Mom60, I was going to say something similar - Rekero Homes near the Masai Mara was the most wonderful place in the world - rustic, but gorgeous with superb service - my kids were amazed that we had a man who would get bottles of soda out of the fridge, uncap them and then deliver them to them anytime they wished. And the four course meals! Since the cook was on site preparing meals specifically for us and no one else, we tried to talk them into simplifying the meals since it was just way overboard and the meals were way too fancy especially for my girls. They wouldn’t even consider it. We also stayed in a tent camp in Lakipia that was much more plush than most average US hotel rooms - the BEDS in the tent were luxurious and a hot water bottle was put in the bed each night - again something my girls loved. The tents had their own bathrooms and showers. We went to bed listening to the lions roar. We also had 4pm “tea” time in Kenya. The guides were obviously told that they were supposed to stay with us and keep us company, but we told them to go relax for a while. I’ve never been so pampered in my life. Glad we went when we could afford it - It was a once in a lifetime experience for us.
We also stayed in a couple of spectacular hotels in Rajasthan - former castles of the rulers of the many former small kingdoms in India before India became consolidated into one country. When that happened, all these rulers of small kingdoms still owned their lavish homes, but I guess their extended property rights were taken away and they had to find ways to make a living, so many of the families turned their homes into hotels. I think Bijaipur was our favorite.
I had to make an emergency business trip once, and while I ran home to pack and then go on to the airport, my secretary made my flight and hotel registration. We needed to go to Rochester NY and it happened to be the state teacher convention so there were NO hotel rooms available and we were landing at about midnight. Ran to the airport, picked up a ticket package from some service, ran to the plane and as I was getting ready to take off noticed the hotel she had arranged. Price? $30 per night. It was about 40 minutes away in Batavia. $30!!! I thought “Sue, you are a dead woman when I get back.”
So we finally get to this hotel at about 2 in the morning. It was gorgeous. Brand spanking new Sheraton (we had to stay in Sheratons), a sort of double room with 2 tv’s, a big bathroom, a little sitting area. I think I might have been the first person to ever stay in this room. They had apples for us when we checked in (and we were starving).
I spent about 4 hours in the room and then we had to leave to get to our office.
The two nicest places were probably the Hay-Adams in DC and the Hotel Arts in Barcelona, but I’m not a fancy schmancy person. I prefer smaller, reasonably priced “boutique” hotels with some personality. The most fun was a canal house in Amsterdam where it was like a maze getting to the room.
The worst experience was when I was on a road trip with friends and the car broke down after dark in the middle of nowhere. The closest place available was a dive motel that reminded me of this place with trains running right behind the motel. It made for a great story, though! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRwHr81DVxg
@Mom22039, I’ve always wanted to stay at Ventana Big Sur (or Post Oak Inn). Just haven’t gotten it done yet. And now with Hwy 1 closure, I don’t know if they will be able to stay afloat.
@gosmom We are staying at the K Club this summer. I had never heard of it, and although it has great online reviews, don’t know anyone who has stayed there. So happy to hear that you loved it! Can’t wait to go!
The Breakers in Palm Beach is very nice, especially the grounds and landscaping. Although the rooms are well decorated, they are smallish with tiny windows. So all in all, it doesn’t make my short list. My favorite Florida hotel is Acqualina, in Sunny Isles, just outside of Bal Harbour. Rooms are expansive with magnificent views.
The hotel San Domenico in Taormina is also incredible - views of Mt. Etna from one side and the Aeolian Sea from the other. It’s an old monastery and the grounds are magnificent. I heard it’s closing in the fall for a major renovation, so it’s on my short list for a return stay after it reopens.
The Palmer House in Chicago has one of the most beautiful lobbies in the world.
I’m not a big Four Seasons fan because of the generic look, but the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara is fantastic with lots of character - a beautiful property.
Our best room had nothing to do with quality, either. It was a little hotel on the Champs-Élysées in Paris in 1989, during the 200th anniversary of Bastille day (which happened to fall on my 27th birthday). We had had no luck finding a room in Paris for that week, but I had a friend in the area who managed to get the reservations for us. I guess it was a pod hotel, because the room was so tiny it was hard to get around the bed! But there was a small balcony looking out on a side street of the main road. We could look to the right and see everything going on. I’ll never forget playing a game of chess on the balcony and watching the parade go by.
Another gem on our list is Honua Kai. It is a condotel - I absolutely love that the cleaning staff come and tidy up the room while the rest of it is like staying in a fancy condo with Bosch appliances and soft beds and gorgeous views of the ocean or mountains.
We tend to stay more midrange when we travel.
the kids still talk about a VRBO near Mariposa, CA where we stayed on a trip to Yosemite. Remote, beautiful. Had it’s own observatory. And wild turkeys.
A few years ago we took a family trip to the east coast, finishing in NYC. It was some work to find a place in New York for a family of five. We settled on Affinia Shelburne. When we got there, tired and grumpy, the room wasn’t ready. We waited about 30 minutes, annoyed. Then headed up to the room. We had been upgraded to a two bedroom, two bath suite with a kitchenette and sofa bed, on nearly the top floor (a quick run up one flight of stairs to the rooftop bar), with beautiful views in three directions from various windows. Wonderful!
Another favorite is a little inn near Seaside, Oregon right on the water. Nothing special except the location.
DH and I are heading to London this fall and stepping it up a bit in terms of accomodations–25th anniversary. Maybe I’ll have a new favorite.
@LeastComplicated - you’re description brought back so many memories. We loved the hot water bottle in the bed. Afternoon tea and my kids loved the sodas in the room. Another nice touch was each morning waking up to your coffee, tea or cocoa delivered to your room with a small cookie. It was the most luxurious trip I’ve ever been on and I doubt I or my children will have another experience like it. @Gourmetmom - I had lunch yesterday at the Coral Casino the beach and pool club of the Four Seasons Santa Barbara Biltmore (across the street) It is a beautiful property and an exquisite ocean setting.
We’ve been fortunate to stay at a decent number of nice hotels.
One that sticks out is a vacation to Hawaii where we decided to go all-out first-class the whole way, including the flights. We stayed at the Four Seasons on Kona. Our room included an outdoor shower that had orchids planted (i.e. not sitting in pots). Out on the beach there were attendants that would come by with Evian in spray/mister cans (i.e. like a hairspray can) and mist you. I had called ahead and got the concierge to put some local exotic fruits in the room which D fell in love with (star apple and a few others I forget). Fantastic service all around.
When we landed our rental car had a super cute really brightly colored gecko-type lizard clinging to the side mirror for dear life. The lot attendant was laughing as I pried the little sucker off and stuck him a tree. Welcome to Hawaii! Best part of the trip was packing at the end and realizing my cell phone had been sitting in my backpack for the entire week, untouched. BTW, we could take 5-6 of those first-class trips a year for the price of one year of D’s college. :((
Forget the pod – one of my girlfriends just sent me this link – a campground in Maine where you can order lobster to your luxury tent. Looks like fun to me!
Not nicest, but I’ve loved being able to stay at historic lodges at national parks.
Haven’t done a true pod hotel, but I very much enjoyed staying at a Citizen M hotel, which is something of an upscale pod. Rooms are long and narrow and very space efficient but VERY comfortable. Lighting, media, climate, even the window blinds are controlled by an iPad (the only hotel room I’ve ever stayed at that comes with a users guide). The toilet and shower are open spaces that are surrounded by circular frosted glass enclosures, so it’s not a place I’d recommend to stay if you’re traveling with someone that you don’t know VERY well. Some of my work colleagues came by to goggle at the set up.
I grew up dirt poor. But when I was 10 my dad won a car in a raffle that we could not use (2 door sedan for a family of 6 and mom didn’t drive). He sold it and took us on his dream vacation of historical sites.
We stayed for two nights in a posh Washington hotel partway through the trip and ate in their restaurant. My poor mom summoned the maitre de to inform him that our ice cream had bugs in it - she had never seen vanilla beans before.
My “nicest” hotel was last week on vacation. I treated myself to a few nights in a motel with a pool after a retreat. The pool was closed one day to permit training of life guards for the local water park. But the staff opened the pool an hour earlier than they were supposed to arrive so I could exercise in the water. And again the next morning so I could use it before leaving for a local worship service. My back and the rest of me were grateful for their unbidden kindness.
Inn at Turtle Creek - Dallas. They know everyone by name, amazing restaurant. Stayed in its heyday.
Boscolo in Budapest. Old world charm and great brunch. The lobby is a tourist attraction, lots of gold leaf.
JW Marriott in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. It is only a few months old but the staff is amazing. Best modern hotel I’ve seen.
Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City - Great hotel but the company was even better (honeymoon trip)
Cap Juluca is on my favorite island, Anguilla and the only hotel/resort on this particular gorgeous pristine white sandy beach, Maunday’s Bay. The architecture is white Moroccan and the beach is lined with villas. Your bedroom wall opens up completely to view the ocean. Some villas have private pools. It is a super romantic getaway.
Therme Vals is the hotel/spa complex in Vals, Switzerland, built over the only thermal springs in the Graubünden canton. The project was designed by Peter Zumthor, winner of the 2009 Pritzker Architecture Prize. I went with my daughter who is in the field of architecture. The thermal baths are an architectural masterpiece and such a unique experience. The rooms and bathrooms are also architecturally unique. Then, the 7 course dinner was a culinary and artistically served gourmet extravaganza, spread over a few hours. The drive across Switzerland (we were coming from Geneva) was also beautiful, but the last 1/2 of the drive to get to Thermes Val (at least to me, the driver) was harrowing.
A memorable hotel was going to Toronto with my other daughter, then 11 years old, when she performed with the Toronto Symphony. I do not recall the name of the hotel they put us up in, but it was really nice. It was near the theater district and Eaton Place too. What was amazing is that they gave us a suite that had two bedrooms, a living room, 3 bathrooms, and 5 TVs. I mean we were just a mom and kid. We could not believe the lap of luxury.
Lastly, I have enjoyed staying at some romantic country inns such as in Vermont and Maine.
PS, one day I would love to stay in one of those thatched roof villas right on the water in a place like Bora Bora.
I try to avoid dives and places ranked below 3**. We have stayed at many pleasant places, so it’s hard to just pick one. I have not yet tried a pod, but doubt hubby would be willing to try one. He likes us to have a bathroom. I try not to go above $200 whenever possible. When traveling to foreign countries, we’ve stayed at quite a few 5 hotels on tour–they were well located and nice with lavish buffet breakfasts but it felt wasteful since we were on the move on the bus so much we didn’t have time to enjoy our hotels.
We liked the pensiones we stayed at in Europe decades ago, but don’t think we’d be as interested in staying at the top of these places with lots of stair and no elevators any more–H’s knee and back sometimes act up and carrying my medical equipment and luggage up the stairs would be tiring.
