Cedarbrook Lodge is just a five-minute drive from SeaTac airport but you’ll feel like you’re in the wilderness. The hotel is set on 11 acres of greenspace surrounded by an additional seven acres of wetlands. Its 167 guest rooms are spread over three low-rise buildings looking out over vast lawns, flowering trees, gardens, and the treed wetland separating the hotel from SeaTac. There are several walking paths plus places to lounge outside surrounding fireplaces.
Our room had a balcony just above the chef’s gardens. The desk area was big enough for one of us to work with space to spare for a delicious room-service delivery of cheeses and charcuterie. I relaxed in the easy chair with my ipad, admiring the original artwork and trying hard not to turn on the 42” HDTV. After a full-day of activities in the marvelous Seattle Southside neighbourhood, I was happy to climb into the comfortable king-size bed with a buckwheat pillow chosen from the pillow menu. My sleep was fantastic.
Unlike at many hotels, there was plenty of room for two in the bathroom. I loved the travel-inspired Natüra amenities marked Roam, the big bathroom counter, well-lit mirror, and the glass-walled walk-in shower. The tiny light on the shaver outlet was a nice nightlight for a late-night bathroom visit without being blinded by the overhead lights.
Though an extensive room service menu is available, don’t miss dinner at the Copperleaf. Be sure, though, to save room for an ice cream snack later from the Living Room. Each of Cedarbrook’s three residential buildings has a fireplaced Living Room, filled with couches, easy chairs, books, a TV, a fridge to store your perishables, and lots of complimentary snacks.
Also included in room rates is a large breakfast buffet featuring several local products including charcuterie from Armandino Batali’s Salumi (yes, his son is chef Mario Batali), eggs from Mad Hatcher, milk from Springbrook Farms, and the hotel’s own honey.
Onsite at Cedarbrook Lodge are a large light-filled gym, equipment for lawn games, and an outdoor hot tub. The large spa has a full range of services plus a relaxation room with fireplace, a patio area, and a sophisticated room for pedicures that might even convince the men to indulge.
Cedarbrook is the ideal place to hold meetings and retreats for eight to 300 guests. They have 23,000 square feet of conference space. Most of their 13 private meeting rooms have huge windows and look out onto the tree-filled grounds. The auditorium has all the desired tech including individual laptop ports and Dolby-Digital Surround EX sound. The business centre is open 24/7 and has the capacity to not only print documents but to shred them too.
Pets are welcome in some rooms for a $50 surcharge, and there’s even a room service menu for dogs featuring meatloaf, baked salmon, lamb, and chicken.
From US$200, inclusive of wifi, extensive breakfast buffet, Living Room snacks, and shuttle from Seatac airport, Seattle Link light rail, or the Tukwila Amtrak platform. Parking fees vary with room rate.
– The Living Room stocked with Häagen-Dazs ice cream, string cheese sticks, yogurt, chips, and signature malted milk balls.
– Copperleaf Restaurant’s farm-to-table menu.
– Chic pinstriped robes with microfibre inside and seersucker outside.
– My stay was about a week too early to see the corridor of cherry trees in bloom.
Johanna Read
Contributing Editor
This contemporary tower hotel is perfectly located in Seattle’s Belltown. It’s close to this trendy neighbourhood’s variety of restaurants, bars, galleries and shops, and a short walk to Pike Place Market, downtown, and to the Space Needle and Pacific Science Center.
We have a marvelous 18th-floor-view of the Space Needle through our room’s sliding glass doors. The room has lots of space for a king bed, fold-out couch, and a large work desk, and even for a massage table from the on-demand therapeutic massage service, Soothe — the ultimate in treats after a long day of travel.
The Warwick Seattle’s rooms have thoughtful amenities — an immense television with premium channels, a well-stocked mini bar, a coffee maker featuring Seattle’s Best Coffee and Harney & Sons teas, and bathroom amenities by Gilchrist & Soames. Thoughtful inclusions are a hidden set of international outlets at the desk and charging facilities on both sides of the bed, including a clock radio with phone and multiple charging ports and wires, just in case you forget to bring yours. The safe has ample room for two laptops and all the other electronic paraphernalia we travel with.
The Warwick has a small pool with hot tub in the basement and a well-stocked gym. The lobby features a spacious business centre and a relaxing area around an inviting fireplace. Their restaurant, Margaux’s, has an international menu. Self- and valet parking is in a parkade next door. While there is no elevator, it’s no problem to park at street level while you unload your bags.
In summer 2017, the Warwick Seattle has a special “Win a Warrior” package, in conjunction with the Pacific Science Center’s April to September exhibit “Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor”. The package includes two VIP passes to the exhibit as well as a chance to win a full-size replica of the warrior on display in the lobby.
From US$119 – $434, packages available which include wifi, mini-bar, breakfast and other perks
– Very spacious rooms for a city hotel
– Views of the Space Needle and Elliott Bay
– Wifi is $11/day unless a package is booked
Johanna Read
Contributing Editor
Designed and owned by an accomplished interior designer, the Cabochon Hotel is throwback to the period of Shanghai chic in the 1920s. Although only a few years old, as soon as you glimpse the hotel’s ivory-coloured colonial facade and step across the threshold onto the exquisite mosaic-tiled floor you are transported to a different era.
The hotel has a wonderful location down a short, quiet lane off Sukhumvit Road, a busy Bangkok thoroughfare with restaurants, malls, grocery stores and clothing stores.
Check-in is done in the tiny library while sipping on coconut water straight from the fresh nut. The atmospheric room is packed with vintage magazines and books, old-style packing cases and other antiques. Soon we are being shown to our third-floor room which, like all thirteen rooms and suites, is decorated simply in muted colours and filled with vintage fixtures and fittings from light switches to doors to entire antique windows. We loved the aged wooden floor boards and the retro white tiled bathroom complete with a very modern first class raindrop shower (bring your own hair conditioner, none is supplied).
The spacious room shares a large lounge area and kitchen with three other rooms (although we had it all to ourselves whenever we used it). The fantastic kitchen has heavy wooden cupboards, huge marble sinks and a large fridge stocked with soft drinks and plenty of drinking water. There’s also a kettle, microwave, stove top and small supply of tea bags.
The highlight of the property is the long and inviting rooftop pool. Set on the 5th floor, the very comfortable sun loungers catch the breeze on oppressively hot Bangkok days and provide an ideal resting spot between daytime sightseeing and nighttime eating and drinking.
From US $185 including breakfast
– Huge supply of vintage books and magazines for guests to peruse
– Friendly and helpful staff
– Quiet but moments away from restaurants, supermarkets and BTS sky train
– Three very large terrapins kept in a completely unsuitable, small bare plant pot by the front entrance
– Breakfast is served in the bar which has low tables, meaning most guests were stooped over or eating from a plate in their laps
Cabochon Hotel is a member of Secret Retreats, a community of like-minded owners of small independent boutique hotels, boats and restaurants peppered around Asia
Steve and Candice
Review Team
The imposing private house at the centre of this riverside boutique hotel was built over 100 years ago by Prince Chakrabongse and is now owned and occupied by the prince’s granddaughter, Narissa. Scattered amidst the lush tropical gardens which surround the former royal home are 13 rooms and suites, lovingly designed by Narissa to offer a place of peace and serenity in a city which is sometimes overwhelming.
The comfortable standard rooms are entered through intricately woven Balinese wooden doors and are decorated with Moroccan-influenced fabrics which contrast with monochromatic walls. The rooms have some storage space and are en-suite, have shared tea and coffee-making facilities and a plentiful supply of bottled drinking water.
The suites are more extravagant, particularly the River View suite and the most recent addition, the Chinese suite. The former is a first-floor one-bedroom teak apartment with a very large wraparound deck and sun beds gazing out over the Chao Phraya River towards the Temple of the Dawn.
The Chinese suite is the hotel’s most appealing accommodation. It’s a uniquely styled apartment filled with Chinese antiques, wooden doors and furniture, and ample space for four people. The suite is set over two floors and includes two private terraces with sunbeds and a seating area.
Downstairs consists of a well-equipped living room and kitchenette and a twin en-suite bedroom. Up the spiral staircase you’ll find an en-suite double room with four-poster bed and red silk-clad walls. There is also a wooden desk and chair and striking antiques.
The Chinese suite has direct access to the hotel’s saltwater pool which in turn leads to the riverfront and the restaurant. Breakfast and dinner have to be ordered in advance from a set menu so the chef has time to buy the food fresh from the colourful local market.
Enjoying a freshly-cooked Thai meal in Chakrabongse’s restaurant while watching the river traffic on the Chao Phraya is a perfectly peaceful end to a busy day of soaking up Bangkok’s countless attractions.
Chinese suite from US$765; standard room from US$165, both with breakfast
– a short stroll from some of Bangkok’s most popular attractions including the Grand Palace and Wat Pho
– close to the public riverboat station and a short taxi ride from the main train station
– beautiful gardens and pool make it easy to relax and forget you’re in such a huge metropolis
– Full breakfast is only available from 8am, making an early start for sightseeing difficult
– Both showers in the Chinese suite are over bathtubs
– Maintenance could be improved
Chakrabongse Villas is a member of Secret Retreats, a community of like-minded owners of small independent boutique hotels, boats and restaurants peppered around Asia
Steve and Candice
Review Team