-clustered cloister garden -- or a nun to breakfast on coffee with steamed milk and just-out-of-the-oven pastries in a 500-year-old Austrian convent. "Good Night & God Bless" makes accessible fabled places that only the clergy and their friends knew about in times past. But more than that, the book educates us on the origins of these splendid institutions and the rich historical context in which they are set.

Whether you are planning a trip or just wanting to travel from the couch, get hold of Good Night & God Bless and read it from cover to cover -- it really is a blessing.

Joseph Dispenza, author of "The Way of the Traveler: Making Every Trip a Journey of Self-Discovery" and "God On Your Own: Finding a Spiritual Path Outside Religion."

Hundreds of years ago, travelers would often find accommodations for the night in the care of convents and monasteries. "Good Night & God Bless: A Guide to Convent & Monastery Accommodation in Europe" is a travel guide to finding convents and monasteries that to this day offer travelers sanctuary in their halls. The focus seems to be on this sites in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Italy. A truly historical and spiritual way to sleep through one's European vacation, "Good Night & God Bless" is a top pick for any who want to embark on a pilgrimage.

We just got back to the USA and spent 4 nights at Casa del Clero san Tomaso in Milan. The hospitality was great but they didn't turn on the heat for a couple of days. The convent was undergoing renovation.
I found it in the back of this book along with other listings but it would have been better if the lodging , etc had been explained instead of just listed. The places in the body of the book went into greater detail.

Trish Clark's guide offers some great ideas for saving money on lodging in Europe while also experiencing beautiful and unique settings. Among the listings are monasteries with medieval art and convents with lush gardens, at an average of $65 per night. The guide is easy to follow and includes listings for casual lodging at Open Houses, as well as Spiritual Retreats for the devout.

Coming from a publishing background, I have to admit, I'm a sucker for a beautifully packaged book, and this is one. From it's beautifully designed, glossy paper cover, to its rounded edges, to the very well-laid-out pages, this book is a joy to read. Granted, some of the text is a tad small, but my eyesight hasn't gone yet... :)

Its content is thoroughly researched and well-written. Just looking at this book makes me want to travel.