Poland Hotels Booking

Right on the Avenida Da Liberdade, the Sofitel isn’t exactly off the beaten path — but don’t hold that against it. We tend to shy away from the big luxury chains, in most cases, because while they typically offer methodical and attentive service (a big plus, obviously) there’s usually little to distinguish the hotels themselves. Better to be surprised a little, rough edges and all, than to be faultlessly served but left bored.

When it comes to the Sofitel Lisbon Liberdade, though, there’s no need to compromise. In a hotel like this there’s no question you’ll get everything you want, when you want it; and as a bonus you’ll get it in a hotel that’s well-designed, tastefully contemporary, the sort of place that’s attractive enough that you’d forgive the occasional lapse in hospitality, if one should occur. Which it most likely won’t.

The rooms are on the large side, furnished with the kind of supremely comfortable beds that it seems only the big luxury chains can afford. Bathrooms are similarly indulgent, with modern fittings and separate tubs and showers. And the place is dead quiet, surprising given its absolutely central location, on the busy Avenida — rare is this mix of prime location and worry-free luxury, and thus it’s a real rival to Lisbon’s smaller boutiques.

The Carlton is the undisputed star of the French Riviera. Massive, white and marble, it sits on the famous La Croisette seafront in Cannes. And in a town where everyone is finely tanned, rail-thin, and wears jewels to breakfast, the Carlton clientele are the most dazzling. It has the best parties, the most beautiful people, and the most stars lunching — due, partly, to the Carlton’s role as unofficial center of the annual film festival. But even outside of those two weeks in May, its atmosphere is unsurpassed. Grace Kelly and Cary Grant chased each other here in To Catch a Thief, and off-camera, Kelly met her future husband Prince Rainer. Today you might see another princess, for in all the Côte d’Azur, it is the only hotel that royalty continues to patronize.

But the Carlton is also tough. When Italian fascists mined the hotel in 1944, they built an underground room to hide their wine. And though its staff is famously secretive—they have to be, with the number of high profile guests and scandalous carryings-on—the architecture itself is shockingly indiscreet. It’s been said that the gorgeous domes on either side were inspired by the breasts of famous courtesan La Belle Otero.

Though the regulars have ranged from Sophia Loren to the Coen brothers, the Carlton is still associated with the late Princess Grace. You can feel her untouchable blonde presence in the bedrooms. The décor hails straight from the sets of one of her 1950’s movies; it’s pale, Riviera, Belle Époque and fit for a swan. Of course, whatever you whatever you do behind its elegant doors is your (and the staff’s) secret alone.

By the way, don’t think that you can shock the staff with your requests, or make them sweat. They’ve handled everything from a princess with 120 suitcases (she reserved three rooms for her clothes) to a gentleman who ordered 100 kilometers of barbed wire from the concierge (he wanted to build a fence for his estate). Naturally, they’ve witnessed a lot more, but they aren’t telling.

For the last five decades, the best people-watching in the evenings is to be had at the bar Le Petit Carlton (not at the Bar Des Celebrities) where you will find the glitterati sealing their business deals and their liaisons. Thankfully, the bartender also pours a generous cocktail — just in case you want to chat up Robert De Niro, pitch a screenplay to Wim Wenders, or simply forget about the amount of money you’ve spent — which at Cannes, with its shopping, lunches, and casinos, is incredibly easy to do.

By now the big hotels have learned the lesson about design — the minimalist look that was once the exclusive province of the independent boutiques has now been fully assimilated. And they’ve got a point — if more of the big hotels had looked as good as the Clarion does, the design hotel revolution might have been over before it started.

And while the Clarion, Stockholm’s biggest, is undeniably visually striking, there’s more to this place than just good looks. It’s located in the Södermalm, one of the city’s most fashionable neighborhoods, and the extensive collection of contemporary Scandinavian artists is a tip-off that the high-design décor is more than just cynical marketing.

With over five hundred rooms it’s certainly no mom-and-pop operation. But they’re all clean-lined and thoughtfully equipped, head and shoulders above the beige L-shaped competition. Half the standard rooms (and all rooms in the higher classes) come with bathtubs, and at the higher end you’ll find 32-inch plasma televisions and, in the Södersviten suite, a bar, fireplace and private terrace.

A swimming pool and a roof deck are quite unexpected in Stockholm. Like everything that’s great about Sweden, the Clarion is made from equal measures of tradition and utopia — here of course you can dine on reindeer while contemplating the hotel of the future.

From the outside, this classic Georgian building, just north of Princes Street Gardens, couldn’t be more obviously Edinburgh. Once inside the rooms, though, it’s easy to get lost; each of Le Monde’s 18 suites is named for one of the world’s great cities, from New York and Dublin to Cairo, Havana, St. Petersburg — and they’re decorated to match, in a style that fairly accurately conjures the atmosphere of each chosen town.

Even discounting the cities gimmick, the rooms are striking; that they go all the way towards their chosen themes does quite a bit to set them apart from the slightly tedious minimalism of today’s average boutique hotel room. Cairo or otherwise, all the suites come with lush Egyptian cotton sheets, as well as big, decadent bathrooms and plasma-screen televisions.

The world cities theme doesn’t stop there, either. Four restaurants/bars is quite a lot for a hotel of this small size, but it’s just that kind of place — hotel guests and the George Street crowd alike dine and drink in Paris, Vienna, Milan, and the late-night basement bar, Shanghai. And lest one forget, Edinburgh is always an option — many of the city’s best bars and restaurants are within walking distance of Le Monde.

Les Baux de Provence is perhaps one of the most spectacular and unsettling of nature’s creations. These white washed cliffs, dotted with medieval houses, will stun you with their proportion and their beauty. It has been the site of elegiac poetry—courtly nobles swearing their love to ladies and winning battles. However, it’s also been the site of bloodlust; historically, this has been the place for some of the most treacherous poisonings and executions. And the poet Dante, quite simply, believed that this was the mouth of hell. Should queasiness suddenly overtake you as you stroll Les Baux’s bleached paths, it’s always nice to know that you can retreat to the Oustau de Beaumanière.

You name them, and they’ve slept here—Winston Churchill, Leslie Caron, Albert Camus. Royalty has flocked from every spot on the globe—Elizabeth, Princesses Grace and Caroline, and even Deng Xiaoping, who overcame his populist scruples to spend the night. The Picassos loved it. Nonetheless, the Beaumanière is not spoiled by its reputation as a celebrity haunt. It remains very much the country inn that it was when it opened in 1945.

You stay in farmhouses, some of them dating back to the sixteenth century. With sun splashed facades wreathed with wisteria and wild roses, they are Provencal paradise. Rooms are sparely decorated with furniture whose clean, modern lines enhance the weathered fireplaces and flagstone floors. Leave your windows open in the morning, so that you may soak in the scents of the profuse flowers and herbs outside. Life is simple. There’s homemade jam for breakfast, and perhaps, later, a stroll around the tangled grounds. There’s a pool, but no gym, and certainly no spa.

Beaumanière is a family affair. Jean-Andre Charial took over from his grandfather, founder Raymond Thuillier, and, thus maintained its intimate, homely air. Charial, like his grandfather before him, is first and foremost a chef. Hence, when you are staying here, you must eat. This is, after all, the same kitchen that trained Wolfgang Puck. The dining room, with its cathedral ceilings and wrought iron chandeliers, is austere, but its diners are animated, its waiters are warm, the wine is rich, and the pigeon, stuffed with truffles, sublime. And its windows look directly onto the Baux cliffs. In the evenings, watch them flush red with the setting sun, and then, just as it turns dark, blaze with gold as all the lights in the surrounding houses switch on for the night. We promise, there’s no better way to perch on hell’s edge.

Los Gatos, if you’re not familiar, is a charming little town just outside of San Jose, nestled at the foot of the Santa Cruz mountain range. It’s no Silicon Valley insta-suburb, however — there was a Ferrari dealership on Main Street back when the internet was just a gleam in the Defense Department’s eye. All of which is to say that the Mediterranean-villa luxury of the Hotel Los Gatos doesn’t exist in a vacuum, or a strip mall — in fact in this town it makes perfect sense.

It’s a classic contemporary boutique hotel, and it’s on the luxurious side of things — not Ritz-Carlton stuffy but quite elegant and quite comfortable. There’s an outdoor pool, a spa called Elia, and a Greek restaurant called Dio Deka, which is appropriately Californian in its emphasis on seasonal, impeccably sourced ingredients.

There’s no denying the fact that the Hotel Los Gatos is all about its location. Aside from the occasional local weekender, most guests are likely here to do some business in Silicon Valley. And when you look at the corporate lodgings that predominate in the greater San Jose area, it’s no mystery why a certain subset of guests makes straight for Los Gatos.

The city of Dublin is cosmopolitan enough that there’s room for more than one painfully stylish boutique hotel; the Clarence is not the only game in town. Here on the north side of the Liffey—just north, in fact, overlooking the river—the Morrison Hotel is slightly less in the thick of it, but creates something of a scene of its own, with a fine bar and restaurant and some inspiring views of the water.

The Morrison’s style credentials are impeccable. The hotel is the brainchild of the Hong Kong-born Irish fashion designer John Rocha, and executed by the interior designer Douglas Wallace. The result is something rather like London’s better boutiques—ultra-modern, to be sure, but ultimately comfortable, even luxurious, quite obviously a hotel beneath all that modern design, in contrast to some of the more avant-garde design hotels we’ve seen, which possess all the warmth and hospitability of a museum foyer.

Rooms are decorated in a soothing palette of creams, browns and blacks, with the by now familiar Frette linens and high-tech entertainment centers. There’s more space than one might expect, and some of the views are extraordinary, the penthouse quite naturally having the best.

The surrounding neighborhood is relatively serene at night, compared with the Temple Bar district on the other side of the river, but the Morrison is a destination unto itself. The Morrison Bar looks out over the Liffey through wide open windows, and the Halo restaurant is one of Dublin’s most in-demand. Lobo, the auditorium-style nightclub, is open to the shocking hour of 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, making it something of a late-night mecca.

It’s almost unfair, if you dwell on it, that New Zealand, blessed as it is with natural gifts — from surf and sand to rainforests and rocky peaks — should be home to a booming culinary and winemaking scene as well. And a place like the Hotel d’Urville, in Marlborough, on South Island, could only exist in New Zealand; this charmingly urbane small-town boutique is located in Blenheim, which is not just the center of the Kiwi wine trade, but a scenic coastal town to boot, the kind of place where you can watch whales or swim with dolphins by day, and sample the South Island’s famous Sauvingnon Blancs by night — it’s a difficult life, but someone’s got to live it.

And the hotel is just as infuriatingly fantastic as its setting. It’s an Art Deco bank building in the center of town, converted into an intimate 11-room boutique, with no two rooms alike — from the Indian-style Raja Room to the signature French-style d’Urville room, each is an experience unto itself. Downstairs is the heart and soul of the d’Urville, its award-winning wine bar and brasserie, where you’ll find locally sourced seafoods and meats, organic regional produce, and an extensive wine list that leans heavily on local Marlborough vintages — it’s enough to make you curse your bad fortune for living so far from New Zealand.

Forget about the standard images of Amsterdam tourism: the canal houses, the cafés, the backpackers. The Braserie & Hotel Patou is something out of a different world entirely: from the upscale shops that surround it, to the ultra-stylish chocolate-and-cream bedrooms, to the name itself, an homage to the French fashion designer Jean Patou, it’s a hotel that’s dedicated to high fashion, something that’s not exactly up there with wooden shoes in the popular conception of what’s quintessentially Dutch.

But if you wanted standard you wouldn’t be here anyway. The 12-room Patou is delightfully compact, though hardly cramped. There was some knocking down of walls involved in the renovation, and it shows — by Amsterdam standards this floor plan is practically luxurious, and the room amenities are top-class to match, right down to the linens and bath products.

You may have gathered that there’s a brasserie here, and there is — it’s ideal for anything from breakfast through a rather late lunch. And of course it’s tantalizingly close to Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel and the rest of the shops along P.C.
Hooftstraat, which are among the likeliest reasons for choosing the Patou in the first place.

Singapore boasts an astonishing density of impressive hotels; among the best in town for three decades has been the Shangri-La.

Don’t let that number scare you; though — there’s little that’s identifiably Seventies about this place, as a thorough renovation has turned the Shangri-La from an opulent colonial fantasy into something sleeker, a sophisticated and contemporary environment, not at all dated or kitschy.

At the same time, don’t go expecting to see the new international style, that semi-anonymous minimalist design-mag look — though it shares certain fixations, such as open floor plans and glass-brick bathroom walls, it’s decidedly of its place. There’s no danger you’ll wake up thinking you’re in Stockholm or Barcelona.

As for services and amenities, underneath its new face the Shangri-La is still the same hotel that’s played host to countless VIPs and heads of state. The Valley Wing, particularly, is luxurious, with oversized rooms and a separate driveway and lobby. LCD televisions are the rule, even in the bathrooms, and the suites are serviced by private butlers. And the Garden Wing surrounds a sprawling atrium, rich with plant life to rival that of Singapore’s famous botanical gardens.

Four restaurants, extensive business facilities and all the sporting options you can handle — it’s all par for the course in this sort of hotel. You haven’t truly experienced proper hotel service until you’ve been pampered, Far East style, and the Shangri-La is a perfect example of the genre.

In downtown Copenhagen’s Latin quarter, just off the Strøget (the famed shoppers’ walk), is the Hotel Skt. Petri. The very large building was previously home to the Daells Varehus department store, and the hotel’s exterior retains the quaint, retro-futuristic look of the 75-year-old building.

The interiors are more modern, and the rooms are the perfect picture of the contemporary Scandinavian hotel room, from the blonde hardwood floors and eccentric-yet-sensible furniture to the golden sunlight streaming at a sharp angle through the windows. The color schemes are by renowned Danish graphic artist Per Arnoldi, whose characteristic blocks of colored fabric hang above the headboards.

Though a large hotel, with 268 rooms, Skt. Petri feels cozy and amiable, with the kind of personal service and unique detail that one expects from a little 30-room boutique. The old Scandinavian ideal of functional design for the masses is very much at work here — this is a comfortable and well-put-together hotel, from the humblest double room to the rooftop suite with its enormous open terrace.

Tokyo has its skyscraper-hotels, London has its converted Georgian townhouses, Germany its art hotels. If there’s such a thing as a uniquely American hotel concept, it’s probably the boutique motel — a prime example being the Hotel Valley Ho, in Scottsdale, the upscale and somewhat historic Phoenix suburb.

Motels like the original Valley Ho lined the highways of the United States back when “boutique” was still a French word — what’s new here is the emphasis on style, and the introduction of the kind of amenities that were once rarely seen outside the five-star resorts. The hotel, a Fifties building in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright, finds itself back in style now that mid-century modernism is all the rage. Dressed up in bold retro colors and modernist furnishings, it’s a bit of a time capsule, albeit one with contemporary glass-walled terrazzo-tiled bathrooms and anachronistic high-definition LCD TV sets.

The swimming pool, the center of any self-respecting motor inn, is still the center of the Valley Ho — it’s now surrounded by cabanas, and massages and treatments are available here or in the VH spa. Chef Charles Wiley serves Polynesian cuisine at Trader Vic’s and a 21st-century take on classic American comfort food at Café Zuzu, from mac & cheese to chicken fried steak and beyond.

How to get there:

Hotel Valley Ho is approximately 10 miles from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfer shuttle service. The cost is $20 USD per person for a meet and greet at the baggage claim.

While other Istanbul hotels emphasize the city’s ties to antiquity, Witt Istanbul Suites is every inch the ultra-modern contemporary-design boutique hotel. Formerly an ad agency HQ, it’s close by to the central business district, as well as some of the best shopping, dining and nightlife in this modern quarter — and Roka, the ground-floor brasserie, ensures that the Witt gets its own share of the nightlife action.

The design is by Autoban, the local firm that’s responsible for quite a lot of the contemporary-style interiors you’ll see around town. Their look for the Witt is modernist-inspired but also lush and luxurious, space-age lines expressed in rich textures of wood and leather — and in many places they’re using their own furniture designs, thus avoiding the off-the-shelf look of too many boutique hotels.

As for the suites there are just fifteen of them, each one outfitted with apartment-style comforts, including separate living rooms and kitchens as well as standards like flat-screen entertainment centers. We’ve seen “residential” hotels before, to mixed results, but Witt is the rare exception — it’s got not just the bells and whistles but character too, enough that you could actually imagine yourself calling it home for a while.

Just over a half-hour’s drive from Barcelona, in the Penedes wine region, the Can Bonastre Wine Resort sits near the foot of the Montserrat mountains, on a 250-acre estate that produces several varieties of red and white wines, and a bit of olive oil on the side. And these days it’s producing hospitality as well; the 400-year-old villa has been renovated in a contemporary style and turned into a twelve-room high-end boutique hotel, complete with spa, meeting rooms, and gastronomic restaurant — a far cry from the humble little vineyard inn of days gone by.

In the rooms and suites the style is as contemporary as can be, sleek and clean but far beyond minimalism. The hardwood floors and timbered ceilings giving a sense of the history of the old house, while the high-tech room amenities and the glassed-in bathroom pods are absolutely modern.

Can Bonastre adds an indoor swimming pool, a small and stylishly designed spa and two restaurants, one chic upscale Catalan and another casual and rustic. And while it’s a relatively new one, it is a working winery, and an environmentally conscious one to boot, fueled by solar power and purified rainwater.

How to get there:

Can Bonastre is approximately a 35 minute drive from Barcelona.

Madeira, among certain demographics, is something of a well-kept secret. Lush and subtropical, it’s the sort of place that’s very popular indeed with an older generation of travelers. But its pervasive calm is its greatest asset — if it were heaving discos and all-night debauches you were after, you’d be in Ibiza. If, on the other hand, it’s peace and quiet you’re after, Quinta da Casa Branca might just be the place.

Although the city is becoming busier and more developed every year, this elegantly restored walled-garden estate retains an otherworldly sense of quiet and simplicity. Flowers are simply everywhere; in the rooms, accenting the soft, neutral-toned furnishings, and out in the gardens, visible from every room through floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Suites and superior rooms open onto sun-drenched terraces overlooking the estate, and guided walks are available for those who simply can’t get enough flora.

The tranquil terraces and gardens of the hotel grounds certainly aren’t designed for thrill-seekers, but they are perfectly lovely scenic areas for strolling, reading, or taking tea. Breakfast is a highlight, as is dinner, served in the dining room of the old house or, in summer, by moonlight out on the terrace. Not exactly the wild life, one supposes, but for an arboreal idyll, not half bad either.

How to get there:

Quinta da Casa Branca is a 20 minute taxi ride from the Airport Madeira International and costs approximately 35 Euros.

Note: Nimb will be closed from January 1-15, 2009.

International jet-setters may come to Denmark in search of modernist furniture. But they’ll inevitably be surprised to discover that one of Copenhagen’s best-kept secrets, the Nimb, is anything but a design hotel — the quiet confidence of this 13-room lodging leaves the hard-striving hipster boutiques in the dust.

This building, bordering on the famed Tivoli Gardens, has been in the family for generations. While its present incarnation as a hotel is brand-new, the look is timeless, classic furnishings and top-quality materials arranged with a keen modern eye, familiar and at the same time totally unique. It’s the oldest cliché in the book to say that a hotel feels like a private home but every now and then it’s true.

Then again very few private homes come with a food market, a wine shop, a chocolatier and even a dairy — Løgismose handles its organic single-origin milk with a reverence more typically applied to single-malt whiskies or reserve wines. Not to mention the restaurants: Thomas Herman is one of the leaders of Copenhagen’s ongoing culinary revolution, and his eponymous dining room (along with Nimb’s more casual open-kitchen eatery) is among the hottest tickets in Northern Europe.