Tag Archives: hotel review

Cool Venice Apartment: chilled Cannaregio

9 Mar

lounge & dining area @ cool venice apartment (Image by HWL)

Searching for accommodation in Venice meant wading through websites offering a fearful combination of the fussy, the twee and the bland. Then, somehow, we stumbled across the self-described ‘Cool Venice Apartment’ on Facebook. Set in the Cannaregio district of Venice (a five minute walk from Ca d’Oro), the apartment is owned by a group of like-minded friends who pooled together for a two-bedroom pad in Venice. (And why wouldn’t you?)

Great things about the location – Venice is tiny so once you get your head around the maze factor everything is within walking distance. For us it made sense to steer clear of the heavily touristed San Marco and set ourselves up near useful things such as a bakery, supermarket, well-priced cicheti bars and some of Venice’s best restaurants!  Staying around here will also enable you to soak up the neighbourhood atmosphere without too much danger of being elbowed by tour groups over breakfast.

textures: ceiling beams, terrazzo & arched windows (Image: HWL)

Traditional Venetian flats are set over three floors – the first floor is essentially an entry way/storage area with staircase (left vacant presumably as a flood precaution), second floor is the living area and the third floor is for bedrooms. In this case the flat occupies only the first two floors, but is nonetheless extremely generous in size. While the master bedroom is a bit bigger with more clothes storage the second bedroom (with twin beds) is very light and spacious so there’s really no need for anyone to feel like they’ve drawn the short straw. The flat has lovely views from most rooms, the kitchen is well-equipped, and the bathroom has a jacuzzi (noisy, but after all that walking around its worth a try at least once).

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Hotels We Love: Paris

7 Apr

Choose your bed companions carefully (Image: HWL)

The pleasingly eccentric French artist Sophie Calle once got to spend the night sleeping at the top of the Eiffel Tower, but it seems safe to assume you’ll need to find a more conventional alternative. More extensive individual hotel reviews will come when we get around to it. In the meantime, a grab bag of ideas to get you started. (If you have a cheap and chic Paris hotel up your sleeve, please let us know!)

Give me Love (Image: Hotel l'Amour)

Hotel L’Amour: cute, romantic and winsome at the, ahem, tail end of Montmartre’s red light district. A love hotel that starts with a reasonable price tag. At one end of the street you’ll find the foodie haunt Rose Bakery (46 rue des Martyrs), at the other Gals Rock music store dedicated to chic(k) rock, where you can hang on the couch, drink tea and listen to your requests.

beautiful rebel, Mama Shelter Hotel, Paris (Image: MS)

Mama Shelter: a French take on an Anglo art hotel concept in a *bobo-friendly but non-touristic area – great communal spaces, lots of art and ironic board games are ubiquitous. Great roof top in summer. Good for meetings too as you can bet clients will be happy to meet you here for a drink. Try flirting. (Nb: ‘bobo’ = bourgeois bohemian, a French take on a ‘chardonnay socialist’. While it has similarily negative connotations, can be good for the restaurant scene! A handy term to know.) Continue reading →

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Having a Rhine Time: Basel’s Krafft Hotel

31 Jan

Room 33 @ the Krafft Hotel, Basel © HWL

It’s hard to overstate the sense of well-being you get from waking up at the Krafft hotel and watching the Rhine flow by from your pillow.

A river may lack the sex and bang of the ocean – but the Rhine is as constant as it is changing. It ebbs and flows, now a deep sea-green, here, a khaki tang. Fascinating and soothing you couldn’t find a better bed mate than the Rhine for your stay at the Krafft.

We don’t do superlatives, so when we say that the Krafft is the perfect small hotel, we really do mean it. The light, white rooms with warm wooden parquetry are good sized with generous windows (some have balconies) and decorated with Swiss-made 1950s furniture which have a lived-in patina. We also like the cosy touches like Steiner woollen blankets from Austria.

room with a view, the Rhine

There are no noisy (and environmentally unsound) bar fridges cluttering up the room, instead help yourself to a teapot (and an apple) from the communal kitchenettes on each floor. (You’ll also find a selection of books and magazines in various languages.) All up it combines simple elegance with a human touch. If it was Danish, we’d describe it as hygge, given we’re in Switzerland, we’ll take the German equivalent: gemütlichkeit.

Breakfast is served in a grand dining room overlooking the Rhine, it is a generous and well-catered affair including local breads, cheeses and freshly made bircher muslie. Come dinner time the restaurant, which specialises in locally-sourced produce, is excellent and reasonably priced. Throughout service combines small-town friendliness with Swiss diligence, and what we really like about this hotel is that it welcomes everyone – good manners never go out of fashion.

Back in the 1920s Hermann Hesse began writing Steppenwolf here in Rm 401. We’re not surprised as we’d do just about anything – including writing an existential novel – to delay checking out. (The hotel sells a special edition at reception.)
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Ace Hotel, NYC: I’m with the band

15 Jul

the lofty Loft Room

Contact & Bookings: The Ace Hotel or via Tablet.

The Ace is a useful card to play, it can be the smallest card in the pack or the Winner-Takes-All big gun. The Ace Hotel in Mid-Town New York City aims to cater to the whole deck – whether you’re counting pennies or splashing the cash. We really appreciate this democratic and generous spirit – afterall, isn’t diversity what makes NYC such an exciting place to visit?

Yes, do sleep with a friend at the ACE hotel, New York.

What we love…arriving in the lobby bar.  You get out of the cab, walk into the lobby, the music is up, the place is buzzing and you get a real, blood-pumping ‘this is New York!’ kind of feeling. By day it’s suited to coffee drinking and whiling away the hours on your laptop which is a real boost to anyone in a smaller or shared room who needs to take care of business.

Room 408, The Ace Hotel, New York (Image by Hotels We Love)

As you’d expect the rooms vary enormously, from OMG lofts for the record execs to squeezier bunk rooms for the unsigned-band (but who’s sleeping anyway?). Throughout the decor vibe is rock n roll glam meets industrial army barracks (the ratio of ‘glam’ to ‘barracks’ increases with room category) so BYO camouflage & guitar case.

We stayed in the very special Room 408, which is not only bigger than many NY flats, it also has a huge dining table, guitar and record player – if you like that kind of thing (and who doesn’t like that kind of thing?). What it didn’t have were enough shelves to store clothes and it’s sparsely lit so you may want to pack a miners torch to wear on your head. Continue reading →

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Marrakech: Riad Azzar

1 Jul

courtyard @ Riad Azzar, Marrakech

The route to your riad in the heart of Marrakech’s Medina is one of the most memorable on the planet. I won’t spoil it for you by laying out the details, suffice to say it’s the sort of experience you might have when you cross a wheel barrow with a troupe of circus performers and a pink labyrinth.

European-owned Riad Azzar fuses Dutch-restraint with a Moroccan aesthetic for a result that is fiercely exotic, but in a way warms the soul rather than exhausts the eyes. The in-house manager Khalid is a real gem: charming, helpful, friendly, he’s quick with travel tips and speaks fluent French and English among others.

afternoon chill-out tip: order mint tea from room service

Every room here is a Delight. Suite Zayan, with a private balcony, is gorgeous and popular with romancing couples.  Suite Zenmour overlooks the courtyard but is shielded by traditional ‘jealous windows’ that allow you to look out without others looking in – a sort of early version of tinted windows. The twin room is probably better suited to two kids, though it is roomy enough for friends to share – and the riad’s communal spaces are both enticing and generous, so it’s easy enough to get out of each other’s hair. The more economical ground floor rooms open onto the terrace with easy access to the mosaic-tiled emerald plunge pool, we stayed in the Marmoucha room which has an earthy, womb-like feel to it.

 

What we loved: Breakfast on the rooftop at Riad Azzar is both delicious and generous – what a great way to start the day. If you arrive in the evening and aren’t quite ready to face the Medina, take advantage of the in-house dinner service – we enjoyed the best meal of our trip on the rooftop terrace.

Riad Azzar by night!

Tips: Riads are traditional family homes. In keeping with Islamic architecture the traditional design presents a blank wall to the outside world while inside the rooms are organized around an internal courtyard – frequently with a water feature.  This means that riads have a more intimate feel than the typical hotel, but they were also designed with a family routine in mind and this doesn’t always translate perfectly into a hotel situation where occupants might have different waking and sleeping times.  All this to say that any traditional riad can have noise problems if your fellow-guests are less than considerate and this – coupled with the Muezzin’s early morning ‘Call to Prayer’ – means it might be wise to pack ear-plugs just in case.

Contact & Booking: Riad Azzar 

Rates: seasonal variations, eg: Marmoucha €130-€150; Suite Zayan €200-€235. Also available to rent as a whole house. Please tell them we sent you! See: Our photos from our Marrakech set on Flick’r.

Suggested lullaby: in keeping with the east-meets-west theme, we think the hypnotic  ‘She Left Home’ on the Arabesque album by Jane Birkin with Jamel Benyelles (Violin), Fred Maggi (Piano), Amel Riahi el Mansouri (Luth), Aziz Boularoug (Percussion) and Moumen (Vocals) will help you along the winding path to sleep until the muezzin’s morning call…

 

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Brussels: Phileas Fogg B&B

29 Jun

the eccentricity and romance of Jules Verne

This is a brilliant B & B set is within easy walking distance to the Royal District, Old Centre and EU area, but away from the touristic hoards. (Is there anything more absurd then camera wielding hordes jostling for position around the city’s unlikely icon ‘Manneken Pis’?  This sight alone should fast-track you into the Belgian sense of humour.  But we digress…) Walking the streets of a new city it’s hard not to peek into living room windows and wonder how your life could be if only… Set in an 1883 townhouse crammed with original details this B&B gives you a look behind closed doors in a truly inspiring way.

the romantic blue room

Each room has a theme and is decorated with eclectic but skilfully chosen bric-a-brac – including personal treasures gleaned from host Karin’s own extensive travels.  Our pick of the bunch is the blue room with private terrace and Japanese style bathroom.  The Mezzanine and Office room (with shared facilities) are also charming.  We’d steer clear of the Brown room and its somewhat unusual bathroom arrangements.

Phileas Fogg: your open sesame in Brussels

This place is the ultimate antidote to the characterless and sterile hotel. As Karin says on her website: “We might not be the best, nor the most strictly organised, but certainly the warmest welcome of Brussels, and the quirkiest designs, is what you will find here.”

We couldn’t agree more, yes, there’s a certain level of family chaos and you get the impression that dusting is sometimes rushed over in favour of more enthralling activities, such as importing tango shoes from Argentina…(yes, Karin has many interests!).  But ultimately, we find it difficult to fault these priorities…This is the most atmospheric address in Brussels.

mandarine room @ phileas fogg

Pluses: Karin speaks seven languages fluently (English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian). Rooms and mini-flats are available for longer-term rental.

Our Tips: early morning evacuees should avoid the school run rush by settling their accounts the evening before.  Be aware there are two friendly but large dogs on site.  Late night arrivals can kickstart their Brussels experience at the nearby Le Perroquet (31 Rue Watteeu, Sablon) an art nouveau beer hall/bistro with a glass of the  local ‘half and half’ and a serve of moules frites.

Nightly Rates: €130/150 (single/double) 10% discount during low-season Info & Bookings:  Please tell Karin we sent you! :-)

Our suggested Lullaby: Si Tu Disais, a little animated dreamscape by chanteuse and Brussels local, Françoiz Breut from her album Vingt a Trent Mille Jours:


Other Hotels We Love in Brussels: sleep with a hipster at Tenbosch House or dream of paint swatches at Hotel Pantone.



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Kyoto: 9 Hour Capsule Special (you sexy sci-fi thing)

7 May

1 hour bathing + 7 hours sleeping + 1 hours resting = 9

Like every Japanophile I’ve long harboured a more than sneaking fascination with the capsule hotel. Traditionally the capsule hotel is purely functional and aimed squarely at the Japanese market. Its role is to provide shelter for salary men who have been drinking, carousing and letting loose over some power ballad karaoke late into the night and have missed the last train home. (I wonder if they’re also pleased to procrastinate going home and facing their wives?…) This new venture in Kyoto caters to both men and woman and is designed to be so simple that even an idiot could figure it out (that’s you gaijin).

9 hours - compacting both time and space

The 9 Hours development has already driven art directors at the likes of Frame and Wallpaper* wild with excitement thanks to its crisp lines and state of the art light and sound systems – so don’t worry, its design credentials are assured. The alarm enables you to wake up without disturbing others, and presumably this also means you can leaf your way through Kafka on the Shore until the wee hours of the night without bothering your follow guests.

9 Hours has gender segregated sleeping floors & bathing areas

yes, this looks cool

But unlike many of the hotels featured within the glossy pagers of the taste makers this is one accommodation option that won’t hurt your pocket.  Rates are ¥ 4900 (converter) – but occasionally there are specials on their website. (Please tell them we sent you.) Alternative accomodation recommendations in Kyoto are Kaguraya House, a sweet ryokan, and The Screen Hotel, a lovely contemporary boutique hotel.

If you can’t wait to get to Kyoto check out this absurdly serious video from Monocle:

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