We did lots of research and asked many friends for recommendations to arrive at the following choice of hotels: the Americano in Chelsea and the Jane on the border of Meatpacking and the West (Greenwich) Village in Manhattan, and the Whythe in Williamsburg in Brooklyn.
Our criteria included: about $300 per night, internet included (fast enough for Skype), not too far from a subway station, and with a variety of restaurants in the neighbourhood.
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One of my best experiences in London was staying for two nights at Miller’s Residence in Notting Hill, a bed and breakfast / hotel that has only 8 rooms, each of which is named after a Romantic poet. I chose the Shelley room (below). Miller’s is the most extraordinary place, not only in terms of its style, but also in terms of the service. The whole building is crammed with paintings and antiques, and it was a considerable achievement on my part to stay there without breaking anything.…
In Soho I stayed at the Sanctum hotel, which is ridiculous. My ‘crashpad’ room (below), a compact room designed for single travellers, had an amazing king sized bed. When I first lay on it I felt like I was floating and, after a few seconds delay, I slowly sank into it. After a 24 hour flight and having been awake for about 36 hours straight, it was heaven.
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If you like art deco buildings as I do, then when looking for accommodation in Ballarat you find a restored art deco pub on the interweb, you may be drawn to try Oscar’s Hotel. It’s a deco pub converted into boutique hotel upstairs (13 rooms) and restaurant and bar downstairs.…
When in Milawa over the weekend I stayed at Lindenwarrah on Saturday night and also ate at their restaurant. The room was large and comfortable but some diminishing factors became evident. The bathroom was nice but seemingly retro fitted, so that water flowed out under the shower door into the middle of the floor, where the lowest point of the floor was (despite the drain being in the shower. Someone should teach their builder about gravity…)…
In the past three weeks I’ve been in six cities seeing six amazing concerts by Tori Amos. The travel has been mostly painless but I found some interesting differences between cities and their facilities based on the choices I made and the random circumstances I found myself in.
The Medusa is simply wonderful; stay there even for one night if you can.…
The concept of lifestyle is widely referred to in the media, often I think without much thought or effect. ‘Lifestyle furniture’ for example: what does that mean exactly? Do we use furniture outside of life? Several years ago I joked about marketing ‘diet water‘ and recently I have found out that such a product exists. These words have no meaning.
To me, lifestyle refers to relaxation, self indulgence and hedonism: all very fine things.…
My work / life balance has been rubbish lately. Two weeks ago I was in Sydney for the whole working week, and the only way to see my girlfriend was to arrange a rendezvous there. Fortunately, she was required to also be in Sydney for a work conference. We stayed at the Medusa Hotel, which is delightful. I recommend it.
Apart from a large and beautiful room, king size bed and stereo, which I love having in a hotel room, in the mini bar they had condoms and tampons.…
Sydney. Hotel. A strange bed. A new view. Night and day.
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