The hotel sits in a massive Gothic-style stone building, outfitted with wrought iron bannisters, a "Refectory" right out of Oxford University, and enough stained glass and "olde-worlde" touches you'll hardly believe you're in Manhattan. There's even a British-style green quadrangle in the center.
The 60 rooms, on the other hand, are definitely 21st century. They come outfitted with flat-screen TVs, WiFi, and custom-designed furniture. Your room fee comes with a free breakfast, but fair warning -- serving stops at 9am, so arrange your wake-up call accordingly.
A few drawbacks? It's a "long walk" to the subway (4 or five blocks). Some posters say it's too far from everything, others say it's wonderfully quiet. The hotel offers no room service, although you have your pick of the restaurants and all-night delis in the neighborhood. And as of press time, renovations are still under way, so inquire about your room location before you book. Some Tripadvisor reviewers complain of kinks that need to be improved.
Still, the building itself, and the location, are worth checking out. There are excellent views of The Empire State Building. It's a brief springtime stroll to Madison Square Garden, and you're not far from The Chelsea Market, Chelsea Piers, and the wonderful gallery scene on the West side.
Rates start at around $285 for a superior room but the availability of rooms is slim so make your rezzies in advance!
Once again, HotelChatter contributing editor Tim Leffel is moving around Mexico, checking out the hotel scene in the colonial heartland. If you have a question about where to stay in Guanajuato or San Miguel de Allende, hit us on the tipline, or just comment below, and we will do our best to get you some sort of answer. Enjoy.
Is that a medieval castle? In the middle of Mexico? Hotel Castillo Santa Cecilia goes into the category of "oddities worth mentioning" rather than "places you might want to stay."
This Guanajuato hotel takes the castle theme and runs with it, inside and out. You've got an imposing stone structure on a hilltop, turrets that would work fine for firing arrows at the men loading the catapults, and furniture inside that's straight out of a King Arthur movie.
But why? Unfortunately the potential guests seem to be asking that question as well, since when we visited during a big holiday week, the hotel was deader than the Dark Ages after a plague.
Word on First Avenue is that Manhattan officials are trying to convince a developer to turn New York City's famous Bellevue psychiatric ward into swanky new hotel digs. Sounds crazy, no?
Not so says the NYC Economic Development Corporation and Health and Hospital Corporation, who report the building would make an ideal hotel and conference center to house the medical and life-science industry folk who travel to the area.
Built by architect Charles B. Myers, the 1931 Italian Renaissance-style asylum is still a beautiful, albeit rundown building with magnificent architectural details, many different wings, and long corridors totaling an insane (ahem) 400,000 square feet of virtual hotel space.And while the rooms are a smallish for new condos or co-ops, their size is just right for guest rooms.
Until the mid-1980s, the (in)famous psych ward hosted countless criminals and kooks, with Mark David Chapman (John Lennon's murderer), author Norman Mailer, Warhol muse Edie Sedgwick and jazz great Charlie Parker among its many one-time guests. Come on, what other hotel in the U.S. can boast that?
But will switching from straight-jackets to bathrobes be a tourist draw? Perhaps. A mental hospital-turned-luxe hotel might just attract all those hoping for a wild and crazy time in the Big Apple. Worst case scenario, it might just get the local crazies off the streets.
For those in search of a big serving of kitsch and a dash of a Hollywood theme, go no further than the Chelsea Pines Inn in New York. The Chelsea Pines has been around for a while--with a quirky reputation that kept it in business--and more recently it's had some refurbishments going to make it a bit fresher and more enticing.
The NY Times published a review over the weekend that was really quite flattering and does make us keen to check in too.
Luvvy friend's just raved to us about this super-trendy art hotel in the centre of the butt-spankingly cool city of Berlin in Germany. It's called the Propeller Island City Lodge", but it's nothing to do with propellers, islands, or lodges. It's to do with bizarre, contemporary art and freaky design fantasy.
You see, we have this huge great ego, and the place seems made for us: "a magnet for creative individuals, those weary of consumption, those who see things differently, philosophers and seekers of perspective and vision." Describes us down to a 'T'.
Not only that, the website alleges: "frequented by personalities from around the globe, this vision machine is a much-desired shooting site for photo sessions and video clips." There's our springboard for a modelling career.
Maybe this planned hotel will make our Best Geek Hotels in the World list for the year 2020.
Architects are presenting renderings for this unusual-shaped hotel which some are already calling the Death Star Hotel.
Heerim architects are looking to build the Star Wars staple in, of all places, Baku, Azerbaijan. They're hoping to bring this design, called the Hotel Full Moon, and another, the Hotel Crescent, to one of the fastest growing economies and will rightly call the area Full Moon Bay.
According to SkyScraper News, the Death Star hotel will be a 35-story luxury hotel with 382 rooms. The pod-shaped structure on the bottom will be residential apartments called Palace of Wind 1 and 2.
Both hotels will overlook the Caspian Sea but again, these hotels still seem like pipe dreams so no word on when they will actually open, or if they will be destroyed before they are fully operational by a young jedi pilot who use to shoot wamp rats on Tatooine.
In the meantime, satisfy your Star Wars travel geek at Hotel Sidi Driss.
When is a hotel a hotel? And when is it a piece of art, and then when is it an alien space-ship?
There's a bit of all three posing on top of Paris's Palais de Tokyo museum of modern art, although to anyone jogging past (as our Paris correspondent was) it looks simply like the latter.
The Hotel Everland is the latest in a series of arty hotels popping up and closing down in Paris - only this one's doing it deliberately. Because despite the name, it's not a hotel but rathera work of art in the shape of a bright green and white fibreglass pod with a bed and bathroom inside.
There are Ice Hotels, Library Hotels, proposed Undersea Hotels, Hotels in Trees, on Boats and on Stilts. Hotels in Palaces, Farmhouses, and Tents.
But Guhantara may be a first: A subterranean cave hotel 20 kilometers outside India's Bangalore City.
Everything at this fantastical resort represents the powers of the earth. The entire place is carved out of rock, including the rooms (decorated with modern-day versions of ancient cave paintings).
There are intricate murals, enormous pillars, lobby, dining area, twisty darkened pathways past decorated shrines, open-air swimming pools -- all cut from rock.
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by annie0007
