Beyond the main hotel, the rooms at Portmerion are scattered all over the Village. This was more of a single-room cottage with kitchenette, tiny gas fireplace, private porch overlooking the cliff edge, the estuary, and the swimming pool, plus I had my very own pair of cannons in case I needed to defend the Village from invaders.
I loved it. If I had my cats and my laptop, I could live there.
I don’t recall the name, but it was a lovely place in Ubud, Bali, where each room was an individual small building - sturdier than I imagine a hut to be, but cozy with thick stone walls that kept the heat out. The bed was immense, and carved in the dark wood so favored there. Every morning a beautiful young woman would come to our door and leave an offering of fruit, rice, and incense (not for us, for the gods), and we’d walk a short private path through the lush flower gardens to the pool, where two more beautiful young women would make us delicious and free breakfast.
It was $26 a night, which was the most expensive place we stayed in, but it was so lovely we changed our plans and spent the better part of a week there instead of the planned one night.
I’ve also stayed in some of the big name hotels in the US, but nothing beat the beauty and charm of that place in Bali.
We stayed at the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge in Tanzania. If you look at the link, the pictures show you the outside and the view. They don’t look like much. But on the inside, facing the crater, the walls are floor-to-ceiling Italian glass. Wherever you are inside, you have that view: in bed, in a chair, in the shower, or sitting on the crapper. Upon arrival, they bring you a tray of sandwiches and choice of drinks to refresh yourself. At mealtime, you hear the drums and have your food on the lodge deck looking out over - you guessed it - the crater. In the morning you go on a game drive, descending 2,000 feet down.
We stayed in several lodges on safari, all of which I would take over the fanciest of hotels, even when they were just strongback tents.
I did have fancy digs once when I was a poor enlisted man. The command gave my ex-wife and I free tickets to the '84 Olympics in LA, which included a five-star hotel stay. I remember being quite impressed with having a telephone in the bathroom.
About ten years ago we traveled through Andalusia, staying for the most part in paradors, old palaces that had been converted into hotels. One of the most memorable was in Ubeda, a small city in the middle of olive orchard country, which had seen an enormous influx of wealth plundered from the New World in the form of gold. We had southeast corner rooms in Don Ortega’s 16th century palace with small balconies that put us about fifteen feet away from the huge sculpted saints on the facade of the Chapel of El Salvador.
When I was in book publishing during the boom years of the 1990s we were put up in some of the most dee looks accommodations, including the old Clift Hotel and the Stanford Court in San Francisco.
The Four Seasons in Chicago is at the very top of a skyscraper near Lincoln Park, and I got a suite on the 87th floor with a view over the old Playboy building and onto the lake. On the last day we were having a last drink in the hotel bar and learned that an incoming thunderstorm had cancelled all outgoing flights. Our publicity director sprinted for the registration desk and managed to re-book rooms for us all. This time I was on the western side. Watching a tremendous, violent lightning storm roll into the city over the plains – curled up in bed near the huge picture window – is one of the best things I’ve ever done.
Lucky girl! We stayed at Portmerion about three years ago, and the best room we could wangle was a double with king-size bed in the gallery just above the Restaurant, where Number Six was always sipping coffee or playing chess with mustachioed old Generals.
It would have been very cool to have gotten Cole Porter’s rooms in the tall house down by the Stone Boat, where he wrote Blithe Spirit.
Afew would qualify, but one of the top was ironically while hiking the Appalachian Trail, where what one pays for a stay is about $15-$20 night. Due to a rain storm in the Smokies and everyone wanting to get off trail, I get into Gatlinburg only to find all the hiker rate rooms taken (something like $30 for 4 hikers, standard hotel room) All they had is a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom suite with separate living room, dining room, kitchen, another living room. A section hiker (one who was not doing the entire trail) also wanted a room, and didn’t want many other hikers, they bought it including for my share, we each had a private room. Not it was not over the top furnished, but was decent stuff. What really got me was the not only the amount of room but the number of rooms, it was huge. So I was basking in spacious luxury while most other thru hikers shared with 3 others in a standard room.
Probably the ritziest place I’ve stayed is the Al Raha Beach Hotel (http://alrahabeach.danathotels.com/en/contact.html) in Abu Dhabi. Normally it was out of my range (I was on government per diem), but this was August when the average temperature reaches 120F and no one with any sense goes there, so the rates were within per diem. Lovely place, but probably didn’t get full benefit of the beach/outdoor activities (I was working and did I mention it was 120F?).
I second Chefguys’ mention of the Lodge at Nongorogoro Crater. And last year I stayed at a lodge in South Africa (http://www.karongweportfolio.com/karongwe/) with Hippo viewing sites 120 yards away) and the occasional passing-by antelope.
During the early day of the internet, there was a mistake when we tried to book a room at the Stratosphere; they bumped us to the Four Seasons. We picked it off for $150.
When we were in China, 20 years ago, there were very few hotels that were authorized to accept foreign visitors, and most towns and smaller cities had only one hotel with that designation. In one city (I think Xingyi) we were directed to an ornate old place with a circular carriage drive up to a palatial columned front, and we thought Oh No, this is really going to kick our budget. But it turned out that such lavish hotels always had a wing in back of simple rooms for drivers of the dignitaries who would arrive by the rare car. Those were quite affordable. Our room was simple, but the dining room was excellent, the same for everybody.
This past January I took my family (plus my daughter’s BFF) to the Disney Aulani resort for six nights. We had a 2 BR villa, which used up about 1100 sq. ft. on the two large bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a living room with a breakfast nook, and a fully-equipped kitchen. Also a balcony.
Retail price would have been about $1666/night at that time of year, but Kayla’s cast member discount allowed us to get it for $666/night.
My cousin was a nightclub performer in Cleveland in the '60s and '70s. In about 1972 he got a gig for a couple of months at a 5-star hotel in D.C., and we (my father, sister, me, aunt, uncle, and other cousin) went down for thanksgiving weekend. There was a huge blizzard so it took a long time to get there, but they put us up in an eight-room suite and sent us on a tour in a Rolls-Royce limo. I think they had to charge us something so it was like $20.
I recently stayed at the “Hyatt Regency Wuhan Optics Valley” in Wuhan, China. It was actually quite cheap as far as business travel goes (about a third of the cost of the Sydney, Australia hotel I stayed in on the same trip). I think it was close to $100 per night.
This place was crazy fancy compared to any other place I’ve stayed. Very modern too. Much cooler than I am by an order of magnitude.
My room was ~540sqft of luxury, with a marble bathroom with soaking tub and a walk in shower that was a room into itself. Extremely luxurious fittings. The electronic curtains and blackout blinds were a nice touch. The restaurant was amazing, although interestingly quite expensive compared to the room. It had a really great breakfast buffet, with high quality items associated with the West, Japan, and China.
It was especially highlighted by the excursion I went on over a long weekend, which was great but involved staying in cheap tourist hotels in small Chinese towns. The bed there wasn’t much better than a sheet over a plank, and a few scraps of toilet paper were a luxury!
Actually I’d like to change my vote to the Airport Hilton in Madrid which had a luxurious bathroom with a glass sink and a room which was large compared to the ones I’d stay at later on in the trip in England, with hanging gardens on every floor and mobile-like sculptures hanging from the top of the gallery, but what made it seem especially luxurious was that there didn’t seem to be anyone else in my tower: there were plenty of people at the breakfast buffet, so they must have filled the first tower full before starting me on the second tower.
But for luxurious rooms per se, I’d have to go with 2 out of the 3 times I’ve stayed at the DoubleTree at Breckenridge. One of the times my room was sort of tiny, but the other two times it was large enough to have a dining table and a living room table, both sturdily made, with great mountain views. The hotel itself though loses some points since although it is in a great location with a great restaurant, you have to take two sets of elevators to most rooms (the hotel is built on a hill and they must have horizontally staggered its construction.)
I’d say for my simple life it was a ski in/ski out condo at Snow Creek in Aspen Colorado where I stayed with a group. Nice to just ski down to the lift lines. I had a big pot of chili on the stove for when the guys got hungry.
Next was a bed and breakfast at the Amana colonies in Amana Iowa. It was a former big family home. Very cool history. Only time I’ve ever stayed in a room with a hot tub.
Last was staying at a deluxe cabin on a canoe trip at Windermere Resort. Not that it was so fancy but you have to understand that for most times over the years I had been on a canoe trip we slept in a tent and my big luxury was an air mattress. I almost felt guilty sleeping in a nice bed with sheets and air conditioning and a full kitchen.
The other villas all had multiple families. I ended up in my own villa, with its own pool. I even had my own breakfast chef who prepared breakfast on the porch and served me at a table that easily seated a dozen, but I sat at the one end and that was it. It was awesome.
For reasons I can’t remember right now, I somehow got a very good deal and we stayed a week at the Four Seasons in Seattle. This hotel is in a stalwart older building that used to be some other type of business, and the walls, ceilings and floors are very thick. We couldn’t hear squat from the neighbors, and the rooms were luxurious. We were a block or two away from Pike Place, and had easy walks to espresso joints and restaurants downtown.
Nowadays we always rent small vacation cottages, which can (but don’t always) cost as much as a nice hotel, but considering all the advantages they have, are worth every penny.
