What was the fanciest hotel or resort room you ever stayed in? Please share details like location, cost, and the amenities.
I arrived at the Venitian in Vegas one night and they didn’t have the room type I reserved. They upgraded me to a suite that must have been 2,000 sq feet. A sauna, gym, bar, dining room, and a killer view. I was alone and left early the next day. Never really got to enjoy it.
This is our next vacation room. We will definitely enjoy it.
OP is not really a General Question. Moved to IMHO for shared opinions.
samclem, moderator
My wife and I stayed at the Trump Tower in Chicago for an anniversary years back, burning off some credit card points before they expired. The stock photos on the website do a fair job of representing the rooms. We just stayed in the standard deluxe room, not a suite and it was $550/night
It was okay. This was before all the politics, of course, so that didn’t influence anything one way or the other. It was basically a hotel room only a bit larger and with nicer materials. We hung around, did anniversary stuff and giggled at the little pink rhinestone encrusted bottle of $18 water. We opened one “luxury” snack from the minibar and it was your usual overpriced mainly-empty bag with three little items at the bottom that were okay but nothing decadent or memorable.
It wasn’t a bad room by any means and I had no complaint but it wasn’t 3x better than a standard hotel room for 1/3 the price. If we hadn’t stayed for “free” on our otherwise expiring points, I may have been disappointed that I spent cash on the experience.
One time we stopped at a Hampton Inn that gave us (for the price of a regular room) a large room with comfy couch, easy chairs, big table etc., probably intended for business travelers).
I guess we aren’t the luxury hotel type.
Animal Kingdom Lodge with giraffes right outside the balcony. This was a work trip and just a standard room but nice.
While my Mother was in hospital in Atlanta and since I lived so far away there was a house that was built for the Olympic Village, but given to the hospital for families with critical patients. That room was very nice and the four poster beds were so tall there were step stools to get into them. Since there were other families there in the same situation it was a chance to decompress at night and the cost was $5 per day.
We once stayed at the Peachtree Plaza hotel in Atlanta and it was nice but the view was even better. I cannot remember the price back then but it was not cheap.
When I was a green traveler (1964) who knew nothing about frugality, traveling with a richer colleague, and stayed for a week in the Ledra Palace in Nicosia, Cyprus. It was actually affordable, and is no longer a hotel, but the stately headquarters for international organizations.
More recently, two years ago, I stayed at the Kirovakan Hotel in Vanadzor, Armenia, for four nights. Big rambling Soviet-era hotel with ornate chandeliers and a grand piano (guests welcome to play) in the sprawling lobby, very comfortably maintained, I was treated like family. Single listing today at booking.com for $12 a night, which I think is what I paid. Amazing Armenian style meals offered. Very few travelers, no English spoken. In any capital city, you couldn’t touch this place for under a hundred bucks. A rare jewel.
I’m with you, Jack. When I traveled it was to do something specific and rooms were of no concern. But I did travel on business to Lompoc which is nestled in a little valley on the west coast. At the time the military base had just cut way back and there were rooms for almost nothing, a real price war. I recall seeing signs for like $15 a night. Our government approved $79 rooms were the best I have ever stayed in with a kitchen, couches, etc.
I remember an old “Shoe” cartoon strip where the editor was writing an advice column. A reader wrote in and asked, “What do I look for on a wine label”? His reply, “Look for the same thing I do. $3.98”
Dennis
Spent a night in Blacksburg, VA on the way to OBX a couple of years ago. Stayed at the Main Street Inn, I think I paid about $130 and change. Very nice suite, right in the middle of town. Granted, “town” is really only a few blocks of typical college “Main Street” stuff and a sprinkling of more conventional small-towny stuff; I was actually quite surprised how small it was for a college town. But I was pleasantly surprised by the drink prices; I didn’t realize they were only $1-2 apiece until the check came. I looked at it and thought, “Damn, I could have drank here all day for like twenty bucks!” 
Anyways, not super-duper-fancy, but still really nice and a hell of a lot nicer than my usual hotel accommodations. It was the beginning of our vacation so I splurged.
A few years ago we took a vacation to Washington DC and New York City. In Washington we decided to splurge and spent the week at the Hay Adams. We were greeted by name when we walked up to the registration desk, the staff took care of every need we had with charm and efficiency, and the location (one block north of the White House) literally can’t be beat.
I don’t really stay in high end hotels, so I am going off of a very low baseline because most places I"ve stayed at were $50/night or less.
The best hotel I ever stayed in was the MGM grand in Vegas. We got a really good deal on a one night stay plus some other vouchers.
The Presidential Suite at The Belllagio in Las Vegas. Wow, that room was amazing. It had it’s own freaking steam room. It was $800/night.
I’ve stayed in various multi-room suites at kinda-swanky places like the Metropole in Brighton, the Hilton on Michigan Ave, the Vdara Hotel & Spa in Vegas, to name a few. They had all the amenities you would expect from that class of hotel and were certainly a step up from “nice”.
But the places I like best are ones that have great views looking out over the ocean or mountains or desert, like the Desert Pearl outside of Zion, the Shore Cliff in Pismo or the Tioga Pass Resort. I love staying at places like that because I can just kick back on the porch or balcony with a cup of coffee or a beer and soak in the fresh air and enjoy the natural surroundings.
Same here, although I was comped.
I’d say the grand bohemian in downtown Orlando which has original artwork strewn throughout and tasteful lounge/trip hop playing softly everywhere. I only splurged for it because the embassy suites was booked so I had to shell out the extra 100 bucks. This is the only time where I think a company should raise their prices since embassy is always sold out in the weekends, so if they upped the price a bit it could actually save me money.
A number of years back, I treated my wife and 2 daughters to a Lahaina Shores Oceanfront Penthouse Suite on Maui. Room was fantastic and the view was to die for, especially the sunsets. I paid about $300 a night, but because we booked a full week, the seventh night was free.
Back in 1986, my wife and I stay a few days at the Peace Hotel in Shanghai. The hotel was built in the late 1920’s and was (and still is) a landmark place right on the famous Shanghai Bund facing the Pudong area over the Huangpu River. At this time China had just opened up to “independent travelers” and the hotel was a little run down, but had lots of charm much like the other hotels in Asia from a bygone era like the Peninsula in HK, Raffles in Singapore and The Strand in Rangoon.
We stayed at the Hotel Estelar Milla de Oro when visiting Medellin, Colombia for the Christmas lights show. We chose a junior suite with magnificent view of the valley was about US$75 per night with expansive breakfast buffet. I see they have a promotion with meals included for two for about US$90 per night now.
More surprising to me was that the room service meals and minibar were very reasonable, dare I say normal, pricing. Nice room service 3 course meal for two was about US$22. Soda in the minibar less than US$1.
Mrs Iggy took advantage of a spa package including an hour long massage, all for about US$30.
When I was young my family stayed at the breakers hotel on the grounds of cedar point which had a long history but didn’t seem very luxurious to me. About the only greet thing was private beach access but I’m not a big beach person, I mean at least it’s not salt water but still. Then again I haven’t stayed at a Disney property that beats it.
Hong Kong. Man, that seems to be one wealthy city. I don’t recall the name, right in the center of the city seemingly, near the (oh crap what is the name) of the hotel that serves the high tea that tourists MUST attend. Anyway we could walk to that and it was across from a Outback steak house of all things. Huge room, huge bath, amazing shower, great view. Of course opinion may have been colored by my impression that the regular Chinese people seems to be living in tiny tiny tiny apartments.
Headed up a convention of about 1000 people a few years back. After some problems with the hotels in advance, we showed up in grand style, huge cashier’s check in hand, guests streaming in from all sides… and gave me the top-floor Presidential suite. I don’t know how many rooms it had; I got lost twice trying to explore it all. Every time you thought you’d reached an end, it turned out you walked through the little butlery to another sitting area surrounded by more rooms. 5,000 square feet?
It was a lot of fun and even impressed the Real Big Name Guests we could casually invite up for predinner drinks.