Almost all of our amazing hotel experiences are travel-related, always booked as part of some adventure trip, like hiking or cycling – never for a hotel experience on its own. And several were business trips. There were so many of them. Some of the best examples:
Posada Amazonas Lodge in Peru – one side of our bedroom and bathroom were completely open to the jungles. Lots of wild noises at night, and sometimes creatures hopping and crawling inside. The only protection from wild life were our mosquito nets.
Taj Tashi in Bhutan. Everything was amazing, but nothing beat the views from every window.
Roppongi Hotel S in Tokyo. My favorite was a huge enclosed bathroom / wet area behind a large glass wall. Bathtub designed as eternity pool without overflow plate. Tons of spray nozzles and several handheld showers to splash around.
Pousada de Obidos in Portugal. A medieval 700-year-old castle with modern structures, services and amenities. The 14th century granite-stone wall in our bedroom. A huge historic chapel.
Pousada Castelo Estremoz in Portugal. Another 700-old historic castle decorated as a royal palace. Original antique art and furniture everywhere, including guest rooms.
And yes, I did stay in several crappy $30 motels in the US. I did not care
It is nice to get away but after the time away there is “no place like home”. Especially now that we are old enough to have made our nests suit us and can afford those things we considered luxuries back in the day…
The Costa Rican tour has me cringing when the international house hunters marvel at hearing howler monkeys- a novelty but certainly not desirable all of the time at dawn. Decades ago- anytime the Jamaicans said “no problem”…and you stared at the coffee pot just a few feet away for 10? minutes.
One glitch my sister had was stopping to spend the night in a smaller town when most places were full. They got their keys but the room was occupied! The desk clerk gave them a new room and told them if it also was occupied there would be a discount or free- luckily it was vacant.
When son was a teen we booked two rooms on a vacation. One was smoking and in theory one parent would be with teen. However we let son have the smoking room for himself. The next day we discovered he had lit the matches he found- playing with fire. Never had a chance to in our nonsmoking house.
Stayed at an Anaheim motel for a huge convention one year where we requested carpet cleaning- our feet became very dirty walking in the room. It had several beds- we let our then 3 year old choose- so he got the king size bed while we took one of the two smaller ones (L-shaped room)- cute picture of him in sitting up against the headboard in the middle of the huge bed.
Our preference is usually for hotels/motels with free parking, free internet and free breakfast (saves time in the morning). Nonsmoking of course- so nice so many are smoke free now. Gone are the wishes for pools. If it works it is nice to have outdoor spaces to walk. We obviously still neglect some things as my other post indicates.
Best hotel was the 21stC Museum Hotel in Louisville. Malin & Goetz toiletries, fabulous art collection, outstanding restaurant, terrific service. The bourbon flight on our arrival after having driven through West Virginia in a blizzard didn’t hurt, either.
Worst hotel was the laughably named Windsor in College Park, GA (near the Atlanta airport). Delta put us up there after mechanical problems forced us to miss our connection to London. In retrospect, we would have been better off spending the night in the airport or ponying up to pay for our own room at a decent hotel. It was Valentine’s Day, and we got the last room when we arrived at midnight. The front desk did not ask for a driver’s license or credit card (seems most customers paid cash, probably by the hour). There was a large purple sponge floating in the toilet in our bathroom (at least they cleaned it??). We scrutinized the sheets for signs of bedbugs and were surprised not to find any, but we still didn’t get any sleep on the ancient mattress given the noise from the paper-thin walls.
In the morning, we saw drug deals going down in the parking lot as we waited in the lobby for the shuttle to the airport.
As a family we love staying at Residence Inns. My hubby racks up Marriott points and we always get upgraded to their two bedroom suites.
One of my best experiences was in Nuevo Vallarta at the Marival resort.
The funniest was Westin Galleria when I was in a business trip. I checked in and the room was already occupied, so I figured a mistake. I later received calls from kids, and had to tell the desk to stop transferring to me. The next day I had to go to the desk for something and it was discovered that, lets say my name is “sue Jones”, another sue Jones was staying there. She was Black as well, so now it made sense why all the issues. What are chances???
I’m a marriott platinum elite so we tend to stay at Mariotts.
Favorites:
Ritz Carlton Naples - the concierge floor is to die for
The Jefferson - Washington DC - we stayed there for our anniversary, in the middle of the week, and were upgraded to the Presidential Suite
Little Dix Bay - Virgin Gorda - BVI’s - I believe it’s closed for renovations right now
Least Favorite
Mayflower Hotel - Washington DC - least comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in
Ocean City - I cannot remember the name of the hotel now, because we now refer to it as the roach motel, but we brought the kids there one weekend when they were little, and it was like a horror movie - there were literally cockroaches all over the place, ceilings, walls, etc.
I have stayed in so many hotels. The best are resort hotels in major destinations. They are nearly uniformly good if expensive.
Worst hotels:
Airport hotels are generally bad, but my two worst nights are as follows:
Paradise Inn, Mt. Rainier - This was in the spring right after they opened so the area still had alot of snow. Flight was late, so I drive to the Inn in darkness and managed to hit hunk of ice which blew out a tire. Ended up spending the night sleeping in the car parked at the Narada Falls overlook. Thankfully it was a Cadillac so it was comfortable but so cold I had to start the car every once a while to stay warm. Changed the tire at sunrise at 4:00 in the morning, and checked in around 5:00. The front desk acted all miffed that someone wanted to check in at 5:00, but the room was paid for. Got a few hours sleep in a lousy room.
Days Inn, Auburn, Alabama. The flight into Birmingham was delayed and I did not get to the hotel until after midnight. When I got there, there was a large Palmetto Bug at the corner of the dresser staring at me. I chased him away with a shoe. After brushing my teeth he was back at his perch. I chase him away again. I lay down in bed, and he is back staring at me with his beady eyes. I thought about changing room, but figured it was his hotel and I was just staying there for a few hours sleep. That was a bad nights sleep.
@88jm19, we’re going to Berlin next month and I just booked the Mandala. I agonized over the decision and spent too much time on TripAdvisor. I’m going to stop thinking about it, since you just listed it as one of your best ever hotel experiences!
We drove to LA in dh’s new lexus where we stayed at the Century Plaza. We called to have the car brought around and we see that the front end is completely bashed in. There’s no way a valet just tapped it – the amount of damage was ridiculous. Had to go home without our car and dh was without it for 2 weeks. The hotel did pay for it but we never really got an apology and dh never felt his car was quite the same after that.
The other bad hotel experience I can recall was one in Chicago (can’t recall the name, unfortunately). Our connecting flight was canceled and we had to stay in Chicago unexpectedly. We were put up at a Sheraton or Double Tree type hotel. We were already a little out of sorts due to the disruption…we were all sitting on the two beds trying to figure out where we were going to have dinner and I felt something funny; I look down and a cockroach scurried across my leg. Yuck!
Best: Portrait Suites/Portrait Roma in Rome, Italy
Grand Wailea way back before it became a Hilton (esp. the Napua Club & the club suites)
Worst: Some awful motel in Olympia, WA. I can’t remember the name, but it had a fake fireplace and a shower that doused anyone who was even near the bathroom. It was so bad I insisted we move.
After a youth defined by two extended tours of Peace Corps in South America and Africa and years of backpack travel in those places you could say I became…rather flexible… with regard to hotels. Ahem!
My only absolute "no’s are cigarette smells, evidence of bed bugs/ used sheets/dirtyness, creepy surroundings or noise. I don’t do motels with outside doors anymore. I became much more picky with a child. But …clean-but basic doesn’t bother me at all. I would usually rather put my money elsewhere if I’m just passing through, or spending little time in the hotel room.
Having said that, it can be fun to splurge . Sometime the anonymity of a large hotel on a tiring trip is restful, but I do like B&Bs and small inns with character, whether expensive or not. I just saw a three-level tree house on TripAdvisor in Costa Rica where you share the canopy with tree sloths and howler monkeys, which rents for several hundred dollars per night. That does intrigue me and I’m considering that it may be worth it! I would also love to stay in a cottage in the Cotswolds or a stone castle in France or Scotland.
One of my favorite stays with my daughter (she was 9) was the Hacienda Alegria in Ecuador, about an hour outside of
Quito. The family (who had owned the place for generations) added a wing of lovely rooms, suites and a guest dining room to the traditional hacienda house. The owners (who speak fluent English) give riding lessons, tours of their organic dairy/llama farm, and will arrange side trips to volcanos, etc. You can spend days riding horses on the cobblestoned/dirt roads in the surrounding countryside. After our first day there, a crowd of tourists cleared our and we were the only guests. The family invited us to eat all meals with them in the family dining room. For several days, I almost forgot we weren’t old family friends. DD was in heaven!
This thread has been reminding me of a lot of my hotel stays that I’d forgotten about. Here’s a couple memorable/funny ones.
On vacation at the Ritz in Jamaica, I was hanging out on the beach while D and W were in the kiddy play center. An out-of-breath employee came running up to me and said, “Mr Anomander! Your wife said to tell you she’s back in your room and not at the the play center anymore!” Turns out W had mentioned to the staff that if I came by looking for them, to tell me that that they went back to our room. But one of the staff literally ran all over the hotel looking for me to tell me! Fantastic service at that place.
Another day, walking with a native Jamaican friend I knew who had come by to visit, the staff would just greet him with a raised chin and the Jamaican version of “waddup bro”. While they would greet me with, “Hello Sir, how are you doing today?” How did they know I was a guest and he wasn’t? I still haven’t figured that out. My Jamaican friend just laughed and acted like it was some sort of secret handshake thing. Sitting in the lobby waiting for our taxi to the airport on our last day, an employee from the gift shop came out and gave D a little doll dressed in Jamaican colors for free!
At a Four Seasons hotel in DC, I was there attending a training class. At 3am on the last night there was a fire alarm. We stood around outside until 6am. I don’t know what the holdup was but there was no fire. I was supposed to attend one last day of training and catch an evening flight out, but after they finally let us back in I just said screw it and caught the next flight out. The President was coming by the hotel that day for something, so the place was flooded with security as I was leaving, so I was glad to get out early anyway.
Worst hotel experience: Vered Hagalil in Israel. After the first night, we awoke to discover that a wall of the room was covered in ants. I mean covered: fifteen thick swarms of ants, each swarm about the size of a human hand. We wanted to leave, they were not cooperative about a refund… they would offer us only one’s night refund (we had planned to stay three nights), and then only if we packed and left before 11 a.m., which would destroy our touring plans for the day. This was our one and only international vacation of our son’s childhood; we did not want to miss a day of touring. So we stayed. Hotel staff sprayed the ants with a terrible smelling spray that made the whole place smell and all of our noses run.
Best two hotel experiences: large suites with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, with nice views and great amenities at Orange Lake near Disney World in Florida (view of the lazy river pool) and Smuggler’s Notch in Vermont (view of the mountains). In both cases, we had good deals that made these less expensive than a regular deluxe one room hotel room in the area. We had to view a sales pitch at Smuggler’s Notch, but there was no such requirement at Orange Lake.
We also have been perfectly happy with less luxurious experiences. Hampton Inns, for example, have always been reliable.
Really sweet experience: Montreal, Auberge du Vieux-Port, where the staff was amazing. They sought us out to let us know of evening fireworks over the water, then walked us to the best vantage point. When we asked for dinner recs nearby, they didn’t just make our reservation, they surprised us with aperitifs. Lots of other small courtesies.
My least favorite experiences are when the room is such a darned far walk to get to. I had business meetings twice at the Opryland Hotel, hope never to have to stay there again.
Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica, where I saw Diane Keaton and David Beckham in the lobby. Diane looked like one of those designer clothes fashion drawings, wearing a beautiful hat perched sideways on her head and a very chic two piece suit (skirt and jacket). David B had his boys with him, and they all looked they had just rolled out of bed. Lindsay Lohan was arrested right outside of the hotel one night that we were there for the infamous speeding/cocaine possession incident. This hotel is right on the beach, with lovely views and rooms.
The Ritz Carlton two bedroom suite in Berlin is probably one the most luxurious I have ever stayed in.
One stay kinda fits in both best and worst categories. Checking into the Venetian hotel in Vegas for a week-long conference, the desk clerk apologetically said my room wasn’t available that night and would I mind staying in an upgraded room for the first night, then switching to a regular room the next day? Fine, whatever.
So I get up to my room and my first hint that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore was the double-door entrance. It was an amazing suite around 1800 sq ft, around the same size as my first house. 5 tv’s, makeup area, full size dining area with seating for 6, wet bar, super-high ceilings with windows to match. If you’ve ever seen the Venetian from outside, the top row of windows are huge double-height windows with rounded tops - that’s where I was. Now the downside: the place reeked of cigarette smoke! I was actually happy to switch to my own regular room the next day because of the smell.
Stayed at the Red Roof Inn when visiting Stanford. Our upstairs end room had two sliding doors to the balcony/ access. Both had only sheer curtains. Both were quite visible from the main road…we changed in the bathroom and kept the lights low.
Best that nobody has mentioned yet: Le Pavillion in New Orleans. My husband and I were in the bar admiring the antique woodwork and talking about what we thought was new and what was authentic. Bartender overheard us and sent the manager , who gave us a “backstage” tour of the entire place. (Blend of new and imported from Europe) Plus, when you come in late they have white glove butlers in the lobby making peanut butter sandwiches and pouring milk to soothe your party tummy.
Currently staying in one of the best value for the $$$ hotel. DH booked a suite on the grounds that two rooms would cost about as much… Best Western Fino in Christchurch. It is like an apartment 2 bedrooms 2 baths, full size kitchen, laundry, dining table, desk sofa and chairs…$230 NZ I wish we were staying here a week. Free parking. Walking distance to main center of town.
@collage1 I hope you like your stay at The Mandala. We loved the room…large, quiet, clean…the available laundry machines (which was helpful since Berlin was our middle destination on our trip), the breakfast, the service and the location. If you can get tickets to the Berliner Philharmoniker, I highly recommend it. It is a short walk away and we enjoyed the experience immensely. I also recommend taking a walking tour on your first full day, if you haven’t been to Berlin before. We took a 4 hr one with good reviews on TripAdvisor. Have a wonderful time!
An acquaintance came back from what was supposed to be a relaxing weekend in Vegas… They could not check into Bellagio because the hotel was on a lockdown - there was a shooting in the hotel - apparently someone was trying to rob a store, and then there was that bus shooting… Yup. Their worst hotel experience, but had nothing to do with the hotel quality!
