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Tags: VIP Hotel Reviewer Series / Deidre Woollard / Hotel Ghosts / Hilton Hotels / Louisville Hotel Reviews / → All Tags

Ghosts, Bourbon Cocktails and Hootie and the Blowfish at the Seelbach Hilton

Where: 500 S. 4th Street [map], Louisville, KY, United States, 40202

We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.

The next VIP in the series is Deidre Woollard, the founder and head writer at popular luxury blog, Luxist.com. Despite writing about what's hot in the luxury world, Deidre has spent time in a Super 8 Motel. Of course, she would never stay there again. Instead the next time she visits Louisville, Kentucky, she'll probably hit up the Seelbach Hilton. Enjoy.

[Photo: Caprig]

For a couple of years while getting my MFA through Spalding University's limited residency program I spent a lot of time in Louisville, Kentucky.

Each semester we spent 10 days in a hotel in Louisville. For the inaugural session of the program they put us in a Super 8 hotel. Not just any Super 8 Hotel, but one that happened to be located near what appeared to be a crackhouse.

It was noisy, loud and scary but both the visiting professors and students bonded as we chaperoned each other from elevator to room for security's sake. It was the last semester the program ever stayed there.

For the rest of my time in the program we stayed at the Seelbach Hilton, the grand old hotel downtown which was built in 1905. It was quite an improvement from the Super 8.

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Tags: Louisville Hotel Reviews / Art Hotels / Pableaux Johnson / → All Tags

The Hautest Bathrooms in Louisville?

Where: 700 West Main Street [map], Louisville, KY, United States, 40202

Could it be? The New York Times may have finally found a great hotel worthy of writing about in its weekly Check In, Check Out feature. The 21c  Museum Hotel is in the heart of Louisville, and it's chock full of fancy contemporary art.

Artistry isn't limited to the Chuck Close hanging on the wall, though. The rooms sound nice, too:

Our river-view king room mimicked an efficient live/work loft space: a feather duvet and locally woven throw blanket covered luxurious 500-thread-count sheets; exposed brick walls played against brushed steel and neutral gray carpets. Road warriors will welcome the well-designed workspace with Herman Miller Aeron chair, wireless Internet service, a cordless phone and an anodized aluminum desk. Less productive types will flop down in the comfortable reading chair to unwind with the in-room iPod.

The 21c also has top-notch restaurant in Proof--it's got 60 whiskeys on the menu, though not all of them can be had through room service. Knock back a couple, and you'll have a ticket to the first floor bathrooms, which according to a bellman, have some of the best art in the place.

[Photo: NYT]

Related Stories:
· Check In, Check Out [NYT]