So Easter weekend is upon us and if you are looking for a last-minute getaway, fake that you're Catholic and that you need to take off Good Friday for an Easter Vigil and head to San Francisco.
We looked at rates on Expedia.com for Friday to Monday and rates are looking very do-able. Unlike say Miami which is in the midst of a Spring Break/Holiday weekend double-whammy where beachfront hotels are starting at around $550 a night and airport hotels are hovering in the $200 a night range.
The Clift Hotel, which had a very scary incident earlier this month, is going for $150 a night. Since the place got so much bad press about guest safety, we're willing to bet that they are doing all that they can to turn this around. Still, we say women shouldn't travel alone here.
We were lucky enough to stay at Scotland's Gleneagles Hotel just before Christmas (check out the profile pic), and we must say that no hotel does a holiday better than Gleneagles. Which is why you might want to take advantage of the hotel's Easter offer, running from March 21 to 24.
Of course, as the dollar continues to suck (even yen is worth more these days) be prepared for a little sticker shock. But also keep in mind that while Gleneagles is a luxury property, it has so far bucked the trend of unbundling rates to lure you in, only to smack you with the non-inclusives upon check out. With each package, there is no minimum stay restriction and all include use of the hotel's leisure facilities, as well as some meals.
Secure a bed and breakfast for about $641 per night; or dinner, bed and breakfast from $834. There's even a deal for children who share a room: high tea, bed, breakfast and activities from $437. In addition to all this, Gleneagles also is hosting what it calls "an informal" program of Easter events, including special activities for children and young adults, as well as a traditional Easter Sunday lunch for an additional $91 per person.
We've been looking around for a Berlin hotel at Easter time, and we've learned just one thing: Easter's just an excuse for a pretty unexciting hotel deal. We're looking for something with chocolate and bunnies and heaps of Easter spirit, but we can't find it. The good news is, however, that plenty of Berlin hotels are keen to lock us in to a German Easter break, and there is at least the chance to save some Euros.
At the Steigenberger Hotel on Los-Angeles-Platz, for example, you get one night, free use of the pool and "an Easterly three-course meal", from €191 (US$295) for a double (cheaper, ironically, for the weeks either side of the actual Easter break).
At the Grand Hyatt Berlin, they're tenuously grabbing on to the Easter tag by including an "Easter egg" at breakfast, by which they mean you'll get the choice of having your egg cooked exactly how you want it. They also say that fresh bread and brewed coffee are "must-haves at Easter", although we strongly suspect they're available every day of the year. Double room prices start from €175 (US$270) between March 20 and 30.
And just to prove that boring Easter specials are all over Berlin, the Hotel de Rome in Berlin has an Easter deal that's completely free of Easter eggs or Easterly meals. They do, however, want you to stay three nights for the price of two, the kind of deal we rather like, and that means you could have a double from €560 (US$860) for three nights. But bring your own Easter eggs.
There may be nothing the Spanish are more faithful to than God and food, and the weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter (otherwise known as Lent) are a wonderful time to visit Seville--perhaps the one Spanish city most steeped in religious history--to experience both of those things.
Not only is this when Seville's famous Semana Santa festival takes place, it's also when about 20 hotel restaurants there offer more varied menus every Thursday through Easter. The event is called Jueves de Cuchara... y Gloria Bendita, which loosely translates to "Thursday Ladle and Blessed Glory," or at least so says Google's translator tool.
Participating hotels include the Hotel Alfonso XIII and its Restaurante San Fernando, Hospes' Las Casas Del Rey's Restaurante Senzone and Hotel Inglaterra's Restaurante La Galería, which offers a break from the regional cuisine with traditional Irish and English meals.
It seems these Sevillian chefs know devout Catholics want to get their fill of meat before abstaining on Friday, offering such dishes as stewed lentils with sausage and potatoes. Some of the hotels are offering three-course prix fixe meals that are no more than 40 euros.
Hotelesdesevilla.com will provide you with the full list of properties and contact information, though if your Spanish is rusty, you might also want to put Google's translator tool to work, as the page is only available in español.
Easter's coming early this year, and in Sydney as well as hunting for chocolate Easter eggs or greeting the Easter bilby (the Australian animal version of the Easter bunny), they'll be celebrating the Darling Harbour Hoopla Festival as well.
Hoopla is a circus and acrobatic festival that will see performers juggling, busking, abseiling and doing aerial stunts and slapstick comedy routines at many locations around the Darling Harbour precinct, all for free, and it sounds like a good laugh and a lot of fun.
[Update: We just realized the prices are in GBP and not Euros. We've adjusted the prices accordingly. Our apologies!]
Dearest HotelChatter readers, Forgive us for we have sinned and during the season of Lent! Hail Mary, Mother of God, pray for our soul.
We were so tempted not to tell you about this deal because we wanted to keep it all for ourselves. See, we are headed to London over Easter weekend and have been scouring the hotel rates. Until today we didn't see anything that we really liked. That is, until we received our Tablet Hotels newsletter and spied this deal at the Baglioni Hotel near Hyde Park.
For a two-night stay at 230 GBP night ($456), you get the third night free, along with unlimited broadband internet access, unlimited movies on demand, breakfast and our fave, a personalized Easter egg. Yeah, that probably locked it up for us.
Thus, we couldn't resist. And at the same time we didn't want to publicize it for fear that you would snatch it up as well. Seriously, we need to go mass and repent today.
Then when we looked at the cancellation fee and learned we had up until two days before our check-in date to cancel, we decided to go ahead and book it. Details are after the jump.
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by juliana
