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 Monica Guy returns to Chile. Enjoy.
Split the cubicle in half: I'm dreaming of two superb hotels at opposite ends of the longest, skinniest country in the world - Chile.
This week our roaming correspondent, Monica Guy, is giving us the low-down on the Chilean Hotel Scene. Today, she has exclusive review of the much-vaunted, just-opened luxury Explora hotel of Posada de Mike Rapu on Easter Island. Enjoy.
Easter Island
Take one of the loneliest islands on earth, cover it in miles of unkempt grassland, teams of wild horses and hundreds of mysterious stone statues. Then drive a kilometer down a bumpy track off the island's single main road and you'll come across the most isolated, luxury, dreamland hotels you've ever read about.
We're talking about Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui by the natives, or as Isla de Pascua by the Chileans. It's 3,600 km from the nearest mainland in Chile and a 5h40min flight from Santiago. Famous for those great, stone Moai statues you'll have read about but probably not seen.
And we're talking about the Explora Posada de Mike Rapu, opened only since late 2007 and already one of the hottest topics of the Latin American hotel world.
We had a little meet-and-greet with a Chile tourism rep yesterday, and he reminded us that Patagonia is home to the Explora Patagonia, an all-inclusive resort with killer views of the mountains.
But it turns out, there's a new Explora on the scene, this time in Atacama. (You'll remember Chile's northern desert from the latest season of Amazing Race.)
Aside from the reality TV tie-in--reason enough to visit!--the Explora en Atacama does its best to put jaded urbanites back in touch with nature. Just check the brochure:
Its core is a hotel built for linking man with the temporal space--present and past--and the mysteries of nature. To travel is to pass, to arrive and leave. Architecture is permanence, freedom and security.
Rates, including hyperbole, start at $1,546 for three nights. And in case you're curious, Explora is opening another hotel in Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in December 2007.
Where: Chile
