Hotels

Cape Town’s hottest new (old) address

19 June 2010

One of my favourite parts of the Cape Town city centre is the top of Adderley Street, where Wale Street joins from the right. If one continues up Wale it cuts right across the city (parallel to what would have been coastline), ending up in the Bo-Kaap, just below the point where the Noon Gun [...]

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Awed into Silence

14 December 2009

Words have a way of forcing their way out of my brain, into spoken or written existence. This is especially likely to happen if I’ve had exceptional experiences, or made fabulous discoveries. I therefore find it striking that something similar has taken so long to happen with respect to my visit to Mumbai a few [...]

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Could this be Dubai’s best hotel deal?

22 November 2009

There are several things one doesn’t expect to find in Dubai. Cheap, widely available alcohol is top of the list, closely followed by non-expat locals obeying the speed limit. Comfortable, affordable hotels in desirable locations are about as scarce as green meadows in the desert. As if the extortionate cost of a hotel bed isn’t [...]

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Starbucks to the Rescue

18 October 2009

While in St Johns I stayed at the Franklin Hotel. I’d happily stay there again – the rooms are very spacious, the beds are comfortable and the bathroom does what it’s supposed to. The one drawback was the absence of coffee in the room. There was an abundant supply of tea, sugar and sweetener, but [...]

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Dinner, bed & breakfast

31 March 2007

I neglected to add comment about Park Hotel (www.parkhoteltokyo.com) to my report on Tokyo, which is remiss, because it earns a huge ‘thumbs-up’. Its cost would have precluded me from booking it direct, but as I was on an ANA package (very civilised economy class!) from Hong Kong, the first two nights were free, and [...]

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Style over Substance

17 March 2006

Following my sister’s good experience at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Hong Kong, I booked at their new hotel, the Cosmo, a few doors up the road. (You can get an idea at www.cosmohotel.com.hk) Arrival was promising, especially with the scent of Shanghai Tang’s ginger flower spray in the reception area. From there on, it sadly [...]

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