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W Hotel – Barcelona, Spain

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The eye-catching, sail-shaped hotel at the very edge of the Barceloneta neighborhood is where we decided to stay for our 3 nights in Barcelona.  The W Barcelona was very luxurious, but felt worlds away from the rest of the city.

Price.  Expensive.  I don’t know the exact dollar/euro amount, but we spent 20k starpoints per night.  Looking at prices in May and September of 2013, the lowest level room is €350-415.  So, paying with points was definitely the better option for us!  An alternative Starwood hotel is the Le Meridien, which is slightly cheaper and much more conveniently located to most of the attractions and transportation in Barcelona. 

Location. Right on the beach (there is a direct access from the hotel) and great for relaxing (by the pool).  However, other than that, the location wasn’t great for seeing the rest of Barcelona.  We felt isolated from everything.  It took us around 40 minutes to walk to the Gothic neighborhood, which was our favorite area in the city (next time we’ll look for a hotel there).  With the heat and humidity, we wasted a lot of energy walking back and forth between our hotel and it definitely had a toll on the activities we had planned. 

Room. Gorgeous and comfortable, with a fantastic sea view.  The room was set up just the way I like it – the bed was in the middle of the room, facing the bench-to-ceiling windows.  And the W beds are so comfortable.  

Dining.  Like most Starwood hotels, the W has food that is readily available and expensive.  We were very hungry our first morning in Barcelona and opted to eat at one of the hotel restaurants before heading out for the day.  Unfortunately for us, both options were €30 per person, so although we got enough food to hold us over until our late, light lunch, it was more than we wanted to spend.  We also enjoyed some drinks and snacks at the bar on the ground floor and at the hotel bar.  Again, none of it was well-priced, but you’re paying for the luxurious ambiance (the hotel pool was especially nice, with comfortable benches and tables and lawn chairs by the pool). 

Amenities.  All of the expected amenities of a Starwood hotel, with a few extras worth mentioning:

  • Private beach access: walking down the steps from the lobby brings guests to the private beach area specifically for W guests.  There are towels and lawn chairs available to use (free of charge).  
  • Nice pool/lounge area, but fairly impractical for swimming.  It was hot (over 90 degrees F) while we were there, but, just like other European pools, the water was so cold that we couldn’t stay in for more than a few minutes without worrying that our heart might stop beating.  That being said, we snagged a booth while we ordered snacks and drinks, and then moved to the lawn chairs that sit right in front of the pool, so we definitely enjoyed ourselves.  Beautiful area to lounge around at and work on the tan, but not so great if you actually plan on swimming.
  • Gold Check-in Amenity :  At check-in, we received the choice of free wifi for the stay (normally 19 euros per night!), two free drinks, or 250 starpoints.  I chose the free wifi, but the man at the desk was super nice and also gave us two free drink certificates (beer, wine, or cava only).  A few days after checking out, I signed into my SPG account and realized he also gave us the 250 points!

 If we could go back in time, I would have chosen a different hotel for this trip.  The location was a huge drawback that we didn’t fully anticipate while planning.  Taking a taxi everywhere was an option (and that made the distance more bearable), but being able to step out of the hotel and into middle of the city is a benefit we won’t overlook on our next trip. 

 

Orange 3 House – Lisbon, Portugal

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Amateur traveler reviews are often instrumental in trip planning.  Actual experiences and undoctored photos have proven much more reliable than short descriptions in guidebooks or glamorous hotel websites.  Accordingly, we wanted to share our own impressions of our hotel choices during our recent trip to Portugal and Spain for the benefit of other travelers.

Our reviews start in Lisbon, where strong TripAdvisor.com reviews led us to Orange 3 House for our 3 night stay.  Orange 3 House is a 3-room bed & breakfast located in the heart of Lisbon.  The B&B’s proprietor, Igor, is extremely enthusiastic about the city of Lisbon and very dedicated to perfect the experience of his guests.  His recommendation led us to Guarda-Mor for fado, which I just incidently described as my “best memory of 2012” to a group of friends.

Our room on the third floor at Orange 3 House in Lisbon was modernly apportioned with plenty of natural light.

Price. €105/night for 2 people (including breakfast) on the 3rd floor (Suite 3).  Orange 3 House offers tremendous value, considering its location in one of Lisbon’s most interesting ,pest free garden and convenient neighborhoods and modern amenities.You can also contact experts from pest control portland to avail pest control services and to make your garden more impressive.You can save €10/night by staying in the rooms on the first and second floors, neither of which have the partial views of the Tejo River available in our room.  Prices drop an additional €10/night across the board in low season.

Location. Orange 3 House is located between 2 of Lisbon’s top neighborhoods for cuisine and sightseeing, Chiado and Bairro Alto.  It is directly adjacent to the Elevador da Bica (the focus of many Lisbon photographs) and a short walk to both Cais de Sodré and Rossio stations, which offer connections to popular day trip options Belém and Sintra.  The only time we ever needed a taxi during our stay was to connect to and from the airport.  We can think of no better spot for a Lisbon home base.

Room. We stayed in Suite 3, located on the 3rd floor.  The room featured a small balcony with partial views of the Tejo River (pictured below).  Unlike many other accomodations in Europe, Orange 3 House has floor-to-ceiling windows that allow ample natural light into the room.  It also offered a spacious shower (with the overhead rain nozzles that are becoming so popular) and modern conveniences like a flat screen television are free wi-fi.  Our room was the perfect place to relax and enjoy a bottle of wine before heading-out for dinner, especially after opening the large windows to enjoy the evening breeze and sounds of the city.

The balcony on Suite 3 at Orange 3 House offers partial views of the Tejo River.

Dining.  We were given a free bottle of wine at check-in and had access to the downstairs fridge for affordably priced beers, more wine, and snacks at any hour during our stay.  The breakfast is continental, but was delicious and provided us plenty of fuel to get through to lunch.  Every morning, we were surprised with a new local specialty pastry that was included as part of the breakfast, which was a nice touch.  We were also packed a to-go breakfast when we needed to catch an early morning flight our last day, which we certainly hadn’t expected!

Amenities.  Igor offers his guests free wi-fi, which had a strong signal on both the top floor and in the lobby.  I would recommend you go through Orange 3 House to arrange your transportation to and from the airport.  We tried to get our own cab on the way there, and they were unfamiliar with the neighborhood (dropping us off at the top of the Elevador, thinking the streets below were pedestrian only) and overcharged us.  On the way back, we had Igor arrange our taxi back and he picked us up right outside, and charged us the fair rate.

If we are lucky enough to return to Lisbon in the near future, I expect we won’t even to bother researching places to stay, given our complete satisfaction with Orange 3 House.  We were amazed by Igor’s superlative hospitality and loved our room and location.

London Hotel Pre-Trip Worries

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We are able to make this trip to London, which is our second trip to Europe this year, because we are using Starpoints for our entire hotel stay (hotel = completely free).  From time to time I look at hotels on SPG and dream about traveling.  I happened to look at the London hotels and noticed that one, the Park Lane Hotel, was only 12k Starpoints per night, which seemed like a steal!  Ryan took a look and confirmed the great location, and we began to look into the trip a little more to see if we could actually afford it.  

Since our hotel was chosen for us based on affordability, I skipped the part of the planning process where I read reviews.  Well, after returning from Portugal and Spain, where we stayed at two Starwood properties, I decided to start looking up some information about the Park Lane.  I started on flyertalk, which I love to read because everyone there travels like crazy and is honest about the hotels they stay in and the airlines they fly.  Of course, I can’t usually relate because most are flying business or first class and have hundreds of thousands of hotel points, but it’s still fun to read.

In this case, I found myself horrified by the negative reviews of the hotel.  In some cases, travelers actually changed hotels mid-stay (and often moved to the much-nicer Le Méridien Piccadilly).  The reviews caution future travelers against staying at the Park Lane Hotel with it’s dated and noisy rooms, but mention that an upgrade to an Executive Room (the ones that were actually renovated recently) can be worth the low cost of the hotel.  Also, there are some reviews that were positive; it’s just that the negative reviews overpowered the positive ones.

So here I am, imagining that the room will look something like this (pictures taken from the SPG website):

But after looking through the traveler photos on Trip Advisor, I’m worried we might get stuck with one of the small, dated, noisy rooms, with an old hair dryer, a makeshift A/C unit (luckily we’ll be there in November!), paint peeling off of the walls, and dirt left in the shower.  

At this point, we are not changing our hotel.  Some of the positive reviews mentioned upgrades at the Park Lane – either because they have status with SPG and received the upgrade for free upon arrival or they were sent a deal before the stay where they could secure an upgrade by paying a certain amount.  We are SPG Gold, but so far that has meant little to us in Europe (no upgrade in Barcelona or Madrid), so I am not too confident that an upgrade will happen in London.  And since we’re SPG Gold, I don’t want to pay for an upgrade when, if available, we should be offered one for free.  Even if an upgrade is only £30 per night, it adds up to £210, which is over $300.  And we’re staying here for free.  That’s the whole point – it’s 100% free, no taxes, fees, or anything. 

With about a week and a half until we get to London, the best I can hope for is that our room will be fine.  We plan to spend most of our time away from the hotel, so a less-than-perfect room will definitely be acceptable.  That being said, we will be staying at the Park Lane Hotel for 7 nights, so I expect a clean and comfortable room, with a working hair dryer!  I can’t see myself demanding a new room, but I also don’t want to give in and settle for a room we are not comfortable in.  

There’s not much to do now but wait and see what the hotel and room are like when we arrive.  I’m hoping for the best!

 

Techniques for Choosing a Hotel: Granada

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I want to start this post by mentioning, in case we haven’t already: we are not budget travelers.  Do we like to save money? Yes, of course, but at this point in our lives we can afford to spend a little extra while traveling.  This doesn’t mean that we won’t consider cheaper hotels, free activities, and less expensive dining, but we definitely do not plan our trip around spending as little as possible.

And with that, I would love to share a little about our the trip-planning process – how Ryan and I choose our hotels.  There are so many different ways to start the search, so hopefully this will help a few people!  Here is an outline of the steps we took for our Portugal and Spain trip, and Granada specifically:

  • Determine which is the best neighborhood to stay (either reading Trip Advisor forums, other online travel forums, Rick Steves – books, shows, online, etc). In some cases there isn’t necessarily an advantage to staying in one area or another, so we do not always limit our search to one area.
  • Go to spg.com and see if there are any Starwood properties in the cities.  We have the Starwood American Express and are SPG members with points in the account, so it’s good to know the options.  We won’t always want to stay in one (many of them are huge hotels, and this isn’t always alluring), but there may be a deal that’s too good to pass up! (note: there are no Starwood properties in Granada)
  • Go to Trip Advisor and search for hotels and B&Bs in each city. If there is a specific area we would like to stay (see first bullet), start search focused on that area.
  • Start going through the top hotels (especially if there are hundreds of hotels for a particular city) and look through traveler pictures. If a hotel/B&B has some nice pictures, look at the actual hotel website and start making a list of potential hotels, taking in consideration the prices, views, amenities, etc.

It’s a pretty basic process, but can take a long time for some cities. We usually find one or two hotels that we really like, and it makes it easy for us to book. However, we’ve found several with Granada and I’m actually not sure where we’ll end up. Here are the hotels we’re looking at, with a few pictures:

1. Hotel Casa 1800 Granada

I mentioned this hotel in this post. The location is great – seems like it’s exactly where we want to be. Aside from the location, they have a “snack bar” for guests and free breakfast. However, the rooms are a little expensive, especially since they don’t look like anything too special. Apparently some of the rooms have a balcony (or the hotel has a balcony for all guests), but it’s not really clear which rooms have the balconies or the views. (All pictures taken from the hotel website.)

2. Carmen la Alcubilla del Caracol

This hotel is very close to the Alhambra, and some (or all?) of the rooms have balconies with views. The rooms like basic, but nice and clean, and the price is 120-140 euros, which is within our “budget.” The outdoor areas of the hotel also look very beautiful. The hotel website doesn’t list the specific rooms or availability, but I am interested in this hotel and will email to find out if there is anything for the nights we’ll be there. (All pictures taken from the hotel website.)

3. Solar Montes Claros

I found this hotel and instantly fell in love. The room I really like was the “Persia” room. It has a nice tub and looks very comfortable and cozy. The hotel has great views and while it’s not right in town, it’s nothing that we can’t handle. I sent an email a few weeks ago asking for availability, and it turns out they are completely booked already.  So this won’t be our hotel in Granada, but I wanted to include it in this post anyway. (All pictures taken from Trip Advisor.)

4. Santa Isabel la Real

This hotel still has availability, and luckily the tower room isn’t booked yet. I’ve included a few pictures below – look at that view! The hotel also serves breakfasts and gets great reviews on Trip Advisor. It’s about $250/night, but it’s the best room in the hotel, so it just might be worth it. (All pictures taken from the hotel website.)

The decision: After spending a little more time reading reviews, we decided to book Carmen de la Alcubilla del Caracol.  In case other travelers are interested in the booking process, I emailed a request for information for the dates we would be staying.  I received an email back with the rates (120, 130, or 140 euros) and information about the rooms at each price point (FYI, all rooms have a view, but only some have a balcony).  There is also the option of adding a breakfast for each morning for 8 euros/person, which we are excited to take advantage of.  We can’t wait for Granada!

Hotel Casa 1800: Sevilla and Granada

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Right after we booked our plane tickets to Portugal and Spain, Ryan and I went crazy looking for hotels. Ryan found the Hotel Casa 1800 – one in Sevilla and one in Granada. Both have great location (we think) and Ryan was especially in love with the De Luxe room at the Sevilla location. And I don’t know if I can blame him. Here are a few pictures of the Superior Room, from the hotel wesbite: 

The best part is the terrace with the jacuzzi tub. But, this isn’t our honeymoon and, while that doesn’t mean we can’t stay in nice hotels, we are trying not to go over-the-top and spend too much money on hotel rooms. Especially since we won’t be spending much time there anyway! This room was over 200 euros a night, which isn’t horrible, but we’re trying to keep costs lower than that. As of now, we have not made a decision on Sevilla, but we’re hoping to do so in the near future.

So now to Granada. I’m not sure which hotel Ryan found first, but the hotel website provides links to both, so it was natural for us to be curious about the hotel in each city. Here are a few pictures from the hotel site:

It does look amazing. But there are so many places to stay in both Sevilla and Granada, and it seems silly to stay in the same hotel in two different cities. Especially since we don’t know what they are really like. We’ve looked at more hotels, especially in Granada, so I’ll spend some time comparing the options.