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If you want to trek to Machu Picchu, but sleep beforehand with a bit of style, take note of the new La Casona Inkaterra, opening this month. It's Cusco's first boutique hotel (with just 11 rooms), a renovation of a colonial manor house. Each suite overlooks either the hotel's courtyard (Patio Suites) or has views over the town of Cusco (Plaza Suites).
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by amandak
Tropical spas usually mean world-class workout facilities, intense yoga classes and steep prices. But that's not the case at Hotel & Spa Laguna Seca in Cajamarca, Peru, about a two-hour flight from Lima. The 42-room resort may not have exercise classes or meditation--in fact,guests can even smoke in the dining area--but it has enough deluxe accommodations that even the most stressed of travelers can unwind.
Guests lounge in fluffy white terry-cloth robes between unique spa treatments like Turkish bath sessions, dips in geothermal pools, and one-and-a-half-hour mud messages and mineral baths that cost a fraction of typical costs in the U.S. or Europe. (Double occupancies start at $120 a night and massages will set travelers back a mere $40.)
But guests don't need to partake in Laguna Seca's lengthy service menu to enjoy all the resort has to offer. Rooms boast beautiful views of the grounds, which include gardens, cobblestone courtyards and fountains. And each bathroom has its own huge sunken tub that's perfect for unwinding, with the same geothermal water Incas swore by for medicinal purposes. [Photo: NYT Times
Related Stories:
· Check In, Check Out: Hotel & Spa Laguna Seca [NYT]
· Peru Hotel Reviews [HotelChatter]
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by jnaw
An FOHC--that'd be a friend of HotelChatter--just got back from an 11-day trip through in Peru. While he didn't enjoy being trapped on a boat with retirees, cruising up the Amazon, he did have a time and a half in Lima.
He dropped this report in our tip jar after spending a couple nights in the Peruvian capital:
In a huge city like Lima, a ride from the airport is a valuable commodity. The Best Western Embajadores will send a driver to the airport for you. Nothing like coming out of customs and seeing a sign with your name on it, held by a friendly driver. Embajadores is only 5 blocks from the best shopping center in town, built into the cliffs above the beach.
Hotel E is compact, very clean and well-maintained, and features an excellent breakfast buffet, with eggs, boiled yucca, a variety of breads, and Peruvian fruit. The hotel staff were eager to practice their English on us, and did very well. Miraflores is a well-to-do section of Lima, with plenty of shops and restaurants.
From the hotel it is an easy walk to the long park built along the top of the cliff above the beach. Lots of joggers, strolling couples, and ice cream vendors on 3 wheeled bikes. For 58 dollars a night, this is a great bargain!
Just don't get your hopes up about the rooftop pool--our tipster's been in hot tubs that were bigger.
[Photo: Tripadvisor]
Related Stories:
· Best Western Lima reviews [TripAdvisor]
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by pbb
You can go two routes when staying in Lima, Peru: sketchy neighborhood or nice neighborhood. We're going to go ahead and highly recommend the good neighborhood and its hotel, the Miraflores Park Hotel.
So you know the neighborhood is safe but to add to your feeling of well-being, it also helps to know that this hotel comes in at #1 with TripAdvisor. Past guests have appreciated the staff, hotel restaurant, breakfast, location, and rooms but what we find the most interesting here is the Bath Butler.
Bath butlers aren't very new but just in case you didn't know, here's how they describe it:
The very act of calling the Bath Butler suggests that you are preparing to lapse into a couple of hours of state-of-the-art relaxation and decadent, purely selfish pleasure.
The Bath Butler sets the scene of your choice - You might begin with a half hour massage in your room, and in the meantime, the Bath Butler is busy drawing your bath with your selection of bath salts, oils and soaps. The bathroom lights are dimmed and scented candles are placed around the bath while music of your choice plays in the background.
It seems they stop at nothing, no matter what type of soap or scent you want, Champagne, massage, you name it. The Bath Butler Package rates start at $480 per night and includes the Presidential Suite.
And all this time, we didn't think Peru was that kind of destination. But again, this is all the more reason why it's important to take your bath in the good neighborhood.
Related Stories:
· Miraflores Park Hotel Reviews [TripAdvisor]
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by Courtney
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.
The Sonesta Hotel in Arequipa, Peru may be a glorified motel mostly serving tour groups in and out for a night, but they,ve got a view that would make most five-star hotels green with envy.
Located right on the Plaza de Armas in the "White City" of Peru, the Sonesta's building is a prime piece of real estate, but with accommodations under $80 a night. Rooms on the street side face the plaza, albeit through half-moon windows. The real killer view is from the shared balcony, however, which serves as the restaurant terrace and a bar, depending on the time of day.
This picture was shot at night, with the cathedral all lit up. In the daytime, haze permitting, there are beautiful mountains as a backdrop. Do some whitewater rafting, see Colca Canyon, or check out the city's strangest attraction: a mummified young woman who had apparently been sacrificed to the gods on top a frozen mountain. Then settle in here for a pisco sour, soaking up the view.
Related Stories:
· Sonesta reviews [TripAdvisor]
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by juliana
The Amazing Race 7 kicked off last night, so we are back to talk about hotels featured in each and every episode. What do we do when a hotel isn't featured in an episode? We guess where we think the cast and crew might be staying. No hotels were featured during last nights premiere, so let the guess work begin!
When you are starting a long, grueling, intensely competitive round the world journey you need to stay in style your first night away from home. With that philosophy in mind, if we were in charge of Amazing Race accommodations for CBS we would hook up our crew at the Hotel Monasterio Cusco high in the mountains of Peru. Hotel Monasterio is a spiritual five star hotel in a great locale.
More Inca-Luxe Post Jump...
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by markj
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