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Tags: Cubicle Dreamin' / Madeira Hotels / Portugal Hotels / Orient-Express Hotels / Hotel Restaurants / → All Tags
Relaxing at Reid’s Palace in Madeira
Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.
In this episode, Hotel Maven Eric Rosen visits Madeira...in his mind. Enjoy.
I’ve always been intrigued by the emerald isle of Madeira, a strange whalers’ haven that also produces such fine fortified wines, and one day, as I happened upon the web site of Reid’s Palace, a sprawling 19th century hotel that perches on a cliff 150 feet above the azure Atlantic in the island’s capital city of Funchal, that first opened in 1891. The resort is equal parts Riviera redoubt, tropical forest lodge, and seaside getaway. With 128 rooms and 35 suites, surely there was an accommodation for me there.
Tags: Portugal Hotels / Funky Spa Treatments / Hotel Spas / → All Tags
Drink and De-Stress With The Vine's Wine-Spiked Spa Treatments
Astute winos of the sniff, swirl and spit (during marathon tasting sessions) family might snub their noses at splashing about in a Cabernet-spiked bath. Thankfully, that's not what Madeira's The Vine hotel is suggesting. The hotel is taking a favorite alcoholic beverage and using it in unexpected ways, namely in spa services that make use of wine's many antioxidant properties.
Tags: Lisbon Hotel Scene / Monica Guy / Where to Stay in Lisbon / Portugal Hotels / → All Tags
Where to Stay in Lisbon: A Beginner's Guide
Monica Guy has been dutifully rounding up the best boutique hotels in Lisbon for the past two weeks. Now, she's telling you where to stay in the city. Like actual neighborhoods. Enjoy.
Lisbon is such as spangbankingly excellent place that you're unlikely to spend much time inside your hotel. But it does matter where your hotel is - the city is built over seven hills and if you choose a hotel on the wrong side of one, you'll have a long, hard, trek home.
A hotel's location also matters in Lisbon because each area has its own personality. If you're a hardcore clubber, you'll want to crawl (a short way) back to your bed in the early hours of the morning. If you're a tranquil book-lover, you'll want to escape the clubbers crawling back in the early hours. If you're a culture vulture, you'll want to be close to the museums. Etc.
After the jump, our beginner's guide to choosing a hotel in Lisbon
Tags: Lisbon Hotel Scene / Monica Guy / Portugal Hotels / Design Hotels / → All Tags
Lisbon's First Design Hotel: Jerónimos 8
Monica Guy returns to us again this month with her take on the Lisbon Hotel Scene. It seems that boutique hotels are battling each other left and right for hotel guests. So how do the contenders shake out? Read here to find out. Got a question? Send it to us and we'll get it answered for you.
If stop no.1 on the Lisbon tourist train is the Castelo São Jorge, stop no.2 is Belém. Belém is a 20-minute tram ride west of the city centre and a visitor's paradise of museums, monuments, a monastery and, mmmm... gardens.
If you want to stay in Belém, call up Hotel Jerónimos 8, the best design hotel in the area. Correction: the only design hotel in the area, and allegedly the first to arrive in Lisbon.
Tags: Lisbon Hotels / Portugal Hotels / Hotel Development / → All Tags
Are Developers Turning Lisbon Into the New Manhattan?
Um, not quite. But the Portuguese capital is in the midst of massive hotel development, with 37 new hotels debuting in Lisbon and its surrounding area through 2011.
Four- and five-star hotels are popping up in cities outside Lisbon like Sintra, Óbidos and Estoril. In the nearby Algarve region, 10 projects are underway, including the five-hotel, 17,500-bed property Vilamoura XXI and the five-star hotel and Jack Nicklaus golf resort, Monte Rei.
If you're booking a trip to Portugal next year, you might want to check into one of several new hotels set to open throughout 2009, like the Pousada do Porto - Palácio do Freixo, in Porto; the CS Oporto Vintage Hotel, a converted port warehouse in Delaforce/Gran Cruz; and finally, the Hotel do Vinho do Porto, currently being built in Gaia amongst Port wine lodges.
Of course, if you do go, let us know about it. It may be a year away, be we're a little Type A and don't mind the advanced notice.
[Photo: flydime]
Tags: Portugal Hotels / Oporto Hotels / Monica Guy / Romantic Hotels / Hotel Breakfasts / → All Tags
Where to Stay in Oporto :: The Pestana Porto Hotel
HotelChatter likes a good challenge. Here's the latest - find a good hotel in Oporto ('Porto' in Portuguese).
It's a fantastically lively, beautiful, cheap, cheerful city in the north of Portugal, but it's one of the poorest in Europe and the residents are only just waking up to modern tourism.
Most of the hotels there - residenciais or pensões - are the kind of cheap hostel-style crumbling old houses that went out of fashion when TVs were still black and white, with splintered wooden floors covered in what looks and feels like ripped 70s wallpaper, and bits of carpet stuffed into the holes in the wall.
But don't despair, there's a real gem of a hotel to be found in this city: the 4-star Pestana Porto Hotel. It's in an old, converted building, part of a cluster of 16th-century houses that make up a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Tags: Design Hotels / Lisbon Hotel Reviews / Portugal Hotels / → All Tags
Way to Go, Jeronimos 8
Representing more than 150 of the world's most design-savvy hotels in over 40 countries, design hotels (all lower-cased for design effect) have just added another 38 newcomers to its list of stylish abodes.
At the top of our wish list is the Jerόnimos 8 in Lisbon, Portugal, named after the 16th century Jerόnimos Monastery in front of which it stands. Just a stone's throw away from the glorious beaches of the Estoril coast, the Tagus riverfront and the hustle and bustle of downtown Lisbon, this hotel combines new age comforts and cutting-edge design in an old world setting.
It's this juxtaposition of the old and new that sets the Jerόminos 8 apart stylewise, with the hotel "thriving on the synergy of modern design and historical association." In warmer weather, guests are encouraged to enjoy the Zen-inspired communal sundeck, whilst inside the Bussaco Wine Bar offers traditional Portuguese tarts made in the very Belèm district and rare regional wines.
At €160-220 per night for a twin room, the Jerόnimos 8 is not exactly dirt-cheap, but for a young professional couple living in Europe, it's the perfect weekend getaway.
Related Stories:
· Design Hotels--New Members [Official Site]
Tags: windmills hotels / Portugal Hotels / Odd Hotels / → All Tags
Sleeping in a Windmill in Portugal
Where: Portugal
A while back a short article in National Geographic Traveler caught our eye. It highlighted a trend of converting old windmills in Portugal into hotels. For the reasonable price of $95 to $110 a night, you can bed down in a rustic building that feels good and solid.
Moinho da Senta is inside a national park containing dinosaur footprints. Casa do Moinho--pictured here--is on the ocean, and Moinho da Bibi is on one of the Azores islands. (Yes, "moinho" is windmill, so there--a Portuguese lesson for the day too.)
Unfortunately, two of the three buildings don't appear to have the sails or even the frames up anymore, so don't be looking for any wind-powered minibar in your room.
We wouldn't rule that possibility out elsewhere though. There's a website for everything, so if you've got a thing for windmills, you can find dozens of windmill hotels from a variety of countries at Windmillworld.com.
Tags: New Hotels in Europe / Hotel Spas / Portugal Hotels / → All Tags
New Europe Hotel: The Aquapura Douro
In the July/August issue of the European Travel Commission's newsletter, they highlighted several new and upcoming hotels in Europe. We'll be taking a closer look at some of these hotels this week but we're always interested in hearing your recommendations for hotels in Europe. So send 'em our way.
One of the just-opened hotels on the list is the Aquapura Douro in the Douro Valley, northern Portugal. If the stylish website is anything to go by, the Aquapura Douro's something a bit special, or at least highly philosophical since the promos are littered with deep and meaningful quotations from the likes of Einstein, Goethe and Proust.
The hotel itself has 50 rooms and 21 luxury villas, two restaurants and two bars, an outdoor pool, spa, a wine room and (whatever this might be) a Technogym Gym. Antiques and fancy design pieces round out the rooms and other guest areas and the designers think there's "a feeling of mystery all over the property".
While we've missed their July opening special (although this great offer is still displayed in big print), there are still discounted opening room rates available until the end of August. A standard room starts at 180 Euros ($240) and a villa starts from 434 Euros ($590), both prices per room.
Related Stories:
· New Hotels in Europe [HotelChatter]
· Hotels in Portugal [HotelChatter]
Tags: Hotel Parties / Starwood Hotels / W Hotels / Spain Hotels / Portugal Hotels / → All Tags
Party Dispatch: Celebrando Con Starwood Spain y Portugal
Looks like Starwood Spain & Portugal is in the midst of a vast media-massaging conspiracy: this week has seen the Super World Travelers stop in at the Marques de Riscal and last night's party at the W New York Union Square.
But far be it from us to pass up this opportunity to pile on. We trooped to the W to see what else is news in Iberia--and of course drink Rioja and munch tapas. Check out the full party report and pics, after the jump.
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