Romania Travel Guide
Tags: Hotel Hell / Swine Flu Hotels / Romania Hotels / Hotel Sick / Hotel News / → All Tags
Swine Flu Hotel Closes After 40 People Become Ill
Earlier this year when swine flu first erupted, 280 people were quarantined at the MetroPark Hotel in Hong Kong, we lightly dubbed it a Swine Flu Hotel. But now we have a real Swine Flu Hotel.
Hotel Sinaia, a resort in the mountains of Sinaia, Romania, has been closed after 40 Romainian and foreign law students attending a conference caught the dreaded H1N1 virus.
Health state secretary Adrian Streinu-Cercel says 40 people were hospitalized Sunday in Bucharest, suffering from medium to severe forms of the flu.
Tags: Bucharest Hotels / Hotel Cars / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
Who Doesn't Want a Ride in This White Limo at the Carol Parc Hotel?
Urban Daddy is rolling in with the good recommendations this week--yesterday we were taken with the Mirage's Bloody Marys and today we want to explore their tip-off for a good hotel in Romanian capital Bucharest.
The Carol Parc Hotel is billed as Bucharest's "most exclusive luxury residence" and is walking distance from the city center. Despite opening just last year, it's gained enough attention to get an entry in Wikipedia which includes the fact that it's got one of the largest Murano crystal chandeliers in the world--it's taller than four storeys.
The hotel itself was formed from two existing buildings, which used to be headquarters for various communist party institutions, but nobody seems to mind. The hotel quickly built an excellent reputation as the best place to stay in Bucharest. And it has the coolest prom ride in Europe.
An average room rate will cost you around US$400--pricey for Romania, but you're getting high quality. Don't try to stop in this week, though, as they're fully booked out for the NATO Summit. Presumably a few world leaders will be spending the night at the Carol Parc and enjoying that chandelier.
Tags: Killer View / Budapest Hotels / Hotel Renovations / Marriott Hotels / → All Tags
Room with a Killer View: All the Sights of Budapest From the Marriott
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.
HotelChatter tipster Tom W has just had a stay in the Budapest Marriott Hotel on the banks of the Danube. The view across the river to the Royal Palace on the Castle Hill area of Pest is pretty impressive, but what's all that scaffolding in the front?
The Marriott website confirms that they are doing a major renovation which should be finished by the end of the year. It didn't worry Tom W too much:
We stayed in a renovated room on the Executive floor, and it is completely up to American standards. Service in the entire hotel is at a five-star level. Even though we stayed there on my Marriott points, we had access to the Executive lounge, plus an endless supply of free mineral water, fruit delivered to the room each afternoon, etc., etc. The only drawback was that as in many European hotels, the air conditioning is weak.
But it sounds like the view made up for that.
Related Stories:
· Budapest Hotel Reviews [HotelChatter]
· Budapest: Now More Than Ever! [Jaunted]
Tags: Bad Rate / Romania Hotels / Bucharest Hotel Reviews / Hilton Hotels / → All Tags
Bad Rate :: $516 or More a Night at the Bucharest Hilton
[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same region and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quoted here were captured on July 31, 2007 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
If you're heading to Bucharest, Romania, you can easily spend two weekend nights for less than $300, starting with this week's Good Rate at the Rembrandt Hotel. If that's full, you're not hurting for choices though: European site Booking.com lists 21 hotels for under $150 a night for a August 17 to 19 and Expedia lists 15.
Then there's the Athenee Palace Hilton Bucharest, where the lowest rate we could find for that weekend was 380 Euro a night, or $516. Even if you can manage to get the best deal captured from this promotion screen shot, it's still $342. Did we mention that this is for Bucharest? In the land of Count Dracula, Romania? Yes, we know that Romania joined the EU this past January, but Prague, Vienna, or Budapest this city is not.
This being a Hilton, you can also expect to pay handsomely for parking and Internet access. If the ugly standard room photos on the website are the best they can do, we would also advise charging even more euros to your expense account to make sure you are on the Executive Floor. Besides a continental breakfast, you'll get furniture and bedding that looks like it was made after the end of the Cold War.
Related Stories:
· Good Rate :: $143 Deal at the Rembrandt Hotel Bucharest [HotelChatter]
· Hotels in Bucharest [HotelChatter]
Tags: Good Rate / Romania Hotels / Bucharest Hotels / → All Tags
Good Rate :: A $143 Deal at the Rembrandt Hotel Bucharest
[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 captured July 31, 2007 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
A couple of months back National Geographic Traveler raved about Rembrandt Hotel in Bucharest, Romania, saying the boutique hotel "has brought long-needed sanity to the city's inflated hotel prices." Then we look on TripAdvisor and it's also the #1 rated hotel there.
The 15 rooms are all a bit different, ranging from smallish ones with a "matrimonial bed" to spacious "business rooms." Rates are a max of 117 Euros ($159) on weekends and top out at 137 Euros ($186) on weekdays. It gets better though: through August 31 they'll knock 10 percent off that rate and your meals and drinks at the popular Cafe Klein, plus throw in a fruit basket and a welcome drink. Not bad for 143 of our anemic U.S. dollars.
Guests rave about the better than average service and continental breakfasts. Stylish rooms come with hardwood floors, attractive lighting, CD/DVD players with discs to borrow, and complimentary Internet access.
Related Stories:
· Bad Rate :: $516 or More a Night at the Bucharest Hilton [HotelChatter]
· Hotels in Bucharest [HotelChatter]
Tags: Good Rate / Romania Hotel Reviews / New Year's Eve Hotels / → All Tags
Good Rate: Party Like It's 2007 at Intercontinental Bucharest
[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same city and decide which is better worth your hard-earned benjamins. The rate here was valid on December 19, 2006 and is subject to change.]
Yes, you could celebrate New Year's Eve in New York or Las Vegas, but how about in a place where January 1, 2007 is a major deal instead? Watch enough fireworks to blow up an entire city on display in Bucharest, Romania as the country celebrates its entry into the European Union.
From what we hear, New Year's Eve in Bucharest is like the shelling of a city without the actual damage. Just the noise, smoke, and confusion caused by nearly every citizen setting off massive quantities of fireworks--and drinking a toast each time a fuse is lit.
We suggest watching it all safely behind the glass of a nice hotel room with a view. We like the bang for the buck (literally) you'll get from the InterContinental Bucharest. It's a high-rise without much around it, so the city view rooms here will have a panoramic show going on all night long. (Don't plan on doing any sleeping, no matter where you stay.)
King bed doubles with a city view go for 119 euros on December 31st, in the neighborhood of $150. A nice deal for a European hotel on a prime holiday night.
According to a blog post from Romania guidebook writer Leif Pettersen, you won't be hurting for entertainment.
As soon as the sun goes down at 4:45PM, the sky lights up with a constant barrage of colorful fire balls being set off in every corner of the city. The smell of gunpowder is pungent. The sensory overload from all the noise and light is so profound that deep inebriation is virtually required just to stay conscious - which of course everyone is quite happy to oblige. Then the climax, a fireworks display like you've never seen, right above Iasi's magnificent Palace of Culture, where the show by the hired pyrotechnics team is enriched by every last wino, detonating his entire stash while surrounded by tens of thousands of people.
Obviously, get a room as high up as possible. Since the Romanians have even more reason to celebrate this year, you might want to eat in the hotel as well. Or wear a helmet when you go out walking the streets in case of falling debris.
Tags: Bad Rate / Romania Hotel Reviews / New Year's Eve Hotels / → All Tags
Bad Rate: New Year's Eve in Bucharest at the Kiwi Hostel
[Ed. Note: This is the Bad Rate in our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature. This rate was valid on December 19, 2006 and is subject to change. Enjoy.]
You could sit in a high hotel tower and take in the crazy fireworks display that will envelop Romania's capital on December 31, as the country celebrates its entry into the EU. Or you could bunker down in a backpacker hostel that costs $78 a night. Hmmmm...
Maybe 30 euros a person for a hostel bed is pretty normal in London or Paris, but when you can get a decent hotel room for that price in Romania, no thanks. We're not sure how a place in Bucharest ends up being named the Kiwi Hostel anyway---do that many New Zealanders really make it to here? The web site is worth a visit for the photos and descriptions though. Here's what you'd get:
Located near Gara Filaret, Murat Transport, Toros Transport, Ortodogu Transport on Sos. Viilor nr. 44, 5 minutes Parcul Carol and Hotel Marriott. It is the best, hostel for those coming from Turkey, Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Hungary by bus to Bucharest since near there all buses com in and go out from Gara Filaret. The Hostel offers you with low budget the comfort and style of its 20 proofed and entirely air-conditioned double bed rooms and the facilities the modern traveler needs for both business and leisure. We provide internet, tv satellite, air conditioner, fresh odor, quality and relaxation.
Gee, spending New Year's Eve taking in the "fresh odor" with Serbians and Ukranians sure sounds tempting, and the busty worker on their website may enhance the stay, but we think we'll go for this week's Good Rate instead at the InterContinental Bucharest.
Tags: Ice Hotels / → All Tags
Romanian Ice Hotel Open 'Till May-ish
We knew the Romanian ice hotel existed, but weren't sure anyone else did (other than the Bucharest Daily News, of course).
On Wednesday the Lake Balea (Balea Lac) Hotel officially opened to the public. Like the other ice hotels, this one is also entirely made of snow and ice.
No worries about avalanches, the 37-year-old owner, Aurelian Nica, is a trained mountain rescuer. And he's psyched, "a dream come true," he says. Last year's attempt melted before anyone ever knew about it. Higher altitude and a great Siberian-cold front leave little room for premature melting for the 2006 season.
The hotel can be reached only from a highway linking the cities of Brasov and Sibiu to the Balea Lake resort, where tourists can board a cable car leading to a cabin and the ice hotel.
The cost ranged around 20,000 lei or USD$6,600, which seems awfully cheap to us. Hey, anyone want to build an igloo and charge people to sleep there?
Related Stories:
· Ice hotel opens in Romania's Transylvanian mountains [Bucharest Daily News]
· Igloo-Tels Are SO Winter 2006 [HotelChatter]
Tags: Ice Hotels / → All Tags
Igloo-Tels Are SO Winter 2006
Igloos are popping up all over the world. Less than a month after Germany announced their plans for Iglu-Dorf, we hear Romania is the next hot, er... cold spot.
High in the Fagaras Mountain Balea Lac resort, the newest igloo-tel will open on February 1, 2006. Balea Lac resort will remain open for four months, or until it melts, then like all ice hotels, wait for its rebirth the following winter.
Here's the good news: Unlike it's Canadian cousin, this ice hotel has yet to be booked up this season. With eight double rooms and a bar, space is limited, so if you want to experience frost bite-nights in `06, you can still get an igloo in Romania.
You can expect to pay about 19 euros for a single.
The hotel has a capacity of 1,440 people per season and owners say eight people have already booked rooms.
We suspect more people would book in if there was a website, or any information in English, such as a phone number or address--all of which we have yet to find. Even the Romanian tourist authority doesn't have the hotel listed. All we found was an article in the Bucharest Daily News.
Does it exist? Will it exist? Send us any info you come across.
Related Stories:
· Ice Hotel to open in Balea Lac resort [Bucharest Daily News]
· New German Ice Hotel [HotelChatter]
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