Chris' Travel Videos

Best Peking Duck in Beijing China at Quanjude

QuanJuDe in Beijing China is the most famous Peking Duck restaurant in the world. Is it worth the hype? Watch the video to see!

One of the main branches of Quan Ju De on WangFuJing. The restaurant is massive: five stories of roast duck goodness. It’s tasty, but it’s definitely not cheap. The single duck, plus side items for 2 people worked out to be 299 CNY. Or about 45 USD. Definitely a cool experience to go if you’re in Beijing. And a place you can eat that you won’t worry about getting sick .

Airinkan Onsen Hotel Video Review

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.

Street Musicians in Paris France Video

On a recent trip to Paris, I was most impressed by the quality and caliber of the street musicians. Usually street performers around the world aren’t the best, and get people to give them money due to pity… but in Paris I want to give them money because they are actually talented! This is a collection of some of the best street musicians that I captured during my trip. Highlights of this video include a 20 member teenage band by the Eifel Tower, Violin played in a subway station, and a puppet show in a subway car.

Lovers Bridge in Paris France – Pont des Arts Video

This video showcases the Lovers Bridge ( Pont des Arts ) in Paris France, located near the corner of the Louvre musuem, just a block from the Louvre-Rivoli metro stop. The bridge is famous as a place where lovers come to show their love by placing a “lock” on the bridge for each other. The locks are in many shapes and sizes and some are pretty awesome.

Renaissance Paris Le Parc Trocadero Video Review

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.”

Murakami Versaille Video

The Chateau Versaille in Paris France had a special exhibit from Sep-Dec 2010 of Japanese sculpture from Takashi Murakami. This video shows highlights from the exhibit.

Some of the art was commissioned specifically for this exhibit. It’s really neat to see this sort of Japanese art in a French palace. A very neat juxtaposition.

Electric Golf Carts at the Garden of Versaille Video

A pretty cool way to tour the Garden of Versaille at the Palace of Versaille in France is using the little electric golf carts. For 30 euro for one hour, it’s not cheap, but it really does save your feet because the gardens are massive in size. A neat future of the carts is that they have a GPS Enabled audio guide. When the cart approaches significant areas in the garden an informative summary is provided automatically. Super neat! This video shows the golf carts in action!

Giant Ferris Wheel in Palette Town, Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan Video

The Giant Ferris Wheel in the Palette Town shopping Center in Odaiba, Tokyo Japan was the world’s tallest ferris wheel when it was built in 1999. Standing at 340 feet tall, it was surpassed by the London Eye in 2000. In this video I take a ride on the Ferris Wheel. Check out the video:

This unique thing about this ferris wheel is that it has 4 “clear” gondolas. The entire gondola is made of clear plastic, so passengers can see straight down below the feet. I really cool experience, provided you aren’t afraid of heights. The ride takes 16 minutes, and costs 900 yen.

Hotel Century Southern Tower Video Review

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.

Rome Italy Video

Continuing the Italy videos from 2006, this is the fiinal part, our trip to Rome.

The video starts with a tour of our small, and humble hotel room in the Hotel Gulio Cesare. We then continue with an overview of types of roman restaurants, visit the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, take a trip on a musical subway car complete with graffiti, check out the 1000 year old Pantheon and Collesuem, visit the church of illusions, stick our hands in the mouth of truth, and visit the Vatican.