A couple of weeks ago I stayed at the Renaissance Naples Hotel Mediterraneo in Naples Italy. A video review of the hotel is below:
The Mediterraneo is located in downtown Naples, near the bay, and just a few blocks from the main shopping street, Via Toledo. There are plenty of restaurants and shops nearby, so it’s a convenient place to stay if you’re in Naples for business.
Overall it’s a decent hotel, but they just do some things different in Italy. For example — you have to walk up a flight of stairs to get in to the hotel from the street, which is pretty inconvenient with luggage. The parking garage also doesn’t have an elevator, but you have to walk up and out of the parking garage using the ramp you drove in on, then up the outside stairs to get in the hotel.
The lobby is a fairly big, 2 story open space. On the side of the lobby is a coffee shop/hotel bar, and above the lobby is the hotel’s restaurant which is open for dinner. Breakfast is served up on the 12th floor of the hotel on the rooftop. The views from the breakfast restaurant at sunrise are particularly pretty. Breakfast is free for gold and platinum members, it’s also included in some room rates. It’s a pretty good breakfast in my opinion. Many good Italian pastries, and also the standard eggs, bacon, and hot dog sausage like things.
The hotel does NOT have any ice machines. You can get ice in a glass at the hotel bar/cafe when it’s open in the evening. But other than that, don’t expect much in the way of your own cold drinks.
There are 2 types of rooms, regular rooms, and executive rooms. The executive rooms have extra bathroom amenities like mouthwash, a coffee machine/teapot in the room, and a bigger bed than the regular room.
The rooms overall are fairly decently furnished and a good size. Although a decent room, they could use a remodel… the televisions are still CRT tubes and the bathroom is lacking counter space. The most important thing for me is that the rooms are quiet, which these are. Like many European hotels, the hotel only has heat OR air conditioning. So in the winter, the air conditioning doesn’t work… which can make the room a bit stuffy. The window does crack open a bit, so that was a saving grace for me for making the room a comfortable sleeping temperature.
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago at 11:01 pm. Add a comment
On my last trip to Ireland I stayed at the Lawcus Farm Guest House — an old Irish farm that has been converted in to a bed and breakfast.
The Lawcus Farm Guest House is located in Kilkenny County Ireland, about a 2 hour drive south of the Dublin Airport. It is definitely located in a rural part of Ireland, so driving is the only way to get here.
The Lawcus Farm has a few farm animals on the property including pigs, sheep, chickens, cows, and horses. Although the farm aspect is more of a hobby of the owners rather than a real “working” farm, it is still a nice addition to the bed and breakfast.
The guest house itself is a renovated stone building with a new all-glass kitchen. In addition to the kitchen, there is also a living/sitting room that is part of the common areas of the guest house. I booked a double room, which was one of 2 rooms that are upstairs.
The room itself was small, but functional. There was a double bed, a small television, and a fireplace. There was also a really small bathroom that had an even smaller shower. It’s not the Marriott that’s for sure — but it’s also a farm, so I’ll cut them a little slack here. The bed wasn’t really very comfortable, but after a 12 hour flight to get here, I was pretty tired, so that didn’t matter. The room was very quiet — I didn’t hear any other neighbors or noises during the night. The room had 2 windows, one on each side that could be opened to get a cross breeze.
The breakfast was served in the kitchen that was a custom addition to the farm house. The kitchen is all glass, with glass walls, and a glass ceiling. There are about 5-6 tables in the kitchen. The breakfast served is a full Irish breakfast with toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, mushrooms, tomatos, and blood pudding. A pretty filling way to start the day. Cereal and fresh fruit were also available for those folks “on a diet.”
The guest house doesn’t take credit cards, so payment can only be made in cash. Our room was 100 Euro. Pretty reasonable considering it included breakfast as well. Although next time I think I’d pay 50 euro more for one of the bigger rooms.
Overall I’d highly recommend staying here. The rural farm aspect of this place was truly one of the highlights of our trip to Ireland. The owners are also super friendly, and chatting with them over breakfast made our trip to Ireland seem even friendlier.
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago at 12:44 am. Add a comment
On a recent trip to Ireland, I stayed at the Shelbourne Dublin Renaissance Hotel.
Below is the written review of the hotel which goes in to much more detail – however a picture is worth 1000 words, and a video is worth 1000 pictures – so watch the video .
The Shelbourne is a historic hotel built in 1824 located in the city center of Dublin Ireland, across of the St. Stephens Green Park. Getting to the hotel from Dublin airport is very convenient using the Air Coach bus. It leaves from Dublin airport, and stops just about one block from the hotel. The bus trip takes about 30-40 minutes and the stop for the Shelbourne is about the 4th stop.
Gold and platinum members get a free full Irish Breakfast in the Saddle Room only on weekdays. The full Irish breakfast consists of eggs, pancakes, waffles, mushrooms, bacon, sausage, and black/white (blood) pudding. It was a very good breakfast, but I’d only recommend the breakfast from the saddle room if you’re getting it for free, because the regular price is over 30 Euro per person. The concierge lounge is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in 2012. In the interim, gold and platinum guests receive 2 free drink vouchers from the hotel bar. The drink vouchers can be redeemed for any “regular” alcoholic drinks. Since it is Ireland after all, Jameson Whiskey and Guinness are the logical choices in the bar.
The Shelbourne is well known for the afternoon tea at “Lord Mayors Lounge.” In addition to tea, Lord Mayors lounge also serves breakfast and snacks. I had the oatmeal on one of the weekend mornings that I couldn’t get a free breakfast. The oatmeal was served with lavender honey, and was truly one of the best bowls of oatmeal I’ve ever heard. I would highly recommend the oatmeal! The scones and jam are also pretty tasty if you’re in to that kind of thing. The oatmeal is also available on the buffet in the saddle room.
The hotel gym is a bit of an oddity, because the gym consists of three converted hotel rooms. They’ve converted one hotel room in to a weight room with weight lifting equipment. Another room has been converted in to a Cardiovascular room with tread mills, and the final gym room has bicycles and an elliptical machine.
In the hotel rooms, the bed had very nice comfortable sheets. Also in the room was a flat panel television, a desk, and good size closets. The bathroom in my room was recently remodeled and had a combined bathtub and shower. I asked for a quiet room, so I had a view of the courtyard. Indeed my room was also very quiet. The air conditioning and heating also both worked well in the room.
As a platinum member I got a choice of welcome gift. For my beverage I chose the chilled Erdinger, a beer. For my snack, I chose the “Selection of Irish Fruits.” The room also comes with a four bottles of complimentary Irish water. Two of the bottles are still water, and two of the bottles are sparkling water. Each day the bottled water was replenished by the housekeeping staff which is nice for those of us that are thirsty.
Ice machines are not available in the hotel, but ice is available by calling the housekeeping staff. I was actually quite amazed at how quick the staff would bring the ice up to my room. Usually the ice would arrive with one or two minutes.
Overall the Shelbourne is a very lovely, historic hotel in the heart of Dublin.
On a recent trip to Paris I did a video trip report of my stay at the Paris Renaissance Arc De Triomphe Hotel on youtube here:
Below is the written trip report which goes in to even greater detail.
The hotel is located convienently just about 3 blocks from the Arc De Triomphe and the Champs Elysee. A taxi to the hotel from CDG airport is about 45 Euro (not during rush hour). Or a cheap and also convienent alternative is to take the Air France bus, direct from the Airport to the Arc De Triomphe for about 13 euro, and then walk three blocks. Note, when you take the Air France bus, take the bus from the airport that stops at the “Etoille.” Charles De Gualle Etoille is the name of the metro stop at the Arc De Triomphe, so those names are often used interchangeably for the location. Also the metro here is very convienent, because metro Line 1 stops at the Etoille, which can be used to get the Louvre, and many of the other touristy sites in Paris. And for those of you that can’t live without McDonalds and/or Starbucks, both are within 2 blocks of the hotel as well.
The hotel itself is has a modern architecture and style with a bit of French / Asian fusion flair. It’s 8 stories tall, and the street side has a set of curvy/wavy windows that glow at night. The lobby is surrounded in dark wood tones, with red and yellow lighting that are meant to simulate candles. The lobby itself is small as most Paris hotels are, but is typically very well staffed. There were often not one, but two doormen that would open the doors to the hotel upon my arrival.
Off of the lobby is the hotel’s restaurant, Makkasar. A French/asian fusion restaurant. As the hotel doesn’t have a concierge lounge, Gold and Platinum members get a free breakfast in the restaurant on weekdays. The breakfast is a full American breakfast that was really quite good. The breakfast included eggs, pancakes, sausages, oatmeal, mushrooms, potatoes, fruits, yogurts, cereal, and typical French pastries.
I had e-mailed the hotel a couple days before arrival asking for an early check-in at 9am. When I arrived at 9am, it wasn’t quite ready, but was ready within 15 minutes of my arrival. It’s really nice to be able to check in early after a long flight from the US – so this really earned the hotel extra points in my opinion. Most hotels in Paris are pretty strict on the “no check-ins before 3pm” rule. As a platinum member, I was offered my choice of welcome gift. I picked 2 glasses of iced tea, and chocolates. The iced tea was a very interesting cinnamon flavored tea. But I think it’s a different type of iced tea each day.
Heading up to my room, I went in to one of the two hotel elevators. Each elevator glows in a different color…… one glows with blue neon, and the other glows with red neon. The blue elevator is a bit more soothing than the red one.
The room itself was relatively spacious, and continued with the dark wood tones from the lobby with bright pink accents on the bed. The room had the standard amenities, king bed, desk, desk chair, side chair. The room has a mini-bar that is only half-full, which leaves room for any beverages that you might want to keep cold. Two interesting items for sale on top of the mini-bar were an umbrella, and a power plug adapter.
My sleep quality in the room was great. The room itself was very quiet. The bed was comfy. The air conditioning was cold when I wanted it to be, and warm when I wanted it to be warm. Unlike many Paris hotels, the air conditioning and/or heat works all year round here. Many older hotels in Paris will only offer heat *or* air conditioning depending upon the time of the year, which is always sucky on those hot days in the middle of winter when the air conditioning doesn’t work.
The bathroom was nice and new, although a little dark as far as the lighting was concerned. The tub/shower had the typical French half/glass curtain. I always find these weird, because water seems to get everywhere when you don’t have a full curtain in the shower…. But maybe I’m just a messy shower taker. One of the coolest things in the room was actually in the bathroom… in the corner there was a piece of art with half of the Eiffel tower on it, then a mirror that reflected it, and made a whole Eiffel tower. See the video to understand what I mean.
My room faced the interior courtyard of the hotel, so it also had a small balcony with a table and single chair. I always like being able to get fresh air in to a room, so the balcony was nice.
The hotel really went overboard with the turn-down service each evening. My first evening, the turndown service included the regular chocolate you might expect, but also a bottle of wine, some olives, chips, and a small metal notepad. Each night the chocolates and office supply item were different, and there was also a printed weather forecast for the next day. My 2nd evening, there was the chocolate again, and also another notepad, but this time with post-it notes inside. And on my final evening, again the chocolate, and a paper holder to be used on a desk. I’ve never been in a hotel with office supplies as part of the turndown service… but I was always excited to come back to the room to see what was going to show up that evening. Much better than the just the standard mint on the pillow.
Each floor of the hotel has its own small ice machine, that in addition to dispensing ice, also dispenses filtered water.
My only real complaint staying here is that the internet was extremely slow. I don’t know if they were having issues, but it took like 15 minutes to download a 5 megabyte file. For a high-end hotel, this is really something they should fix.
Overall a very nice hotel, in a convenient location in central Paris. I’ve also stayed at the Marriott Rive Gauche, and the Renaissance Trocadero, and this one is my favorite of the three.
Posted 5 months, 4 weeks ago at 10:30 pm. Add a comment
On a recent trip to Beijing China, I stayed at the JW Marriott Beijing and put a video together of the room. So if you’d like to *see* what the hotel and room look like, check it out in the video below.
The JW Marriott Beijing is located just a 3 minute walk from the DaWang Lu station on the Beijing Subway Red Line or Line 1. From there, it’s about a 10 minute ride to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The hotel itself is built next door to the Ritz Carlton hotel, and also adjacent to China Central Mall, and ShinKong Place.
The JW Marriott Beijing is a relatively new hotel, built in 2007. It’s a 5-star hotel, and it’s definitely one of the best Marriotts that I have stayed in.
We reserved the “VIP Limousine” transportation from the airport to the hotel. The cost is 600 CNY, and is well worth it. An airport greeter met us at the jetway from the plane, holding a sign with my name on it. He then walked us through security, and baggage claim. We then proceeded to a “special” transportation lobby, that is stocked with black Audi sedans. We hopped in an Audi, and the first 5 minutes of the drive was on a nice, wide, uncrowded freeway. But oh how that so quickly turned in to the typical Beijing traffic snarl of standstill traffic. Luckily our driver decided to drive on the freeway shoulder, and got us to the hotel in about 30 minutes. I’d highly recommend reserving this method of transport to the hotel, as Beijing taxi’s really leave quite a bit to be desired. Many Beijing taxi’s don’t even have working seat-belts, and trust me, you’ll want them!
Upon arrival at the hotel, our luggage was taken by a bellhop, and we were directed to the check-in counter. Being that this is China, not only did they request our passports, but they also scanned them in to the computer. After one of the most inefficient check-in processes of any Marriott I’ve stayed in, we were on our way to our room on the executive level, floor 20.
The room itself was very nicely appointed with traditional JW Marriott bedding. It was clean, modern, and quite spacious. Being the executive floor, there were 2 complimentary bottles of water, and 2 apples on the coffee table. Our room was a double room, it had two beds, two leather chairs, a coffee table, a desk, a flat panel television, and not one, but two closets. The room also has a mini-bar/small refrigerator and a tea making set in the cabinet under the television. Ice is available upon request from the housekeeping staff.
A very nice touch was that the room included power outlets and voltages for almost every plug imaginable. Next to the desk was a console on the wall that had sockets for 110, 220, US, European, etc.
The curtains in the room are really cool. They open from a push button console near the nightstand. One button open and closes the main black-out curtain, and another button open/closes the sheer curtain.
The bathroom was quite large, and had a seperate bathtub and shower. The shower had dual showerheads, a regular one, and a top-down rain head. There was also a television in the bathroom, viewable from the bathtub.
Our room was very quiet — I didn’t hear a single thing from outside of our room. Very peaceful, just the way I like it.
The concierge lounge is open from 6am – midnight, 7 days a week. Breakfast, dinner, and desert are served every day of the week. The food spread at the lounge is quite impressive, but Platinum members can also have breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant downstairs which is even more impressive. Definitely the best Marriott breakfast that I’ve had. It rivals a Las Vegas hotel buffet.
The Marriott shares a Spa and Fitness Center with the Ritz Carlton. While I didn’t go in to the Spa, it looked pretty nice from the outside.
I highly recommend staying at the JW Marriott Beijing if your travels take you to Beijing in the future.
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 11:31 pm. 1 comment
The Airinkan Onsen Hotel is located in the Iwate Prefecture, in northern Japan. The hotel is a 30-40 minute drive from the Shin-Hamasaki train station.
The Airinkan is a traditional Japanese hot springs hotel. Rooms in the hotel all feature tatami mats, and futons for sleeping. A lady in a kimono takes guests up to their room, and makes a pot of green tea in the room, while explaining the amenities of the hotel.
Being an Onsen hotel, there are 3 or 4 different bathing areas for the hot spring water. The different baths are open at different times for men and women separately.
An excellent dinner and breakfast is provided in the room rate.
Posted 1 year, 5 months ago at 6:25 pm. Add a comment
Earlier this month I stayed at the Renaissance Paris Le Parc Trocadero for a 2 night reward stay over the weekend. I put a video together of the room. So if you’d like to *see* what the hotel and room look like, check out the video below:
The hotel is convientently located near the Eifel Tower, in between the Trocadero and Victor Hugo metro stops. From the hotel it is about a 5 minute walk to either station. The Arc de Triomphe is also near by, and is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. Another nice feature of this neighborhood is that there is a small grocery store just two blocks away that is a great place to stock up on bottled water and fruit.
The hotel is comprised of multiple buildings, situated around an outdoor courtyard. Upon arriving at the hotel, the bell-hop immediately took our luggage, and directed us to the check-in counter. We arrived at 12pm, and were informed that our room was not yet ready, but would be ready by 3pm. I’ve been to Paris a few times now, and am quite used to not being able to check in early, so this wasn’t a big deal. A nice touch was that the hotel offered to take my cell phone number, and call once our room was ready. The bell-hop stored our bags away, and we went off to be tourists in Paris.
Upon returning to the hotel in the evening and finally checking in, we were informed that our bags were already in the room, and that to get there we had to go “outside” and then to the building called “La Residence.” It seemed complicated at first, but the bell-boy showed us the way and it really wasn’t a big deal.
The room itself was quite comfortable. Bigger in size than a typical Paris hotel room. We had a room with two twin beds, a flat panel LCD television, a mini bar/refrigerator, and a small desk. Our room overlooked the courtyard, and was very quiet. We didn’t hear any other guests, or noise from the courtyard. Two things that I really appreciated about the room is that the air conditioning worked very well and ice is available on request.
Overall the room was very nice — but the two negative points are: 1) A lack of available power outlets — to plug in my laptop I needed to unplug the desk lamp. 2) The shower faucet head was just plain weird — it’s an old shower head, and the head kept falling off from the hose portion.
The hotel does not have a concierge lounge, but Platinum and Gold Marriott members recieve free breakfast in the restaurant 7 days a week, which is a really good deal since the breakfast is normally 27 euro. The breakfast is a full American breakfast with waffles, pancakes, eggs, sausage, pastries, fruits, yogurt and cereal. Definitely the best breakfast I’ve had in Paris. In the morning, complimentary coffee is also available in the hotel lobby for all guests.
The hotel does have a small fitness center that has an eliptical machine, treadmill, and bicycle — one of each.
Overall I would highly reccomend this hotel to other travellers to Paris. It has very nice amenities, and because it is in a historic building it doesn’t feel like “just another Marriott.”
Posted 1 year, 6 months ago at 6:23 pm. 5 comments
On my last trip to Japan, I stayed for 4 nights at the Hotel Century Southern Tower in Tokyo.
The hotel is very conveniently located right outside the Southern Terrace exit of the JR Shinjuku train station and is an awesome spot to base on a trip to Tokyo. Trains run from Shinjuku to almost every part of Tokyo. And although the hotel is directly above the train station, it is super quiet. The windows and hotel must have some excellent sound insulation, as I couldn’t hear a thing.
The hotel occupies the upper floors of the Southern Tower building, floors 19-35. Checking in at the hotel lobby on the 20th floor is a pretty odd experience, since I’m used to checking in on the ground floor. The staff are all very attentive, and speak very good English. An interesting tidbit that the staff shared upon check-in is that the hotel does not have room service, so that I should purchase items at the convenience store if I’m hungry.
We had a twin room, that was 23 sq meters, super big for Tokyo standards. There was actually room for us, AND our luggage in the room. Quite refreshing. The beds are comfy and clean. The bathroom was super clean, and big for Tokyo standards.
But the best part of the hotel — the view! Wow! Amazing! You have to see it in person to really appreciate it. There’s something cool about staying in a room so high above the city. Just an awesome place to retreat to every night.
Posted 1 year, 7 months ago at 10:13 pm. 4 comments
Over Memorial Day weekend, we visited the big apple, New York City and stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Manhattan Fifth Avenue. We picked the Fairfield Inn because it had the cheapest rate of any Marriott Property in the general vicinity of Times Square ($227/night with AAA discount) and yet was still centrally located.
Although the name of the hotel is “Fifth Avenue”, it is actually located on 37th street, between 5th and 6th Avenue. It’s about 4 blocks from Macy’s, and 6 blocks from Times Square (about a 10 minute walk). The hotel is a new hotel that just opened this year, in 2010. It has 18 floors, and 92 rooms — and is actually a nice alternative to the huge hotels in Times Square, like the Marriott Marquis that has 2,000 rooms. Each floor of the hotel has only 6 rooms, except the top floor which has 2 rooms.
The hotel doesn’t have any onsite parking, but they do provide discounted parking at an off-site parking facility one block away on 36th Street. Make sure to get your parking ticket validated by the hotel’s front desk to get the discounted rate of $30/night. The off-site parking garage is “valet” parking and does NOT include in-out privileges. But you’re in Manhattan, so you really won’t need a car anyway. Park it and forget it!
As a platinum member I called to request an upgrade the morning of arrival, and we were given the suite on the 18th floor, room 1801. The room was quite big for a Manhattan hotel room… it has a sofa that could seat 3 people and a desk in the main entry part of the room. The desk has a flat panel TV mounted on the wall above that can be viewed from the sofa. The king size bed is off the right, and also has another flat panel TV on the wall across from the bed. The closet in the room is a very odd long noodle shape located behind the desk. The balcony is huge and has a wonderful view of the empire state building. It was also a great place to enjoy breakfast, as the hotel just recently purchased some outdoor furniture for the balcony two weeks prior to our stay. Although I’m not sure whether the cleaning staff has realized the furniture was outside yet… because it looked like it hadn’t received any cleaning in those two weeks. The final part of the room, the bathroom, is also a pretty good size. The shower is very intriguing because one side is frosted glass, with a thin clear glass section at the top that we could see the Empire State building from while showering.
Unfortunately the hotel was experiencing some water pressure issues during our stay and the water pressure available in our shower was very very low. On the second night we spent in the suite, no water would come out of the shower at all. This was due to a defective water pump in the hotel, so the hotel transfered us to a “standard” king room on the 7th floor that actually had water pressure.
Our newly transfered room was room 703. A very small, but nicely appointed room. There isn’t much “extra” space in the room, but it didn’t feel particularly cramped as other reviewers on tripadvisor have described it. I’ve stayed in many hotels in Japan that had waaaaayy smaller rooms.
I’m a pretty light sleeper, and found both of our rooms to be quiet and free of room neighbor noise. Having only a few rooms per floor I think helps in this regard.
The hotel provides the standard complimentary Fairfield breakfast, pastries, bread, cereal, bananas, coffee. The breakfast area was pretty small, but had a nice glass ceiling to let the morning sunlight in. The staff at the hotel was great, check-in/check-out was a breeze, and they were very accommodating and apologetic when to moving us to the different room to actually get some water pressure.
I highly recommend this hotel to singles, and couples visiting the big apple. It’s centrally located, and reasonably priced. The rooms may be a bit on the small side, but how much time are you spending in your hotel room anyway? You should be out enjoying New York City and not hanging around your hotel room!
Posted 1 year, 11 months ago at 7:34 pm. Add a comment
On my last trip to Japan I stayed at the Hotel New Yokosuka, in Yokosuka Japan. I put together a video of the Hotel New Yokosuka so that you can see what the rooms and neighborhood look like. Check out the video below.
The Hotel New Yokosuka is conveniently located just one block away from the main gate of Yokosuka Naval Base. While this hotel caters mostly to American’s on business in Yokosuka, it still retains a very distinctive Japanese flair. Upon check-in, I was asked for your passport, but not a credit card. No payment is rendered until check-out. During check-in the staff informs me of my selected room rate, and how it compared to the current US Per Diem rate based on the current Yen exchange rate. I was then informed that my room included free “Breakfast, ADSL Internet, Drink Tickets, and Pay TV.” I was given the option of daily maid service in my room, or weekly maid service but daily laundry service. I took the daily laundry service as clean clothes are pretty nice, and I’m okay making my own bed. They do still come in to the room to bring new towels for the bathroom, they just don’t change the sheets.
My room on this stay was on the 6th floor of the “West Wing” of the hotel — a new building that is connected to the main building. The rooms in the West Wing are much bigger than the standard rooms, and include a little Kitchenette. Having stayed in the very small rooms in the main hotel, I’d definitely reccomend one of the West Wing rooms.
The room included a queen size bed, a flat screen television, two desks, and a balcony. The bathroom is a very typical tiny Japanese bathroom, with a heated/bidet toilet seat, and with an unusual feature of a television that you can watch from the bathtub. There was also a kitchenette with a mini-fridge, sink, dishwasher, stove, and microwave. I found the room to be very quiet — which is a plus for me since I’m a pretty light sleeper. The rooms in the main part of the hotel are not very quiet due to their small size, and proximity to each other.
Although you’d think Japan is pretty modern, many hotels in Japan still use actual metal keys, and this hotel is no exception. The key also has a big plastic thing attached to it that you insert in to a slot when you enter the room to turn the power on. The key needs to be returned to the front desk when you leave the hotel, and picked up when you come back to the hotel. They ensure you return the key, because breakfast coupons are tied to picking up your key in the evening.
The hotel provides breakfast every morning in the downstairs bar/restaurant. The breakfast is this bizarre combination of Japanese and American breakfasts… something in between. They serve eggs, cooked to order, cereal, toast, bacon that is waaaaay undercooked, miso soup, fried fish, and steamed rice. Fairly decent overall.
Every evening the hotel bar is open for the drink tickets to be redeemed. You can redeem the drink tickets for alcoholic, or non-alcoholic beverages. So if you’re a soda drinker like me, you can indeed get a coke . There is a pretty good American bar scene at the hotel every night with many of the Americans working on the base go to unwind. There’s also a 7-11 right cross the street in case you need a quick snack, or beverage the hotel doesn’t provide.
As far as transportation to the hotel goes — there are two main ways to get to Yokosuka by train, the JR Line, and the Keikyu Line. The hotel is located about a mile from the JR Yokosuka station, about a half mile from the Shiori Station on the Keikyu Line, and 3/4 of a mile from the Yokosuka Chuo station also on Keikyu line. My preference is to take the Keikyu line, as it is much faster than the JR. You can pick up the Keikyu line in Tokyo at Shinagawa, or at the main Yokohama station. From Yokohama it’s about 30 minutes if you take the express Keikyu to Yokosuka Chuo.
Posted 2 years, 1 month ago at 2:26 pm. 8 comments
When I was in Tokyo last December I stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Tokyo Ginza.
I booked a standard queen size room, and checked in to room 1008 on the 10th floor. I asked at the front desk about the possibility of an upgraded room and was told that all of the rooms on the executive floor were already booked. As a platinum member I chose the welcome gift, of “Orange Juice, Fruit, and Japanese cake.”
The room itself was small by typical American standards, but huge by Tokyo standards . Some of the interesting touches included the two Japanese style robes on top of the bed, and a cool lighting control panel next to the bed that can be used to turn on and off all of the lights in the room. Many Japanese hotels still use metal “keys” for the room — the courtyard does one better, and has RFID key-cards that you simply touch to the door to unlock it.
The room also had a medium size work desk, flat panel television, sofa/chair thing, and a mini-bar refrigerator. I found the room to be nice and quiet — very important for me!
The bathroom, like most Japanese hotels, had a toilet with a Japanese bidet seat. The bathroom was well stocked with toiletries including toothbrushes, toothpaste, hair brushes, and two *individually wrapped* cotton swabs.
The only real negative for the Courtyard is that the air conditioning and heat is either on or off for the whole hotel. When I was there in December, it was a pretty warm day, and the room was a bit too warm for my tastes — but no air conditioning was available because the hotel was seat for “heat” and not A/C. At least the window in room opened so I could get some fresh air that way.
Getting from the Courtyard to the airport is a snap, as there is a Limousine bus that picks up in front of the Courtyard every hour bound for Narita. 3000 Yen, and well worth it! Location wise the Courtyard is a pretty central area in Ginza — just a few blocks from the Higashi-Ginza metro stop, and right across the street from an AM/PM and a Denny’s.
Overall I highly recommend the Courtyard, it’s quiet, centrally located, and relatively inexpensive for an American chain hotel in Tokyo.
Last month, me and the new wifey went to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for our honeymoon. We stayed at the Hilton Los Cabos, in Los Cabos Mexico.
We booked the hotel using Hilton points for 5 nights using an American Express AXON6 award for 145,000 Hilton Points.
Although the directions from the hotel seemed easy enough from the website, basicly drive on the transpeninsular highway from the airport until you see the Hilton, we managed to miss the driveway for the Hilton and had to drive for another 4 miles before being able to turn-around again. Once we arrived at the hotel property, we were stopped at a little guard booth, and asked for our name before being able to drive on to the hotel grounds. We then drove up to the lobby/check-in area, were greeted by complimentary valet service, and also complimentary margaritas. Note that there is the option for self-parking as well, just drive past the lobby to the parking lot on the side of the hotel. There was a 2nd guard booth at the self-parking lot, but it never seemed to be staffed.
During check-in, we were informed that as a Gold member, we would receive complimentary continental breakfast at the “El Meson” restaurant, but that a $2 “service charge” will be applied to our bill at check-out for each free breakfast. That’s sort of an interesting twist on complimentary, but $2 is still pretty cheap . The restaurant also has a hot breakfast that we could “upgrade” to for another $7-8, but the continental was good enough for us. Really the best part of the breakfast was the view from the restaurant — definitely try to get a seat out-side if you can! The second best part of the breakfast selection was the juices each morning, orange juice, watermelon juice, papaya juice, cantaloupe juice, and cactus/orange juice.
The room itself had a southwestern theme, lots of orange and yellow — definitely very Mexican. All of the rooms in the hotel have an ocean view with a balcony. The floor was tiled as opposed to carpetted — this seems typical of beachfront hotels. I assume carpet is too hard to clean with all of the sand. The bathroom had a “window” that you could open in to the main part of the room, so that you could see the ocean while taking a bath. That’s definitely a unique twist. Other than those exceptions, it was a typical Hilton room.
The hotel has two very impressive “infinity” pools, four restaurants, and a beautiful beach. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so go watch the video already and see what those look like for yourself!
Posted 2 years, 2 months ago at 3:38 pm. 1 comment
When I was in Paris for a weekend I stayed at the Paris Marriott Rive Gauche. The hotel is located in the “south bank” of the river, in a fairly residential area. Although it is not located directly near any tourist sites, it is convienently located 2 blocks from the Saint-Jaques stop of the number 6 metro line and about 5 blocks from the Denfert-Rocherau stop of the RER B line. The RER B line runs from the airport… so no transfers required.
As a Platinum member I was upgraded to a suite — which is essentially 2 rooms converted to be a single room. It looks as if the hotel originally didn’t have any suites, but at some point they decided to provide some upgraded rooms and the only way to do it was to combine two existing rooms. Therefore the room has two bathrooms, although only one bedroom.
The concierge lounge was definitely one of the better Marriott lounges that I’ve been too. For dessert time every evening they always had delicious French pastries, and even provided breakfasts on weekends.
Would definitely recommend this hotel to other travelers to Paris. Check out the video for all the details.
Posted 2 years, 4 months ago at 7:23 pm. 3 comments
A video review of the Hotel Crillion in Paris France. This is the hotel that Madonna and Lady Gaga stayed at when they went to Paris. The room rates are cheap — only like 800 euro!
Posted 2 years, 5 months ago at 5:29 pm. Add a comment
In early April I took a business trip to Norfolk, VA and stayed 2 nights at the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel & Waterfront Conference Center in Portsmouth, VA. The Renaissance Portsmouth is located on the Elizabeth River, directly across from downtown Norfolk.
For those people that are going to downtown Norfolk for business or pleasure, there is a ferry that leaves adjacent to the hotel every 30 minutes, and will take you to downtown Norfolk for $1.50. Pretty convienent, and a nice ride — much better than trying to drive over the bridges or through the tunnels of Norfolk during rush hour.
The hotel itself would appear to be relatively new, has 16 stories, 244 rooms, and a fairly large conference center.
Arriving at the hotel is a somewhat odd experience, because the valet and parking garage is on the “land” side of the hotel, while the lobby and check-in desk is on the “water” side of the hotel, which means you have to walk down a pretty lengthy hallway before arriving in the lobby to check-in. Although once arriving in the lobby it is pretty nice. The lobby is decorated in a modern style, lot’s of intriguing sofa’s and lounge chairs, and a long table with 6 free computers (running Windows Vista interestingly enough). Adjacent to the lobby is also the hotel’s restaurant and bar. The bar was pretty packed both nights that I was there, but the restaurant was mostly empty.
I was given room 1415 — which seemed to be a normal room. As a platinum member I would have expected to be at least on the Concierge floors (15, and 16) but I guess 14 is close. The room itself was small, but functional and well appointed. There was a king-size bed with soft white sheets. A flat screen television with the Marriott video inputs. A desk, and a psyhiatrists office style sofa near the window. The view out of the window was quite nice with views of downtown Norfolk and the Elizabeth river. Based on the positioning and design of the hotel a majority of the rooms have a view of the river.
A nice touch from the housekeeping staff was a note that the write when coming in for the evening turn-down service that said “Please continue to enjoy your stay” and had 2 chocolates placed next to the note.
The concierge lounge was open weekdays for breakfast 6am-10am, and for evening snacks and desert from 5pm-10pm. The breakfast was pretty good, they had one or two hot items each morning. The first morning there were breakfast sandwiches with egg and bacon on a crossaint, and the second morning there was scrambled eggs with cheese. For the dinner snack there was one hot item, it was mini pizza slices the evening I was there. They also had asparagus spears, and assorted cheeses. The evening desert seemed to be cookies and brownies — and although the cookies were baked in the lounge, still would have been nice to have something a little more.
Posted 3 years, 1 month ago at 8:56 pm. Add a comment
In early March I stayed at the Amsterdam Marriott on a business trip.
I arrived in Amsterdam on an early flight at 7:30 am. I took a taxi to the hotel which cost 30 euros and arrived at the hotel at 8:30am. I had called ahead to ask for an early check-in, and indeed my room was ready. As a platinum member, I was upgraded to one of the hotels “Corner Executive Suites” room 423 — overlooking the Leidseplein. The staff at the front desk was very pleasant, they asked if this was my first time in Amsterdam, when I said yes, they pulled out a map, and circled a bunch of interesting touristy places that I might want to visit including the Ann Frank House, and the Van Gogh Museum.
The bell-boy showed me to my room and brought my luggage up. The room itself is quite large, with a king size bed. The room has a desk that faces the window so you can see the view while working on your laptop. The window opens so that you can get some fresh dutch air in the room. The desk also has Europoean 220V plugs and a US 120V outlet which is a nice touch. The US outlet is behind a plastic cover, so it took me a little while to find it. There was also an arm chair, and a small table.
The room has two closets that have lights inside when the doors are opened. There is also a well stocked mini-bar refrigerator that also has some room for your own beverages. I don’t typically partake of the mini-bar, but I do like space to store my own beverages so that they stay cool. Above the mini-bar was a pretty neat electric tea-kettle that would heat a cup of water in what seemed like an astonishing 15 seconds.
The bathroom is one of those “two room” bathrooms that has a room with the sink, and a separate room with the toilet and bathtub/shower. The bathtub’s water faucet is one of those that you’ll typically see in European hotels that has separate controls for the temperature and the water flow which is nice so that once you set your temperature, you can just turn the water on and off without fiddling with the temperature. The sink in the bathroom had two light switches, one for the main light, and another for a dim light underneath the sink which makes for a good night light.
The concierge lounge in the hotel is open 6am-midnight every day, with breakfast being served Mon-Fri 6:30am-10:30am, Hourderves Sun-Thurs 5:30pm-7:30pm and Desert Sun-Thurs 7:30pm-9:30pm. When meals aren’t being served, the lounge is open for “snacks” and beverages. In snacks were oranges, apples, kiwis, pretzels, and cookies. The beverages are a fairly wide selection of soft-drinks and coffee/tea.
The breakfast served was fairly good, although no hot items. Mainly pastries, breads, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, cold breakfast meats, cheeses, and fruit.
The dinner Hourderves were quite good, with a different selection every night. One night I had a pretty tasty beef stew with potatoes. Other nights included shrimp cocktails, chicken wings, and meatballs. Desert was typically Dutch apple pie and another pie or cake selection depending upon the day.
Posted 3 years, 2 months ago at 9:53 pm. Add a comment
On a recent business trip to the Washington DC area I spent one night at the Marriott Crystal Gateway hotel. The Marriott Crystal Gateway is located in Arlington, VA — in the neighborhood known as Crystal City. The hotel itself has a great location as it is connected to the Crystal City underground tunnels and only about a 3 minute walk to the Crystal City metro station. The hotel is also located about 1 mile from the Reagan National Airport to which the hotel provides complimentary shuttle service to and from the airport. Note: There are 2 Marriott’s in Crystal City — the “Crystal City Marriott” — and this one, the “Marriott Crystal Gateway.” They are located directly across the highway from each other — and they share the same airport shuttle, so make sure you get off the shuttle at the right hotel.
I flew in to Dulles, so I was driving in to the city. Parking at the hotel for self parking is $22 — there is also a valet parking option.
Upon checking in to the hotel I was given the usual spiel about “The gym is here.. the restaurants are there…”. I then inquired about the Concierge Lounge — the front desk attendant looked down at his computer, and said “I see your Marriott Rewards number is on file, but it doesn’t say what level you are”. When I told him that I was a platinum, he then said “Well in that case, I’ll upgrade you to a suite on the concierge level.”. I’m not really sure what the malfunction was that my rewards level wasn’t shown in their system, but I was pleased with the resulting suite upgrade.
The suite that I was given was room 1101 on the concierge level. The suite is made up of three rooms, a living room, a bedroom, and of course a bathroom. The room is on the side of the hotel, and as such as excellent views from the living room with windows facing to the west, and the bedroom with windows facing to the east. The Crystal Gateway Marriott recently renovated their rooms at the end of 2008, and it shows. The living had a sofa for two, an armchair with footrest, flat panel television, and a coffee machine.
The bedroom had a king size bed, that had a robe laid out on it. Also upon the bed was a bag of white chocolate covered pretzels, and two chocolate chip cookies — nice touch. The bed had the new Marriott LED reading lights. The alarm-clock on the nightstand had an ipod jack. The bedroom also had another armchair like in the living room, along with the desk, and another flat-panel television. The television in bedroom had the audio/video inputs, while the living room television did not.
The final room, the bathroom, was rather spacious and had the standard Marriott amenities.
The concierge lounge is located on the 11th floor, and is open Mon-Thurs 6:30am – 10:00pm, Fri 6:30am – 12:00pm, and Sunday 5:30pm – 10:00pm. The evening snack options during my visit were pretty poor — apples, bananas, and cookies. No hot snack or real deserts. The lounge cutbacks have obviously struck at the Crystal Gateway. Breakfast was a little better as they did have one hot item, scrambled eggs.
Around the rest of the hotel, there are 3 restaurants, a Starbucks in the lobby, a business center, a jungle themed indoor swimming pool (see the video), and a smallish fitness center overlooking the pool.
Posted 3 years, 2 months ago at 9:32 pm. Add a comment
On a recent business trip I spent one night at the Fullerton Marriott at California State University Fullerton at a rate of $120/night. The hotel itself is located directly on the CSU Fullerton Campus, and is also adjacent to the 57 freeway at the Nutwood Avenue exit.
From the outside of the hotel this would appear to be an older Marriott, but don’t let the outside disappoint you as the inside is very well maintained. Parking is free at this Marriott which is pretty nice since most of the other Los Angeles and Orange County Marriott’s charge for parking.
I was given a room on the top floor (6) which is also the same level as the concierge lounge. The hallways of the hotel are showing a bit of age as the tint of the paint is getting slightly yellowish. The paint and ceilings of the rooms show similar age, but the furnishings of the room have been replaced recently.
Starting with the bed, the sheets were clean and comfortable, as well as the mattress. The bed had some nifty LED reading lights built in to it as well. There was a small desk in the room with 2 power plugs, and wired internet access. The television was an LCD flatscreen with inputs to plug in your laptop/dvd player or other potential media player. The bathroom was a standard bathroom, bathtub, shower, coffeemaker.
The highlight of the hotel though for me was the Concierge lounge. In a time of Marriott lounge downgrades, the Fullerton Marriott get’s extra kudos for their lounge for not cutting out the good stuff like many other Marriotts. For the dinnertime snack there was a very tasty pasta with shrimp and Alfredo sauce and shrimp, along with Caesar salad. For breakfast there were three (3!) hot items, scrambled eggs, bacon/sausages, and oatmeal.
Posted 3 years, 3 months ago at 6:06 pm. Add a comment
On my recent trip to Key West, Florida in January 2009 I stayed at the Reach Resort, which recently became a Hilton Property under the Waldorf Astoria Collection.
The Reach appears to have been recently renovated before becoming a Hilton Property as everything appeared to be sparkly and new. The Casa Marina — The Reach’s sister property 2 blocks away also became a Hilton property as well.
The check-in experience was good– I walked up to the counter fairly late in to the night, 10pm perhaps on a Thursday, told them my name and was greeted with a “We’ve been expecting you!’ — I’m thinking that I was the last person to check in that evening. It appeared the hotel had a pretty low occupancy during my visit as the parking garage was near empty. Parking is $12.
The Reach Resort has a pretty good location, one block off of Duval St and is located on Key West’s only natural sand beach. Some might say that the Reach is on the “wrong” end of Duval — but I would say it is the quiet end of Duval where you can actually get some sleep away from the bars . Being a resort property, there is a $20 a day “resort fee” which doesn’t really include anything that I would consider a perk, but the front desk will tell you that the resort fee covers the “Pool towels, fruit in the lobby, newpapers, and beach chairs.” Being a resort property that also means no concierge lounge. The hotel also has water sports rentals and rents Jet Skis, kayaks, snorkeling equipment, etc.
I booked the 1 bedroom boutique sweet with ocean view, and it was sweet indeed! My room was on the Fifth floor — which is the top floor — and was very airy/light with perhaps 12 foot ceilings. The room included a refrigerator, and a Nespresso coffee machine (the one that has the little coffee cartridges). There was a bar area with two bar stools for eating, a love-seat sofa, and an arm chair. The bed was a king size bed with very comfortable bedding and mattress.
The bathroom was clean — had a large shower, no bathtub. It sort of disturbed me that the bathroom also included a set of ear plugs. Turns out the hotel was very quiet and I didn’t need to ear plugs (thank goodness!). Perhaps during times of higher occupancy the hotel is noisier?
My favorite spot at the hotel was definitely the hammocks strung up on the beach — there is just something really cool about lying on a hammock that is suspended between two palm trees!
I’d definitely recommend the Reach Resort to anyone traveling to Key West Florida!
The Reach Resort is located at: 1435 Simonton St, Key West, FL
http://www.reachresort.com/
Posted 3 years, 3 months ago at 5:14 pm. Add a comment
On a recent business trip to Newport, Rhode Island, I had the pleasure of staying at the Newport Marriott. The Newport Marriott is located right in the middle of old town Newport on the harbor.
The design of the hotel is a bit strange, as some of the rooms face outside, and other rooms face the “inside” atrium of the hotel — which is covered. The rooms on the inside of the hotel don’t get any fresh air — some of the windows of rooms actually face in to the hallway. If you have a preference, an outside facing room is definitely preferable.
I was staying in January, which is the snowy season in Newport, therefore occupancy is super low. I paid $120/night for a harbor view room, which can go for up to $400/night in the summer time. The concierge lounge was closed “for the season” — so as a Platinum I was given complimentary breakfast in their restaurant. I’ve had the breakfast buffet in the restaurant before, so I was pretty stoked about that — but again, because it was the slow season, they didn’t have the buffet, but allowed guests to order up to $16 of food off of their breakfast menu instead. The food was good, but I really prefer the buffet so that my breakfast will be quick. It just takes awhile to order breakfast, have it be prepared, get a check, etc.
The hotel was a nice gym in their “Spa at Long Wharf”. The machines are new, and many of the aerobic machines such as the elliptical trainers have televisions on them. There is also an indoor heated swimming pool and jacuzzi. It’s pretty neat to go for a swim in the pool when it’s snowing outside!
The room itself was a decent size — not huge, but not too small. The bedding was clean and comfortable. The television was a flat panel TV, perhaps 32″ in size, a bit smaller than typical Marriott’s. It also had the inputs for external video. The desk had four (4) power plugs which is really nice. I personally carry a power strip with me on travel because one or two power plugs are never enough for the true geek on travel, so having four is a nice touch. The bathroom was a bathroom, nothing particularly special, sink, toilet, and tub with shower.
Posted 3 years, 3 months ago at 10:11 pm. Add a comment
