Posts under ‘Hotels’

The Sofitel Hotel in Melbourne offers one of the best views of the city while you are doing your business. Huge panoramic windows offer spectacular views of Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and a magnificent view of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and sporting precinct from the 35th floor. The 5 star 363 room hotel makes up the upper floors of the Collins Place twin towers which design was inspired by the World Trade Centre in New York. The Towers are also home to major tenants ANZ Bank and has a host of theatres, boutiques, bars and cafes at the basement underneath a huge glass and steel canopy. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting out as a two story garage complex for the French in the late 1950’s and later being renovated into a trading centre with cinemas, cafeterias and dance halls what is now Ho Chi Minh City’s Rex hotel has seen a lot of changes in this vibrant city. During the Vietnam War the building located in District 1 the hotel’s rooftop bar was a favorite place for the American troops to relax within a magnificent view of the city. It is also beloved the hotel was used by the CIA during the 60’s. Today the hotel is pretty interesting and fairly kitschy although it has had a serious makeover, bamboo detailing and huge crown shape lampshades and plenty of bud lighting to make it feel like Christmas. The location, atmosphere and history its of this hotel makes it worth cent. Even if you are not planning to stay there make sure you visit the upstairs bar, its open around the clock and serves great food and refreshing drinks. Read the rest of this entry »

We are probably being a bit harsh by our title, but the Hotel Celica was not the place you would have wanted to spend the night a few years back when it was the notorious Ljubljana Prison. Today it is one of Slovenia’s hippest places to stay and has been turned into a artistically renovated 20 room or cell hostel for travelers. Opening in 2003 the Hotel Celica has one of the highest occupancy rates in the country and with prices starting around 20 Euro it is no wonder why. The hotel has won many special awards including the golden award or Sejalec from the Slovenian Tourist Board and in 2006 the popular Lonely Planet publication voted it the Hippest Hostel in the World. The Celica has all the things you need for a hostel stay including kitchen, TV rooms, laundry, tourist desk and internet to send your photos and stories back home. – If you have any good ones- we would love to see them.

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The Library Hotel in New York is kind of a theme hotel based on the dewey decimal system where each of its 10 floors is catergorsied into one of the standard library catergories with each room devoted to a particular subject. An example is that the room one on the seventh floor would have an “architecture” theme while the second room would have a “paintings” theme as the seventh floor is part of “the arts” catergory. The book Lemony Snicket’s The Penultimate Peril had a hotel in it called the Hotel Denouement that was modeled after the Library Hotel. Interestingly the owners of the Dewey Decimal System trademark once sued the Library Hotel for trademark infringement, now the Library Hotel is allowed to use the system in its hotel and marketing in exchange for making a donation to a nonprofit organization promoting reading and literacy among children. Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine a shopping mall as big as a small country, well the West Edmonton Mall in Canada is bigger than Vatican City- hows that. It’s huge with over 350,000 square metres of shopping and entertainment. The huge complex employs around 23,000 people and has anything up to 150,000 people shopping, dining or having fun there every day. Along with over 800 shops the centre has a monstrous entertainment zone which would rival any theme park with an icerink, waterpark with wave pool and huge waterslides. An aquarium which is home to sea lions, and a submarine ride which had more submarines than the Canadian Navy until recently. Roller coasters, golf, theatres, a casino and even a replica of Christopher Columbus’s ship the Santa Maria. There even a huge nightclub and restaurant district called Bourbon street which has comedy clubs, rib houses, bars and some great pizza. There’s a China town and even a flash new Europa Boulevard which sells the latest European fashion- and I must mention the flock of pink flamingos, the shooting range and the cinemas. The place is just amazing. You need at least 2 days if not an entire week to really absorb the place and you probably need just as long to find your car in the 20,000 car carpark. There are plans to make the place even bigger, they are not to happy about being knocked off as the biggest by a new centre in Dubai and another huge place being built in Beijing. Read the rest of this entry »

The Grand Hyatt Shanghai is in the business centre of Pundong and not only is the world highest hotel it also has the worlds highest pool and the world’s longest laundry chute running the full length of the tower. The chute has baffles along the cavity to slow the laundry down during it’s decent to the basement. The hotel is located on the 53rd to 88th floors of the Jin Mao Building which is the worlds 3rd tallest building. The rooms offer spectacular views of the Bund, Huang Pu River and the city when the weather is clear. The hotel is one of the most luxurious and beautiful hotels in China with an art deco Asian inspired rooms and lobbies. The 555 room hotel opened in 1999. For those wanting the best cocktail lounge in Shanghai- check out the view from Cloud 9 on the 87th floor, on a clear night you have never seen anything so spectacular.

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Liverpool the home of the Beatles has just opened a brand new 4 star hotel paying homage to the fab 4. Called Hard Days Night the hotel has transformed one of Liverpools’ classic buildings not far from the Cavern Club into another Beatles landmark. The hotel features some magnificent artwork including what is called the Shannon Collection which is a series of commissioned works telling the story of the Beatles. The hotel even features artworks and photographs from Paul, Ringo and photographers Paul Ygartua and Klaus Voormann. The hotel has all the trappings of a luxury hotel including a great bar called Bar Four which is fast becoming one of the hottest places in Liverpool and a restaurant which has a Sergeant Pepper’s inspired theme and brasserie which has a very cosmopolitan menu. The hotel features 110 rooms and are well decked out and even include interactive services like online shopping. The top of the line suites are called the Lennon and McCartney suites and feature things like white pianos and even a Knight’s suit in the McCartney room. Total indulgence.

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Cunard’s RMS Queen Elizabeth II is currently sailing though the Magellan Straights of the South American continent on its way to on one of its last voyages. The ship is probably the best know of all ships (except that of the Titanic of course). Launched in 1967 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the craft has sailed over 5.5 million nautical miles and carried over 2 million guests. The original cost of building the ship was just over 29 million pounds over 15 times that has been spent in the last 40 years refitting the craft, and it is not over yet. The ship is going to be the centerpiece of a new development in Dubai called Palm Jumeirah and is going to be completely refit to match the original 1960’s decor then become a luxury floating hotel as part of the monstrous palm shaped island entertainment complex. It is expected the ship will be open for business some time in late 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

You have got to wonder about some peoples idea to make a dollar. What would possess you to build a hotel room and have nasty old Adolf Hitler on the wall your hotel room overlooking your bed. It is what nightmares are made of but some guy in Belgrade is trying to make a quick buck. Well if you don’t want to stay in the Hitler room and rightly so how about the George W Bush, Joseph Stalin or even Margaret Thatcher room and have them looking down on you while you are trying to take a nap- well you can- they also feature in other rooms at “Mr President”. The Hitler room is pretty popular, and sadly all the outrage and controversy it has caused has only helped bookings. Dusan Zabunovic the hotelier at Mr President has been quoted as saying that it’s not wrong to have Hitler in museums like Madam Tussauds so he doesn’t think it is wrong to have him featured in his hotel- well many might like to argue, but there’s always a few who will agree. Read the rest of this entry »

We have done a lot of great amusement park stories like Disney, Seaworld and zoos and stuff so we thought it was about time we told you about a really crap one. This one’s called South of the Border and its on US interstate 95 in South Carolina. It’s called South of the Border not because its Mexican like Pedro it’s poncho and sombrero wearing mascot it’s because its just over the border from North Carolina. The attraction if we should call it that features a gas station and road house restaurant, a motel and a small amusement park and some shopping but we will come to that a bit later.

The whole complex is a bit kitsch and tongue in cheek, the owners really must know its bad, and having a bit of fun, everyone does, but they do a pretty good job promoting it for what it is- crap. It is well worth a look if traveling down Interstate 95, but don’t spend the day getting there, there are so many other things to do. And as for the shopping there, well they sell fireworks and adult items- as you would expect- not sure if you could buy guns and liquor there but I’d expect so. For the newly weds they have some lovely hotel rooms too, $99 gets you married, a night in an “heir-conditioned” honeymoon suite champagne and even breaky the next morning for both of you if you are still together, probably good if your trailer park isn’t romantic enough for the big night.

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