Belgium Travel Guide
Tags: Hotel Spas / Kempinksi Hotels / Bruges Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
No More Creepy Couples Massages at the Kempinski Dukes Palace
We’ve been itching to go to the fabulous-looking Kempinksi Dukes’ Palace in a 15th-century castle in Bruges since it opened, and every time we hear some more news about it, we get closer to opening up our wallets. This time it’s the new spa menu taking our fancy.
It’s using the French Thalgo line (nice) for some pretty well-priced treatments including a Detox (scrub, detox gel, sauna and massage, €85) for after you've gone overboard on the local chocolate, and the cozy-sounding Mother’s Cocoon (massage, facial and foot treatment, €140) for the preggers among you.
Best of all, they’re making an admirable break from the creepy couple’s massage – their Harmony for Two treatment (€120) is being sold to "mothers and daughters or friends".
Tags: Hotel Bathrooms / Brussels Hotels / Belgium Hotels / → All Tags
The Bathroom Mirror at the NH Hotel Brussels Boosts Our Self-Esteem
Mirror, mirror, on the wall--or at least hanging in the bathroom in the NH Brussels hotel. Apparently we're not the fairest of them all, but this mirror still has a friendly message for us:
I see a lot of faces and I have never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful.
The nice part is that guest reviews make the NH Brussels sound like one of the best hotels in town, so we probably would be smiling at this mirror. And more so now that we've discovered a stay at this place won't break the bank, with rooms starting at €64.50 (a strangely not-rounded price but that's what the hotel's own website promises; it's less than $85).
If the mirrors are so complimentary about our beautiful smiling faces, then we're just wondering what the staff will have to say about our great dress sense and gorgeous luggage, too. And who said Belgium was only good for the chocolate?
[Photo: kattebelletje]
Tags: WTF Hotel News / Brussels Hotels / Hotel Crime / Hotel News / Hotel Sex / → All Tags
Seventeen Women Freed from 'Slavery' at Conrad Brussels
Holy crap. Dozens of police raided the Conrad Hotel Brussels (which has been called the "most exclusive" hotel in the city) and freed 17 people who were being held as slaves by a royal family living in the hotel.
The Telegraph had the scoop:
The operation was triggered by the apparent escape of a maid who was among 20 servants working for the widow of a senior royal figure from the United Arab Emirates and her four daughters who have rented the entire fourth floor of the hotel for the last year.
The servants, dubbed "slaves" in the Belgian media, allegedly had to be at the service of the Arab royals 24 hours a day and had their passport taken away on arrival in Belgium. The women were reportedly not allowed to leave the hotel and their monthly salaries were as low as £80 a month.
Insane, right? The investigation is still going on, and no charges have been brought against the royal family yet.
Tags: De Haan Hotels / Belgium Hotels / → All Tags
Seize the Day at Manoir Carpe Diem in De Haan
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." Well said, no? And this is exactly what our friends will be doing next month.
Instead of traveling the well-touristed paths in Brussels and Bruge, they're heading to Belgium's North Sea coastline, to the village of De Haan. Never heard of it? Neither had we, but get this. This is where Albert Einstein and Marvin Gaye went to escape the madness.
It obviously has just the right equation to get it on (sorry, couldn't let it pass without a plug for Marv and Al, rest their souls).
Anyway, our friends will be seeking respite from their own crazy lives at an intimate 15-room property called Manoir Carpe Diem. A plum piece of property right next to the forest dunes, beach and promenade, this family-run villa is like a country-style home. English garden, brick terrace, grassy lawns. And the heated outdoor pool is the thing when you can't bare the frigid North Sea waters.
Tags: Brussels Hotel Reviews / Snapshots / Hotel Bathrooms / Hotel Amenities / HotelChatter Flickr Pool / → All Tags
Snapshot :: Speaking of Brussels Hotels
While we were showing off our mini-hotel guide to Brussels, the TheNotoriousMEG was dropping off shots of her stay at the Sheraton Brussels in the HotelChatter Flickr Pool. While she has plenty of shots of the suite, we liked this snapshot of the bathroom. You gotta love those antiquated European hair-dryer systems.
[Photo: Notorious Meg]
Tags: Brussels Hotel Guide / Brussels Hotel Reviews / → All Tags
Just What We Wanted: A Mini-Hotel Guide To Brussels
We can't seem to get enough of Brussels and it seems our readers feel the same way too. One such fan, Elliott, gave us a belated Christmas present by summing up the Brussels Hotel Scene. So here is his mini-hotel guide to Brussels. Any tips, questions, suggestions or Belgian chocolates, send 'em our way.
The view from Hotel Le Chatelain
Basically, when you go to Brussels you have three choices when it comes to location of hotels: Do I want to stay in the city center, around Avenue Louise (upscale shopping/residential area close to the city), or more towards the EU Parliament?
All have advantages and disadvantages, overall the city is quite easy to navigate on foot and via public transport. Cabs are available, but (very) expensive, depending on your frame of reference.
Tags: Belgium Hotels / Bruges Hotels / Monica Guy / Christmas Hotels / Movie Set Hotels / → All Tags
A Boxing Day Vow: Next Christmas, A Luxury Hotel in Bruges
Guess what Monica Guy was doing yesterday on Boxing Day? Yup. Fantasizing about hotels....
It's Boxing Day and you're wishing you'd gone away for Christmas. The turkey-smeared plates are piled up in the sink and you are feeling the after-effects of Aunty Jean's home-made concrete mince pies and knock-out Christmas pud. (Or is it just the English who inflict these Christmas "treats" upon each other?)
Either way, you've vowed you won't be messing around with Christmas at home again - you're on the internet checking out Christmas hotels for next year.
Bruges, Belgium is possibly the sweetest Christmas city in Europe. Okay, so it's cold...but you might get snow and at least it's small and cosy enough to stroll around. The Christmas market in the main square is a mulled wine and roasted chestnuts extravaganza. Perfect.
If you can spell the name, stay in the 4-star Hotel Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce.
It's not the most well-known hotel in Bruges or even the most classic - for that you'll want the equally bizarrely-spelt Hotel Tuilerieen. But that's about to change - the RBC's got a starring role in the forthcoming black comedy In Bruges featuring Ralph Fiennes and Colin Farrell. After March 2008, you'll be able to say, "Well, I was there before it was famous..."
Tags: Belgium Hotel Reviews / Brussels Hotel Reviews / Cubicle Dreamin' / → All Tags
Cubicle Dreamin': Belgium's Brewery Hotel
Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.
In this episode, Hotel Maven Emily gets her hotel drink on. Enjoy.
Just because Oktoberfest has come and gone for this year doesn't mean we can't dream of traveling to a land where the tap flows freely...and directly from our hotel. Belgium's Hotel Carolus is located inside the 15th century brewery Het Anker in the charming town of Mechelen, about halfway between Brussels and Antwerp. Sure, the 22 rooms look pretty spartan, but who cares about high thread count sheets when you've got a Belgian bock to keep you warm?
Tags: Hotel Openings / Brussels Hotel Reviews / → All Tags
Ancient and Modern Come Together at The Dominican Hotel in Brussels
It was meant to open by the end of October, but with confirmation now that it will be coming on the market just a few days late with its November 8 opening, we can't be too strict yet with The Dominican in Brussels. Do ignore the November 5 opening date given on the hotel's web page, though--staff assure us November 8 is the real date.
A member of the Design Hotels group (the first from Belgium, in fact), the Dominican has already received high praise as the Guardian's hotel pick of the week: they were impressed with its:
sweeping archways, lofty ceilings and an interior courtyard ... its historic look echoes the abbey that stood on the site in the 15th century, but the 150 bedrooms are all ultra-modern.
Room rates start from around $250 per night. If you check in before we do, make sure you let us know if The Dominican lives up to expectations.
Related Stories:
· Pick of the Week [UK Guardian]
· Hotels in Brussels [HotelChatter]
· Travel Stories in Brussels [Jaunted]
Tags: Hotels-Near-Eurail-Stops / Boutique Hotel / → All Tags
Eurail Stop: Brussels Luxury at Be Manos
If you're stopping off in Brussels then there's a new boutique hotel right near the station that the Eurostar stops at, called the Be Manos. It's a sixty-roomer converted from an old town house and actually claims to be the first boutique hotel in Brussels, but sometimes that's just a matter of labeling.
The rooms are all very sleek and black, and include a king-sized bed, laptop safe, aircon, LCD TV and what they describe as "a stoned bathroom" (could it be tiled?--we'll let you decide).
For your Brussels luxury near the train station, you'll have to pay anything from 275 Euro for a single up to 550 Euro for a double suite; breakfast is included. For a splashout stop on your Eurail tour, then the Be Manos might be the spot, but if you're planning on seeing plenty more of Europe, then it could tip your budget over the line.
[Photo: iwouldstay]
Related Stories:
· Hotels Near Eurail Stops [HotelChatter]
· Hotels in Brussels [HotelChatter]
Tags: Bad Rate / Belgium Hotels / Brugge Hotels / Best Western Hotels / → All Tags
Bad Rate :: Venere Comes Up Short for Our Chocolate Fix
[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same city and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quotes here were valid for the dates of April 7 to 9, 2007 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
When booking a hotel overseas, often you'll find a better selection with a company in that region. Other times, you might as well stay with the home team. Venere.com is based in Europe, but they've been coming up short over and over for us lately. They had zero rooms available anywhere in Dublin on St. Patrick's Day and the screen shot above is for Brugge, Belgium the nights of April 7 and 9--during the Choco-Laté Festival.
In our Bad Rate feature, we usually show you where you'll get a bad deal for your money, but there's no worse deal than not being able to get a room at all, at any price. So you may want to skip Venere if you're trying to book a European room during a festival, holiday, or...high season anywhere.
Thankfully other sites still have hotels to choose from for the Choco-Laté Festival running April 6 to 10, including the one you access from the Choco-Laté Festival page at What's On When.
None of the deals strike us as particularly terrible since beggars can't be choosers at festival time, but we wouldn't relish the thought of driving 14 kilometers from the center just to stay at the Best Western Richmond-Thonnon, for $191 a night. Yes, it's at the beach, but a northern European beach in April is not very enticing. Plus strutting around in a bathing suit after gorging on chocolate for days on end isn't a pretty picture either.
Related Stories:
· Good Rate: Belgium's Choco-Laté Festival [HotelChatter]
Tags: Good Rate / Belgium Hotels / Brugge Hotels / → All Tags
Good Rate :: Belgium's Choco-Laté Festival
[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same city and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quotes here were valid for April 7 to 9, 2007 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
We couldn't resist anything that lets us say "choco-laté" over and over, so this week we're checking out rates in Bruges (or Brugge), Belgium for the Choco-Laté Festival running April 6 to 10. Do your dieting before you head in this direction, then dive in for a few days of indulgence, sleeping it off at the Ibis Brugge Centrum.
The hotel pickings are slim already for the weekend nights of April 7 and 8, with only a few hotels showing availability on both nights. The best bet for strolling, at a rate that won't take a year of cocoa bean picking wages to pay off, is the Ibis Brugge Centrum--at $178 per night. This is a mid-range 3-star hotel that's part of the Accor group, but in a historic building at least. It has a 24-hour snack bar, a reasonably priced restaurant, and rooms that are on the small side but well-kept. You'll probably want to skip that $15 breakfast though and grab something light nearby. (Plus while most 3-star hotels in the U.S. throw in free wi-fi now, here you'll pay a minimum of 10 euros to log on.)
Here's the description of the mouth-watering festival itself from What's On When:
The self-proclaimed Belgian chocolate capital goes a step further with chocolate sculpture contests, body painting, children's activities and a trail taking in the city's landmark chocolatiers such as Leonidas, Godiva and Neuhaus.
Brushing aside chocolate's sinful connotations, the festival reveals the health benefits of cocoa in massage, beauty therapy and skin products - so there's no reason to feel guilty about a little sweet indulgence.
The Ibis Brugge Centrum is a mile from the city center, so you can walk off the choco-laté afterwards too.
[Photo: David Wilmot]
Related Stories:
· Bad Rate: Venere Comes Up Short for Our Chocolate Fix [HotelChatter]
Hotels In: Africa | Asia | Australia | Caribbean | Europe | North America | South America
Our Publications:
Jaunted | HotelChatter | VegasChatter
