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This Week in Hotel Lust: White Picket Fences at Cape Town's Mount Nelson
This week, a combination of wanderlust and hotel lust led us to research the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, which a roving HotelChatter correspondent briefly had the chance to visit last year. We deemed Mount Nelson worth a second look from afar, because of the consistent buzz it garners for its exaggerated sense of luxury. Then again, if it weren't exaggerated it wouldn't be lust-worthy, would it?
Fat cats who travel to areas of the world deemed "exotic" aren't usually in the game of roughing it. Maybe they've come for a safari, but they better be welcomed home at the end of the day by plush linens at the very least.
No need to worry about that at Mount Nelson, where Garden Cottages located away from the main hotel building offer grown-up Richie/Regina Riches their very own white picket fence, rose garden, marble bathrooms, and use of an adults-only pool. Socialite's kids can be notoriously snotty, so this division of property is welcomed by singles and child-free couples alike. The price of privacy: approximately $1,478 per night, according to listed rates and our currency conversion.
Tags: Hotel Openings / Peninsula Hotels / China Hotels / Shanghai Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
Please Welcome The Peninsula And Its Fleet Of Phantoms To Shanghai
We can talk about Art Basel Miami hotels and hotels for the holidays all we want, but we can't ignore one of the biggest hotel openings of autumn, that of the Peninsula Shanghai. It officially welcomed its first guests back on October 19, and yet it's already like a landmark on Shanghai's Bund—the street of shops, other high-class hotels, and historical buildings right at the bend of the Huangpu River.
The main thing to know about this Peninsula is its relatively low starting room rate: $295. With it, if you can score the deal (and we recommend searching for dates far into the future), you'll be sitting pretty in a room with the feeling of a suite, as each room is divided into living spaces and even features a dressing room in lieu of an itty-bitty closet. More on that dressing room, after the jump.
Tags: Hotel Deals / Leading Hotels of the World / Luxury Hotels / Valentine's Day Hotels / → All Tags
Have a Luxe Valentine's Day For Less, With This Leading Hotels Deal
Who says you can’t spend Valentine’s Day in a luxury hotel on a Venetian island? Not us! We know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but our minds are already in February, thanks to a new promotion from Leading Hotels of the World.
Their Save the Date deal is designed to encourage early-bird reservations (LHW are so not fans of this pesky last-minute booking trend), and if you can commit to early 2010 dates now, there are deals to be had at more than 70 Leading Hotels around the world.
Romance, too, if you go with the San Clemente Palace Hotel & Resort in Venice. Once a monastery, the hotel takes up an entire private island (you arrive via motorboat from Piazza San Marco).
Last year, the property won the LHW “Guest Recognition Award of Excellence” and was named the best European hotel in the LHW stable. Those are solid credentials but if it’s not enough to make you swoon, perhaps the price will: with the Save the Date promo you can secure a room here for just 230 euros a night (around $343 USD). And, yes, that includes Valentine’s Day, which is still available.
Tags: Perth Hotels / Margaret River Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
Luxury Abounds Down Under At These Four Resorts Near Perth
Perth, Australia is the most isolated city on earth--seriously, we checked it and it’s 1,700 miles from the nearest large city, Adelaide--but on a recent trip, we were surprised to find that there's plenty of luxury hotel options for you to try out.
Our brother site, Jaunted, gave us Five Reasons to Visit Perth earlier this year and we finally made it out there earlier this month, courtesy of Tourism Western Australia.
About three hours southwest of the city (by car) lies an up-and-coming wine region and surfer paradise, the Margaret River. That’s where you’ll find these four luxury properties that, though about as far from the rest of the world as you can possibly get, still provide all the modern conveniences while making your troubles melt away.
Tags: Hotel Lust / India Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Beach Hotels / Beach Resorts / → All Tags
This Week in Hotel Lust: The Leela Kempinski Goa
Goa, India is an attractive resort state associated with equal parts bohemianism and luxury frills. Spirituality seeking backpackers enjoy it just as much as their richer-than-rich counterparts, who have a good number of opulent hotels to choose from as the tourism industry has taken off over the years.
The Leela operates a family of high-end hotels in some of the country's most popular destinations, among them Bangalore, Udiapur, and Goa, of course. It's the latter that we're focusing on in this installment of "This Week Hotel in Lust," with plenty of near-royal touches to qualify among the ranks of last week's Villa D'Este in Italy. And we do mean "royal"—they've had the audacity to include the word "Palace" in their name, a buzzword for anyone hoping to live the high life while traveling abroad.
Tags: Celebrity Scoop / London Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
Where The Real Celebrities Stay in London
The unassuming Gore Hotel in Kensington isn’t the first place you’d associate with celebs in London. In fact, reading the tabloids, we sometimes forget that it’s legal to stay anywhere than the May Fair or the Dorchester if you’re pappable.
Last night, though, the Gore taught us the error of our ways with its celeb haul. After the Children in Need charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall (performers included Take That, Robbie Williams, Lily Allen, Leona Lewis and – gasp – Paul McCartney singing Hey Jude), the party moved on to the Gore – conveniently a couple of blocks away. Or, when we say "the party" we mean at least Take That and Katherine Jenkins. Leona and Lily were staying at the hotel, too, but we're not sure whether they joined in the fun. Knowing Leona, she probably went straight to bed.
Tags: Hotel Spas / Stockholm Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Sweden Hotels / → All Tags
No More Birch Beatings At Grand Hotel Stockholm's New Spa
OK so normally we wouldn’t be so excited by the idea of a “Nordic spa”. In our heads, Scandi beauty treatments scream naked saunas, self-flagellation with birch sticks and lots of snow. But we’re making an exception for the Grand Hotel in Stockholm which opened a subtly different “Nordic-inspired spa”, Raison d’Etre, yesterday.
Yes, they have the birch – harvested from local forests, don’t you know – but they do far more exciting stuff than beat you with it. The Be Rested package is a massage ad “hot birch pack” to make you sleep, while the Be Balanced treatment claims to “gently realign” your bones through the power of, um, mung bean pillows.
They’re pretty pricey – 2190 Kronor, or $318, apiece, but last two hours. And the website – which asks you questions like “How do you want to be today? Like a raindrop falling from the sky?” and “If you were a tree, what would you be?” – is really calling to us. And how idyllic does that pool look for a winter soak. Gimmicky, us? Never.
Tags: Hotel Amenities / Langham Hotels / Hotel Video Tours / London Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
Beat This Attention to Detail: The Silent Drawers of the Langham London
We thought we’d seen most things in the way of top notch/frivolous amenities until we looked round the Langham London post refurb. In particular, the suites.
Obviously they have the frilly stuff, like a selection of books for your perusal and cut glass goblets in each of them. But here's the best bit: the Langham is so dedicated to you having a peaceful stay that they’ve recessed the doors (which cocoons you from outside sounds, apparently) and soundproofed the chests of drawers.
Yes, the drawers. Just in case your lady or gentleman friend is inconsiderate enough to hurl the drawer shut, they’ve installed little springs in the backs of them, so however enthusiastic you are in your, erm, slamming, it’ll make a genteel bounce back and close in (almost) total silence.
Anal? Of course, but it’s the kind of attention to detail that makes our heads spin. If they’ve given that much thought to the drawers, the rest of the room must be in solid working order. Now all we have to do is find the requisite £549 to get us in. And some sunglasses for the less-than-attractive carpet.
Tags: Hotel Lust / Italy Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Royal Hotels / → All Tags
This Week In Hotel Lust: Villa D'Este, Lake Como
Views of the lake and villa
If comments made in recent months by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are to be believed, then "the recession is very likely over." Most of us continue to scoff in disbelief, and inversely, there are others that may have missed the memo that the economy was in upheaval at all. We're talking about the well-monied types that have continued to swipe their Black AmEx cards with reckless abandon—on Michelin-rated dinners, sports cars, and certainly pricey vacations and hotel suites.
Even for those of us sans trust funds or Swiss bank accounts, reading about what's luxe in the hotel world proves to be endlessly entertaining. It could inspire fantasies about staying in the $15,000 Imperial Suite at Paris' Park-Hyatt Vendome, or lead to a few "you must be kidding me" laughs.
So, we're going to seek out exclusive resorts and amenities the world over and highlight what the luxury hotel world has to offer. Yes, we'll be confessing our Hotel Lust to you all, starting with the Villa D'Este in Italy.
Tags: O2 Hotels / Hotels-Near-O2 / London Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Paul McCartney / → All Tags
Where to Stay When Paul McCartney Plays in London on December 22
Are you one of the lucky people who bagged tickets to Paul McCartney at the O2 on December 22? We want to wrestle them from your hands are really pleased for you. So pleased that we’ll even help you out with where to stay.
But first, a little tutorial on how to get to and from O2.
If you’ve been to the O2, you’ll know it’s in the back end of beyond - otherwise known as North Greenwich. As such, there aren’t really any hotels on site (and if there were, you probably wouldn’t want to stay there – you want happy memories of Macca, after all). Do not fear though, because the place is linked up extremely well with the rest of London.
What’s crucial is that you don’t go by car. Yes, Macca probably will, but he’ll likely have a police escort or something. You, as a mortal, will find it trickier. We tried to drive to the O2 from central London once and it took two hours and a relationship-testing argument. We could have walked in that time.
Public transport links are excellent, though. The easiest, and most fun way, is to get a boat down the Thames with Thames Clippers. They run a special O2 Express service from Waterloo Pier, in front of the London Eye, to the QEII Pier at the O2, which they lay on for special events – like Macca. A return journey is bookable a month before the event, costs £12, and although it’s pricey, it’s very classy – everyone gets a seat, thanks to safety regs, and you can get champagne with your ticket for £7.50 more.
Tags: Checking In On / Hotel Renovations / Hotel Reopenings / Fairmont Hotels / London Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
The Savoy Will Finally Reopen In April Or May Next Year
If it seems like years since The Savoy closed its doors for its £100m restoration, that’s because it, um, is. It closed in December 2007, and was supposed to reopen 16 months later, but of course, 16 months in hotel speak is double the length of normal human time.
But, hallelujah, it looks like we’re coming to the end of the process - Fairmont just announced that they expect it to reopen in Spring 2010. And when we quizzed them what counts as spring, they said April or May. Here’s hoping!
We’re not sure what’s taken all the time up, but they’re adding a new two-bedroom Royal Suite, "remodeling" the River Restaurant, "relaunching" the River Suites, and adding a new bar, the Beaufort, and a rooftop swimming pool. Dare we hope it’s an infinity pool overlooking the Thames?
Tags: Deal Or No Deal / Leading Hotels of the World / Paris Hotels / Hotel Deals / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
Here's Your Chance to Stay at the Ritz Paris For Slightly Less Than Normal
It used to be something of a tradition for Londoners to hop on the Eurostar for a quicky weekend in Paris – especially when it came to winter romance. But it obviously isn’t going so well at the moment, thanks to the insanely strong euro: Eurostar is currently bombarding London with ads, and Parisian hotels seeing to be flinging out special offers by the day.
Anyway, if you can bear the dreadful exchange rate, there are deals to be had. This week the Leading Hotels of the World group have jumped on the bandwagon, offering up to 30% off – which, when you’re talking hotels like the Ritz or the Crillon, is a pretty big deal.
With the Leading in Paris offer, starting rates are down to €590 at the Hotel Le Bristol, €550 at the Ritz, €530 at the Hotel de Crillon and €589 at the Hotel Fouquet’s Barrière. Slightly cheaper are the Hotel Lancaster from €370, or the Hotel Raphael from €365 (the Raphael will also chuck in breakfast and a special “welcome gift).
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