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 Claire heads to Madagascar. Enjoy.
Anakao Club Resort is one of those bungalow filled, private beach getaways we like to fantasize about when we're stuck indoors under fluorescent lighting. The new hotel rests on a 1 kilometer beach on the government-protected Bay of Andovoka, 15 KM south of the village of Anakao.
There are four double bungalows and three bungalows with a mezzanine room and a family suite.
The hotel has been such a success that several more rooms are being added. The thatched bungalows are built from local stone and wood, and the décor is a simple complement to the dark, polished wood floor and furniture. Huge French windows open onto a private verandah. All bungalows have modern en suite facilities.
The open kitchen creates a pre-fix menu each day that combines European cuisine with traditional Madagascar food made with local produce. Most guests come for the outdoor sport -- the hotel organizes diving, fishing, boating, surfing, and biking excursions.
The sit-back-and-watch kind of traveler can stay on the bungalow porch and see whales migrating from July through September. Take a few snapshots and voila, perfect screen saver.
This week the Amazing Race contestants were sent to Antananarivo, Madagascar. We know what you are thinking cuz we're thinking it too--Isn't that where are all those cute fuzzy animals that were trapped in the Central Park Zoo took a trip to?
But the show wasn't all about traveling to the land of fuzzy cartoon characters. Jaunted has the scoop on the new "Intersection" challenge twist that the producers introduced as a way to spice up a completely boring season. So skip on over there for the episode recap while we detail our hotel pick.
Since those cartoon characters were faced with some shady characters when they arrived in Madagascar (yeah, we watched the movie and yeah, we're lame), we decided we would play it safe and stay at the Hilton Madagascar...or so we thought.
Locataed in Antananarivo, the Hilton was completely refurbished back in 1998 (which is just eight years ago!) and offers 171 rooms to stay in. The place seems like a pretty standard Hilton and the reviews are so-so. Well, actually there's only three reviews but if you got Hilton Honors points to burn (about 20,000), you may as well do it here. Just watch out for the bugs:
Hotel is in a dated skyscarper in dowtown. we stayed on top floor in a superficially looking nice room with king bed. However, as soon as we turned lights on we had roaches crawl over fruit plate that was left for us. The furniture was very dates as well as the interior of entire hotel. The room next to ours had a kicked in door panel. We stayed here with Hilton Honor's Points and cannot imagine paying $200 per night for this place. I was really grossed out. I also felt badly that hotel did not help us negotiate taxi fare with hotel taxis and we were ripped off by taxi driver. the whole atmosphere was just somewhat unsafe and unclean.
We love a good top ten list here and lucky for us, Conde Nast Traveler has provided us with one to fawn over: The best islands for every month (because we definitely go to a new island every month).
In preparation for August, the island to go to is Ile St. Marie in Madagascar. We love obscure destinations like these, but fear inevitably arises that we will not be able to find a hotel to suit our needs. The search was on and what we came up with is the Soanambo Hotel which gets top reviews.
Now of course, we always flinch when we do not find one of our favorite words under the amenity list, that, of course being "wifi", but we get even more nervous when we see that toilet and sink are under that list (shouldn't that be a given?). Then again, this is Madagascar. But, things took a turn for the worst when this claim was followed by "mosquito nets".
The thing is, you are most likely going to want to upgrade to a luxury room or a suite. The amenity lists really improve for these rooms, like a "tub" (bigger than a sink or toilet), "private garden" (tamed jungle), "American Kitchen and lounge" (sink with running water), hairdryer" (not just wind), "prestigious solarium" (?).
Thank God for the "prestigious solarium", since this is #2 on our list after Wifi. Had it been a "standard solarium" they would not have seen us come August.
0 Comments - Add Yours
by ced138
