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You Want To Put Caviar Where?
In the efforts of keeping up with luxury spa treatments using rich or unusual ingredients, the spa at Hilton Buenos Aires has introduced the Luxury Caviar Spa treatment.
Supposedly, the tiny eggs contain some kind of skin-firming properties. The three-hour treatment includes a welcome tea/drink, steam bath, whirlpool with "ozone therapy" (whatever that is), the facial treatment with caviar, followed by a regenerating mask with nacre (an amino-acid rich substance found in oyster shells), a body massage with even more caviar and silk, and a lymphatic massage (to help the nodes move their fluids along). The whole event is followed by a snack and relaxation room time.
The over-the-top series of indulgences seems like a ploy to extract as much cash from guests as possible. However, it's actually pretty cheap. Until November 15th, the hotel is charging a special price of AR$220 (taxes included), about $70.00 U.S.
[Photo: Knitting's Kewl Gurl]
Related Stories:
· Hilton Buenos Aires Introduces Barbie and Hot Wheels-Themed Rooms [HotelChatter]
· Fall Treats: Pumpkin Wrap at The Viceroy's Estrella Spa [HotelChatter]
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248 Finisterra Gets A Nod, Barely, from the NY Times
A while back we mentioned the 248 Finisterra Hotel in our Thinker's Guide to Staying in Buenos Aires written by the brave Matt Chesterton.
Back then Matt wrote:
Finisterra is actually a fine looking place, even if everything has been ordered from Boutique Fittings Ltd. The main draw is the location, in Las Cañitas, yet another Palermo sub-barrio.
Las Cañitas has thrived lately as a neighborhood for nightclubs, shops, sushi restaurants and bars for the "young and beautiful" so says Ian Mount of the New York Times, who reviewed the hotel for the paper's "Check In, Check Out" column.
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Yo Quiero Dormir: Quiet hotels in Buenos Aires
[Ed. Note: We have gotten a few questions about finding a hotel in Buenos Aires that are not-so-noisy, so naturally we hit up our resident Argentina hotel expert, Matt Chesterton, for his suggestions. Enjoy.]
BA stands for Buenos Aires. It could equally well stand for Bad Acoustics. This is one of the world's noisiest cities. Several street intersections make the global top 20 of eardrum-shattering junctions. On a recent trip to London we were stunned by how quiet the city centre was. That's how loud BA is.
Several readers have asked us to recommend some 'quiet hotels' in BA. It's a good question to ask and a tricky one to answer. For one thing, you can't assume that a hotel in a quiet neighborhood is a quiet hotel. The Hotel Panamericano, for example, overlooks the world's widest boulevard, Avenida 9 de Julio. But their rooms are so well soundproofed you can hear a pin drop in them. (If you want to test this out, go ahead; just be sure to pick the pin up afterwards or you're bound to tread on it.)
Award-winning Home Hotel, on the other hand, is in a peaceful neighborhood of cobblestoned streets and one-story housing, far away from major traffic arteries. But they have a lively bar and cocktail garden (over which the rooms are tightly clustered) and party-oriented guests. A group of LA advertising execs in full braying mode is, in the noise pollution stakes, a match for any number of low-flying fighter jets. And way more annoying.
There are good reasons why business people stay in 'business hotels'. They tend to be quieter, regardless of the location. They tend to have more rooms than boutique hotels, so you can easily ask for a room change if you want one. Larger three-star establishments are rarely double glazed or soundproofed but usually have quiet rooms (often the ones with a view of the parking lot).
Golden rule: If a hotel describes itself as having a 'chilled atmosphere' or anything along those lines, you can guarantee it's about as quiet as a recently kicked beehive.
[Photo: Coolinbox]
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Coldplay Has the Nerve to Be 'Normal Human Being-Like' at the Faena Hotel
Here's a theory for which we have no evidence. The rise in expensively tricked-out design hotels is in direct correlation to the disinclination of contemporary rock stars to smash, trash, and throw entertainment systems through the windows of said hotels.
In the early 1970s hotels had to insure themselves against fire, flood and Acts of Keith Moon. That's all gone now, along with kaftans with metallic trim and Minimoogs. A pity.
But wait! Perhaps all is not lost. We have received exclusive reports of hair-raising, hellraising behaviour by Coldplay during their recent stay at Buenos Aires' Faena Hotel + Universe (they played three gigs in BA two weeks ago). The information comes from Florencia Vrljicak, the Faena's lovely PR manager:
The Cold Play stayed at the Faena for a whole week. They left Alan [Señor Faena, the eponymous owner] a guitar!!! Signed by all the members of the band and an incredible letter saying (amongst other things) they did not want to leave. They really had a good time and enjoyed the hotel very much. After the shows, we usually prepared barbecue in the Mercado's patio. They enjoyed that place particularly. They were supposed to leave on Friday for Brazil, but extended the stay for two nights. There is so much I can tell... One day Chris asked to use the piano we have at EL TEATRO to compose. And he played alone all night until 1 am. The guitar is incredible! And the letter is so nice I am keeping it in my cork board!
And that's not all. Sources from lower down the hotel's food chain have muttered darkly to us about 'generous tipping', 'a complete lack of arrogance' and, most disturbing of all, 'normal human being-like behaviour'.
Someone needs to get these boys into rehab, and quick.
[photo Hellen|H77|]
Related Stories:
· Buenos Aires Hotel Guide [HotelChatter]
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The Thinker's Guide to Buenos Aires, Redux: Reader Finds Castelar Hotel 'Tattered, Not Torn'
For the past two weeks, we've been spotlighting some of the best hotels Buenos Aires has to offer courtesy of Matt Chesterton. Like all good things, the mini-Buenos Aires guide had come to an end. But this morning we found a little present in our inbox---a reader's own hotel review.
In last week's "Thinkers' Guide to Buenos Aires", Matt profiled the "glamorous, rude, fading and grand" Castelar Hotel, and more specifically his wedding night there where the helpful staff did not discriminate against him for projectile vomiting on the suite's walnut paneling.
He is not alone--in his high regard for the hotel that is. As for the vomiting on wedding night, we won't go there. Anyways, one reader sent us his own take on the Castelar which he titled "Tattered, not torn" in reference to the hotel's wear and tear but which did not seem to bother him.
A few years ago right after the economy crashed we booked a small apt for a week. The apt turned out to smaller than small and dirtier than dirt. The city was vibrating with protest marches and rooms were hard to find. The Castelar was less than a block away and had a junior suite. All the Argentine charm we wished for and a staff that new how to spell service.
We asked for help booking tickets to a Tango show. The tickets were booked and transportation arranged. We were told to be back at the hotel at a certain time and a car would pick us up. The time did not meet with our other plans and we suggested if we could have the tickets now we would take a taxi from another location. The concierge insisted we return to the hotel and take the car he had arranged. If we did not he would cancel the tickets. The reason: his transportation was the only form that could be trusted.
When we got to the show we were delighted he had insisted. We might have gotten there with another cab but I doubt we would have gotten back to the hotel with all our belongings! At the Castelar you are really treated as family.
So there you have it. Sometimes the best hotel service isn't always found in a shiny and new building.
Related Stories:
· The Thinkers' Guide to Staying in Buenos Aires: Classic Hotels [HotelChatter]
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The Thinkers' Guide to Staying in Buenos Aires: The Ones That Got Away
Travel writer Matt Chesterton may know more about the Buenos Aires hotel scene than anyone else on the planet, our words not his. When he isn't hiding from his creditors he is out and about in BA. For the next two weeks he will be busting myths and spouting off about the BA hotel scene. For starters, he has told us that La Cabaña is not the best steakhouse in Argentina, and rather, a national embarrassment, the kind of place that in previous epochs of "our" history would have been firebombed--reserved for Steakhouse Suckers, his words, not ours. This is exactly the kind of unadulterated sentiment you can expect to find here in the next couple of weeks--plus he is hilarious. If you wish to use this time to ask him a burning question you have about BA hotels, shoot it our way, and we will hand deliver it to him. Enjoy.
Youkali Kultur Hotel
All good things must come to an end, and so must all mediocre ones. We have reached the terminal of our whistlestop tour of the BA hotel scene. We hope the trip has been tolerable. We'd particularly like to thank you, the reader, without whom none of this would have been read. It's been wonderful to be here. It's certainly been a thrill. You've been such a lovely audience. We'd like to take you Home with us, we'd like to take you Home...
But before that doesn't happen there are a few loose ends to knot. First, we'd like to offer a few predictions on the future of the BA hotel scene. We are yet to make a correct prediction in our entire lives, but this merely increases the odds that, one day, we will. (This rubbish is known to logicians and Las Vegas floor managers as the Gamblers' Fallacy.)
Secondly, we're going to throw in a few short reviews of hotels we missed out for one reason or another, usually incompetence. Several of these have been prompted by reader requests, so thanks for that.
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The Thinkers' Guide to Staying in Buenos Aires: Youth Hostels
Travel writer Matt Chesterton may know more about the Buenos Aires hotel scene than anyone else on the planet, our words not his. When he isn't hiding from his creditors he is out and about in BA. For the next two weeks he will be busting myths and spouting off about the BA hotel scene. For starters, he has told us that La Cabaña is not the best steakhouse in Argentina, and rather, a national embarrassment, the kind of place that in previous epochs of "our" history would have been firebombed--reserved for Steakhouse Suckers, his words, not ours. This is exactly the kind of unadulterated sentiment you can expect to find here in the next couple of weeks--plus he is hilarious. If you wish to use this time to ask him a burning question you have about BA hotels, shoot it our way, and we will hand deliver it to him. Enjoy.
Ostinatto Hostel, Buenos Aires
Euphemisms rule. If an enemy accidentally drops high explosives on your home and wastes you, you're 'collateral damage'. If a buddy accidentally drops high explosives on your Humvee, and wastes you, you're a victim of 'friendly fire'.
We could drone on in this sub-Jerry Seinfeld vein for ever, but what's it got to do with accommodation in BA? Not a lot, except perhaps this. There doesn't seem to anything called simply a 'youth hostel' anymore. It may look like a youth hostel, it may sound like a youth hostel, it will sure as hell smell like a youth hostel. But the owners won't market it as such - not when they can call it a 'chill house', a 'design budget lodging' or - and this is our favorite because it sounds like a cross between a frathouse and a train station - 'party central'.
This isn't a sneer, it's a cheer. The youth hostels we remember from our distant youth had one thing in common: they all blew. The ones we remember from travels round our British homeland blew the hardest of all. They were owned by the kind of hippies other hippies avoided. The 'menu' was lentil stew for supper, tea with powdered milk for breakfast, lentil rissoles for lunch. The architecture could be described thus: one thing over your head to keep the rain from hitting you, four things surrounding you to keep the wind from hitting you. If you were really lucky there would be a ping-pong table in some freezing outhouse, with a sagging net and bats with the rubber peeling off. For the honor of flopping in such a hellhole you had to do 'chores'. At least in the army they give you decent food and some expensive lethal gizmos to mess around with.
So why do we feel a twinge of nostalgia for such places? Same reason people miss their brutal boarding schools. The more dismal the environment, the crueler the authorities, the more esprit de corps in the ranks. We were all in this shit together. The worse the conditions, the more fun it was to whine about them. Friendships forged in these old-school hostels would last for days, sometimes even weeks.
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The Thinkers' Guide to Staying in Buenos Aires: Budget Hotels
Travel writer Matt Chesterton may know more about the Buenos Aires hotel scene than anyone else on the planet, our words not his. When he isn't hiding from his creditors he is out and about in BA. For the next two weeks he will be busting myths and spouting off about the BA hotel scene. For starters, he has told us that La Cabaña is not the best steakhouse in Argentina, and rather, a national embarrassment, the kind of place that in previous epochs of "our" history would have been firebombed--reserved for Steakhouse Suckers, his words, not ours. This is exactly the kind of unadulterated sentiment you can expect to find here in the next couple of weeks--plus he is hilarious. If you wish to use this time to ask him a burning question you have about BA hotels, shoot it our way, and we will hand deliver it to him. Enjoy.
Gran Hotel Hispano Atrium
Exclusively for the readers of HotelChatter, we are about to reveal a fact that will doubtless shock and disgust you as much as it has shocked and disgusted us. We have uncovered the existence of a group of people whose habits - indeed, whose very existence - is an affront to contemporary civilization and to the values that nourish and sustain our society. Those readers who prefer to remain in blissful ignorance of the presence in our midst of such evildoers and miscreants are strongly advised to hit the 'back' button now. We won't mince our words. This is XXX-rated stuff.
What we have learned is this. There are people living among us who don't want to pay $150 per night to stay in a BA hotel.
Take a deep breath. Wait for the room to stop spinning. Then read on.
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The Thinkers' Guide to Staying in Buenos Aires: Gay Accommodation
Travel writer Matt Chesterton may know more about the Buenos Aires hotel scene than anyone else on the planet, our words not his. When he isn't hiding from his creditors he is out and about in BA. For the next two weeks he will be busting myths and spouting off about the BA hotel scene. For starters, he has told us that La Cabaña is not the best steakhouse in Argentina, and rather, a national embarrassment, the kind of place that in previous epochs of "our" history would have been firebombed--reserved for Steakhouse Suckers, his words, not ours. This is exactly the kind of unadulterated sentiment you can expect to find here in the next couple of weeks--plus he is hilarious. If you wish to use this time to ask him a burning question you have about BA hotels, shoot it our way, and we will hand deliver it to him. Enjoy.
Lugar Gay B&B Balcony
Over the last two years [Buenos Aires] has become well known for its liberal attitude to gay life so that it has become the destination of choice for gay tourists to South America. Buenos Aires now has many gay discos, bars, hotels, saunas, movie theaters, and possibly the best-looking men you will see anywhere... In February 2005 Buenos Aires was host to a conference by the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association IGLTA. In September 2007 the International Gay & Lesbian Football Association will hold the Football (soccer) World Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
From the Guide to Gay Buenos Aires.
There's a new cliche in town. Having been saddled for decades with the godawful 'Paris of South America' tag, Buenos Aires, within the space of two years or so, has jumped out of the closet and announced itself as the 'Gay Capital of Latin America'.
There's a lot of truth behind the hype. BA's gay scene has been steadily growing since the return of democracy in 1983 (gays, like everyone else who refused to stand to attention when the jackboots marched past, were persecuted during the military dictatorship) and the recent surge in tourism has made the 'pink peso' stronger than ever. The laissez-faire attitude of the locals towards sexual preference helps, and can be summed up in two words: 'Who cares?'. This is still a macho culture, however, which means gay men and trannies are far more visible than lesbians.
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The Thinkers' Guide to Staying in Buenos Aires: Classic Hotels
Travel writer Matt Chesterton may know more about the Buenos Aires hotel scene than anyone else on the planet, our words not his. When he isn't hiding from his creditors he is out and about in BA. For the next two weeks he will be busting myths and spouting off about the BA hotel scene. For starters, he has told us that La Cabaña is not the best steakhouse in Argentina, and rather, a national embarrassment, the kind of place that in previous epochs of "our" history would have been firebombed--reserved for Steakhouse Suckers, his words, not ours. This is exactly the kind of unadulterated sentiment you can expect to find here in the next couple of weeks--plus he is hilarious. If you wish to use this time to ask him a burning question you have about BA hotels, shoot it our way, and we will hand deliver it to him. Enjoy.
[The Hotel Chelsea] is perhaps best-known as the hotel where Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols may have stabbed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen to death on October 12, 1978...Ruth Harkness, an adventuress/naturalist who brought the first live giant panda from China to the U.S. in the 1930s, stayed at the Chelsea Hotel at one point during her long decline into alcoholic oblivion.
From the Hotel Chelsea's Wikipedia entry.
Every city has a 'classic' hotel or two, though very few have a 'classic' quite so classic as the Chelsea. Before we look at BA's contribution to the genre, we'd better define what we mean by 'classic hotel' - if for no better reason than to get rid of the damn quote marks.
A classic hotel is more talked about than stayed in. In the Chelsea's case, of course, it is more sung about than talked about - by Leonard Cohen (about shagging Janis Joplin), by Joni Mitchell (about waking up without a hangover), and by that drip from the Counting Crows with the pineapple haircut (about who cares what).
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The Thinkers' Guide to Staying in Buenos Aires: Boutique Hotel, Part II
Travel writer Matt Chesterton may know more about the Buenos Aires hotel scene than anyone else on the planet, our words not his. When he isn't hiding from his creditors he is out and about in BA. For the next two weeks he will be busting myths and spouting off about the BA hotel scene. For starters, he has told us that La Cabaña is not the best steakhouse in Argentina, and rather, a national embarrassment, the kind of place that in previous epochs of "our" history would have been firebombed--reserved for Steakhouse Suckers, his words, not ours. This is exactly the kind of unadulterated sentiment you can expect to find here in the next couple of weeks--plus he is hilarious. If you wish to use this time to ask him a burning question you have about BA hotels, shoot it our way, and we will hand deliver it to him. Enjoy.
Located in Buenos Aires's hip Palermo Viejo neighbourhood, Home was designed by architects Rodrigo Cunill and Juana Grichener. The exterior may be austere, but the rest of the hotel is warm, light and airy thanks to a 300 sq m garden and heated swimming pool. All 17 rooms have their own distinct style with a retro theme, mixing vintage European wallpapers, Chilean wool rugs and custom-made native watambu wood beds with CD and book libraries, MP3 players and Wi-Fi.
Best New Hotel :: Wallpaper* magazine design awards , 2007.
Wow! Blood-tingling stuff. Wallpaper* has named BA's Home Hotel as best new hotel in the world. People everywhere are starting to notice this strange continent dangling off the ass of Mexico.
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The Thinkers' Guide to Staying in Buenos Aires: Boutique Hotel, Part 1
Travel writer Matt Chesterton may know more about the Buenos Aires hotel scene than anyone else on the planet, our words not his. When he isn't hiding from his creditors he is out and about in BA. For the next two weeks he will be busting myths and spouting off about the BA hotel scene. For starters, he has told us that La Cabaña is not the best steakhouse in Argentina, and rather, a national embarrassment, the kind of place that in previous epochs of "our" history would have been firebombed--reserved for Steakhouse Suckers, his words, not ours. This is exactly the kind of unadulterated sentiment you can expect to find here in the next couple of weeks--plus he is hilarious. If you wish to use this time to ask him a burning question you have about BA hotels, shoot it our way, and we will hand deliver it to him. Enjoy.
Our hotel boutique remains diversity in this unit with informal ambient air what invited to the Feng Shui and its colour. Travels which makes an harmonical around. Onze offers you to experience a confort [sic] sentation [sic] unusual deriving of equilibrium obtaining between energy actuates [sic] inside our hotel situaded [sic] in the more chic district of the the city La Recoleta.
--Homepage of Onzé Trendy Hotel
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