Posts Tagged ‘hotel’

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Casa Garzotto

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

P6061607Casa Garzotto
Via Garzotto 8
52210 Rovinj, Croatia
Tel: +385 52 811 884
Mobile: +385 98 61 61 68
Fax: +385 52 814 255
caragarzotto@gmail.com
http://www.casa-garzotto.com

This was a great find by our traveling buddy Jul for our Istrian Road Trip. We were a little disoriented upon arrival — the Altstadt confused us, and our GPS, and we were unsure parking in the big city lot outside the the old town was a good idea or not.

But it all worked out for the best. The location is ideal. The price was reasonable. The staff was extremely helpful and friendly, and never steered us wrong with recommendations for gelato or restaurant meals. We had a nice breakfast in the main area, just around the corner (≤10 second walk) from our rental apartment and were charmed by the apartment’s old-world, multi-level design (kitchen and one bath on the ground floor, loft bedroom up the right-side staircase, 2nd bedroom and bathroom up the left-side staircase).

I’d stay there again in a minute.

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Pickin’ yer (collective) brains

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

If you’ve been to Edinburgh, where did you stay and would you recommend it? We’re looking at our first trip to Scotland and need suggestions. If you don’t want to post publicly about your experience but still feel like sharing, feel free to e-mail one or both of us.

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Hotel Sully Saint-Germain

Sunday, December 7th, 2008
The Joint

Hotel Sully Saint-Germain
31 Rue des Ecoles
75005 Paris – France

http://www.sully-saint-germain-hotel.com/

Sarah

We reserved this hotel due to the price, location and wireless connectivity. Well, two out of three ain’t bad. The price was fixed and the location (a short walk from the Maubert-Mutualité Métro station) was ideal. The design of the lobby and the rooms is quite attractive. The basic double room is fairly small by American standards, but has lots of storage space (closets and drawers, etc.).

Unfortunately, the promised internet was not accessible in the rooms. To use it, you had to bring your laptop and other materials down to the lobby, then jockey for position with the rest of the hotel guests set up for surfing. We like to bring our laptop with us to help with planning our outings, so reliable, room-accesible internet is important to us. We were a little disappointed on that score.

There were a couple of other odd occurrences. There was a brief power outage one evening – about 30 seconds with no lights. Not a big deal to us, but we did overhear another couple complaining to the concierge about another outage the previous evening that happened while the woman was in the shower. So I guess that happens with some regularity. Also, on the morning of our checkout, I couldn’t get the water temperature to cooperate. It started out normal, but then started switching between burning hot and freezing cold. It made rinsing my hair an adventure.

The breakfast included in our rate was adequate, except for the coffee (it was dreadful). The elevators are extremely small, so occasionally taking the stairs is the best option. Generally, it was a pleasant experience. It is by no means a luxury hotel, but as a place to sleep, shower and keep your stuff while you’re out experiencing Paris, the Sully Saint-Germain is a good choice.

Cliff

Sarah hit all the points I’d make. Location was the most important aspect for me — it’s an easy walk to the Ile de la Cité or the Louvre or just hop onto the #10 Metro line to get out to other parts of the city or a bigger train station.

room rue_des_ecoles_4886 balcony1


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Travel Deals

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

I seem to get flooded with travel bargain e-mails on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I’ll scan them and post the most interesting-looking ones. Airfare deals tend to be my focus, but I’ll keep an eye out for hotel/rental car/cruise offers as well.

AirBerlin

They’re having an Adventskalender sale event. Everyday a new deal, looks like a lot of 2-for-1 ticket bargains. We really like AirBerlin – no frills, but the fares tend to be reasonable and Nürnberg is a hub for them, so you can get to nearly all of their destinations from there. And the Nürnberg airport is very quiet and very accessible, even if you don’t have a car. Look at each day for the terms & conditions (travel period, booking period, etc.).

British Airways

Fare and hotel sales available here. This looks helpful for long-haul flights. The prices listed on the page reflect roundtrip fares from Hamburg, so the prices will fluctuate for flights originating from different German airports. Booking period is Nov. 27 – Dec. 8 and travel period ranges from Nov. 27 to Mar. 31 2009. I have no complaints about BA, other than the high probability of having to transfer at Heathrow (*gack!*).

Corinthia Towers Hotel

Going to Prague anytime soon? Maybe you should, because you can stay at this very swanky joint for only 70€/night. Corinthia is part of the Wyndham chain and they’re pretty nice – in the same league as Hyatt or Westin. The info page from Travelzoo is a little more forthcoming about the terms than the hotel booking page itself. You have to book by Dec. 17, there are blackout dates on Dec. 31 and Jan. 15-16 and the deal is good until Feb. 28. Unfortunately, I can’t see when the beginning of the stay period is. You might have to figure that out via trial and error on the hotel’s site.

Those look like the best picks to me. Got any tips on other sweet deals? Please feel free to post them in comments! I love finding out about other people’s favorite travel resources.

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Ramada Sibiu

Saturday, October 18th, 2008

Ramada Sibiu Hotel
Emil Cioran Str, No 2
550025 Sibiu
Romania

This is a pretty snazzy place! Nice room with a great bathroom and a classy design. My only complaint: the breakfast options were pretty meager (plenty of horrid coffee though, if that’s your thing) and although they offered to pack us a snack to compensate for our early departure, there was no coffee available at all that morning. Here are some pictures from the room:

PA134750 PA134749

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Hotel Lasserhof

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
The Joint

Lasserstrasse 47
Tel. +43-(0)662-873388
Fax +43-(0)662-8733886

Cliff

I am pretty disappointed with the Lasserhof. Last time I stayed here, with buds Potter and Gabe, when we did the Sound of Music tour back in November 2005, we thought the place was great. This time, we got stuck in a poorly-lit room with its only openable window in the bathroom. It’s pretty easy to get to from the train station and the pricing was reasonable, but maybe next time we’ll spend a little more and get a better place (the NH, with their 14€ breakfast buffet and 24-hour Sound of Music channel, comes to mind). More disappointments from Sarah’s perspective below…

Sarah

What the hell happened here? Cliff was nearly glowing in his review of this place from his first trip to Salzburg, so I was pretty excited about trying it out myself. The reservations staff was very helpful when I got conflicting information about availability back in February during the trip-planning stages. Check-in was a breeze, but after that things started to go wrong. The minifridges in the rooms weren’t actually cold, and yes, we did check to see if they were plugged in. What’s more, the TV in my parents’ room had a bad picture and the volume was unchangeable. And then the window issue in our room made it muggy and stifling. Plus, the guy at the desk gave my dad a hard time about getting a spare key for his room, however, I think this guy was just having a bad day, because he ALSO tried to give my parents’ room to some other guests. I managed to get the issue cleared up, but he wasn’t real pleasant about it. The breakfast was pretty adequate and other than the keymaster, the staff was very helpful and accomodating, but the cons outweigh the pros, so I don’t think we’ll be going back.

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Radisson SAS Gewandhaus Hotel, Dresden

Friday, March 28th, 2008
The Joint

Ringstrasse 1
D-01067 Dresden
Germany

Phone: +49 (0)351 49 49 0
Fax: +49 (0)351 49 49 490
Info.Dresden@RadissonSAS.com

web site

Cliff

Nice bathroom! I was a little iffy about an Expedia-booked hotel stay, but you know what? This turned out great. That bathroom was neat, but for me the best parts were really a nice big comfortably firm bed and sincerely friendly desk staff. We paid in advance via Expedia due to their special rate deal, and when we checked in, there was no upsell attempt or even more than a suggestion to leave a credit card behind for incidentals. I explained that we weren’t expecting any (we hardly turned on the TV and used the minibar fridge to store our own food, and never ate anything at all from the restaurant), so that wouldn’t be necessary. And the receptionist took that with a smile. When we checked out, it was merely a matter of turning our cards back in — really smooth. Sarah will probably have a few things to say about the bathroom, but I’m the one in the picture.

Radisson SAS Gewandhaus the bed the doorway Dresden Radisson SAS lobby

Sarah

That bathtub kicked a$$. It had bubbles. I got out a couple of times to go see Dresden.

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Day 3 — still not stinky (I hope)

Tuesday, December 19th, 2006

I fear I might not even notice my stench in these clothes at this point. I must praise the staff of the Hotel Unirea, because Virgil and Alina on staff there are repeatedly calling Austrian Airlines to check on the status of my suitcase. For the latest report, I am supposed to check back with them today after 10:00 to see what Austrian Airlines knows.

One small complaint:

I know that all Enrique needs is the rhythm divine, but the Unirea needs to expand its music selection at the breakfast bar. If they manage to get my bag back before I leave on Friday though, I’ll happily sing (if you can call it that) along with them and the Progeny of Iglesias.

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Little Texas

Thursday, December 7th, 2006
The Joint

Stradela Moara de Vant 31
Iasi, Romania 700376
Phone: +40.232.272545 Fax: +40.232.272545

http://www.littletexas.org

Oh my goodness. I never would have believed it, but this place has the best TexMex I’ve ever had in Europe. Bar none.

I am seriously thinking about trying out their hotel facilities on my next trip to Iasi instead of staying at the Hotel Unirea (my “usual” pad, you might say).

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NH Salzburg

Sunday, November 19th, 2006
The Joint

Franz-Josef-Strasse 26
A-5020 Salzburg, Salzburg
Phone: +43 662 8820410 Fax: +43 662 874240

http://preview.tinyurl.com/yl7cm9

Cliff

Sarah scoped a great price. Too bad it didn’t include breakfast. We found out only after chowing on it that it was €14 per person. Yowch.

Sarah

The price was pretty unbeatable (59€/night!) for the location, but finding out that breakfast wasn’t included was a nasty shock. But it was an awfully tasty and varied breakfast.

The hotel has a very sleek, modern lobby – somewhat japanese in style. This was kind of misleading when it actually came to the rooms themselves. They were plenty comfortable and the bathrooms (my personal obsession) were very clean with good water pressure. But there was nothing of the style from the lobby.

A big bonus here is that they have a fitness and sauna facility for all guests to use. Make sure you go down to the sauna already in a robe and carrying your towel – there’s no private changing room down there!

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