Montag, 10. Januar 2005

Hotel Victor. The Miami Herald reports on the new Hotel Victor. The hotel has all the mega-posh earmarks of a South Beach luxury hotel and is already receiving the sort of breathless press that precedes the opening of a new hotel. No wonder then Hotel Victor is making sure that its secret origin remains under wraps. It[base ']s (gasp!) a Hyatt. Hotel Victor[base ']s draws include a [base "]vibe manager[per thou] (basically a concierge of coolness), a ice covered vodka bar and a a lobby aquarium full of jellyfish. The article quotes Hyatt VP Victor Lopez. [base "]If you say I[base ']m going to the Hyatt South Beach, their perception of what they[base ']re going to get is totally different from this.[per thou] Rooms at the Hotel Victor run upwards of $450, which is a bit above standard Hyatt prices. But the Hotel Victor is full of luxuries such as pillow menus, bath menus and a cigar menu with $1,500 pre-embargo Cubans. Can a Hyatt be cool? Or is it a bit like the Olive Garden suddenly serving wagyu beef and Cristal? [Luxist] 10:37:05 AM    comment []

New Hotel Trend--The Non-Hot Spot. We[base ']re all familiar with luxury hotels in South Beach, New York or Los Angeles. But Greenwood, Mississippi, Aurora, Ohio and Fargo, North Dakota? Today on Ohio.com there is an article about Walden Country Inn and Stables, a luxury country inn which we recently wrote about when they became Ohio[base ']s first five-diamond rated resort. The country inn has its own movie theater, private loft suites and an indoor horse arena that is one of it[base ']s primary draws. Recently, Forbes.com listed their places to stay in 2005 and on that list was The Alluvian in Greenwood, Mississippi. The Alluvian, owned by the Viking Range Company, is a luxury hotel with stainless steel fireplaces, flat-screen TVs and the type of decor one would associate with a New York boutique hotel. The place we really want to stay at is Hotel Donaldson, an art-filled boutique hotel in Fargo, North Dakota, a place we learned about when Hotel Chatter interviewed the owner. At Hotel Donaldson each suite is designed around the work of a single artist. They also have a rooftop hot tub, a restaurant featuring locally-grown organic meat and produce, heated ceramic tile floors and one room has a soak tub that fills from the ceiling (shown here). Is the promise of a gorgeous place to stay enough to lure you to a place you never considered visiting? [Luxist] 10:36:24 AM    comment []

The joy of being frozen. Fancy a $3,250 Canadian trip to the edge of the Arctic, sleeping five nights in an igloo that you have to build? Churchill Wild, an eco-tourism company, invites travelers to an exploration of the Polar Bear Lodge area by dogsled, snowmobile or tundra buggy while looking for polar bears, caribou and seals. Possibility to skip the DIY igloo for a nearby heated lodge. Via WandaLust < LA Times. The second Absolut Icebar in the world after that of Stockholm, opened a few months ago in Milan . Everything is made from crystal clear ice from the Torne river in Sweden, including the wall, counter, sofa, lamps, the glasses that serve the cocktails, etc. Temperature inside is -5 centigrades, so thermal cape and a pair of gloves are handed to you at the entrance. The ice will last six months and the bar will then be reconstructed. Via Milano da bere. While we're at it, don't miss the pictures of last winter Snow Show in Lapland. Sixty icons and emerging artists and architects designed large scale structures out of snow and ice. Related entry: the Ice Hotel. [we make money not art] 10:32:15 AM    comment []