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76 responses total.

I stayed in the "Great Northern" in London, England.  What a nice area,
Kings Cross.  I could look out my windown any time past 10pm and see 3-4
hookers, pimps, and drug dealers.  It also had heated towel racks.
Wierd.

I like the older hotels.  One of the reasons for this is that these
places often have windows you can open and get some fresh air.  They
also let in interesting soiunds from the street.  

I have had the good fortune to stay at the Mark Hopkins in San
Francisco several times.  The Mark Hopkins is on top of Nob Hill, and
the last time I could look out my window and see down to the bay.
Opening the window also let me hear the cable cars as they made their
way up and down California Street.

I have never stayed in the Mark Hopkins, but I have been there. It's very
cool. I ate dinner at the "Top of the Mark" on the penthouse floor.
A world famous restuarant, and justly so.

I think the most unusual hotel I have ever stayed at is one I visited with
my father when I was 15. That would be in 1960. In the colorful port town
of Willemstad, Curacao. This is a Dutch island in the Caribbean, near
the coast of Venezuela. I cannot remember the name of the place, but it
was built into the city walls like a fort. I remember the windows
looking out to sea from our room were portholes!

The entire city suffered major damage during labor strife-related rioting
shortly after that. I do not know what happened to the place, and I have never
had the chance to go back, but it was a truly amazing place then.

The Barbizon Hotel for Women in New York City, when I was 15. The inhabitants
were mostly struggling starlets and old ladies who had lived in the same
rooms for 6o years. Bathrooms were down the hall, and the top floor of the
building was the laundry/TV room, where all the starlets and old ladies
bickered constantly about what channel to watch and who left whose wet
clothes on the floor.

I'm going to stretch this a bit, but one of the most interesting places I
stayed was in northern Scotland at Carbisdale Castle, which had/has been
converted into a youth hostel.  I'm sure that there are castle purists that
were/are horrified that a castle would be put to such a use, but it really
was a unique experience...  Nope, there weren't any ghosties/beasties to
drag us off to the dungeon in the middle of the night!  :-)

Having gone to over 110 science fiction conventions over the last 14
years, I've had a fair sampling of various hotels across the country.
I think one of the neatest was the Atlanta Marriott Marquee in the Peachtree
Plaza. It was the site of 1986 World SF convention. It was also the *perfect*
place for the event. It looked like it *belonged* in a science fiction movie.
Here's some details:
1.) The hotel is 37 floors tall and it's entirely *hollow* inside!
2.) The walls of the hotel slope inward and are supported from outside
    by some form of modern flying buttress arrangment. This causes the
    balcony of each floor to overhang the one below it.
3.) The whole thing is very rounded inside, there are no sharp corners,
    a balcony runs all the way around the circumference for eash floor.
    It sort of looks like you are gazing up into the ribcage of some giant
    beast when you are standing in the lobby. Kind of like H. R. Giger
    had a hand in the design.
4.) There are various walkways that crisscross the open space, they change
    each couple of levels. It looks very much like those '50s posters of
    what "the future will look like". There is a scene in the 1930's movie
    _Things To Come_ that very much resembles the insides of this thing.
5.) There is a fabric and wire mobile/modern-art thingy suspened by
    wires in one of the biggesst open areas 10 storys above the lobby.
    Once every other day a crew goes up to clean, shake the dust off,
    remove the paer airplanes, etc. They reach this thing by going up
    to the 37th. floor, throwing 400' of rope over the side, and *rappeling*
    down the inside of the hotel.
6.) One of the most interesting effects is the fact that this thing presents
    our eyes with a set of sizes/distances/perspectives that most of us
    have never encountered before. Looking up from the lobby, most everyone
    I talked to, including myself, found that the view became weirdly
    distorted, in a way that's almost impossible to describe. Mainly becuase
    I *have* no way to describe it. There is nothing else to reference it to.

If you are ever in Atlanta, I reccomend you just stick your head in thedoor
and take a look around for a half hour or so. Oh, yes, in the center, 
there is a large circular  column that goes all the way to the top. there
are 12 glass elevators around the circumference of that tower. Not for
the acrophobic.

(I remember really liking the Embassy Suites Hotel in St. Louis. I wish I
could remember what it was I liked so much...)

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re: 6: I've stayed in that hotel before; I was there in '86 or so.
 
When traveling on business, I enjoy hotels with great rooms and distinctive
service.  I like the Palmer House in San Jose or San Fransisco, I like the
Drake in Chicago.  Usually, I find myself in a chain hotel.  They're mostly
pleasant but indistinguishable from one another.  If I've been traveling 
for a while, I sometimes have to look at my Day Timer to see what city I'm in.


In the mid-70's, I spent about a week in a hostel called "The Active
University" in downtown Copenhagen.  What was most memorable was the large
communal bathroom, with a giant sauna attached.  It was a little weird
taking a shower or a leak simultaneously with 40 other young men and women,
but the nightly group sauna was tremendous fun.


When Aaron was about 18 months old, the three of us were visiting friends in
Toronto...and ended up in the only hotel room left in the city -- at a little
love hotel along west Lakeshore Drive.  We had a teeny tiny room, with no
space to walk if the travel crib was set up.  Luann and I thought the
room was pretty silly, but Aaron really enjoyed bouncing on the waterbed
while watching himself in the ceiling mirror.

I recall staying at a hostel on top of a cliff along the Atlantic shore
in Bergen, Norway.  One got there by cable car.  I can't recall the
hostel very clearly...probably because the train trip between Oslo and
Bergen is 5 hours of incredibly fabulous scenery: fiords, tundra, waterfalls,
forests, fiords, waterfalls....
 

Well, my favorite hotel-like stay was at a bed and breakfast
in Stratford, Ontario.  It's called 18 Waterloo, is owed by
a wonderful French woman, Kathy See.  We've been to maybe
20 different B&Bs over the past 5 years but this one stands
out as special for a number of reasons.  If you're ever in the
area don't miss it.  It's great in autumn.

Well, the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island is kind of cool, and I've stayed in
a few resort hotels that were fairly neat, but all in all my favorite night
accomodations were in campsites.

I was going to mention the "Grand". It's of a class of resort hotels
left over from the end of the 19th century. Very delightful.
There's another such hotel in White Sulfur Springs, WV.
My parents took me there while attending a convention in the 50s.
I think it's still around. It's colossal. I believe it's called the
"Greenbrier Inn". It is located there because of the spa.

(should this item be linked to travel?)

This item has surprised me in that, despite all my travels, I have no
vivid recollections of particular hotels. My parents stayed in hotels
when travelling, and I can recall the long halls, and lobbies, etc.,
but since I've been on my own, with rare exceptions, I've stayed at
motels, or camped, or stayed in private homes. I have intentionally
avoided hotels, as I did not want to have, or pay for, all that glitz
and unwanted attention. I did stay in small hotels throughout Europe
when the weather was too bad for camping and I knew no one to stay with,
but most of those were nondescript. I do recall *arriving* once, though
at Carcassonne (France), by motorcycle, as one of the most spectacular
storm buildups I have ever seen approached. The surrounding countryside
is hilly and rural, and Carcassonne is a medieval walled city: the
whole impression was wild and medieval. I barely made it to a hotel,
before the sky opened. The storm was marvelous. But the hotel? 

Greg,

Interesting tip, as the annual One BBSCon is going to be held at the 
Marriot Marquee in Atlanta in August, and Bill and I will be attending!
Thanks!

isn't there a travel cf?  might linking be appropriate?

One time, in Kansas City, I heard in the paper about this guy in
NY who found a dead body under his hotel room bed.  I must of looked
under my bed a hundred times that night.

Don't forget the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, CA, which is famous along 
the West Coast for its decorating schemes.  I've never stayed there, but 
I've seen some of the public areas and the postcard photos of the rooms. 

The Holiday Inn (I think that's it) in Chatanooga, TN is a beautiful hotel, 
that was originally the train station.  In the back is the "original" Chata-
nooga Choo-Choo, and lots of old-style train cars that have been converted into
hotel rooms!  They are awesome, with the old tiffany lamps and such inside.

Anyone know anything about the Bell Tower Hotel here in AA?  It looks
kind of quaint.

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Well, It may not have been the most interesting hotel, but I had the most
interesting time their. On my first visit to virginia, I got my own room. Being
a simple country boy from where I've never had to lock anything (yes, there are
still such places) I had little experience with key carrying. First time I left
my room, five minutes after we arrived, I locked my key in. so I went to the
desk and asked for them to open my room. But, since a different person than my
self had rentedom,  I couldn't get in for an hour.

The most interesting and charming hotel I ever stayed in was called the
Bickliegh Inn in Bickliegh, the Cotswalds, England.  The building was
built in the late 1600's, had a slooping thatched roof and was built very
close to a beautiful small river.  The rooms were all decorated differently
in 19th century English Country furniture, and there were probably only
10 or 12 in all.  Bickliegh is the town in which Simon and
Garfunkel got the idea for. . "Bridge over Troubled Waters."  So that added to
the fun of it.

Eh, The most interesting hotel that I ever stayed at was in Florida, and Daya
beach. It was round and every floor was having a party. My freinds and I had
been driving for most of the night and arivedat Daytona abog. It was
interesting to say the least.

For me, it was either a house we rented in a Shaker village in Kentucky, or
a ryokan in oine of several cities we visited in Japan.

has anyone ever been to New England?  the hotels here are fabulous.  you rarely
see a chain here, instead the hotels/motels are family run.  the care and
hospitality is truly rural New England.  try the BalsomWoodstock Inn/VT. .end

We've done some B&B's in New England, including the Apple Butter Inn
near Woodstock, VT.  Family-run B&B's are a *great* alternative to the
anonymous hotel/motel chains.

An interesting choice for people coming to AA is the Bell Tower Inn.
A friend of mine just came to visit, and didn't want to stay here for
some reason.  I suggested the Bell Tower Inn because I knew he liked
small hotels in downtown areas.

It was a great choice.  For only $20 more than the Holiday Inn, he got
a small, but very nice, room that included a continental breakfast and
parking.  And, it had the advantage of being right downtown so we
could walk to restaurants and entertainment.

Thanks Dan - that's a good thing to know.

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hmm.. i would say the marriot in ann arbor only because it was on
our honeymoon and the bellboy kept trying to unlock the door to
join us as we were buck-nekkid to the world.

That conjurs up very funny images. It could certainly be a skit on TV.
Not a very good advertisment for the Marriott (which is no longer the
Marriott, by the way.)

Well, must "interesting" connote the warm feeling of a pleasurable stay?  At
the risk of product disparagement, I tell you that my night at the Herkimer
Hotel  in Grand Rapids was cockroach nightmare.  I single 15 Watt bulb in the
ceiling was all the light I had in this windowless wonder.  The cockroaches
were so thinck, that they didn't even bother to get out of my way.
        Mark Smith noted earlier the problem of looking under the bed for dead
        bodies:  I think that there was one under my bed by the smell of the
        room, but I surely was not about to look. Sleep was next to impossible.
         All night long the mandated smoke
detectors made loud low-battery warning beeps on every floor.  (Sort of like
modern electronic crickets.)  Directly across from my door, a truck driver was
robbed of what valuable he left in his room while he and his "rented girend
were out.  He had returned to his room quite intoxicated and brayed on and on
for the police.  The night clerk complied after a fashion and the report was
made.  Hours later, the same burgler again broke into my neighbor's room:  This
time he came back because he thought that he had lost is own wallet in the 
hotel room.  The police were, of course, nearby and arrested one of the dumbest
crooks known.

Re:  Nigtmare hotels.  I doubt many of you could beat my experience
in Ukraine, but I don't feel like going into details now (unless you beg).

Why don't you start a "nightmare hotel" item?  This one's for interest-
ing hotels.

Nightmares *are* interesting. Interesting doesn't mean only pleasant.

Some nightmares are interesting; the Ukrainian one was.  Roach hotels
are too typical to be interesting, even if they are nightmarish.

Well, tell us.

First of all, because of the shortness of supplies in the erstwhile
Soviet republics, there is no uniformity in supplies.  This wasn't so 
much of a problem as an oddity with regard to the room keys, but proved
to be terrible WRT the broken toilet seat.  The original seat broke on the
first day (we were there for a month), but I didn't bother telling the 
chambermaid because I was told getting things repaired was usually more
trouble than it was worth.  After two weeks, a friend was in the room and
noticed the seat, and he told the chambermaid about it.  Well, the maid told
the janitor, who removed the broken seat, went to the supply room, found it 
devoid of toilet seats, and went back to whatever else he was doing, leaving us
seatless.  Well, we explained the situation to the maid, who told us they just
didn't have any seats, and that the old one had been thrown out already.  Our
friend suggested that the janitor go to a vacant room, take the seat from
there, put it into our room, and that would solve the  problem.  Unfortunately,
the seats didn't match, but instead of taking the lid from the other room as
well, the janitor merely crammed everything together anyway.  So, for two
weeks, our lid never did fit right... (but the seat worked). The telephone
didn't work but for the one time a Ukrainian needed it to  call her home.  The
t.v. got one station, in very bad B&W, when most of  our friends got three
stations. Also, the doors lock from both sides.  If the door is locked, that
is, you can't get through from either side.  I was working in a friend's room,
on his Mac, and he absent-mindedly locked me in then proceeded to go out of
town until late in the evening.  Somehow, we talked the maid into unlocking the
door. She didn't want to do it.

Hmmmm...  Aside from the fact that you couldn't check in or out from 1 to 3
because that was when the Spanish soap opera was on, and you had to go outside
and then back in to get to the restaurant because they'd built the kitchen
up against the hotel, and the elevator, which was usually broken, was
quirky when it did work (the mechanism was such that all the buttons popped out
whenever any floor was reached, so the easiest thing to do was to take
a survey of where everyone was going, and the closest floor won), I'd say
that the stay was fairly normal.

Great! Some leaders of wilderness adventures (hiking, mostly) arrange
for little problems, like the food not arriving at the next campsite
(by mule), etc. When the group has a reunion, the discussion is always
of "Do you remember the time that the food didn't arrive?". I would
say, that the Ukrainians were well trained in creating a memorable stay.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss