We landed from Paris at around 10AM, and were departing the next morning at 10:30AM. We were in South Africa to go on safari, but rather than continuing to our first camp immediately, we decided to first spend a night in Johannesburg: -- Given that safari…
I had to be in New York for meetings earlier this summer, and decided to take the opportunity to check out some of the new World of Hyatt properties in the city, starting with The Beekman, a Thompson Hotel. The Beekman is a Category 6 property for World…
We had two nights in Paris, and I decided to book the Park Hyatt Paris for that time. I reviewed this hotel a bit over a year ago, so won't be writing a full review this time. Rather I'll focus on the rooms we received (which were different than last…
We had a great time in Santorini last summer, so this summer we decided to visit Mykonos. We decided to book Santa Marina, which is a Marriott Luxury Collection property, using points. Hotel rates in Mykonos are crazy-high in summer. Not because the…
On this trip I had a day and a half in Bangkok. I arrived at around 10AM, and my flight the next night was at around midnight. Bangkok is one of the best cities in the world when it comes to reasonably priced luxury hotels, so I was looking forward to…
I've heard many people suggest that Aman Tokyo is the world's best city hotel. I was skeptical, especially after our disappointing stay at Amanemu. I was also curious how the Aman concept, which is so heavily based on nature and seclusion, would translate…
We had a total of four nights in Tokyo, and decided to split our time between two popular hotels, so I could review them: -- We spent our first two nights at the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo, as I'm trying to review more Ritz-Carltons now that Marriott Bonvoy…
Historically Amans have been my favorite hotels in the world. I used to find that the group consistently delivered unparalleled experiences, and I've gone out of my way to stay at their hotels, and even plan trips around them. Unfortunately my opinion…
To start off our trip in Japan, we just had a quick overnight in Nagoya. That's because our first "real" stop in the country was a visit to Amanemu in Shima, and that can be accessed by a direct train from Nagoya. So we were just looking for the most…
As I've mentioned before, this trip was more about the destinations than anything else, so our main goal for hotels this time around was striking some semblance of value, while avoiding BYOS (bring your own sanitizer) properties. Given the overall focus…
Our quick trip to Santiago presented us with a little bit of a quandary: with only one full day to see the city, but two nights at our disposal, our goal was to maximize time, tourism value, and points all in one shot. This was the only opportunity to…
This past week I finally had the chance to stay at the TWA Hotel JFK. I don't think I've ever been this excited about staying at an airport hotel... or even about staying at any hotel, for that matter. Not only is this hotel an aviation geek's dream,…
I had just under 24 hours in London, as I was arriving from Calgary at around 11AM, and departing the next morning to Madrid around 10AM. While I would have loved to go into London and spend the day walking around, I decided to just book an airport hotel…
In the last installment I reviewed our three night stay at Amangalla, and in this post I'll be reviewing our four night stay at Amanwella. While Amangalla is located in the fort town of Galle, Amanwella is located in Tangalle, a beach town along the…
Amans are my favorite hotels in the world. I find that the group consistently delivers an experience that's unparalleled, and I'll go out of my way to stay at Amans, and will even plan trips around them. It's not just that all of the hotels are stunning,…
This will be the final segment of my trip report on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, which feels bittersweet. This has been a very long series (and was a long trip to start with), so it's taken a ridiculous amount of time to put together, but I've so enjoyed…
A couple of weeks ago Tiffany and I visited Savannah for a couple of nights and stayed at the Andaz Savannah. So here's a (fairly) brief review with my thoughts on the hotel. For the two nights we were staying, the rate was about $200 per night. In addition…
I've actually stayed at the Park Hyatt Siem Reap previously, when my husband and I visited in 2014, and it feels much the same now as it did then. Siem Reap, on the other hand, has since changed to the point of being nearly unrecognizable, as extremely…
Sorry for the delay on this folks -- not to get too much into the sausage-making, but we had planned to pause this particular narrative while Ben finished sharing details on his trip to Sri Lanka, with the idea being that I'd publish the rest of this…
After a quick breakfast at our Airbnb in Hoi An we left for the Da Nang airport, arriving about an hour before our 10:30AM flight. The airport was clean and efficient, our flight was on-time, and our pre-arranged driver met us at arrivals when we landed…
We decided to stay in Hoi An rather than Da Nang primarily because of weather concerns -- everyone cautioned that Da Nang wouldn't be warm enough to enjoy the beach in February, so we figured if it was going to be too cold to swim we'd prefer being in…
