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France Hotels / Country Hotels / Narbonne Hotels / HotelChatter Reviews / Wine-Tasting Hotels / → All Tags

Waves, Vines and a Touch of Celebrity at the Chateau L’Hospitalet

Where: Route de Narbonne Plage, Narbonne, France, France, 11100

Cradled in the hills between the town of Narbonne and the Mediterranean beaches in France’s Languedoc region, the Chateau L’Hospitalet is a hotel, restaurant, winery and visitor center all in one.

L’Hospitalet is the brainchild of former rugby star, Gerard Bertrand, who took over his family’s winemaking business. The hotel has 22 rooms with rates starting at 72 euros (no meals), though some of the suites can cost upwards of 300 euros. Rooms come with satellite flatscreen televisions, a little sitting area, desk, and full bathrooms. Everything is colorful, but understated and uncluttered. The bathrooms are large for Europe, and the showers have the best water pressure in France. The only drawback is that some of the first-floor rooms do not have windows.

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Hotel Video Tours / HotelChatter Reviews / Shangri-La Hotels / Malaysia Hotels / → All Tags

Inside Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa

Where: Batu Feringgi Beach, Penang, Malaysia, 11100

Ever since a friend of ours stayed here last year and came back declaring it was the “best hotel in the world. Ever” we’ve been intrigued about the Rasa Sayang resort in Penang. Being a Shangri La property, obviously it’s going to be nice. Yet we have an underlying aversion to the word “resort”. Could this one overcome our snobby tendencies?

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Hard Rock Hotels / Malaysia Hotels / Hotel Openings / Hotel Pools / → All Tags

Hard Rock (And Pool) Nearly Open in Malaysia

Where: Eden Parade, Jalan Sungai Emas, Batu Ferringhi, Penang, Malaysia, 11100

When we first heard about the Hard Rock Hotel Penang--the first Hard Rock hotel to set up shop in Malaysia--we expected it'd be open by now.

The 2008 opening has now slipped back to a promise of a mid-2009 start. They've only just appointed a general manager although he's already busy hyping up the place--with the main message being that the whole concept of the hotel will make it something unique in Malaysia.

What's rocking us more than the whole Hard Rock thing is simply their "free-form" pool. It's the largest pool in Penang, they say, and for a tropical resort area we figure that's actually an impressive title. Doesn't look so huge from the pictures though so we're hoping Hard Rock isn't lying to us. We love great pools.