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Tags: Oktoberfest Hotels / Munich Hotels / Rocco Forte Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags

It's Time to Start Prosting Again

Where: Sophienstraße 28, Munich, Germany, 80333

Oktoberfest 2008.

Yes, Oktoberfest is back! Or will be back on September 19 with the Lord Mayor of Munich cries, "Ozapft is!" ("It's been tapped"). But if you're planning on making your way to Munich for the festivities, we recommend doing two things.

First, read our tips for Surviving Oktoberfest. We attended it last year and if you'd like not awake the morning after with rain-soaked pants and vomit-covered sneakers, then you'd do well to heed our advice.

Second, checkout the Oktoberfest Package from the Charles Hotel, a Rocco Forte property, in the city's old Botanical Gardens.

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Tags: Hotel Deals / Hotel Packages / Europe Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Rocco Forte Hotels / → All Tags

Three For Two With The Rocco Forte Collection

Where: Behrenstrasse 37, Berlin, Germany, 10117

Not going to Europe this summer? This might tempt you. Stay two nights at a Rocco Forte Collection hotel (with 12 to choose from in places you’d like to be anyway, like Rome, Prague, Berlin and St Petersburg), and they’ll throw in a third for free.

The only caveat – the offer is only valid for stays during high summer, between July 27 and September 4. Unfortunately, that’s also when most of the locals will have deserted places like Rome for the seaside – but hey, at least the buses will be a little less crowded.

With this offer, the Hotel de Rome in Berlin costs $861 per room for the three nights – not so bad for $287, given that it includes breakfast (although it excludes VAT). Brown’s Hotel in London, meanwhile, will set you back $950 for the full stay. So now all you have to do is choose which one.

Tags: Hotel Openings / Prague Hotels / Rocco Forte Hotels / → All Tags

Make Friends With Monks at Prague's Augustine Hotel

Where: Letenská 12/33, Prague, Czech Republic, 11800

The Rocco Forte people are busy right now — if it wasn't enough to open their first resort with the Verdura Resort in Sicily, they're also hitting eastern Europe for the first time when the Augustine Hotel in Prague opens on May 14.

This place is a 101-room hotel overlooking the Wallenstein Gardens, and the hotel itself is made up of seven historical buildings, including the 13th century St. Thomas Monastery. The coolest part is there are still monks using parts of this monastery and hotel guests might glimpse them going about their monkly tasks.

The décor and furniture are all in the good taste you'd expect for such a respectable-sounding area; in fact, the whole hotel looks elegant and classy in a way that really seems right for a stay in Prague. It's also central and close to Charles Bridge and other sightseeing spots.

The Augustine seems to be starting out with a 3 for 2 package: this works out at €960 ($1,250) for three consecutive nights for a Classic Queen room including breakfast, but it's only valid from opening night until the end of May.

Tags: Russia Hotel Guide / Super Secret Hotel Mavens / Hotel High Tea / Rocco Forte Hotels / → All Tags

Russian Hotels for Ballers: Rocco Forte Hotel Astoria

Where: 39 Bolshaya Morskaya Street, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, 19000000

Our Super Secret Hotel Maven network extends far and wide and thanks to another SSHM, we have a mini-guide to Russia's luxe hotels--perfect for ballers, high-rollers and Russian mobsters. It's a mini-guide because it's really only a few hotels in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Up first: The Hotel Astoria. Enjoy.

It's not easy to travel to Russia if you're a picky Angeleno with the sniffles. Recently, though, I did the difficult and braved the subzero temperatures. I saw the two main cities, St. Petersburg and Moscow, and explored the cultural treasures of each. More importantly, though, I made stops at each of the city's key hotels for tours of the facilities and rooms, and have smuggled my reports back to familiar soil.

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