Tag: Hotel Pools
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You Can Actually Sail on the World's Largest Resort Pool
While North America prepares for Memorial Day (the official yet unofficial kickoff of summer), South America is all but finished with its pool season. But that doesn't mean we can't look south for some inspiration. After all, Chile boasts the world's largest pool -- so big, you can sail on it.
At 3/5 of a mile long, The Crystal Lagoon at San Alfonso del Mar Resort in Chile is the length of 20 Olympic-size pools and holds 66 million gallons of seawater over an area of about 20 acres. Not impressed? How about the fact that the pool reaches depths of 115 feet! That's like, incredible, right? Hang on to your sunglasses.
The mega-pool is estimated to have cost about $1 billion to build. A filtration system draws water directly from the sea -- there just ain't a hose big enough to fill this sucker with fresh water. Because of its sheer size, the cost of upkeep is about $2 million a year according to the Daily Mail.
Beach Hotels / Photo Gallery / Santa Monica Hotels / Hotel Pools / Hotel Snapshot / Los Angeles Hotels / Hotel Design / → All Tags
We Lived The Life Aquatic At The Shore Hotel
Last week, we gave you our full review of Blue Plate Taco, the scene-y Mexican restaurant attached to The Shore Hotel. Despite reading constant positive reviews about this place, we were a little underwhelmed by the so-so tacos and poorly mixed cocktails.
Suffice to say, we were a little disappointed. However, there's still one (major) part of the experience that we haven't gotten to yet: our stay at the hotel itself!
We booked a Garden View Junior Suite, which, as the name implies, doesn't actually face the ocean but rather a small ground-floor patio tucked around the back of the hotel.
Far off in the distance we could spy a little bit of ocean, as well as the top half of the ferris wheel at Santa Monica Pier. But the fact that we were staying at an oceanfront hotel (literally, on the "shore") never once escaped us. For starters, the lobby is a giant gray cube that lets in plenty of natural light, including views of the beach across the street.
More importantly though, the design is incredibly water-focused. Pretty much everything—from the stark silvery hallways to the pool to the guest rooms' aquamarine decor—made us feel like we were underwater.
Read on to see photos from inside and all around the hotel!
Hotel Renovations / Photo Gallery / Beach Hotels / Santa Monica Hotels / Hotel Pools / Hotel Restaurants / Los Angeles Hotels / → All Tags
The Sun Has Shone On Oceana Santa Monica's New Renovations
It's Guess the Hotel revealed!
We could have picked plenty other parts of LA for our West Coast jaunt this weekend: Downtown LA, West Hollywood, Studio City, or maybe, if we were feeling reaallly generous with ourselves, Beverly Hills. But no, we had to be stubborn about it and go after beachy, balmy Santa Monica.
The sun, the sand, the waves, we wanted it all. The only problem was, luck wasn't on our side, and the weather all weekend stayed cloudy and in the 60s.
Harrumph.
This gave us a good chance to acquaint ourselves with our room, a spacious Ocean View Suite at the Oceana Santa Monica (ocean views are normally a good thing, but this time it just reminded us how we were missing out on quality sprawled-out-on-the-beach tanning time).
Inside the room, we caught up on work, watched Gladiator on TNT, and even played a few rounds of checkers with our friend. (Yup, that's right! The mystery flip-top checkers board table we showed you yesterday is indeed found at the Oceana Santa Monica.)
Then, just as we were getting ready to check out, we saw shadows start to become defined on our wall, and realized—gasp!—the sun was finally coming out! And just in the nick of time. So we did what any hotel geek would do and scoured the property to take photos of the hotel the way it's meant to be seen.
Click through for our photo gallery of the sun-drenched lobby and pool courtyard!
Hotel Cocktails / Hotel Pools / Hotel Bars / Las Vegas Hotels / LA Hotels / → All Tags
Hotels Get Summer Ready With Boozy Poolside Treats
It’s almost our favorite time of the year, where we get to laze by the pool, sipping on umbrella-topped cocktails. But really, that seems so 1990s, right? Today's bartenders are getting super creative with their libations. We’re already hearing about yummy mixes that have us begging Mother Nature to hurry up with summer already.
It looks like the West Coast has a jump on these tasty treats, so we'll just lust over the pics until they make the rounds Stateside.
From boozy shakes and sorbets, and other goodies, it looks like poolside fun has an alcoholic accent like never before.
Here are some we’re looking forward to trying:
Hotel News / Hotel Pets / Hotel Animals / La Jolla Hotels / Hotel Pools / → All Tags
Hedonistic Sea Lion Prefers Hotel Pools To Actual Ocean
One of the most frustrating things about being a fin-footed mammal, so we've heard, is being constantly confined to swimming in the ocean or sitting on large rocks. But what happens when you want to treat yourself for the day? Get a mani-pedi at the mall, or hop a plane to Mexico, or lounge for hours by a hotel pool?
ABC reported on an intrepid female sea lion who showed up yesterday at the Pantai Inn, an all-suites hotel on the Pacific Coast that calls itself "Balinese-themed." Well, we don't know much about what goes on at hotels in Bali, but here in the US, sea lions casually draping themselves on deck furniture isn't exactly the norm.
Apparently, an overnight front desk worker spotted the creature by the pool around 6:45am, and subsequently alerted his manager, as well as SeaWorld, which promptly sent officials to retrieve the animal. Though, not before the story spread to local news stations. The night shift worker told ABC:
"The sea lion was sleeping on our chair in the courtyard and looking pretty relaxed."
Los Angeles Hotels / Hotel Pools / Loews Hotels / Crescent Hotels / Montage Hotels / → All Tags
The Sunset Marquis Opens Its Rock Star Pools to Non-Guests
Earlier this week, we talked about all the good things coming (fingers crossed!) to downtown Los Angeles. Today we've got a round-up of some cool new things happening in Los Angeles proper, starting off with this West Hollywood hideout.
SUNSET MARQUIS: The rock star haven that is the Sunset Marquis (the hotel hosted 43 Grammy nominees this year) has begun offering a pool membership for non-guests that will allow use of the hotel's main pool and villa pools along with some other perks like a complimentary one-night stay, a Sunday brunch, drinks at the restaurant or 1200 bar, discounted cabana rentals and discounted spa treatments. The cost for a one-year member ship is $2,000 while a six-month membership can be had for $1,500. Membership is based on availability and the hotel only gives out 20 at a time. If you're not interested in joining, you can pay around $250 a night as a hotel guest and use the pool for free.
Celebrity Scoop / Fashion Week Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Pools / Hotel News / → All Tags
Kenneth Cole Channels David Hasselhoff At The Hotel Americano
Nothing really shocks us anymore about New York Fashion Week, the semi-annual event when models, celebrities, editors and wanabes descend in droves to revel in their fabulousness and take advantage of endless open bars. However, an incident at the Hotel Americano did catch our attention, though mainly because of its ridiculousness.
On Thursday night, according to the NY Post, the internationally renowned fashion designer Kenneth Cole was celebrating at the hotel with his crew after finishing up a runway show at a nearby Chelsea venue. Suddenly, a male employee slipped and fell into the hotel's 4ft-deep plunge pool. Major faux pas! But it was Kenneth Cole to the rescue, as he did some quick thinking and "extended his hand, got [the employee] out, and then they hugged." Aw.
This is one of those rare instances when it's actually a good thing that rooftop "pools" (and we use that term loosely) in Manhattan tend to run on the small side. If Cole's employee had tumbled into the larger pool deck at Gansevoort Park, for example, things might not have gone as smoothly.
Killer Views / Josh Flagg / Oberoi Hotels / India Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Hotel Pools / → All Tags
Josh Flagg's Killer View of The Taj Mahal
Our resident celebrity hotel hopper, Josh Flagg, star of Bravo's Million Dollar Listing recently completed a trip to India. And of course, there were amazing views from his hotel rooms. Here's one of them:
By far, one of the most beautiful pools I have been to was found at The Oberoi Amarvilas, Agra. The hotel also boasts one of the best views I have ever seen... That of the Taj Mahal. Every room looks out onto the pool, grounds and the magnificent Taj Mahal. Watching the sun rise and set from your room is one of those moments you have to experience in your life. Eat in the Indian restaurant for a wonderful experience.
Rates at the Oberoi start at 34,000 Indian rupees a night or about $640 USD. If you want to travel like Josh, you better get to selling some luxury real estate in Beverly Hills then!
Hotel Reviews / Phoenix Hotels / Hotel Restaurants / Boutique Hotels / Hotel Pools / → All Tags
Where We're Bunking Next Time We're Phoenix Bound
We've been talking about Phoenix for a minute at HC, and with good reason. It seems like good things are happenin' around this town and we like nothing more to be around when places start hoppin'.
We planned our hotel stays carefully while in town in December. We enjoyed our night at Aloft Phoenix Airport, and loved the food and design quirks at the Hotel Palomar Phoenix.
But we realized we'd missed a potentially cool little property. So next time we're in town, you can bet your bottom dollar we'll be staying at the Clarendon Hotel and Suites.
Hotel Pools / Thailand Hotels / Bangkok Hotels / Death Defying Rooftop Hotel Pools / → All Tags
Swimming Over The Edge: The Pool At The Okura Prestige Bangkok
Swimmers with a strong stomach have more and more options these days when wanting to take a dip. From the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore (55 stories up in the air) to the Joule in Dallas, we previously looked at 10 Death Defying Rooftop Pools and received many more suggestions from you.
Today we’re adding another one to our list, this time in Thailand at the Okura Prestige Bangkok. If something looks off in the picture above, believe us when we tell you it’s no Photoshop: set on the 25th floor, the pool juts out of the curvature of the Park Ventures Ecoplex building, of which the hotel is part. The curved shape, widest at its middle and tapering at both ends (reflecting the Thai symbol of “wai” – thanks and welcome), literally gives you a sense of floating over the edge. Open from 6am to 9pm, an early or late swim as the city wakes up or evening falls will have to be added to our to do’s during a next trip to Bangkok.
HotelChatter Reviews / Miami Hotel Mambo / Hotel Pools / Affordable Hotels / Hotel Design / Photo Gallery / → All Tags
We Behaved Like Good Little Soldiers At the Cadet
On a recent quickie trip through Miami, we checked into the Cadet Hotel in Miami Beach. Though our eyes got big as we walked by iconic buildings like the Delano, The Raleigh and SLS South Beach, we stuck to our original plan of doing Miami on a budget, and tried not to be tempted by anything fancy.
But as soon as we walked into our room, we knew we had made the right choice. The hotel was quiet, clean, and elegant. What's more, its location was unbeatable. Plenty of Miami first-timers will be drawn to all the landmark hotels listed above—not to mention the beach—but that's all super easy to get to from the Cadet, since the Collins Ave hub sits just one block away.
First impression: Walking into the hotel, we were greeted by a small lobby with obvious Art Deco accents like a giant circular mirror, baby grand piano, and an inlaid floor with a compass rose mosaic. A small liquor bar with espresso machine sat at one end of the room, and the Front Desk was at the other.
The staff was friendly, and even let us check into our room early—a huge help since we were running ahead of schedule and needed a place to drop our bags.
Read on to see the rest of the review!
Hotel News / Hotel Woes / JW Marriott Hotels / Chicago Hotels / Hotel Pools / Hotel Safety / Hotel Tips / → All Tags
Legionnaires’ Disease Claims Three at JW Marriott Chicago
New this May, JW Marriott Chicago's chlorine-less pool touted a UV-light filtration process
Here’s what we know so far: an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease has been connected to 10 guests who visited or stayed at the JW Marriot Chicago between mid-July and mid-August. As of this past Friday, three of those guests died from the disease. The same strain of legionella bacteria found in the ill guests was also found in JW Marriott Chicago's pool, whirlpool, and decorative fountain in the main lobby, all of which have since been drained. The bacteria was also found in the men's and women's lockers rooms.
The Chicago Department of Public Health reported last week that the JW Marriott was fully cooperating with the ongoing investigation and had taken the recommended measures to reduce the risk of exposure. They now believe there is no ongoing health threat at the hotel.
It's heavy hotel news, but sadly, legionnaires' happens in the hotel (hot-tubing, cruise-shipping and hospital-going) world. Last year alone, it sickened two guests and claimed the life of another at Luxor, and sickened six at Aria, both in Vegas.
Essentially a severe pneumonia, legionnaires’ is caused by high concentrations of legionella bacteria that show up in water. It can survive for many months in that wet environment, especially in warm water. Transmission isn’t totally understood, but the gist of it is that it’s not spread by person-to-person contact but by inhaling or ingesting the legionella microbes (read: drinking the water, breathing in the vapor above and around the water). Once contracted, legionnaires’ can take anywhere from two to eight days to show up.
Deep in the hotel trenches, we also know that the new-in-May pool at JW Marriott was very unique in its UV filtration process—an important fact absent from the majority of news on the outbreak. Dubbed a high-tech pool by the hotel, the 11.2 meter chlorine-less pool was instead filtered by UV-light. According to the hotel’s original press release on the pool, “the water flows through UV-light chambers to eliminate 99% of all toxins and bacteria resulting in less chlorine in the pool than in average drinking water.” The release continues, “The absence of chlorine eliminates allergies and irritations and offers the feeling of swimming in a fresh water lake.”
