By mid-2016, the massive renovations and refurbishments of this 196-room hotel should be finished, and it will be 100% ready for guests wanting to enjoy everything Hot Springs has to offer with the homebase of a modern, clean-lined hotel.
This 14-story hotel is attached to Hot Springs’ convention centre. It is just a block from the main street of Central Avenue, with its multitude of independent shops and restaurants, and attractions like the Gangster Museum. You can walk into the national park to go hiking, to Bathhouse Row for a spa treatment, and to some of the best pizza on the planet at DeLuca’s Pizzeria.
Rooms have king or queen beds, so high you might have a little trouble climbing up into them. There’s a desk and an easy chair, and amenities include a coffee maker, microwave, and large mini fridge. The bathroom has a large sink counter, perfect for spreading out your things, and a large glassed-in shower.
In the lobby area, there’s a bar and lots of seating, as well as a large room which houses the breakfast buffet in the morning (in the evenings there’s often live music). Breakfast includes scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits and grits kept hot in chafing dishes, plus muffins, whole fruit, packaged cereals, brewed coffee and orange juice.
Check the hotel’s website for information on the fitness centre, pool and spa, not yet open during my spring 2016 visit.
From US$287 inclusive of breakfast and wifi
– Genuinely friendly and helpful staff
– Real southern biscuits served with honey (and grits too, if that’s your thing)
– Great views of Hot Springs National Park from rooms with sophisticated decor and lots of conveniences
– The pool and spa weren’t open yet during my stay
– Disposables instead of proper cups, glasses, plates and cutlery (in-room and at breakfast)
Johanna Read
Contributing Editor
Staff at Mine Hotel, in Buenos Aires’ Palermo Soho neighbourhood, are fantastic. They make you feel extremely welcome, and go out of their way to make sure you’re enjoying your stay. Two examples: We mentioned interest in a nearby restaurant for dinner. When we returned from our incredible lunch at UCO, staff had the address of the dinner recommendation all ready for us. At breakfast the next day, we were thrilled to discover they had soy milk. We’d just stayed at two other hotels within the family — Casa Calma and Ilum — and staff there passed on Paul’s allergy info and they made sure to have some on hand for his morning coffee. Isn’t that great service?!
Mine Hotel is designed to maximize your comfort too. Our room had a lovely sitting area — with a welcoming bottle of Argentine wine and some delicious nibblies — and a big bed with purple accents. Floors were cool concrete. I loved the red bathroom furniture against the natural rock wall, as well as the super cute soap dish and toothbrush glass which were embedded with buttons. The huge jetted tub for two, complete with bath salts and bubbles, was very tempting too.
While there’s lots of great restaurants nearby, if you feel like watching a movie in your PJs, the concierge will arrange dinner delivery from a vast selection of menus for you.
A big and delicious breakfast is included in rates. It’s served in a lovely room right next to a heated pool in a pretty garden. You can have breakfast served in your room too for an additional $10 charge. Hang out in the breakfast room in the afternoon and evening too, for snacks, wine and cocktails.
From US$160-215, plus 21% VAT, inclusive of breakfast
– Fantastic friendly service
– Lovely bathroom with jetted tub complete with bubbles and bath salts
– Little touches that often are overlooked in a hotel, such as a cushioning pad on the toilet seat so it doesn’t bang on the wall
– Big fluffy towels, but no robes
Johanna Read
Contributing Editor
Walking into this hotel is like a step into the cool past. As we entered through an arched hallway, the heat of Buenos Aires dissipates. We took an old fashioned elevator to the first floor and stepped into the dark lobby. Greeted by a friendly receptionist, we received several recommendations for where we could have a coffee or lunch nearby while we waited for our room to be ready.
Moreno Hotel’s San Telmo location can’t be beat, especially if you want to go to the Sunday San Telmo market which begins just around the corner. Staying here, you’re close to the Casa Rosada and Plaza de Mayo and all of San Telmo’s shops and restaurants. The hotel is in a gorgeous Art Deco building, which was distinguished by the city government, the minister of culture and the general board of museums as a “living testimony of the citizenship memory” and “historical patrimony of the city”. The views from the rooftop terrace, especially of the San Francisco church one block away, are great.
The cage elevator zoomed surprisingly quickly past gorgeous stained glass windows, but the interiors of Moreno Hotel can sometimes show their age. Our room had a pretty balcony and lovely high ceilings, but the dark blue wall needed repainting and the bathroom tile work needed repair. A cool patchwork cowhide throw rug decorated the floor next to the king bed, and we loved the lights that dimmed and the big windows from which we could watch a big Buenos Aires rainstorm.
Service at Moreno was a bit uneven and some hot foods at the breakfast buffet were cold, though the views would be lovely if you ate outside on the terrace. The hotel was going through a refurbishment during our visit, and challenges should be ironed out when it is completed.
If your priority in Buenos Aires is to experience the sites and you want to stay in a gorgeous heritage building, Moreno Hotel is beautiful and perfectly situated.
From US$100-140, inclusive of breakfast
– Large rooms in a beautiful heritage building
– Great jazz club (independent) in the basement
– The Moreno may be resting on its architectural laurels
Johanna Read
Contributing Editor
It feels great to stay at a hotel that makes a positive contribution to a community. Not just the typical minimal washing of towels and linens and recycling of newspapers, but a hotel that really makes a difference.
Skwachàys is that kind of hotel. This downtown Vancouver boutique hotel funds shelter-rate apartments for indigenous people who are at risk of homelessness, provides residences and gallery space for urban aboriginal artists, and hotel rooms for indigenous patients coming from remote areas of Canada to receive health care not available in their home community. And it provides 18 hotel rooms for socially-conscious travellers who want to learn more about Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and other indigenous peoples.
Skwachàys is in Vancouver’s Gastown, an up and coming neighbourhood that is too hip for words in some parts, and in others still scruffy around the edges. Each room at Skwachàys (pronounced “skwatch-eyes”) is unique, and was designed by a First Nations artist paired with one of Vancouver’s top hotel interior designers, who donated their services. Most of the rooms’ furnishings were donated too, including the luxurious Hypnos beds (Hypnos hand-makes “the most comfortable beds in the world”, and is the bedmaker of Canada’s and the UK’s royal family).
My room, the Water Suite, was designed by Corrine Hunt who was the co-designer of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic medal. It has riverstones decorating the bed’s headboard, and features the warm tones of natural wood with some pops of red colour. A stylized orca sculpture decorates one wall. We felt cozily at home with a fridge, microwave, safe, coffee maker, kettle, docking station, TV, and great wifi. The room was quite warm, so we were grateful for the big fan. Some Skwachàys rooms welcome pets and some have balconies.
The lobby is also a fair trade gallery featuring the works of local artists. During my visit Garnet Tobacco was in the gallery, and he proudly showed me his paintings and posed beside his painting of two loons.
Traditional indigenous designs are throughout the hotel. On the roof is a traditional west coast longhouse, adorned with a 40-foot dreamweaver totem pole and a 20-foot cascading waterfall (dry during my February visit). There’s also a traditional smudge room and sweat lodge, and guests can learn about the important part they play in Canada’s indigenous culture. In the welcome room, which features a warm fireplace, there’s a large feast table with the Haida three watchmen design, signifying sentinels guarding the village or lodge. It’s in this room that guests can grab their grab-and-go-breakfast (included in rates) to eat in front of the fire, in their room or as they explore Vancouver’s sites.
From US$145-175, inclusive of breakfast (lower rates in colder months)
– Each room is individually designed by an indigenous artist
– Your travel spending contributes to sustainable housing and economic development
– Hypnos beds
– We’re all for environmentally conscious heating and cooling systems, but our room was too warm (in February) at 25 C and only a manager (off-site for the weekend) could adjust it. The offer of a bottle of Nk’Mip wine to make up for it was sweet.
Johanna Read
Contributing Editor