Share your best and worst experiences regarding your travel accommodations. Whether it be luxury hotels, all-inclusive resorts, motels, hostels, cruise cabin rooms, etc. Tell your story!
In all the places I've stayed, the most memorable ones are always either really great or they were really awful. My best experience with accommodation was in Portugal. I stayed at a beautiful, quiet, new, and clean resort. It had great amenities and facilities like a big swimming pool, golf course, and in-room Nespresso machine. It was just outside of Lisbon, rested on rolling hills with nearby villas. The service was excellent. I was always greeted in the lobby by frontdesk staff or the concierge. The housekeeping staff were polite, prompt, and professional. And they left Baci chocolates for me; that deserves bonus points.
My absolute worst experience was when I stayed at one of those roadside motels off of the interstate highways in the USA. My mother decided that Woodbury was too exciting and that she needed to stay another day to further stimulate the economy by making more useless purchases. Don't get me wrong, I love shopping, but not dirty, sketchy, scary motels. I was itchy all night, the bathroom was so gross....i covered the entire counter with toilet paper before putting my toiletries down, and I kept my flipflops on the entire time. Oh and can't forget the high-pitched singing....clearly someone else next door/upstairs didn't sleep either since she was singing the entire night. I guess when you make sudden impulsive changes to your travel itinerary, this is what happens. Not that I need 5 star service, but cleanliness would be good.
Share your stories!
Reply to this My best accommodation was a stilted bungalow on an sandbar island (Kapalai, Malaysia) - looking just like the ones you see in Tahiti brochures, turtles were swimming around underneath eating sea grass - and it was cool and breezy without air-conditioning.
The worst - well - the hostel burnt down. No one was hurt - but - it could have been different - funnily enough also in Malaysia 😊
Two blog links:
Diving Around Sipadan, Sibuan, Mabul and Kapali And then my hostel burned down... Reply to this One hotel I particularly liked was in a town in China. It was so atmospheric and beautiful and what a luxury after the places I had been staying where every morning starting at dawn hotel staff stomped periodically through my room. They would wheel in thermoses of water and ask me things I did not understand in Chinese. They never knocked. The carpets were always damp and smelled of all the food the previous guests cooked over the years. The Chinese cook in their hotel rooms. And the showers were always cold and only worked for 2 hours per day, usually at some inconvenient time like 2 to 4 PM. :D
The pretty old world hotel I treated myself to in the middle of the couple of weeks in China was such good value compared with over here. Only 16 US dollars 10 years ago. Baths full of hot water and complementary cosmetics, fluffy towels, big double bed with crisp sheets. I didnt even go out that evening because it was so nice there. I just sat at the window drinking tea and looking down at the steet life below.
Reply to this My best accommodation was a stilted bungalow on an sandbar island (Kapalai, Malaysia) - looking just like the ones you see in Tahiti brochures
I'm SUPER jealous of you, Ali! I've never been anywhere that exotic.
The carpets were always damp and smelled of all the food the previous guests cooked over the years.
mmm sounds delicious 😉. Have you been to China more recently? I think a lot has changed and now they go for the super grand, luxurious, full-of-gold decor at hotels. Sometimes they may be legitimate, but I find there are still those that are nice on the outside and a nightmare on the inside.
Reply to this Have you been to China more recently?
No, but they did have 5 star hotels when I was there too as well as the budget places I stayed in most of the time.
Reply to this My best accommodation was in Marco Polo Hotel Davao City Philippines. They provide their guests with a unique travel experience which embraces the local charm and the adventure of travel with the deeply instilled elegance and warmth of the in-house culture of Marco Polo hotel.
weeee...
Reply to this Best place I can remember was not a hotel, but a campground from my youth. It was at Crystal Lake in the Snowy Mountains. There were little to no amenities. Outhouse and a hand pump, dirt road over long winding road to get there. But the lake was crystal clear and did not allow motor boats. We could take the canoe out on it and play all day. Best trout fishing! Few people around as we would stay through the week. Perfect hikes for kids. Not too hot or too cool. Great family memories.
Worst one must be the hotel I stayed at in NY this past time. It was in Queens, the Wynham by LaGuardia. We got to our room and there was a newspaper still sitting on the table from the person before us. The shampoo and other amenities were open in the tub area. I called and nothing was done. I later found a used condom next to the bed. My daughter was also propositioned just outside of the hotel. Funny thing is - I don't see it listed anywhere any more LOL
Reply to this Used condom huh...well at least your worst hotel experience makes a good story : )
Reply to this LOL yes it does. At least it was a good location. Not far from the airport and not far from the subway.
Reply to this The worst place I ever stayed was the Hotel La Serre in Paris. Online, you'll find lots of positive reviews of the place. I'm convinced after staying there that the hotel owners are the authors of those reviews. If you stayed in this dump, you couldn't write a positive review. Check out the webpage I created with pictures and all of the details...
http://sites.google.com/site/hotellaserreparis/
Reply to this Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, Alberta Canada is gorgeous. Worst place was also in Canada, Cranberry I think was the name of the town. I am no sissy but that is one place I slept in my clothes, jammed the chair against the door and left at first light. There were ladies of the evening doing brisk business in the adjacent rooms. One weird night!
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