The Bowling Green Hotel, Plymouth, UK

At the hotel door I was met by Tom, a down-to-earth friendly fellow originally from Liverpool. 'But we just luf it 'ere.' He showed me my room on the top floor overlooking the Hoe, a green park area; the only room with a bathtub.

The blue star on the map shows the hotel's terrific location, only about a block away from the Promenade with its view of The Sound.

Not luxurious but the room was clean and perfectly comfortable. This is one of two rooms I stayed in here. There were only two issues with this top floor room: the heat and internet connections at times. I felt safe here, the owners were friendly, and the breakfasts were good.

I wasn't expecting to see a big Ferris wheel in The Hoe, just outside my window.  Many a dog owner would stroll through this corner of the park and not clean up after his/her pet. I had the impression there were no noise or animal control bylaws in Plymouth judging by the amount of barking that went on.

The bathroom with bath tub. :-)

A little desk.

Kitkats appeared on the tray every day and I ate every one of them.

Breakfast room. TV/living room out of view in front to the left - sometimes I emailed from there.

The dreadfully dreary Best Western Phoenix Hotel, London

The exterior of the hotel looks okay. So does the lobby and breakfast room but from there it's all downhill. Sure the building is old - built 100 years before I was born, but the rooms are worn and tired-looking.

Gads, are they joking? Is this a closet turned into a room? I had the feeling that if Glenn had been with me, we would have spun around and left. This hotel was booked through the travel agent, which was probably a mistake. Since he booked through a third party, it may have been more complicated to cancel. However, I didn't care to spend time looking for another hotel, so this dive would be my home for four nights. Luckily, the clientele seemed perfectly normal. Most mornings I shared a breakfast table with a kindly gentleman from New Zealand who was about to embark on a train journey around the country.

The bed is up stairs and crammed next to a wall. The bathroom, enclosed in a 'box' at the bottom of the stairs, is so tiny that you risk knocking something off or whacking your head. Floors creak, and the window bangs in the wind. I looked at another room but it was even smaller and it faced the noisy street.

At least there is a desk and a kettle.

But it must have been quite the joker who wrote on this hotel's website that the decor 'is of the highest standard.'

On the plus side, the room was quiet, there was a luggage rack and a working internet connection. Breakfasts were included, and service in general was fine. The hotel is handy to the Tube station. However, the lack of English accents with the hotel staff and in the Bayswater neighbourhood didn't give me the London experience I had hoped for on my first stop in England.

La Jolla! The Grande Colonial Hotel

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

We arrived at our hotel much later than I'd hoped but delays are to be expected.

Some think the name La Jolla (la hoya) means 'the jewel.' Although it's part of San Diego, it feels removed. It has its own zip code, and mail is addressed to La Jolla rather than San Diego. According to Coldwell Banker, it is the nation's most expensive housing market for the 2nd straight year.

The Grande Colonial hotel

The Grande Colonial is where we'll be staying for four nights.

Cute pot plantings. We noticed that much of San Diego's pavement was in disrepair. Maybe it's because they often don't charge for parking. Parking is free even at the zoo.

I like the room. We have three windows! I'd asked for a quiet room and got one at the end of the hall, top floor.

There was a walk-in closet with bathrobes (yay), a safe and iron & ironing board. The bathroom walls were actually a soft green with huge white mouldings up near the ceiling. Everything was spotless.

The hotel faces Prospect St. We spent a fair bit of time on Girard. My first stop would be a stationery/book store called Warwick's a couple of blocks up Girard. Go the other way and you'd be at the beach.

Looking to the right, the small side street off Prospect is probably Drury Lane.

But never mind that. Not only are we on the top floor, we have an ocean view! The hotel must have been not very busy for this upgrade. Or maybe it helped to book with someone who had my first name. We were paying for a room with just a street view, so this was a delightful surprise.

We got chocolates too. And a newspaper at the door each morning, which I never had time to read.

I'd worried that this hotel might feel too European instead of Spanish/ Californian, but the colonial feel and the view out this hallway door reminded us of Lahaina (Maui). Palm trees and hisbiscus flowers added to the effect. I half expected to hear mynah birds. There were historic photos in the hallways too.

A couple of shots out back.

I would definitely stay at this hotel again.

Toronto - the Fairmont Royal York hotel

Sunday, May 17, 2009

$160.65 per night

I chose the Royal York hotel for its easy access to the train station. A covered walkway connects the two. What they don't tell you is that there are stairs at both ends. Since Glenn is not supposed to do any lifting, we decided instead to run across the street.

Stairs but no staff

The Royal York is a Fairmont hotel just like the Chateau Frontenac, so I expected much the same sort of hotel - older with small rooms, grand lobby, inferior service. So when we got to the hotel's door and found no doorman, I wasn't too surprised. But here were stairs and no sign to indicate an elevator or a wheelchair ramp. (The photo above was taken the next morning.) Not a great welcome, especially when it's near midnight and you're tired. Luckily a younger couple came along and the fellow whisked our suitcases up the stairs. It's kind of sad when hotel patrons have to help others with their luggage. Then, there was only one hotel employee in the lobby and he had to get someone out from a back room to check us in.

The room though was a pleasant surprise. It was very clean and spacious - bigger than it looks in the photos. There was a good sized hallway, a large cabinet and, being on a corner, two walls with windows. It was also quiet. Once our heads hit the pillows, we had a solid sleep until it was time to get up.

Columbia Gorge Hotel closes

It's with a tinge of sadness to read the news this week that the Columbia Gorge Hotel has closed. The owners cite health and financial difficulties. This historic hotel in Oregon was opened in the early 1920's and was visited, they say, by old time film stars like Rudolph Valentino, the 'it girl' Clara Bow, Myrna Loy and Jane Powell and Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge.

We stayed there on our way through Oregon in the spring of 2002. Glenn describes it as "not our greatest hotel experience." Although the grounds were lovely and a waterfall crashes 200 feet down the gorge to the Columbia River below, we thought it was overpriced and remember it mostly for the freezing cold tile-floored bathroom, having to always find an employee to work the elevator and the grossly huge breakfasts. The menu from our visit reads:

- A bountiful array of seasonal fruits and berries

- Grandma Lallah's baked apple

- Hot apple fritters with sugar and spice

- Oatmeal with brown sugar and sweet cream

- Eggs any style

- Crispy bacon, country-style smoked pork chop, apple and maple flavored pork sausage OR fresh grilled Idaho mountain trout

- Hash browned potatoes

- Homestyle baking powder biscuits and caramelized berry blossom honey

- Stack of buttermilk pancakes with hot honey maple syrup

- Coffee

This wasn't a 'pick one or two items off the menu' situation. You got ALL that food - the only choice being between the bacon/pork and the trout - and the servings were large. Glenn says, "There was enough food on each plate to feed an army and it wasn't that appetizing anyway". Think - big fatty slabs of pork. Sadly, we didn't even get to the pancakes. The berries were lovely though!

Negatives aside, it's still a grand old hotel and I hope someone someday will bring it back to glory.