We all have those bad/good travel experiences,

The Worst in the US: was this Motel that my job put me up in. It was clearly on the wrong side of the tracks and I have never been so afraid to step out my door. Run down was talking about this place nicely.

The Worst in Japan: Small town, late at night...only hotel open. The room never dropped below 80 degrees, everything smelled like mold, and the toliet/shower area had a GLASS WALL! WTF? I like seeing my girl and all, but not on the toilet!

The best hotel. Miyazaki, Japan. $208.00 a night and worth every dime. Great beach view, great day spa, and the rooms were bigger than I knew what to do with.

From what I have learned, it is alway worth the extra money to stay some where nice.

I went to this hotel that advertised "wet, sperm soaked matresses" and guess what? I check in and they're dry as a bone. WHAT THE FUCK?

Let's see....best hotel

The Aladdin in Las Vegas I think.

The worst...

A roach motel in San Antonio that we had to pull over into because the roads were too ice-y.

It was seriously nasty...had by the hour rates

The BEST was the "Oasis Cancun" which my wife and I stayed at for our honeymoon. Our room was modest (we were on a budget) but the pool was awesome and the beachfront area was SPECTACULAR! They even had peacocks strolling around the grounds.


The WORST was the "Pine Motor Lodge" which we went to once while still just dating. It was genuinely sleazy!
We were so grossed out by the room that it almost killed our mojo.

worst was a little motel that i stayed at because i was afraid to keep driving on the icy roads. not a good sign when you find mouse traps under the bathroom sink. i believe i slept in my clothes that night.

best was a huge suite in banff in the canadian rocky mountains. two bedrooms, livingroom with balcony and fireplace, diningroom with a massive table that i had one or two naughty thoughts about and a lovely kitchen with granite countertops. the bathroom had heated slate floors and a whirlpool tub big enough for two.

Best:
Ritz Carlton in Hawaii...


Worst:
Some dinky rundown place right outside San Francisco that looked like it was an old International House of Pancakes converted into a "hotel"...

best: Hilton Kuala Lumpur

worst: any number of crap motels

The best:

Probably the Saint Géran on Mauritius. It wasn't too shabby.

The worst:

Well, the hostel in Dawson City, Canada, didn't have hot water or a radiator or even electricity for that matter. The room only had two narrow bunk beds without sheets and literally nothing else. It was still magical to spend the night there though. The sun never quite went down and the thick fog from the forest fires gave the surroundings a mysterious quality.

retina said:

who were you with? it doesn't matter where you are when you're with the right person

charlottegelin said:

Very true.

I was there with my good friend Loretta who is very adventurous and open-minded. She can also appreciate those rare moments in life when it feels like the world is wrapped in magic and takes on an almost unreal, or should I say hyperreal quality.

I bet it would have been hell if I'd been there with some fragile princess that expected room service and a mini bar.

.

recently i stayed in Hotel NEW YORK in Rotterdam, which was just great. it is an old rich building from the Holland-American ship connection times.

the room had a vault in it, which was the closet for your clothes. a bit creepy though.

the whole building is decorated with art and the design is really great.

the view over the water is nice too.

if you will be staying in The Netherlands, you have to check this place out!

retina said:

Forest Fire! I wouldn't be anywhere near there!

I tend to travel cheap, so it's not hard to impress me in the hotel department.
I don't know about the best, but my favorite was probably this cute little Boutique Hotel I stayed at last time I went to San Francisco. I remember just ADORING the decor in my room (all lime green and brown, but in a good way) and the nice fluffy robe and slippers and I was surprised to find a CD player in the room.

Actually, now that I think about it, the best was probably when I went to Orlando, FL for work. I had a suite to myself and the whole thing was bigger than the apartment I lived in at the time. Gosh, I loved that trip.

The worst was likely the hostel I stayed at in Rome. Sharing a room w/14 other travelers in the middle of summer with no air conditioning. Yuck. But we didn't sleep much while we were there anyway.

CarrieMpls said:

brrr.

The worst I (almost) stayed in was in downtown Toronto last year. It was 2 a.m. I was enroute by car to Montreal. My wife and I were exhausted. We decided to just check into anywhere. BIG mistake...

I walked in and inquired about a room while she and my kid stayed in the car. The only staff there -- some one-armed skater dude* -- led me to a roughly 6-by-12-foot space with damaged, unpainted drywall; a nasty queen bed that filled all but a sliver of floor space; an old, metal 2-drawer filing cabinet; a rotary phone and a single naked flourescent bulb. The only things missing were the hooker and the chalk outline.

I thought, "If I let my kid sleep here, her grandparents will (rightfully) kill me." I passed, and we found something as cheap, but much nicer, in an outlying suburb.



* For the record, Lammastide has nothing against one-armed skater dudes. (And this one, BTW, was a hotty.) It's just his presence here was straight out of a David Lynch movie.

Best:

I don't remember the name but it was a 5 star one in Turkey. Years ago, I went on a lads' holiday and we ran out of so much money we booked ourselves on this dirt-cheap 3 day tour, thinking it would save us a bit. (There was food and accommodation included). Turned out it was the best thing we did all holiday! Apart from seeing some fantastic sights, we were holed up in this 5 star luxury hotel the entire time. Wonderful. The only problem was that we had to go back to our awful apartment afterwards.


Worst:

Definitely the worst hotel I have ever stayed in was this hovel in Madrid. Horrible. It started off nicely: we were given quite a nice room (considering). Then, they realised they'd cocked-up the booking and we had to switch rooms about FIVE times in seven days. And each room was worse than the last. As soon as we'd get settled and unpack our things, the Manager would be knocking on our door asking us to move again. The worst one was at the end of this dimly-lit corridor in a room with no natural lighting. We called it 'The Crypt'.

Then my mate turned up from South America and - within five minutes - managed to blow the fuse of the entire hotel floor after she plugged in her hairdryer using the wrong setting.

I get scared booking rooms in NY, because you never know what the hell you're gonna get. Most of the places I've been to or been in were overpriced rat holes, some of them didn't even have their own bathrooms, and they'll still cost like $150 a night.

I was really happy with The Stardust though in Vegas. I got a good deal from the person that booked it for us, only like $39 per night. The room was big and comfortable and clean.

Best:
The Ritz Carlton in Washington, DC & Hotel Rouge alos in D.C.

Worst:
Red Roof Inn in D.C. When I asked if I cluld have champagne glasses brought to the room, they wanted an imprint of my credit card and when they sent them up they were dirty! There was still dried orange juice pulp on the inside of the glasses! Nasty. I was on a budget that weekend, which was the only resaon I stayed. never again!

I always get a discount a the Ritz-Carlton now. My friend workd there and I get her rate. Awesome!

My favorite hotel, sadly, is in Seattle (where I live), so I'm not often going to have a reason to stay there. It's the W Hotel. I've visted a couple of other W Hotels as well, and they were all nice. But Seattle is my fav.




I also had a great, but very different experience, at the Royal Grove, in Hawaii (Oahu). The W is swanky. The Royal Grove is not. But the staff is very friendly. It feels like staying at a relative's pad. They let you borrow beach stuff (hats, mats, bodyboards. . .whatever they have laying around), and they hang around in the lobby playing music with their friends at night. And, by Waikiki standards, it's cheap.

AND, it's PINK! Funky!





The worst? Some random Motel 6. Room smelled like alcohol, bed was uncomfortable, and the location didn't feel safe.

The best: Maybe the Hotel Intercontinental in Chicago.

The worst: This dive I stayed at in Poughkeepsie, NY after a members-only Bowienet gig. There were literally plants growing out of the wall in the bathroom. You could see dirt through cracks in the floor and stains on the sheets. But it had a mini-fridge and like 100 cable channels! It was so late and we were lost and tired, so we didn't have the luxury of looking for something better. Builds character, I say.

Andalucia, 2 worst hotels... actually 'hostels'.
The first one was quite neat (and cheap) but I caught the owner red-handed in our room going through our stuff He was a Cuban guy, didn't speak English (I did), spoke a little Spanish (I spoke even less Spanish than he did). He freaked me out cause he didn't want to leave our room and

We left the hostel, after asking our money back for the second night and we went to an even cheaper hostel. Stupid, I know. The matrasses were smelly and hard, there were a lot of ants in the room. There was no lock on the door, thinking of what happened in the other hostels, I was'n really relaxed. Both weren't in the Trotter guide (les guides des routards), I should've known.

Best hostel, somewhere in Cadiz. Very nice Spanish lady, extremely clean and comfortable rooms for a nice price.

Best: Four Seasons in Chicago. Brilliant upscale service, gorgeous room, jaw dropping views.


Worst: a Days Inn in Tulsa OK. A complete dump.

1sexymf said:

The one in D.C. is nice, yeah...

BEST: the doral inn in NYC, across from the waldorf astoria. they overbooked when we stayed there, so we were "FORCED" to take the penthouse suite. standing on the balcony of our hotel room looking down on midtown NYC during a snowstorm is a moment i'll never forget. oh yeah, the hotel was nice too.

WORST: THE PINK FLAMINGO in berkeley. consider the name. need i say more?

dreamfactory313 said:

Oh, yes...And the Chateau Marmont hotel in LA...

The Plaza was great too.

Anx said:

It's called the 70 Park Avenue Hotel now.

And it does look nice.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Byron said:

that is nice. good bar too.

best:

THE Hotel at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas
Four Seasons, San Diego
Hotel Vitale, San Francisco

worst:

Best Value Inn, Van Nuys
[Edited 3/9/06 19:31pm]