Random Photo: Killarney Ireland

Overlooking the lake at The Lake Hotel, Killarney, Ireland. This was one of the most amazing places I have ever stayed. We were there in October and it was so peaceful and quiet. The grounds, the rooms, the staff - all were amazing.

Biz Travel: Boston Waterfront Convention Center

Back in June I had the opportunity to attend a trade-show in Boston at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel and Convention Center. I'm really not all that familiar with Boston, but word has it this area, South Boston Waterfront, has been recently developed and it all certainly looks new and shiny! A co-worker who grew up in Boston said this area use to be just the fishing area - it still is, but now there is a plethora of restaurants and hotels!

If you walk down to the waterfront, you see plenty of evidence that this is still a working fishing pier and area:

About the Westin: overall, this was a good location for a smaller convention or trade-show. The main areas are in the "basement" so cellular coverage is question. However, the Wi-Fi was strong (and fast) in every part of the hotel and center. The rooms were clean and comfy. All goodness there.

My challenge was the food (always important to me): The only place open for dinner was the Irish Pub, MJ O'Connor's. Even Starbucks closed in the late afternoon! Sauciety was the breakfast / lunch place as was average overall. The service was slow and indifferent. The lunch food was pretty good but pricey. The Birch Bar was open into the evening with some very limited snacks but after eating the same thing two nights in a row, I needed a change.

So - we journeyed out on night on foot to Legal's Test Kitchen and had superb drinks and food. Great service and the wait for a table wasn't too harsh.

There is a train stop close to the hotel and for those who enjoy lots of walking, the main sites aren't that far away. Overall - not a bad location. The big problem: cabs are extremely expensive and while this location seems close to the airport it still generated a "cha-ching" cab fare: about $25 each direction!

Park for the Prez only!

Evidence this isn't just a tourist trap but a working dock

-- Happy Travels!

Random Rant: Outlets in Hotels

Hanging out in the JW Marriott in Beijing - lovely hotel and more on the details in another post. But this morning I needed coffee in order to even begin to function enough to go downstairs for breakfast. I found this cutie in the mini-bar area:

Minor detail: that is the full length of the cord. And the hotel room has three plugs I can find:

1. By the bed where the alarm clock is plugged. I had already swiped that plug for my cell phone to charge. 
2. At the desk. Uh, charging my laptop there. And the little short cord wouldn't reach it even if I wanted to plug it there. 
3. In the entryway, on the wall, about a foot up from the floor. Again - not gonna reach. 

Finally I unplugged my phone and plugged in the teakettle there. Barely - the cord JUST reached the outlet. I had to move the lamp to make it happen.

Now - this is a very specific example but I am consistently surprised by how even newly remodeled hotels forget to add outlets. I use my cell phone as an alarm clock and have it by my bed and rarely can find an outlet near the bed. The desk / workspace areas often don't even have an outlet!

Weird.

-- Happy Non-Electronic Device-Using Travels!

The Gaylord Palms in Orlando

On the surface, this is a pretty awesome hotel. Everything under one roof, the way only states with tons of land can do it. The atrium and gardens in the center (complete with a partial castle) are pretty cool. Koi, turtles and alligators are all on view (not in the same pond). There are snakes down in the Everglades section and rays in the Key West wing. There is a ship floating in Key West. Waterfalls are always running and the air feels a bit tropical even with sun and humidity.

Every staff person I spoke with at the hotel: in restaurants, shops, at the front desk - everyone was friendly. In five days I did not run into a rude staff person. The rooms were clean, in good condition, thick windows to block out sound and heat, bedding was awesome. The bathrooms were clean and large with plenty of counter space. With your $15 resort fee, you get free wi-fi access, free admission to the fitness center and two free bottles of water a day. Pretty awesome stuff.

Now the bad: the decor in the St. Augustine tower. What were they thinking? This is a picture of the comforter / sham pattern in my room:

Terrifying, isn't it?

Food: Over-priced, but I expect that in a resort that can keep you trapped indoors at all times and has a captive audience. However, the H20 Sports Bar out by the pool was terrible. We ate there twice (remember: captive) just to get outside a bit and it was horrid. Don't even think about trying the cocktails unless you really dig things with odd colors and tons of sugar. The guacamole was pretty bland and the Sloppy Joe Sliders truly seemed like sloppy joe's out of a can.

Sunset Sam's was better - I like the ability to choose a fish and a sauce and it is kept simple. This was probably the second best meal I had here - but be warned butter is used liberally in cooking everything. The wine selection was decent but again I avoided the cocktails.

The sushi joint, Sora, was pretty darn good. Not the most stunning sushi I have ever had, but good. They had some fun side dishes like nachos (not what you are thinking) that were intriguing. The cocktails here were interesting and the best in the resort - especially given the apparent state law in Florida that all cocktails must be SWEET.  The problem here was timing: we ordered a couple of things to get us started after being told the sushi would take 45 minutes to come out to the table. About 45 minutes later, the sushi came out and THEN the appetizers came out. Not cool.

Java Coast - this is the quick and simple coffee shop located in the atrium. The coffee varied - some days it was so watered down it just wasn't even consumable. Some days it was average only but it was never good. The food was pre-packaged and "OK". It was fast and relatively cheap so it would get you through the day as you dashed from one conference session to the next. Wraps, sandwiches, salads. That's about it. After eating wraps for lunch everyday, you can actually start to lose you mind - just FYI.

As I mentioned, I was at the Palms for a conference and these guys do know how to manage large groups of people. From what I saw, things went off without a hitch for a conference that must have had between 3000 and 4000 attendees. Impressive!

Happy Travels - and watch out for the nightmare monkeys!

Bellagio Gardens: Chinese New Year

The tiger seems a bit sad, but the gardens were gorgeous!

Dog-friendly Wine Country: Sonoma, CA

The city of Sonoma is surprisingly close to San Francisco - just about 45 minutes in the car gets you to the main plaza in this little wine town. This is the Carneros region of Sonoma wine country - further north (another 45 minutes or so) will find you in the Russian River area of Sonoma. Make no mistake: Sonoma is a huge county. Even Napa is a very long valley-based county. Santa Rosa is about 45 minutes from the actual city of Sonoma.

Carneros has tons of great wineries; however, due to the onslaught of massive rain storms, our trip was cut a bit short and we didn't get to fully explore as much as we liked (guess that will be a follow-up trip and blog!).

First stop in Sonoma: Three Dog Bakery. This store is huge with a bit of everything - including treats for the kitties! We were looking for lunch locations and the ladies working were super helpful in recommending places and letting us know that Sonoma Plaza is NOT dog-friendly. Huh? Really? Sure enough, big signs - no dogs allowed in the plaza, not even on leash. As we walked around the edge of the plaza fuzzbutt expressed his opinion of this. Thankfully I had doggie doo-doo bags. (How embarrassing).

After buying carrot cake and mini carob-chip cookies for fuzzbutt and being embarrassed by him on the plaza, we went to the Swiss Hotel. They have a nice front porch area which is covered and heated with heat lamps and the staff were very dog friendly! A bowl of water was brought out without us even having to ask. Food was pretty good and drinks were strong. A win-win for everyone!

After lunch we ventured to Cline Cellars where every tour bus in the world was stopped. It was madness. The grounds were very beautiful but we really didn't bother to explore much due to the weather. We did end up tasting there and the wines were decent. We didn't confirm their dog policy but they seemed pretty casual so it would be worth trying if you have a pup with you - they appear on several sites as being dog-friendly.

Our hotel for the night was further north, in Santa Rosa, near the Russian River area. The Hilton Sonoma Wine Country is dog-friendly with a $50 non-refundable fee. That is it - no other comments or restrictions. I asked about special walking areas (or areas to avoid) and was told any place is OK. The hotel has a great pool area and the rooms are typical Hilton rooms - nice bedding, ugly furniture. The restaurant at the hotel, Nectar, has an outdoor patio with heating lamps but is NOT dog accessible. Stupid, right? Dog friendly hotel with a restaurant where the patio can only be accessed by walking through the restaurant. Dumb. Well - you aren't really missing much - the food was horrible. The drinks were good, but the service was pathetic, at best. For details, check out my yelp review.

The next morning dawned cold and rainy. As in raining cats and dogs (ha-ha). We cut things short, but I was determined to go to the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center for their new food and wine pairing. For $25 you get seven (or more) pours of their reserve wines, paired with yummy little snacks. You really can't get much better than this! Our chef, Ryan, was terrific and explained everything he brought out. If you have dietary restrictions - speak up. Ryan adjusted on the fly for us when told hubby doesn't eat pork.

Due to the downpour of rain, we didn't take fuzzbutt into the wine center with us. I did ask and the gentleman working said he didn't see any signs forbidding it, so he didn't see any issue. Yeah!

And with that, we braved the storm and traffic to return home.

Happy Travels!

** This post approved by fuzzbutt

Sleepin' in the Big Easy: French Quarter

Zzzzzzzzzz. . . .

Depending on your priorities and your ability to drink yourself into a stupor so you pass out and sleep through anything and everything, you may need to pick your hotel carefully. Anything on Bourbon Street is going to be raucous all night, without end. Also expect to enjoy the pleasant aroma of barf and piss through your windows or outside your door.

If you get a few streets away from Bourbon, you may have better luck. We stayed at the W French Quarter and had to change out of our room on the third floor. It overlooked Conti street and it sounded like the drunks in the alley were partying in our room.

Best advice if you like sleep: if you have points or a reward program with a hotel in the Central Business District, try that. If not, go with a higher-end hotel in the French Quarter and request and upper-floor room that does not overlook the street.

If you are the ultimate party animal and can sleep through anything, go for the cheap(er) places on Bourbon and enjoy the show!

One Perfect Day: Singapore

I was fortunate to be staying in the Four Seasons since I was on business travel. For female travelers, you have to realize tank-tops won’t get you into the temples and mosques and will cause you to freeze in the shops and air-conditioned places. I wore a long-sleeved white linen shirt, a skirt and slip-on shoes. Obey the local laws: no spitting, no chewing gum, etc. The upside of all the laws is that Singapore is an amazingly clean, modern city with a very polite culture and excellent service wherever you go.

First stop: “Little India”. It is a bit difficult to navigate Little India – sidewalks sometimes vanish or end up being very broken and sporadic. Compared to the rest of Singapore, this is a bit disconcerting. After exiting the MRT system, we found a great place called Mustards on Race Course Road. The server kept asking me about “gravy” and I never really did figure out what he meant, but the food was fantastic!

There is a very notable Hindu temple to Vishnu, Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on Serangoon Road. It is open air and very elaborate, very beautiful. To the Western eye, it may seem like a bit much – but take a moment to realize Indian culture values color more than our culture. Look everywhere and notice everything. There are statues that are just stunning and carvings that are amazing. You must remove your shoes to enter. Continuing along Race Course Road the Buddhist temple, Leong San See Taoist Temple, also known as the Dragon Mountain Temple, was just stunning. Even someone as cynical I as can be truly moved by this place. Past the entrance is an open air courtyard. When I arrived the monks were singing a chant to their ancestors. There were birds in cages around the courtyard contributing in their own way to the chant – it was overall just an incredible experience.

Along the same street, there are a couple more Buddhist templates, neither as interesting as the first. The temple with the “great” Buddha (Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple) wasn’t as interesting as the Lonely Planet book made it seem. It did have an adorable “guard cat” who was hanging out with the worshipers at prayer. If I have my history correct, this is suppose to be one of the oldest temples to Buddha in the city and notable for making slight concessions to Hinduism.

Along the way, we found the Tekka Mall. If you have time, there are plenty of vendors here happy to fit a traditional Indian outfit for you. The shops are amazing and varied – silk, gold, purses, food – definitely a place to visit, though I suspect there is an aspect of “buyer beware” going on here.

Taking the MRT to Chinatown, when you come up out of the subway it is a bit surprising. Chinatown in San Francisco and New York are a bit gritty. The Singapore Chinatown has wider streets and is spotless. It is also very, very beautiful! The two or three story buildings are painted a vast amount of colors with shuttered windows and the odd advertisement painting on the building itself. The red paper lanterns strung across the streets must be really made of plastic since they survived the downpour I was trapped in. The streets are paved with brick and stone and no cars allowed. During said downpour, we ducked into a place called “8 Treasures” to get something to eat and escape the rain. Air-conditioning greeted us and we scored a window seat! The place had a colonial feel to it and the staff were fantastic. The food is all vegetarian but extremely good. The spicy Schezwan soup was amazing and the olive fried rice seemed to be missing the olives but was delicious just the same. The chrysanthemum tea was a new thing for me and I loved it!

Skip the Chinatown Complex – completely lame. We ran into it to avoid the rain (which had started up again) and it wasn’t anything special. There is that special fruit that smells horrid – Durian - and there was a vendor here selling it. The smell permeated the whole complex. Watch out for the jewelry shops. Seriously. They have A/C which draws you in “just to look” and you walk out significantly poorer. However, if you are good at saying “no” (and meaning it) and at bargaining, you can score some good deals here.

At this point, you should be thoroughly exhausted and it is time to call it a day!

Cabo San Lucas: Adventures in Lodging

In two trips to Cabo, we've tried two very different lodging experiences.

Our first trip, we rented a condo at Terrasol. If you aren't familiar with the geography of the area, this is on the Pacific side. You almost go through a pass in the hills to get to this area and it very quiet over here. The water is much rougher and swimming is not recommended or even realistic - the water is usually freezing. However, it is pretty quiet over here in general and the beaches aren't crowded and filled with people peddling goods (private beaches - it isn't allowed).

Terrasol is an older condo complex and there isn't really anything special about it. We had a decent place and could see the ocean from our deck. No room service, no housekeeping service but we had a full kitchen, washing machine and a dishwasher.

The second trip, we stayed at the Villa del Palmar. It was part of an overall package and given the price, we figured just do it.

Hmmm. . . .well, you get what you pay for. See my previous post on being stalked in our hotel to sign up for a timeshare tour. Add to that the water went out at least three times, once while I was in the shower. The A/C went out on the hottest day of the week and stayed out for over 12 hours. When we called the front desk, they were surly and unable to give us an ETA on when it would be fixed. Each room does have a sitting room area and a balcony, along with a kitchen (though only burner worked) with pots, pans and dishes.

The pool area wasn't bad, if you stayed at the top pool area. The bottom pool was water aerobics, crazy guy screaming into a microphone, loud music and general chaos pretty much all day. At night - same thing. If you prefer a little less chaos, I would suggest you do not get a room overlooking the pool.

The restaurant on the ocean, Bella California, was average. The food wasn't too expensive but it wasn't thrilling either. Dinner was better than lunch/brunch. The drinks were cheap but not very strong. The staff were very sweet and helpful and the view was stunning, but you did have to watch out for folks stopping below and trying to sell their wares - jewelry, t-shirts, rugs, ceramic works, etc.

Palmar is probably best for people with kids, or college students who want to keep it wild and crazy day and night. We browsed through the neighboring property, Villa del Arco, which seemed much more low key (and had a nice steakhouse!) but I was a little put off by the pirate ship bar. Not kidding - El Buccaneer - a life size pirate ship for your drinking pleasure. Arrrr mateys!