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 are definitely intrigued by the Regent Esplanade Hotel in Zagreb, Croatia, because HotelChatter readers keep mentioning it to us. Last year it was Maureen's review--very glowing, apart from a complaint about male-oriented toiletries--and now we're thanking mhodges for dropping a killer view from the Regent Esplanade into our Flickr pool.
Yep, this picture-perfect view was taken from a hotel room window of the Regent Esplanade, which actually belongs to the Radisson SAS chain, but originally dates back to 1925 when it serviced passengers arriving on the Orient Express. These days it's still just as regent but not exorbitant--nightly rates for double rooms range from €150 - €300 (US$230-$460).
They call themselves Croatia's finest resort hotel. Travel bulletin board reviewers call them the 11th best hotel in Dubrovnik. So they may not be quite as good as they thought, but the Dubrovnik Palace Hotel is not a bad place to enjoy some luxury accommodation in (we think) Croatia's most gorgeous city.
On the spectacular Croatian coast, the Le Meridien Lav near Split has now been open in its new renovated form since January this year, and so far it's getting good feedback, rocketing to number 3 on the TripAdvisor rankings out of almost 30 Split hotels.
The biggest downside is that Lav's Le Meridien is a fair way out of the town of Split, and you either need to use a taxi, the three times daily courtesy bus, or have your own car or rental. But if you plan to stay in the hotel for most of your holiday, there are plenty of plus points: a great gym, indoor and outdoor pools as well as the private beach, and the hotel restaurant facilities are also good. Or, as one of the first guests put it:
This is a fabulous hotel that I fell in love with. I was happy to finally stay at a hotel that doesn't just 'claim' to have numerous facilities but actually does.
Oh, they even have their own casino with 140 slot machines and 8 gaming tables, just in case you run out of places to spend your money.
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 Amanda K picks out her ideal summer getaway. Enjoy.
The European summer is on the way (I'm thinking positive). Time to start daydreaming of a cruise down the Croatian coast and a disembarkation at one of my favorite cities, Dubrovnik. You could never get away with building such a boardgame city new: all those old town walls and fortifications and the oh-so-photogenic red roofs. I'm trying to find the ultimate place to stay in Dubrovnik and at the top of my daydreaming list right now is the The Pucic Palace Hotel in the Old Town. It's a seventeenth century building which gives it just the right ambience of history, "who died here" and beauty.
The Pucic Palace is small: a boutique hotel with just nineteen rooms(that's okay, I only need one)--it won an award last year as the best boutique hotel in Croatia. Its website is about as elegant as you can get online, and while we're talking elegance, if the food can really live up to this description then I'm moving in for good:
The pleasure of fine dining is one of the most outstanding activities in the Pucic Palace. The chefs of the three dining venues integrate natural ingredients with art, intelligence, wisdom and skill, turning the culinary arts into a sensual art of living.
Le Meridien has hit the Mediterranean with the opening of the Le Meridien Lav Hotel in Split, the largest city on Croatia's Dalmatian Coast. Right on the beach and with access to ferries and yachts going all over the Croatian coast from its busiest port, the newest Le Meridien resort features nearly 400 guest rooms and suites, eight restaurants and bars and even a casino. If you want to get active, they offer tennis, water sports, rock climbing and abseiling.
Opening specials are available now: with buffet breakfast and dinner for two, you can get a double room for $160. With a seafood restaurant, several international cafes and restaurants and even a health food and exotic cocktails bar, there's plenty of scope for choosing how to eat your free meal.
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.
Croatia has become the travel world's newest darling. Once war torn and not-so-safe, thanks to the recently deceased Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, the coastal areas of the former Yugoslav province which border the Adriatic sea, are experiencing a travel rebirth.
The city of Dubrovnik in South Croatia was built in the 13th century and much of the old town remains today, despite heavy bombing from Serbia in the early 1990s. The original medieval fortresses still exist today which only allow two points of entry into the old town and the Stradun, the city's promenade.
The Grand Villa Argentina has four villas to stay in as well as a main hotel. The hotel pool sits right above the beach giving you the option of either swimming in the Adriatic or the pool.
All the rooms offer either sights of the sea, the city walls, the gardens and the Island of Lokrum.
While we got excited about the Energy Clinic at the hotel (we thought maybe we would turn into Lance Armstrong) we found out it's just their verion of hotel spa with a fitness center, sauna and body treatments.
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by amandak
