Czech Republic Travel Guide
Celebrity Scoop / Hotel Security / Mandarin Oriental Hotels / Prague Hotels / John Malkovich / → All Tags
Someone Was Being John Malkovich in His Hotel Suite at the Mandarin Oriental Prague
Is Craig Schwartz somewhere in Prague? How else to explain the random burglary of John Malkovich's hotel suite at the swish Mandarin Oriental Prague?
The Daily Mail reports:
He was staying at the upmarket Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the Czech city after performing in the murder melodrama Infernal Comedy, based on a real Austrian serial killer, at the Prague Spring music festival on Thursday.
'We can confirm than an investigation is under way in the case of the disappearance of Mr Malkovich's personal belongings,' said a spokeswoman for the hotel.
Apparently, two of his mobile phones were stolen but nothing else. That certainly sucks and honestly, we'd expect more security from a Mandarin hotel but we probably should be grateful the thieves didn't swipe Malkovich's laptop with his nude photos on it. The world is not ready for that.
NYT Reviews / Buddha Bar Hotels / Prague Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
The NYT Digs the 'Chill Out' Vibe of The Buddha Bar Hotel
Forget all those new hotels opening up in the paper’s own backyard; this Sunday the New York Times went hotel hunting in the Czech Republic. Lured by the groovy chill-out tunes and “sultry” restaurant chain of the same name, the NYT checked into the new Buddha Bar Hotel in Prague.
We’ve seen hotels sprout out of fashion labels, so why not restaurants and music? Judging by the NYT’s response, the Buddha-Bar folks have produced a fine accompaniment to their brand, attracting scenesters who are “good-looking, well off and ready to party” (British boys, Middle Eastern royals, and wealthy local couples). Overall, the Times writer's affection for the place bodes well for the other Buddha-Bar properties set to open—in Budapest, Sal Hasheesh, Paris, Panama City, Abu Dhabi, Milan, and New York—between now and 2011.
Hotel Openings / Prague Hotels / Rocco Forte Hotels / → All Tags
Make Friends With Monks at Prague's Augustine Hotel
The Rocco Forte people are busy right now — if it wasn't enough to open their first resort with the Verdura Resort in Sicily, they're also hitting eastern Europe for the first time when the Augustine Hotel in Prague opens on May 14.
This place is a 101-room hotel overlooking the Wallenstein Gardens, and the hotel itself is made up of seven historical buildings, including the 13th century St. Thomas Monastery. The coolest part is there are still monks using parts of this monastery and hotel guests might glimpse them going about their monkly tasks.
The décor and furniture are all in the good taste you'd expect for such a respectable-sounding area; in fact, the whole hotel looks elegant and classy in a way that really seems right for a stay in Prague. It's also central and close to Charles Bridge and other sightseeing spots.
The Augustine seems to be starting out with a 3 for 2 package: this works out at €960 ($1,250) for three consecutive nights for a Classic Queen room including breakfast, but it's only valid from opening night until the end of May.
Hotel Openings / Prague Hotels / Buddha Bars / Refereeing Hotel Reviews / → All Tags
First Guests Seem to Worship Prague's New Buddha Bar Hotel
We caught wind of the Buddha Bar Hotel planned for Prague last August and, last we checked, they were travelin' full steam ahead for a pre-2009 opening. Unlike many deadline-missing hotels, the Buddha Bar got its soft opening in just before the calendar turned, officially opened on January 2, and since then has been impressing the hell out of guests — at least if the first guest reviews are anything to go by.
The staff and the service they provide get a ton of compliments, as do the ultra-luxury rooms. The "amazing" bathrooms get plenty of thumbs-ups too — they also include a TV, but one guest warns us that the remote control is only splashproof, not waterproof, so we shouldn't drop it in the bath tub (good tip).
The center of Prague — the Old Town Square — is just a short stroll from the Buddha Bar Hotel, and the famous Charles Bridge is not much further, so you definitely can't complain about the location. There's also a spa on site and the hotel even includes our favorite must-have amenity: free WiFi.
A hotel this good can't be cheap, so don't expect to get away from it without spending a fair swag. The cheapest guest room goes for €444 ($580) a night and the especially gorgeous suites start from €1,225 ($1,590) a night.
Anti-View / Best Western Hotels / → All Tags
Rooftop UFO's That Are Neither Best Nor Western
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
Remember that awesome Killer View we found out the window of a Best Western one time? And we were all like, "oh hey, maybe Best Westerns are a little bit more awesome than we'd originally thought they were?"
Yeah, well, go east and ye shall find a Best Western view that is neither Best nor Western, really: this is a shot out the window of what we believe to be the Best Western Premier Hotel International in Brno, Czech Republic.
Imagine AchimH's surprise when he glanced out the window to find these UFO-esque things protruding from the roof (does anyone know what these are?) — which, though UFO's are usually pretty sweet, obstructed the lovely view of the city. Based on the hotel's location, that view could have possibly included Castle Spilberk and St. Peter and Paul's Cathedrals...but, as with most cases involving UFO's, we'll never really know.
[Photo: AchimH]
Hotel Openings / Prague Hotels / Kempinski Hotels / Hotel Opening Rates / → All Tags
Kempinski Ramps Up World Domination Plan Starting in Prague
The German Kempinski chain looks like they're starting up a plan of world domination.
This month they opened the Kempinski Hybernská Prague, but there are so many more on the way.
First things first: the new Prague Kempinski has normal nightly hotel rates going but also have a lot of one and two-bedroom suites that you can rent for longer stays, so the business market is obviously top of the list here.
But tourists won't mind being close to Prague's coolest way to cross the river, Charles Bridge, either. The tech side is good too with free WiFi and a "media panel" where you can hook up your iPod.
They've got opening rate specials around a hundred euros cheaper than normal rack rates; a superior room, for example, is going for €238 (US$320) now but €304 (US$410) later.
NewYorkology / Amy Langfield / Killer View / Anti-View / Prague Hotels / → All Tags
Kids Get the Better View From the Alchymist Hotel in Prague
A while back Amy Langfield from NewYorkology headed off to Prague and went through a little bit of drama pre-flight with Tablet Hotels about her lodging situation. But as we told you back then, everything worked out ok and Amy and family was sent to a nice suite at the Alchymist Grand Hotel & Spa.
Since today is Killer/Anti-View day, we thought it fitting to post these views from her suite.
The above view is the Killer View from the kids room. While it's mostly buidlings, you can see the castle jutting out in the far background. So what kind of view did the master bedroom aka the parents' room have? Click after the jump to see.
Hotel Openings / Buddha Bar Hotels / Prague Hotels / Buddha Bars / → All Tags
Buddha Bars Aren't Just Bars Anymore, A Prague Hotel is Coming
If you thought the Buddha Bar was just a cool place for a drink in New York or Paris, you would have been more or less right, until now. Because there's actually going to be a Buddha-Bar Hotel in, of all places, Prague.
There'll be a Buddha Bar within the hotel, of course, which will run on similar lines as the bars in other cities. The hotel itself will be a five-star hotel which has a big task if the website is telling the truth: it has to
embolden the essence of contemporary modern Asian interior design with French colonial influence and will be located in the heart of Prague, in a historical building just few steps away from the Old Town Square.
Now we love the center of Prague, definitely don't mind a Buddha Bar and are so far impressed by the Buddha-Bar Hotel's funky website. If it lives up to expectations, this could be a great place to crash.
The grand opening is planned for the "last quarter" of 2008, which is coming up pretty quickly. After that the Buddha-Bar chain plans to open hotels all over the world, including Panama, Paris, Budapest, Dubai and New York. We'll be keeping our eyes on this one.
Tablet Hotels / Hotel Booking Sites / Booking Tips / Family-Friendly Hotels / → All Tags
NewYorkology Gets a Family Suite in Prague
Everything worked out for our girl Amy at yesterday as we and she knew it would. Tablet Hotels was able to get her into a family suite at the Alchymist Grand Hotel, after her initial hotel missed its opening date.
Here's what is inside a family suite :
These two level Rooms are the ideal combination of two deluxe rooms, especially for families. The Family Rooms feature a two separated bedrooms with one queen size bed and two twin beds on the upper level.
Each bedroom has air-conditioning, LCD TV with premium channels, DVD and CD player, safe, mini-bar and high speed internet access. Family Rooms have two separate bathrooms, one with shower corner only and one with a shower, bath-tub and bidet. The size is 60 square meters or 650 square feet."
Awwww, that's the kind of happy ending we like to see!
Tablet Hotels / Hotel Booking Sites / Hotel Booking Tips / → All Tags
Alchymist Residence Nosticova in Prague Misses Opening Date; Leaves NewYorkology A Little Frazzled
Our good friend Amy over at NewYorkology wrote to us this morning to share some nerve-wracking, last-minute, unplanned changes to her travel plans to Prague.
It turns out the Alchymist Residence Nosticova has not completed its reconstruction, despite taking reservations on its website as recently as a week ago.
Since Amy booked through Tablet Hotels, the boutique hotel booking site is doing their best to relocate her. However, such a change the day before she's due to take off has not made for easy pre-trip organization.
Killer View / Prague Hotels / → All Tags
Room With a Killer View: High-School Track Flashbacks in Prague
We are suckers for a room with a killer view. We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.
We like to cater for all kinds of people here on HotelChatter and we've realised that not everybody thinks a Killer View is one of the ocean or a perfect infinity pool. Sure, most people think that way, but we've got a truly sports-mad friend who would definitely find this view out of the Mars Hotel in Prague much sexier than any body of water we could throw at them.
So if you love your sports too and think gazing out over a well-kept multi-purpose court and that triangle thing inside the track (is that for shot-put? We failed sports in school), this is your place. Even if it's not, it sure beats the more common Prague views of old buildings in mid-renovation or dirty alleyways that are usually hidden from the views of other tourists.
In ever-more-expensive Prague, the Mars has so far held on to fairly reasonable rates. In high season a double room will set you back €64 (US$100) which is not too bad in a city that keeps attracting more and more tourists each year.
[Photo: Nitro101]
Czech Hotel Guide / Brno Hotels / → All Tags
Grand Convenience at Grandhotel Brno
HotelChatter Contributing Editor Tim Leffel moved on from Hungary and has made his way through the Czech Republic where he sends back his take on the country's hotel scene. Enjoy.
If you've got an early train or bus connection to Prague from the second-largest city of Brno, plunk yourself down at Grand Hotel Brno. You could wake up, brush your teeth, and be at either station by just walking across the street. With a stay here and a deluxe Czech Airlines bus to whisk you to the international airport, the whole affair can be a breeze.
This is no bus district dive, however. Part of the Austria Hotels International group, Grandhotel Brno has a façade from 1870, when the original hotel hosted Thomas Edison and Austrian emperor Franz Josef. The interiors are now purely "international business hotel" though, with lots of mirrors, dark leather sofas, and geometric lines. Rooms come in three classes, with the deluxe rooms (pictured here) offering lots of room to spread out. Rates range from $120 to $220, per night double, including a large breakfast buffet.
There's a gym and sauna on hand if you have some time and a rinky-dink casino allows you to lose money on roulette in a foreign currency while plied with free Pilsner Urquell. The location is good for more than a transportation connection: the attractions, bars, and restaurants in the oldest section of Brno are all within walking distance.
Related Stories:
· Czech Hotel Guide [HotelChatter]
· Hotels Near Eurail Stops [HotelChatter]
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