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The NYT Finally Checks into the Encore
HotelChatter's video from Encore Las Vegas, taken in January 2009.
It’s always fun to read someone else’s first take of a place that you’ve covered, well, quite intimately. Like the Encore in Vegas, Steve Wynn’s almost one-year-old 2,034-room luxe tower, which this past weekend (finally!) got the official New York Times treatment.
“If Steve Wynn’s last two Sin City resorts — Wynn Las Vegas in 2005 and the Bellagio in 1998 — were about bringing a whiff of Park Avenue to the Strip, the Encore is about the hotelier’s loosening his pearls and swinging a little,” writes the Times’ Brooks Barnes. And though the Times says the hotel is intended for the “younger and hipper” crowd, our own observations last January was of a clientele, um, “older than dirt.”
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NYT Not Particularly Impressed by China's Commune by the Great Wall
Sometimes a view is so awe-inspiring, we’ll admit we can’t be bothered caring quite so much about creature comfort details. At China’s Commune by the Great Wall, though, not only do some guests nab views of the Great Wall, but the collection of vacation homes is an architectural marvel in its own right too, or so says the New York Times.
Designed by 12 Asian architects as a “retreat from the urban sprawl of Beijing,” the collection of homes is a mix of originals and more recent copies, the most popular apparently being the Cantilever House and Bamboo House. Sitting in the valley at the food of a “wild section” of the Great Wall, the homes are a steep 10-minute hike from the “ancient ramparts.”
Highlights: Original homes have views of the Great Wall. Enough said.
Lowlights: Though the bedrooms are comfortable, one of the NYT writer’s friends complained of a “toilet smell.” Um, ew. And the kitchens are functional but include rental fees for any supplies, from plates to cutlery to wineglasses (“very chintzy,” says the NYT). The food was “mediocre” and “overpriced,” and the restaurant charges a pesky corkage fee.
Bottom line: “Being able to see both the Great Wall and creative modern architecture in a short trip is a huge plus,” admits the NYT, but “the service and the food could have been better.” Plus, nickel and diming for every item? Not cool.
[Photo: Gilles Sabrie for the New York Times]
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The NYT Wants You to Get Thee to a (Turkish) Nunnery
In this weekend’s travel section, the NYT checked in to Tomtom Suites in Istanbul, a newish 20-suite boutique hotel housed in a restored 1901 building that once was home to French nuns, and decided Hamlet’s infamous slam—“Get thee to a nunnery”—could be the hotel’s “fun-loving invitation” or slogan.
Highlights:“Tomtom Suites addresses the partier’s paradox: how to find a crash pad within striking distance of a night-life district that isn’t overrun by noisy lager louts,” the NYT writes, describing the location as a five-minute walk to nightlife-heavy Istiklal Caddesi. Spacious suites have contemporary touches (wooden floors, “high-tech gadgetry”) injected with “Turkish touches” (hand-painted ceramics, tubular harem-style tasseled cushions). The bathroom has a Philippe Starck-designed bathtub with underwater jets as well as Molton Brown spa toiletries. The top-floor breakfast terrace serves a tasty morning spread.
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NYT Not Particularly Impressed by the cE Hotel de Diseno
There’s nothing quite like a glowing hotel endorsement from the New York Times. And by glowing, we mean flickering like a string of Christmas lights about to expire. That’s the feeling we got reading this week’s Check In, Check Out column, in which a Times-er describes the 28-room cE Hotel de Diseño in Buenos Aires as “slightly more stylish alternative to the corporate chains.” Sort of ouchy, don’t you agree?
“While the minimalist-cool hotel, which opened in 2005, offers a few sumptuous extras like Jacuzzi hydro-massage tubs in every room,” writes the NYT, “it lacks such basics as a full-service restaurant and closet space readily available in this price range.”
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NYT Reviews Beijing's Cool 3+1 Bedrooms
We hate to strum our own chord, but usually by the time the New York Times reviews a hotel we’ve already heaped an overgenerous amount of hype on the place, and often have even already checked the place out ourselves firsthand. But we’ve got to hand it to them this week — they reviewed a tiny little spot in Beijing that wasn’t even on our radar.
The Chinese capital city is home to the hyperbolically understated 3+1 Bedrooms, a teensy hotel with just three guestrooms and one suite. “Too intimate to be pretentious,” writes the NYT, with “all the amenities (well, almost all) of a larger boutique property — minus, of course, the scene.”
The highlight: Location? Check: “…in the heart of old Beijing, a stone’s throw from the historic Drum and Bell Towers and a short walk to the shops, bars and cafes of the artsy-hipster Nanluogu Xiang alleyway and picturesque Houhai Lake.” Clean “minimalist’s dream” décor? Check: “more clean than cold.” And the writer’s room was 500 square feet, with “palazzo-height ceilings” and a private terrace lined with bamboo stands. A walk-in shower that feels “big enough to swim in”? Check. Free Wi-Fi? Check. Free mini-bar offerings? Check: Pellegrino, soda and beer.
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The NYT Digs the 'Chill Out' Vibe of The Buddha Bar Hotel
Forget all those new hotels opening up in the paper’s own backyard; this Sunday the New York Times went hotel hunting in the Czech Republic. Lured by the groovy chill-out tunes and “sultry” restaurant chain of the same name, the NYT checked into the new Buddha Bar Hotel in Prague.
We’ve seen hotels sprout out of fashion labels, so why not restaurants and music? Judging by the NYT’s response, the Buddha-Bar folks have produced a fine accompaniment to their brand, attracting scenesters who are “good-looking, well off and ready to party” (British boys, Middle Eastern royals, and wealthy local couples). Overall, the Times writer's affection for the place bodes well for the other Buddha-Bar properties set to open—in Budapest, Sal Hasheesh, Paris, Panama City, Abu Dhabi, Milan, and New York—between now and 2011.
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The Wit is a Hit with the NYT
Generally speaking, the New York Times is not an easy target to impress — particularly when it comes to anything beyond the confines of Manhattan. Just don’t try telling that to Chicago’s Wit Hotel, Doubletree’s new concept hotel that nabbed another glowing review and can now count the Gray Lady among its many fans.
“Even in a city filled with striking architecture, the Wit makes a powerful impression — a green-tinted glass box with an angled roof and a yellow lightning bolt shooting down its State Street façade,” begins reviewer Fred Bernstein, who adds that the new hotel “managed to be all things to all people; business travelers, vacationing families and trend-seeking 20-somethings all seemed to love the place.”
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The Ace Hotel is Too Grungy for the Fancy New York Times
When we stayed at New York’s Ace Hotel this past spring, we deemed its quirky décor akin to “your cool grandpa's basement apartment.” The New York Times, who finally got around to checking in to the new spot, describes it as “a bit too redolent of the past, with grungy (albeit deliberately grungy) furniture and shoddy detailing that make the rooms feel insubstantial.”
Here’s something we all agree on, though: The location is weird. Enough said.
Highlights: The bathroom has a whimsical touch: a faux-Victorian mirror that reads “Love is Meant to Make us Glad.” The writer also seemed to like the soap-on-a-rope over the sink as a way to combat “slimy bar syndrome.” Wi-Fi is free with iMacs available in hallway niches.
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The NYT Digs the Knotty Vibe at Dartbrook Lodge
Whether or not you’re a regular on the Adirondack Mountains camp scene, you can probably surmise that luxury retreats are rare. Dartbrook Lodge, with seven suites designed by Jaw Haws and his partner Steve Pounian, is the exception. “Using a distinctly Adirondack vernacular — twiggy furniture, pine beams and American Indian prints — the cabins are at once rustic and hip,” says the New York Times.
Perched on seven acres of wildflowers in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks, Dartbrook Lodge is in low-key Keene at the center of a network of hiking trails that lead to Mount Mercy, New York’s highest peak.
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The NYT Checks In to a 'Different Kind of Fashion Week Blowout'
The NYT shook things up a bit this weekend with their Check In, Check Out column. Rather than checking in to a new trendy hotel, the Gray Lady took another look at one of Manhattan’s oldest hotels, the Empire, which underwent a renovation last year that the NYT says “transformed it into a modern refuge.” (Don’t worry, its 1920s neon sign still glows.)
We suppose it’s a topical move, given this week being New York Fashion Week and the plans for next year’s event to move from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center — the Empire’s stomping grounds. Or maybe it was the hotel's recent addition of City Running Tours that piqued the Times' interest. See how the hotel fared after the jump.
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The Capitol Skyline Hotel: 'A Giant Concrete Submarine Headed Back to the Future'
Jetsons lovers, take note: The NYT checked in to an off-the-beaten-path DC hotel and deemed it somewhere the space-age family "might have vacationed — a giant concrete submarine headed back to the future.” Though it’s docked between the Capitol and the new-in-2008 Nationals ballpark, the Capitol Skyline Hotel takes up a city block in a weirdly void location in the small-and-unloved Southwest quadrant of Washington.
Originally designed by Miami Beach’s Morris Lapidus in the 1960s, the 203-room hotel later became a Best Western. In 2001, the hotel was purchased by the late Steve Rubell’s brother’s family, who have been quietly transforming the hotel ever since, starting with a “playful modernist lobby that includes two Frank Gehry twisted wood chairs, and a large pool out in back,” says the NYT.
Tags: Labor Day Hotels / NYT Reviews / Hotel Deals / → All Tags
NYT Lures On the Fence Travelers With Last-Minute Labor Day Deals
Hawaii's Four Seasons Lanai at Manele Bay
Though the New York Times isn’t exactly known for relating to the common folk, this weekend the Gray Lady published an article on last-minute Labor Day deals in its Practical Traveler column. Yay for good news, for once!
“The recession has led to a glut of hotel inventory this year, forcing prices down in many vacation destinations. That’s making sales easy to find for a last-ditch summer fling,” the NYT explains, offering examples like $24 rooms in downtown Las Vegas and $178 rates in New York.
Here’s a highlight reel of the article:
* At the Red Roof Inn, get a third night free with discount code 545474.
* At the fancy Four Seasons Lanai at Manele Bay in Hawaii, get four nights for the price of three (rates from $295 over the Labor Day weekend).
* Mexico, obviously, is suffering. Help a neighbor out by scoring 22-percent lower rates in Cancun, as compared to last Labor Day weekend. (Of course, keep in mind that hurricane season runs through mid-October.)
* Check out Tourism Vancouver’s website for a whole slew of third-night-free deals.
* Hotwire’s Travel-Ticker.com found $74 nightly rates at the King George Hotel in San Francisco, which is more than half off their regular rates.
Check out the article for more deals.
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