Starling Travel

The Wall Street Journal was kind enough to offer some travel and exercise advice. After a little research, however, it was obviously very bad advice. I wrote about it here:

• Starling Fitness » Bad Advice Never Ceases To Amaze Me

“It was shoddy reporting because a two minute search of their website would have shown that very few cities have this program at their hotels and the cost for the rooms that do, end up being so overpriced that you could BUY a year-long gym membership if you stayed at a cheaper hotel.”

The Wall Street Journal doesn’t seem to understand that paying $350 for a hotel room when there is one down the street for $110 isn’t worth the amenity of a trainer-lead run around the town.

Bad form, Wall Street Journal, bad form.

On our drive to Oregon, we stopped in La Grande overnight. We stayed at the Travelodge and ended up in one of the famous, Teddy Bear rooms. You can read the full story here:

• Pick Me! – What I’ll Do For Wireless

When the wonderful girl at the counter hesitated and tried to explain the room to me, I nodded. I had already seen a Travelodge Teddy Bear Room. Jay and Ryanne stayed in one in Reno:

• Momentshowing – VIDEO: Coming to SF

I love Jay’s comment:

“We paid sixty dollars a night to sleep in a little kid’s room.”

Me? I loved it. It was much better than the first room that they gave us because I could easily reach the wireless signal. Now, those little sleepy Travelodge bears represent high speed wireless Internet to me. I love ’em!

Ted Rheingold is visiting Benson Hut just five miles south of Donner Summit in California.

• Spidey Senses -> Tingling :: Ted Rheingold’s Web Journal » Blog Archive » Next Weekend: Benson Hut!

I had never heard of it, probably because it’s the kind of place where you need to hike in all your supplies. It looks like an affordable spot to stay if you are willing to hike in and there are pristine ski areas that few run every year.

For more information:

• Lodges and Huts – Outings – Sierra Club

They say that the Menger Hotel is haunted. If it is, the ghost has inhabited the fixtures of the hotel itself. It’s the hotel that wants to kill you. The step in your room that leads to the toilet tries to trip you in the middle of the night. The outlets in your room aren’t grounded (except that one by the bed). The water that comes out of the faucet is so hot it could scald you. The ever oscillating shower head alternately freezes you and burns you.

Yet, I LOVED The Menger Hotel and would love to stay there again all because of three little words: Location, Location, Location.

The Menger Hotel sits right between The Alamo and the mall. Walk a little further and you’re on the Riverwalk. If they could somehow transport the five missions that are scattered throughout the town near The Menger, I wouldn’t have needed a rental car.

Add to all of this the history and beauty of such an old building, and you have the perfect hotel, despite any burns you may have incurred during your stay.

As far as the ghosts are concerned, I don’t think there are any. We were there for a WWII Reunion with hundreds of people. At the Air Force Base, the announcer asked if anyone in the room had seen a ghost and not one of those hundreds of people raised their hands. Maybe they didn’t count the entity in my room trying to kill me…

Where: The Menger Hotel
204 Alamo Plaza San Antonio, TX 78205 – Google Map
Tel: (210) 223-4361
Fax: (210) 228-0022
Email: almapuente@1859historichotels.com

I found this quotation at The Quotations Page and it surprised me at how true it was.

There have been many times that we have visited a city in which we know people who live there and choose to stay in a hotel because it’s more comfortable for us.

There’s something to be said for the joy of having house guests, but the novelty of it wears off very quickly. I understand this, so whenever I plan to visit family for more than one or two days, we stay at a hotel. It’s just easier that way.

WiFi, or Wireless Internet, is a service that hotels are using to make themselves look more appealing. Just like in hotel gyms and swimming pools, having Wireless Internet can make or break a hotel. Mike and I do so much work while we are out of town, that we won’t stay in a hotel that doesn’t have WiFi.

Unfortunately, if a hotel has Wireless Internet, that doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere. It might mean that I have to pay ten bucks a day to access it. It might mean it’s free for both me and Mike. It might mean (such as the case at the Hilton in Austin) that it will cost us ten bucks a day and only one of our computers can access it at once.

HotelChatter has taken the time to rate hotels based on WiFi access. First the good news:

• Best WiFi Hotels 2006 || HotelChatter

Here is the list of the best hotels that have WiFi:

• Kimpton Hotels
• Omni Hotels
• André Balazs Properties (0nly in NY, LA and Miami)
• Holiday Inn Express
• Marriott Residence Inn
• Klein Properties (Only in NY and LA)

Now, the bad news. If you’re planning on travelling and need to have access to the Internet, you might want to avoid these places, according to HotelChatter.

• Worst WiFi Hotels 2006 || HotelChatter

The worst hotels for WiFi are listed here:

• Marriott Flagship
• Kor Hotel Group
• W Hotels
• Four Seasons
• Morgans Hotel Group aka Ian Schrager Properties

These articles are a little pretentious and assume that they are only talking to jet setters:

“So if you don’t mind staying at the Holiday Inn instead of some place more glamorous your money is well spent here.”

I’ve found that the small Mom and Pop hotels all across the nation are jumping on the WiFi bandwagon, but they are going to be unable to explain the terms unless they are free. The good news is that many of these little motels and hotels ARE offering free Wireless Internet in order to attract you away from the bigger companies.

I like the Mom and Pop motels better anyway. They seem to care whether we enjoyed our stay more than the automatons that the big companies hire.

Via: Boing Boing: America’s worst WiFi hotels

Inn Serendipity is ecologically friendly. They use solar power, windpower and heat the place with a wood stove. They grow food in their own organic garden and greenhouse.

• ABC News: Pamper Yourself, And the Earth – by Associated Press

If you wanted to stay there just to find out how they do it all, you wouldn’t be alone. Some guests come just to learn about self sufficiency. Others just want to escape the nearby urban areas.

Wisconsin is trying to make this a trend by creating a registry of green hotels, hoping that other states follow suit. For now, you can always stay at one of Inn Serendipity’s rooms (the music room or the writing room).

Where: Inn Serendipity 7843 County P Browntown WI 53522 Google Map Phone: 608-329-7056

If you haven’t stayed at a Hilton Hotel for a while, you may not have heard about the new clock radios that all the rooms have. Mike and I stayed at the Austin Hilton during SXSW, so I was able to give their cute little clock radio a test drive. How did it sound and did it work with my Treo 650? Find out here:

• The Gadgets Page » The Hilton Hotel MP3 Player

Little conveniences like this make travelling seem less bothersome. Like a hair dryer or coffee maker in the room, they aren’t essential, but they make the stay a tiny bit more enjoyable. It’s not enough to choose the Hilton over another hotel, but it can make the difference between a boring night in front of the TV and a enjoyable night listening to music from home.

We’re writing about Park City, Utah this week as people from all around the world will soon arrive there for the Sundance Film Festival.

The Washington School Inn is a small bed and breakfast inn in a converted schoolhouse. While they’re already booked for Sundance this year, any other time it’s a great place to stay in Park City.

The Washington School was built as a 3-classroom schoolhouse in 1889. In 1985, it was renovated and became the Washington School Inn. It’s a historic building listed on the national Register of Historic Places.

The Inn has 15 rooms, including three deluxe suites. Each room has a private bathroom. The rooms have numbers as well as names like “Ms. Hedges” and “Ms. Reese”. Each is decorated in its own way and, if you’re picky, you can look at pictures of each one and choose your favorite.

Having grown up reading mystery novels, this seemed to me the sort of place where a Murder Most Horrid would occur, leaving the innkeepers and the assortment of eccentric guests as suspects. Fortunately, when Laura and I stayed there for two nights last fall, I’m pleased to report that nothing untoward happened.

The staff there is incredibly friendly, and after two nights we felt like we were at home. Breakfast is served daily and was a very impressive selection, all homemade and far from the typical hotel breakfast. Snacks are available in the evening and were usually very tempting and very fattening.

Parking is available across the street for guests, which is nice when the city is crowded. If you’re skiing, they provide lockers in the basement to store skis and equipment. The owner was happy to let us park our bicycles in the garage next to the Inn.

Amenities include a nice hot tub, sauna, a shared mezzanine area with TV, a library of books to read, and a beautiful outdoor garden area with chairs and tables. It might feel like an anachronism in this quaint inn, but high-speed wireless Internet is available at no charge for guests.

Park city’s historic Main Street is a very short walk from the Inn, so there are many restaurants, shops, and art galleries you can explore without driving. Ski lifts are also close, and Park City’s many mountain bike trails can be reached easily on bicycle.

Prices are about what you’d expect for a luxury hotel in a resort town, but quite affordable in the less busy times of the year. Rooms start at $120 April through November, with higher rates during ski season ($265) and even higher rates during the Sundance Film Festival ($320).

Whether you’re looking for a romantic getaway or just a cozy place to sleep in between ski runs or bike rides, The Washington School Inn is a great place to stay.

Location: 543 Park Avenue, Park City, Utah. The Washington School Inn is one block over from Park City’s Main Street (old town) and near the Town Ski Lift.

When to Stay: Winter if you enjoy the scenery or skiing and don’t mind the prices and crowds; Summer or Autumn if you prefer lower rates, great weather, and your choice of nearby uncrowded restaurants and shops.

Official Site: Washington School Inn

A couple of weekends ago, we stayed at the Rainbow Hotel in Wendover, Nevada for a family party. A weekend in Wendover is by no means, “travel on the cheap.” Unless you stay there on a weekday, Wendover tends to be pricey. Our total cost for the two night stay was $185 for a normal hotel room with two queen beds.

The room was equipped normally for a Nevada hotel. There was a coffeemaker and hair dryer in the bathroom, but no mini-bar. If you want to drink in a hotel/casino, you’re expected to go downstairs and play on the slots. A lovely lady will come bring you a drink for free if you plant your butt at a slot machine.

There is gambling and eating and little else to do in Wendover during the winter. I don’t care for gambling and I’ve finally got my eating under control, so I was surprised with how much time I had on my hands. I was able to exercise at the Montego Bay hotel gym (Rainbow, Peppermill and Montego Bay are all owned by the same company). I was able to get a little writing done. Mike and I folded oragami Christmas ornaments. We were able to do all that and I was also able to spend a little time with my family and eat at the seafood buffet.

Part of the reason that I love to camp is that it forces me to slow down. There isn’t much to do after we’ve put up the tent and blown up the air mattress. That’s how the weekend at the Rainbow Hotel was for me. We rested. We enjoyed each other. We drank some inexpensive alcohol. It was a great weekend.