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The Best And Worst of Our American Road Trip

September 4, 2009 at 12:45 PM | by londontown | 0 Comments

Do not attempt these stairs after a few drinks: the Hotel Monaco Baltimore

Greetings from soggy London! After six weeks, 20 states and 7000 miles, our US road trip has finally come to an end and we are back in the city of grey. Hopefully we’ll be back to test your speed limits soon; until then, we’ll be wowing London with our awesome t-shirt collection (one for every state) and shouting “USA, USA” at every opportunity. How glad to have us back they must be.

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How Hotwire Got Us a $259 Room at the W Atlanta for Just $95

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 3377 Peachtree Road [map], Atlanta, GA, United States, 30326
August 27, 2009 at 10:59 AM | by londontown | 1 Comment

Have we mentioned before how much we like Hotwire? Well today we’re saying again because we got a smoking deal with them the night before last.

We were passing through Georgia and instead of staying in another B&B with too-thin walls or a motel where strange men phoned our room in the middle of the night, we thought we’d get some sleep in a proper hotel in Atlanta. And seeing as W has no less than four hotels in town, we thought we’d try one out.

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Buy Everything But The Bed (But Try The Bed) At The Alluvian

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 318 Howard Street [map], Greenwood, MS, United States, 38930
August 25, 2009 at 4:45 PM | by londontown | 2 Comments

We’re always suckers for hotel tat – whether it’s nicking a pen and notebook from the room, buying branded crockery or saving up for one of those Kimpton animal print bathrobes.

So imagine our excitement when we popped in to see the posh Alluvian hotel in Greenwood, Mississippi and found that, as well as the beds in the rooms (which we couldn’t hunker down on, what with not being hotel guests), there’s a bedroom for visitors to try out in the hotel shop across the road.

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Inside The Shotgun Houses of The Shack Up Inn

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 001 Commissary Circle [map], Clarksdale, United States, 38614
August 24, 2009 at 3:35 PM | by londontown | 0 Comments

After we loved our stay in the Tallahatchie Flats last week, a friendly Mississippi local told us we should see the Shack Up Inn about five miles outside of Clarksdale (home to Morgan Freeman’s blues club, Ground Zero and restaurant, Madidi).

So we popped along and, sure enough, we thought it was great. The Shack Up is set on what remains of the Hopson Plantation (part of the official Blues Trail). It’s bigger than the Tallahatchie Flats – there are 10 shacks, one house, and 10 “bin” rooms in the old cotton gin. Shacks cost from $60 a night, and the bin rooms from $65.

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Back To Basics, Shotgun Style: Inside The Tallahatchie Flats

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 58458 County Road 518 [map], Greenwood, MS, United States, 38930-7324
August 21, 2009 at 3:59 PM | by londontown | 0 Comments

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing. Not only can it make you think fondly of the bad times (Wham! reunion, anyone?), it can also make spending the night in a little shotgun house off a cornfield in the Mississippi Delta sound like a good idea. So when we found out about the Tallahatchie Flats - a collection of six original plantation cottages, transported to a field outside Greenwood, Mississippi - we had to go straight there.

Room Reaction:
We asked for the cheapest cottage – which costs $65 – but the manager/all-round man about the flats, Les, upgraded us to the bigger Red House, worth $85, because he’d already turned the air con on in that one. Nice! So we ended up with a choice of four beds (a king in the master bedroom, two singles in the second bedroom, and a sofa-bed in the living room) and a living room, dining room and kitchen as well – plus two porches to sit on and chew tobacco.

It was big, but don’t expect luxury – it’s as you’d expect a shotgun house to be, with plain wooden floors and walls, old pictures of JFK and Martin Luther King on the walls, and a seriously teeny bathroom. But the bed was comfy and we slept like logs – the only noise out here is from the frogs outside (don’t underestimate them, though, they’re loud little buggers).

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Is It A Ghost? No, Just Your Neighbor At The Ellis Store and Co.

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: Hway 380 [map], Lincoln, NM, United States, 88388
August 21, 2009 at 1:13 PM | by londontown | 2 Comments

Admit it – there’s nothing quite like sharing a hotel with a celeb. And while a live celeb may have moved on by the time you get there, there’s always a chance that, if your star is dead, there may be something of them still hanging around. A good thing in some cases (dead rockstars, we’re thinking of you). Billy the Kid? Debatable. But we ended up staying in a room where he stayed for two weeks when we stopped over in Lincoln, New Mexico, at the Ellis Store & Co.

Room Reaction:
This place has won countless awards for Inns and B&Bs and it epitomizes charming. The room (we got the Billy the Kid room for $109) was just what we expected from an American B&B: a nice big room, a nice old couple as owners, nice olde worlde decor and appalling soundproofing. The room was very atmospheric – with Pony Express-themed stuff around the place, though not on overload – and the bathroom was huge. The bed was comfy, the bathroom was spotless – though the shower was a bit weak – and we even ignored the review on TripAdvisor that said the place was haunted.

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Paper Airplane-Making Lessons With Your Room: Inside The Sparhawk Gallery B&B, Texas

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 3695 South 1st Street [map], Abilene, TX, United States, 79605
August 20, 2009 at 2:53 PM | by londontown | 0 Comments

Bored of cutesey B&Bs and faceless motels? We feel your pain. Want to sleep where Elvis once did? Us too. That’s how we ended up making an unscheduled stop in Abilene, Texas last week. Not because we wanted to visit Abilene, but because of a place to stay that sounded pretty special: the Sparhawk Art Gallery B&B.

In its previous incarnation as the 1930s Sunset Lodge Motel, it was Abilene’s premiere motel and the place of choice for the likes of Elvis, Al Jolson, and the magnificent Marlene Dietrich, all of whom stopped by when they were touring Texas. A few years ago, all but the front annex of the motel was demolished. That was set to go as well, but a local artist, Donovan Sparhawk (we hope that’s his real name), fell in love with it, bought it, and opened up an art gallery inside, along with three rooms to rent. So now, although it’s on the main road into Abilene, it feels like you’re staying in a nice secluded cottage surrounded by lots of trees.

Room Reaction

There are only three rooms here and they’re all pretty simple but tastefully done. We took the cheap one on the end—it had a tiled floor, lots of rugs and throws and funky blue furniture and a tiled table and mirrors in the corner of the room—definitely a step up from other motels. The bathroom had the original green tiles and bathtub left over from the motel days, so although the tub was a little stained from the decades, we were very excited to think we could be sharing Elvis’ bath (they don’t know which room he stayed in, but we decided it was definitely ours).

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Those Hot New Mexican Baths On Video

August 18, 2009 at 4:24 PM | by londontown | 0 Comments

Remember last week we told you about those baths in New Mexico that fill with water straight from the hot spring bubbling beneath Truth or Consequences? And how we said they were possibly the best baths ever? We captured them in their full videotastic glory. Here's the one in the Jetsons themed room—yours for $125 a night. Given that it could fit a few of you in there, you could just split the cost.

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Mellowing With The Hippies in Riverbend, New Mexico

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 100 Austin Street [map], Truth or Consequences, NM, United States, 87901
August 14, 2009 at 2:41 PM | by londontown | 0 Comments

Although we checked out the best baths ever at the Blackstone during our visit to Truth or Consequences this week, we actually stayed down the road, at the Riverbend Hot Springs.

You know the hippies we were talking about yesterday? This is where they congregate. The staff have long grey ponytails and wear tie dye. They leave you little envelopes for tips for the cleaners with peace signs on them. And they want bathing in their springs (they’ve harnessed them with five hot tubs) to be a communal experience.

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Possibly The Best Baths Ever: The Blackstone New Mexico

August 13, 2009 at 4:42 PM | by londontown | 4 Comments

The beauty of a roadtrip is being able to stop exactly where you want when the whim takes you – especially if it’s in a town with a funny name. That’s how we ended up in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (we were aiming for Roswell but the name was calling us too hard to miss).

Truth or Consequences used to be a popular spa town called Hot Springs before it changed its name to that of a game show in 1950. Then in the sixties, the hippies moved in, and never left. And now it’s on the cusp of turning upscale thanks to the Virgin Galactic Spaceport America being built 30 miles down the road.

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