Dreamy Hotels for Love, Business and Friendship

April 18, 2003 6:40 AM

So Your Lover, Your Boss or Your Best Friend Are Coming to Town to Spend the Weekend... Where would you put him/her up? If price were no object and you could choose a hotel/inn within 3 hours drive from where you live, what establishment would you choose? Would it be 3 different hotels? The same one? The so-called best hotels are so...uninspiring and silly. Your objective: to win him/her over completely. I love hotels (is this more a woman thing than a man's?) and I would choose these, respectively: Quinta da Capela in Sintra, and the Ritz Four Seasons and the Palácio Belmonte in Lisbon. [Please link!]
posted by Schweppes Girl (21 comments total)

I love hotels (is this more a woman thing than a man's?)

Oh, I don't think so.

Also:

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posted by languagehat at 7:11 AM on April 18, 2003

CardosoFamilyFilter
posted by matteo at 7:15 AM on April 18, 2003

I've always found this site a good place for a little middle-of-the-work-week vacation fantasizing.
posted by Cyrano at 7:23 AM on April 18, 2003

Hey Schweppes Girl, good to see you! I was wondering why we haven't seen you, but this post about stealing away to luxury hotels with lovers might explain things! That will be our secret - I won't tell Miguel.

Well if it had to be within a few hours of my home, I would probably go for the comfortable/casual elegance rather than the toney stuff...here's a lovely place on the Maine coast.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:27 AM on April 18, 2003

When I was a poor college student, I went to Quinta da Capela during the day and drank tea and pretended I was staying there. But, one of my favourite places I have ever stayed is the ultimate in-the-algarve-and-broke place: Rubi Mar.
posted by jeb at 7:49 AM on April 18, 2003

I spend half my damn life in hotels, and most of them all just blur together into one memory ... but a few stand out as being something entirely different.

My wife and I spent our honeymoon at the Il San Pietro, on the Amalfi coast of Italy ... and it turned out wowing us both so much that we go back there on anniversaries.
posted by MidasMulligan at 8:27 AM on April 18, 2003

if you type "kyoto ryokan recommendation" into Google you should get my recommendation right at the top. If you come to Kyoto and stay in a Western style hotel, why bother?
posted by planetkyoto at 8:38 AM on April 18, 2003

To impress someone :-
the Royal Suite at the Lanesborough, restored to Georgian glory in Hyde Park. (Probably not a good idea to put your boss up here though, they might think you're overpaid). That will set you back a few thousand, but you'll get butler and chauffeur service for it :). (This is if money is no object, obviously...)

For a friend :- the Barn Cottage is nice and quiet, and set away from it all. If not available, there are a number of these sorts of places scattered about the English countryside, each with their own unique charm, and in fact the further you get out of the cities the more gems there are - partly one suspects because city hotels can rely on transient business folk and tourists, whereas country hotels need to build up a regular clientele. The West Country and Yorkshire have some particularly nice former farms or mills which now provide accommodation - set in dales or woodland or on the moor, with a village maybe half an hour away on foot. :) These are very very good places to unwind in because they are so far away from it all. Sadly they don't tend to have websites, but three of the most peaceful holidays I've ever had have been in these kinds of places - in Malhamdale in Yorkshire, at a place called Coverack on the south Cornwall coast, and by a water meadow on Dartmoor.

I second planetkyoto's comment about staying in ryokan in Japan.

Good to see you, Mrs. C!
posted by plep at 8:51 AM on April 18, 2003

Bed and Breakfasts are definitely the way to go in the US, and a bunch of other countries. But fair warning, if you are a B&B type person, and you start looking at B&B websites, you will be daydreaming about your next holiday.
posted by kablam at 9:04 AM on April 18, 2003

Of course if you prefer world-class hilarious vulgarity, you'll send your guest to the Madonna Inn. If anyone's planning to invite me for an intimate weekend rendezvous, could you please reserve us the Caveman Room?
posted by SealWyf at 9:06 AM on April 18, 2003

Part of travelling is getting a taste of the local flavor and hanging out out with the folks who live there. That being said, lets hit the rv park!
posted by moses at 9:29 AM on April 18, 2003

The Nan Tien Temple in Wollongong, New South Wales, is the largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere, and it does accommodation. The whole complex is a fascinating place. I stayed six years ago. It was nice. (And I'd consider having my ashes stored in the pagoda there... )

The Red Victorian, San Francisco. It celebrates the Summer of Love.

The Green Lantern Inn, in the Drakensberg mountains, about halfway between Johannesburg and Durban. This is also a very peaceful place (a welcome thing if you have just left Johannesburg), with a nice vibe and an interesting Anglo-Boer War-related history; with the added advantage of being within driving distance of San rock art sites. The couple who run it are also exceedingly nice people.
posted by plep at 9:39 AM on April 18, 2003

Giraffe Manor in Kenya looks pretty cool.

Motel Americana.

Hospitality is part of the Sikh religion, so it might be interesting to stay in a Sikh gurudwara.
posted by plep at 10:04 AM on April 18, 2003

I'd go onto Priceline, pick 4 star hotel, and get a room for $36 a night, because the travel industry is totally tanked?
posted by gramcracker at 10:11 AM on April 18, 2003

I would set my boss and friend up at the impressive Post Ranch in Big Sur; My lover across the way at Ventana (more private sauna that doesn't require skivvies) . Myself, I'd stay down the road at modest but charming Deetjen's.
posted by G_Ask at 10:25 AM on April 18, 2003

Am I the only total dork who thinks that my own house is the best place to put those people? Except for my boss, I don't have a boss. I'll rent it out to any of you guys, dirt cheap.
posted by jessamyn at 10:44 AM on April 18, 2003

Coastanoa is a luxury camping resort on the Pacific ocean. You can stay in a lodge or one of their canvas tent accommodations, which I highly recommend. There’s electricity, the floors are heated, they provide big fluffy bathrobes, and you can still hear the crickets and the ocean. Breathtaking.
posted by maggeh at 11:04 AM on April 18, 2003

Am I the only total dork who thinks that my own house is the best place to put those people? Except for my boss, I don't have a boss. I'll rent it out to any of you guys, dirt cheap.
Oh, if only your barn was within 3 hours, jessamyn! Being relative, occasionally I get a visiting relative (usually the young ones traveling America) who is impressed with staying in a warehouse in East Oakland with real gunfire several times weekly. Just like TV ! Alas, my friends would prefer a hotel.
posted by G_Ask at 11:09 AM on April 18, 2003

*dream, dream, dream*

Wow, this was like going on a lovely blindfolded trip - thanks!

(Sorry about the not-so-good link.)
posted by Schweppes Girl at 11:30 AM on April 18, 2003

Is it a bad sign when the best hotel in your area (Amway Grand Plaza) is named after a multi-level marketing scheme?

But given that Chicago is within a three hour drive if you drive really fast on the highway and don't get stuck in too much of a traffic jam on the way in, I'd say the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, because it's really pretty and the only luxury hotel I know of with a shop that sells Krispy Kremes.

Though, realistically, I would say my own house is the best place.
posted by dagnyscott at 2:15 PM on April 18, 2003

CardosoFamilyFilter
*cries in laughter*
Sorry Mig, had to laugh...Matteo, thanks.
posted by thomcatspike at 4:01 PM on April 18, 2003