Chris' Travel Videos » Hotel Video Reviews

Renaissance Naples Hotel Mediterraneo Video Review

chris — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:01:52 +0000

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.

Lawcus Farm Guest House in Ireland Video Review

chris — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 07:44:46 +0000

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.

Shelbourne Dublin Hotel Video Review

chris — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 07:41:43 +0000

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.

Renaissance Paris Arc De Triomphe Hotel Review

chris — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:30:11 +0000

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.

JW Marriott Beijing China Video Review

chris — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 06:31:16 +0000

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.

Airinkan Onsen Hotel Video Review

chris — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 01:25:10 +0000

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.

Renaissance Paris Le Parc Trocadero Video Review

chris — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 01:23:13 +0000

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.”

Hotel Century Southern Tower Video Review

chris — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 05:13:28 +0000

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.

Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Manhattan Fifth Avenue Video Review

chris — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 02:34:02 +0000

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!

Hotel New Yokosuka Video Review

chris — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:26:44 +0000

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.