Now HERE'S a hotel

if you are interested in seeing - and staying - in an unusual hotel , have a look at this onne :

QUEBEC ICE HOTEL

I was comped a luxury suite at a Vegas Hotel once. It scared me, what with all the damn mirrors all over the place . It had a shower as big as my tobacco barn and a grand piano in an entertainment room. I felt that I needed a posse.

I like the neat Art Deco Hotels in NY where theyve restored the old buildings with the small rooms and suites.

I always wondered about that seasonal ice hotel. Its gotta be freezing in there, No? I mean consider the "shrinkage"

I like those kind of restored oldies too, Farmerman.


Off to look up the Ice Hotel. From the name, not too appealing. Hmmm, I bet there are some nifty hotels in Quebec..

Dummy doesn't understand the Ice Hotel, and the site doesn't explain it.

Ask dadpad! (His daughter works there.)

I like all the cool doodads in the Tokyo hotel. Hopefully some of 'em will trickle down eventually.

Even this techphobe was interested in all the design thought behind the doodads. Hmm, doodad, dadpad, drewdad, ddddddd.

Well, now, for the polar opposite (perhaps, I've no idea re the amenities) --
http://www.fairmont.com/frontenac/slideshowposting.htm?DisplayType=Popup

Not so sure re some of it, but I like that dining room, at least as a first take on it.

I'd definitely try that hotel if I ever bought a lottery ticket, and it won.

Though I'd rather have a shower in front of the window, than a tub.

~~~

OssoB, I think you'd like any of that series of railroad hotels. The hamburgers stayed in the local one when they were here just before Christmas. The Fairmont owners have done some nice gentle updating work.

This is the fanciest place I've ever stayed at, with my husband in some kind of comedy at the time, or it started out as such. (Wonderful evening indeed, including the pizza at a local bowling alley. But, so nice to see the sun set from the longest balcony in Toscana.)

I should explain. 1st trip to Italy. Basic budget stuff by ourselves. As it happened, we were lucky. The one star place I picked in Rome was charming, sort of funky, now a 3 star, with habitues from the FAO, so the lobby and breakfast room were very interesting re occupants. But never mind that, I want to talk about the place in Sesto Fiorentino outside of Firenze, near of couple of rather good gardens. I picked it to check out from our small american express guide book, still a good guidebook to Tuscany, if outdated by two decades now. It was some old castle listed as moderate in price.

We walked in and nearly ran out. But they saw us, greeted us.
My italian, never good, was better than my husband's, so I started in. But of course the woman spoke english. (I;m guessing now, perhaps the owner, or perhaps not.) I asked the room rate. I think it was $250. a night, and this was in '88. That was approximately 4 times our extreme max. (We travelled for a month, often at much lower room rates than that max.) Neither of us answered, busy as we were trying to figure out what to say. The woman said, well, we are just opening for the season, or maybe I surmised that. You may have a room for $150. We looked at each other. Then she said, without breakfast, $125. We looked at each other again, I turned to the woman and said that will be fine. (We got the matrimonial suite, lordie, angels apparently holding the chandelier in place...)

Here 'tis...

http://www.ila-chateau.com/villoresi/

That entrance hallway shown in the photos on the link is what made me want to turn around and run...






The prices listed on the site don't seem that bad, in relative terms re some of the stratospheric amounts some hotels charge. (just saw about one in Abu Dhabi with a top of $12,000. a day.) Quite a place. I'd stay there again in a minute, and would have dinner there the next time.

we've enjoyed staying at many of canada's RAILROAD HOTELS over the years - the hotels in the rocky mountains probably have the most stunning locations .



FAIRMONT CHATEAU LAKE LOUISE HOTEL
the mountains on one side - lake louise on the other - a stunning location



another one who likes these hotels - who are now under the FAIRMONT name - is a saudi prince . i agree , he has good tatse !
hbg

from article linked below :




source :
SAUDI PRINCE BUYS FAIRMONT

ps. haven't met the prince yet