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El Mouradi Tozeur (Tunisia)
by garymarsh6 El Mouradi Hotel, Tozeur. The El Mouradi hotel is a four star hotel in the tourist zone of Tozeur. Most of the hotels are based in this area and the levels of security are quite high and there is a barrier at the entrance which is only open during the day time but of a night time it is closed and you have to wait for the ... security staff to raise the barrier to let you in. The Reception area. The reception area is very grand and brightly lit with a central dome towering above the atrium. It looks quite swish and gives a very good impression of the hotel. As you enter the reception area the check in desk is towards the right hand side where you can also change money to local currency, book trips from the hotel out into the dessert, a trip into the mountains or around the town of Tozeur. The reception staff were quick and efficient at checking in guests. The corridors leading off from the reception area are not so brightly lit and in fact are quite dark. The lights are movement activated but using energy saving bulbs they are not on long enough to provide bright enough lighting. The bar is just off the reception area which you have to pass to get to the corridor leading to the guest rooms. The rooms. I was quite impressed by the room it had a good sized bathroom with a good shower, toilet, bidet and sink unit. The room was quite large with a sofa in a recess by the window, a small coffee table and a sideboard with an old style television sitting on the top not that we had time to watch television anyway. There was a small balcony with two chairs and a table which looked out towards the dessert and partly over the hotel next door. The beds were quite hard but very comfortable which I prefer but the pillows were pretty naff and had seen better days. I found this to be a recurring problem in all the hotels in Tunisia the pillows being far too soft and not really comfortable at all. Thankfully I take my own memory foam pillow which fits quite nicely into my suitcase so at least that gives me a fairly good night's rest. Most importantly the room was very clean and the cleaners came in each day to replenish and clean the bathroom, make the bed and clean the room not that it really needed much cleaning. Our room was quite comfortable and very quiet the only sounds we could hear was from the local mosques and the call to prayers that started off in the distance and gradually got nearer and then faded away as other mosques called followers to prayer. It sounded quite exotic and really gave the hotel a great ambiance. The restaurant. The restaurant is on the lower ground floor and is reached either via stairs from the hotel reception area, via a lift or from the pool area. The restaurant is a buffet style restaurant with a very good selection of food on offer at all meal times. The hot food was piping hot and the cold food was well cooled. There was something for everyone including soups, salads, meat dishes, vegetarian dishes and fish too. The desserts were quite nice to look at and a plentiful variety plus there was fresh fruit. I was actually quite impressed with the variety of food available and should you have specific dietary needs these were covered quite amply. All meals are taken in this restaurant. The waiters were particularly friendly and very professional and were there to offer drinks and to clear the tables which they did in a very efficient manner. The food is influenced by French cuisine and was delicious although there did not seem to be any local or ethnic variations of food although the coffee was so so but drinkable. Swimming pool. There is a large swimming pool in the centre of the hotel which is overlooked by quite a few of the rooms. Most of the time we were there it was never used although it looked quite inviting. There was also a smaller sized pool beside it. Around the edge of the pool there were sun beds and umbrellas but as this is in an area which has many activities most of the guests are out for the day exploring either the local area or the town centre. There is also a small gift shop selling naff stuff plus postcards and I believe there is a small gym there somewhere in the hotel. We were quite impressed by this hotel and the staff were very friendly and efficient the food was excellent and the cleanliness of the hotel was brilliant. I would highly recommend this as a base for your stay in Tozeur and would have no hesitation in returning to this hotel. Read the complete review |
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Madonna Inn (San Lius Obispo)
by catsholiday The Madonna Inn California We didn't stay in this hotel as were in San Luis Obispo it was far away and we passed it so many times I suggested going in to see what it was like. This looked a bit like a Princess castle rather than a hotel and certainly very unusual even from the outside. It has a sort of a ... pseudo-Swiss-Alps exterior with a sort of odd castle look , very hard to describe as it is nothing like anything I have seen before. We drove in just to have a nosey around really but ended up having a coffee and snack which was very nice. We were able to park the car as you can most times in the USA as they realize that people do need to drive cars to get around unlike in the UK where they seem to think you can arrive completely without transport as car parking spaces are either few and far between or charged for. WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT THIS HOTEL? Now we didn't stay here but we were able to view some rooms on display in the hotel reception and when we asked if we could see any of the rooms to see if we wanted to book there ( bit cheeky I know) we were allowed to see one. I think the English accents helped there as we found we could often charm our way with our accents. Every one of the rooms in this hotel is decorated in a unique style, not one is the same as any other. They are also very different from any other hotel you might ever have stayed in and had I known about it I would have booked a night here just for the originality of their décor. SOME ROOMS The room we were allowed to peek in was the Caveman room which is certainly very different. Anyone with an interest in the Flintstones would love this one. This one has a king sized bed and its own waterfall , yes you read that correctly and costs the princely sum of $280 a night! The room looks like it is in a cave with mock rock walls and slate floors. The décor is all muted browns and greys with mock animal skin furniture coverings. The lights look a bit like candles in rows and the entire place is the most amazing room that could be a film set. It even had a mock tree with light in it beside the bed. Despite all the strange décor it looked very comfortable with comfortable chairs and the bed was huge and comfortable. Looking at the pictures we had fun choosing which rooms we fancied. My favourite was 'Just Heaven'which was decorated in blues with a spiral staircase leading up to I know not what as we only saw the photo. It had a king sized bed and a table with heavy gold base and a glass top as well as a chaise longue, plus its own golden cupid with arrow handing from the ceiling. I am not sure whether I could actually sleep in it as it was VERY blue but in truth compared to some of the rooms this was quite tame. My husband liked the 'Golfer's room' but then golf is his passion when we are at home not gallivanting around on our travels. This was also one of the less dramatic room with a Dark brown leather king sized sleigh bed, green walls and a sort of pathway which presumably was the fairway on the floor which was a pale colour so all quite normal in comparison to some. Many of the rooms had their own waterfalls, some had balconies that looked out while others had balconies within the room, some had spiral staircases, some sloping roof lines and some had such strongly patterned wall paper that I would have developed migraine and I don't suffer from them at all! Every one of the 110 rooms was different and they all had names such as Yahoo ( wagon styled not internet), Love Nest, Old Mill, Kona Rock, Irish Hills, Cloud Nine, Hearts & Flowers, Rock Bottom, Austrian Suite, Cabin Still, Old World Suite, Elegance, Daisy Mae, Safari Room, Highway Suite, Jungle Rock, American Home, Bridal Falls and the Carin. I urge you to take a look at the website and click on accommodations and as you hover over the rooms a little photo comes up so you can see what they are like. They vary in price but are all around the $200 at the cheapest and go up to $600 for the Harvard Square but that does have three rooms in it. I can't see people spending more than a night here for novelty reasons alone but it is not cheap compared to other room prices in the USA so you are paying for the originality of the room. APART FROM WEIRD DÉCOR WHAT ELSE IS THERE? Well, they do have a spa and treatments are of course extra. We didn't try this so I won't comment on that facility. A swimming pool and fitness room are also available and once again there is a feature waterfall. I wish we had been able to have a swim there but as we did not have our swimmers with us we didn't ask if we could or whether it was for staying guests only. There are various options for dining but we had our coffee and snack at the 'Copper Café'. This was a sight too. The whole room was in the shape of a horseshoe and everywhere was polished wood, some with carvings. The seats were red leather and it looked like the set out of a Western bar, a very exclusive one not the kind with stable doors. It was highly ornate and a sort of cross between the western theme and Austrian ski lodge I guess. As it was nearly lunch time we decided to have a coffee and snack and any excuse to try a cake I am first in line. Luckily my sister feels the same so we chose a couple of yummy looking ones to share. Neither of the men are into cakes so they chose a burger and some sweet potato fries with chipotle sauce to share. They enjoyed their 'snack' and the sweet potato fries were very tasty as I had to try one with the spicy sauce, it was good. Our cakes were a banana nut cake and a pink champagne. I have to say both were good but the banana nut was my favourite as it had a bit more taste behind it and I liked the crunch bits of nut. I am not sure that the cake had any champagne; I think it was just the pink colour that gave it its name. This dining room served cakes and drinks as we had and also served full three course menu dinner food as well which from the menu looked good but it wasn't a cheap place to eat compared to other places we had eaten in while in the USA. AFTER OUR FOOD Having eaten and drunk we decided to use the 'restrooms' as the Americans call them. Ours was very nice, clean and a bit cave like with rock walls and the like but when the men came out they were chuckling. The men's loos had a rock waterfall urinal , a feature designed by Hollywood set designer Harvey Allen Warren. We wanted to take a peak but every time we tried another man went in so we had to give up sadly so I will have to take their word for it. We decided that we could not justify paying the $200 to stay a night when we had already paid for the place we were staying for the week. If I ever went back to this area I would book a night here as it is so very different and there are not too many places with 110 differently decorated and quite so original rooms. Even if you don't stay here it is worth popping in to have a look and just enjoy a coffee as we did as you do see some of the hotel at least. Thanks for reading. This review may be posted on other sites under my same username. ©Catsholiday Read the complete review |
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VIP Executive Santa Iria (Portugal)
by koshkha ~I Love Lisbon~ One of the nicest things to happen to me in the last year was getting a team member based in Lisbon. Not only is Isabel an absolutely lovely person, but she gives me the perfect excuse to visit one of my favourite European cities on a fairly regular basis. Normally I stay at the VIP Executive Arts in the Expo ... district of the city but for my most recent visit the city hotels were booked up long in advance for a trade show and the Arts had inflated its normal price of around Euro65 to a massive Euro200. Since I don't actually like the hotel all that much, I was more than happy when Isabel suggested I stay at the VIP Executive Santa Iria, about 10 km north of the city, just off the Estrada Nacional 10 in Santa Iria da Azoia. I think it's quite unlikely that you'll find yourself in Santa Iria just for fun. We have an office there and it's just a few minutes walk from the hotel and we've also a factory nearby so the location was absolutely fine for me. If you were visiting Lisbon and didn't want to be in the centre - or found yourself in the same situation as me with the centre all booked up or charging crazy prices - it's worth being aware that you can be down town in about 20 minutes and it will cost around Euro15 to get to the city centre or to the airport. ~"Santa Iria? I don't normally go there"~ When I arrived at the airport I jumped into a taxi and the driver looked really surprised that someone wanted to go to Santa Iria. "Normally I only do the city centre" he said so I told him if he got to more or less the right area, I was sure I could find it. Euro15 later that's what we did since the hotel is very well lit up and I spotted it from about half a mile away. Isabel had told me that the hotel isn't as nice as the one where I usually stay but I think she was being a little unfair. In the past year I've grown more and more infuriated by the rudeness of the staff at the VIP Executive Arts who seem to have developed an ability to act as if I am totally invisible. I was therefore really pleased that the receptionist in the Santa Iria not only seemed willing to recognise that there was a human being standing in front of him, but also happy to be friendly and welcoming. He was expecting me, recognised my name, cheerfully gave me my room key, told me where breakfast was and - don't quote me on this - I don't even think he asked for my credit card. The difference between the two hotels was shocking and can probably be put down to our company being quite a bit customer for the Santa Iria and an inconsequential minnow of no importance to the Arts. ~First Impressions~ I think I'd imagined something a bit 'budget' before I arrived at the hotel so I was amazed by the enormous and very spacious reception area. Even with dozens of comfy chairs and brightly coloured rugs, there was still enough absolutely empty space to probably squeeze in half a dozen badminton courts. I took the lift up to my room and stepped out into a corridor with a brightly coloured stripy carpet. Finding my room, I opened the door with the security card, stepped inside and tried to switch the lights on by putting my card in the slot. Nothing happened. I tried again several times before realising that I was going to have to employ a crafty 'slot and wiggle' technique to get it to activate. Once the lights were finally on, I found a room remarkably similar to the rooms I've stayed in at the other VIP Executive hotel. That's not necessarily a bad thing as I don't dislike the style but I did get a sense of déjà vu. ~Room with a (pool) view~ Maybe there's a black mark against my name that means this chain always put me on the back of the hotel. I'd really fancied being on the front side so I could have had a view over the estuary of the Tejo river. However, things weren't so bad and my view instead was over the swimming pools which were unlikely to be noisy since the temperature was unseasonably chilly even for February. Had I wanted to sit and look at the pool (which I didn't, but I might if it was summer), a pleasant arm chair was available. Checking around the room I noticed the gingery wood laminated floors which are common to both the VIP Executive hotels that I've used. This seems to be quite a clever laminate as it's rather 'grippy' which is good if you forget to switch off your alarm and have to run around the room straight out of the shower. I had two beds, each with sheets and a blanket and it was clear that I was supposed to use the one on which housekeeping had been practicing the art of bedspread origami. I mentioned already that it was cold and I found the sheet and blanket set up not really warm enough. Clearly they don't do duvets because most of the year it's very warm in Lisbon. On the second night when my bedspread had been removed completely and placed on the arm chair, I was actually a bit cold. I realised that I needed to go back to reception and get a code for the internet access and whilst I was really pleased to discover that the access was free, there was no wi-fi so this meant I had to use a cable and this was only long enough for me to work at the desk. There was a long narrow desk near to the window and a desk chair which was really too low for the height of the desk. This would have been a problem if it hadn't been for the bigger problem that the internet was very poor. I soon gave up and read a book instead. The room had a cabinet with a fridge inside and an old style fat television on top. I didn't use it as I'm easily irritated by 24 hour news channels so I can't even confirm what was available. In the vestibule part of the room there was a bank of cupboards with lots of hangers and plenty of space. I was also pleased to find a bag stand. Aside from my obsession with bag stands, I do like a hotel room to have good lighting and good sized bedside tables and both of these were exactly what I got. The bathroom was decorated in rather basic style with all that you'd expect. There was a loo, a bidet, a bath with shower over and a good sized sink unit. The lighting was excellent and that was a pleasant surprise as I'm finding more and more hotels seem to like to light their bathrooms in ways that are rather atmospheric rather than functional. Keep the atmosphere for the restaurant and stick the scary high watt bulbs in the bathroom. The shower pressure was excellent and the temperature control was very good. ~Dreadful Coffee~ The biggest let down about the hotel - and the thing that would make me think twice and probably take my own supplies - was the breakfast. I'm not one of those people who gets excited by hotel breakfasts or at least I thought I wasn't until I discovered the most god-awful disappointing spread at the Santa Iria. I'm not fussy, honest, and my needs are quite simple but the food was really poor. The coffee was disgusting and completely undrinkable, the juice was weak and unpleasant and the bread was a national disgrace. They peel the boiled eggs and leave them standing in warm water and that nearly turned my stomach. I also wasn't impressed by the 'do it yourself scavenging' approach. I turned up on the first day, couldn't find a small table that didn't already have old dishes on it, and so took a seat at a large round table and then had to go and find napkin, cutlery, salt and pepper, and everything else. I'm not a morning person - I need breakfast to be easy but if I stay here again, I will just skip it completely. I'm happy with a boiled egg and a couple of pieces of fresh fruit but the eggs were weird and only chopped fruit was available. The hotel has a lot of meeting rooms which I didn't see during this visit but which our company uses a lot for big meetings. I heard that the meeting rooms are in an annexe by the swimming pools and I'm told that they are very good (although the catering leaves a bit to be desired). ~On balance........I liked it~ On the plus side my room was pleasant, the bed was comfortable, the bathroom ticked all the boxes but my greatest pleasure was finding friendly, pleasant reception staff. That might sound like a great big 'so what' but they restored my faith in this hotel chain after it had taken a heck of a battering. On the down side the breakfast was awful and I was cold though I can't blame the hotel for the bad weather and I can't rule out that there might have been more blankets available if I'd asked. I paid just Euro65 per night with breakfast and internet (it was wifi in the lobby and that worked fine) and even with the Euro15 taxi fare to and from the airport I'd still say this was a bargain. I'd be happy to stay here again, though I will ask for a room on the front and I'll take my own breakfast supplies. Read the complete review |
Hotel International |
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