Travel Tips

There are two "special" places to stay out in Nantucket that I would not hesitate to recommend.

 

The Wauwinet is a hotel out on the end of the island in an absolutely beautiful spot.  If you want to "get away" and see some nature, this is the best place to stay on the island.

It is quite remote, so I would recommend you rent a jeep at the airport when you arrive on the island.  At the Wauwinet there is easy access to the great national park where you can drive right on the beach over the dunes.  If you do not bring a jeep, definately take the tour the hotel offers -- they have a very informative guide who explains all the interesting wildlife in the park, including endangered species.  The tour ends up with a nice snack out at a point which feels like the end of the earth.

The hotel has a famous restaurant, Toppers, that people visit from all over.  I enjoyed a tasty meal there, but the portions were miniature and the service was subpar for the price (steep) we paid.

The rooms at the Wauwinet were charming, but were not as high end as I expected.

For more info, visit their website:  www.wauwinet.com

The White Elephant is located in the town of Nantucket just off the bustling main streets teaming with great restaurants and antique shops.  If you want to shop, eat, and people watch, this is the best place on the island.

 

The hotel has a terrific restaurant called the Brant Point Grill overlooking the water.  I highly recommend the grilled lobster.

 

The rooms are very high end, but comfortable.

For more info, visit their website:  www.whiteelephanthotel.com

Martha's Vineyard

The Charlotte Inn is the best place to stay in Martha's Vineyard.  It is very old and charming, but well maintained.  There is a nice old dog on the property that welcomes visitors.

The rooms are a bit cramped and the tv's are even more cramped.  The lobby has plenty of room to hang out and lots of old interesting books to peruse.

The Harbourview Hotel is a fairly large hotel located in Edgartown.  It is an excellent place to hold a meeting or a conference.  The Harbourview has excellent access to the beach in Edgartown.  It has a fine porch with rocking chairs that overlook an easy to access beach. 

Chatham – Cape Cod
There are two nice places to stay in Chatham that (unfortunately) have a lot in common.

The Chatham Bars Inn is a sprawling resort on the ocean. It is a fantastic place to go with your family or to have a big event at. Highlights were the nice bar inside the hotel; a sandy beach with waitress service; a singer/guitarist doing csny, james taylor, etc. at the beach club, and a good tennis set-up. The "lowlight" was the room which was pretty dated.

The Wequssett Inn is similar to the Chatham Bars Inn from a quality, scope, and price perspective. The highlights of the Wequassett were the newly installed pool and pool area, the bar off of the main restaurant, and the views. Lowlights include dated and somewhat moldy bathrooms in the room; the headfake they give you on the golf which is included in their name, but is really just a loose agreement with a country club a few miles away – this irritation was compounded by a lousy round one week after golf school; relatively poor service throughout; and a “tall” restaurant that seemed way out of context with the resort where I assume most patrons wanted steamers, lobsters, etc.

Overall, I prefer the Chatham Bars Inn over the Wequassett.

Newburyport, MA
Newburyport is a hidden gem up on the north shore in Massachusetts. The town itself retains the old world charm of its earlier days as a whaling/shipping center. When pulling into town, you drive by impressive mansions that you imagine were populated by the captains of those ships. Driving through town, you end up on Plum Island, a near perfect stretch of sand on the harsh Atlantic Ocean.

The town itself has a bunch of fun restaurants/shops and a lot of charm. There are a bunch of inns, but the one I recommend is the Compass Rose Inn. Highlights include reasonably priced rooms (actually they are all suites); nicely decked out rooms with good beds, modern bathrooms, flat-screen tv’s, and fireplaces; a decent breakfast spread that’s incluced; good books/magazines to browse in a comfy family room style lobby. Lowlights include not answering our phone calls within a rationale amount of time and a crappy selection of dvd’s -- I ended up borrowing Seabiscuit on both visits and fell asleep mid-showing both times.

Plum island is a little on the rough side. There are lots of beachy homes stacked on top of each-other, many of which are falling apart. It is somehow resisting what feels like an inevitable gentrification. There is a great restaurant on the island called the Plum Island Grill that has a cool view, is very casual, and serves creative/flat seafood fare. There is a new hotel on Plum Island called The Blue Inn which is trying to be trendy. I didn’t stay there, but had a good snoop around. The highlights are that it is right in the sand of a terrific beach with the next stop Ireland; the rooms are modern, but have decent robes; pure white Warhol way. Lowlight is a relatively rough neighborhood around it despite their efforts and a little bit pricey as they have to pack it in for the especially short summer season on the “nawth showa” of Massachusetts.

The Berkshires, MA

There are three nice places out in the Berkshires.

The Cranwell is a more of a resort than a hotel with a very nice golf course (and driving range) on the property, tennis courts, and a high end spa.  There is a great main house with a restaurant and some rooms in it and there are buildings with rooms spread out on the property.  Overall, the facilities are a 10, but the rooms are more like a 5.  Cranwell is located nearby Tanglewood, so it is a great place to spend an active weekend.

Wheatleigh reminds me of a high end W Hotel located in a beautiful old mansion in the wilderness of the Berkshires.  The lobby and rooms are modern and beautiful.  The restaurant serves "tall" food.

I have never stayed at The Blantyre, but have poked around it a bit.  It is as high end as Wheatleigh, but it is old world charm -- lots of antiques and very formal.  It sort of makes you feel like you are in one of those Merchant-Ivory movies.  There are rooms in the main house and in outlying buildings, but I have not seen them.  The main house is stunningly beautiful, so I would recommend staying there if possible.  Blantyre has a good spa and tennis courts. 

 

I have yet to find someplace special to stay in Maine, despite several tries.  Everyone raves about the White Barn Inn, but as a hotel I thought it was a dud.  The restaurant is very cool and worth a visit.  Andrew Harper recommends the Inn at Sunrise Point in Camden, but I was underwhelmed.

 

There are lots of small hotels scattered across Vermont, but the Pitcher Inn is the only one that really stands out.  

The Pitcher Inn is my favorite hotel in New England, if not the world.  There are only about fifteen rooms and they are all designed uniquely by different decorators and architects.  For example, there is the Calvin Coolidge Room.  It turns out that Cal was born in Vermont in 1872, so the room is built all around him, including books about him and a mural about his life.  Another room is the the Mallard Room which is decked out in a duck hunting motif -- very cool indeed.

The lobby is charming with a stuffed bear and a simmering fire welcoming guests.  Off the lobby is the Robert Frost Library with overstuffed chairs and plenty of old books. 

The restaurant is high end, but is not pretentious or "tall."  The wine steward is a character, but does a nice job.  In fact, they promoted him to gm of the Inn.  I highly recommend ordering the cheese platter for dessert -- you'll learn more about making/eating cheese in five minutes than you ever want to know. 

The basement of the Inn has three wonderful rooms.  The wine cellar is down there and they have one table in there where they will serve dinner to one party.  The main room is called Tracks because there are stuffed (formerly) live animals hanging on the walls, including a massive moose head over the bar, and animal tracks all over the floor.  It is fun to try to match the animals with the tracks.  Off to the side is a room with an antique pool table, a dart board, and a hand shuffle board table which is a lot of fun.

While staying there, you'll have close access to Mad River Glen and Sugarbush Ski mountains.  Before heading out, make sure to visit the Warren Store across the street from the Inn, for an ultimate in VT country store experience.


TopNotch Resort is a relatively large, family oriented full service resort with tennis, sleigh rides, video game room, etc.  Staying here makes you feel like you are in one of those old Bond movies like "In Her Majesty's Secret Service." 

The rooms have recently been updated and are well appointed.  There is a very cozy bar off the lobby with deep seats that is perfect for relaxing with a libation or two.  I wish the hotel had the same "feel" as this bar had.  There is a fine spa with all the modern amenities.

The Woodstock Inn is a nice old hotel with Vermont charm.  I would recommend it for a conference or hosting a meeting.  This inn is in the town of Woodstock.

Twin Farms is a lovely hotel about ten miles south of Woodstock, but frankly I think it is overpriced.

The Equinox is a resort with lots of activities, including hiking, fishing, golfing, Land Rover driving school, and a falconry school.  The rooms are mediocre, but the activities are great.  There is a cozy bar/restaurant with a bluegrass-style band.  This hotel is in Manchester.

Boston
There are a not a lot of great hotels in Boston.  Here are three that I would recommend to visitors to my fine city.

XV Beacon is a modern boutique hotel with a Revolutionary War theme to it.  There is a restaurant in the lobby that serves "tall" food.  I have only been in one of the rooms for a friend's Dean & Nina's wedding, but they are very nice.

The Copley Westin is the best of the big chain hotels.  They did a nice job redoing it a couple of years ago.  Bar10 located off the lobby is very nice.  The location is perfect for exploring the museums, churches, or for a shopping spree Newbury Street.

The Charles Hotel is a very nice hotel in Harvard Square over in Cambridge.  It has a couple of great restaurants and is convenient to the sights and smells of Harvard Square. 

I would not recommend either the Four Seasons or the old Ritz Carlton on Arlington St (which recently was redone, but looks exactly the same to me).  The new Ritz Carlton looks very nice.

There are a few great restaurants in Boston.  I live above Mistral which serves very "tall" food and is quite fancy, but always delivers with excellent tastes and great service.  My favorite restaurant in greater Boston these days is Oleana in Cambridge.  The best brunch in Boston is The Blue Room, also in Cambridge with Henrietta's Kitchen in the Charles Hotel coming in a close second.  My favorite meal is the fine snausage the vendor serves outside gate B at Fenway Park!

New York City
My favorite hotel in New York City is the Soho Grand Hotel.  It was the first boutique hotel I stayed at in the city and is still my favorite.  There are a bunch of W's in NYC, the two I recommend are the one on 49th & Lex and the one in Union Square.

If you are looking for an ultra-hip place to stay, try the Hudson Hotel.  The rooms are aweful, but there are two great bars in lobby, one of which is in a library with a great pool table.

Washington DC
I have stayed in lots of hotels in Washington DC.  The two I like are the Willard Hotel (now owned by Intercontinental) and the Hotel Monaco (this is the best of the Kimpton Hotels). 

If you want to feel like a visiting head of state, stay at the Willard Hotel.  It is an historic spot where they coined the term "lobbyist" -- the lobby is very old school DC.  It is across the street from the Treasury Department and two blocks from the White House.  The rooms have the heavy curtain feel that visiting heads of state probably appreciate more than I do.

If you want to stay someplace hip, try the Hotel Monaco.  It is the 1839 tariff building that they recently restored and made into a gem of a hotel.  The whole hotel has 20 foot ceilings and great marble columns everywhere.  The rooms are very modern.  There is a happening restaurant in the lobby that sort of pours out into the lobby where there is a cool sitting area.  The hotel is a block from the Spy Museum on one side, which is a good take, and the MCI Center on the other side.

Alexandria, VA
My sister lives in Alexandria, so I travel there from time-to-time and enjoy her fine holiday spreads.  There are no great places to stay there, but the best is the Morrison House Hotel.  It is a very simple, but elegant hotel.  From the moment you arrive, you get the feeling you are staying in a men's club in London. 

Napa Valley
I have only stayed at one place in Napa, so I am not well informed enough to do a write-up.  However, the place I stayed was a winner, so I thought I would share it.

The Kenwood Inn is in Sonoma among the vineyards.  When staying there you feel like you are staying in an inn in Tuscany.  The rooms are very nice, but without tv's.  There is a great swimming pool and hot-tub.  The food is very California-tasty.

 

Most people I talk to are not fans of Jamaica, but I think it is a gem.  Reggae, Red Stripes, nice beaches, direct flights -- what's not to like?  There is a string of resorts owned by the guy who produced all of Bob Marley's records.  The two I stayed at are Strawberry Hill and The Caves which were great, but I bet Goldeneye and Jakes are great too.  For more info, see:  www.islandoutpost.com

 

Strawberry Hill is on top of a mountain outside of Kingston.  It is a hair-raising drive from Kingston, so you might want to drop a Dramamine before embarking.

 

This is a legendary spot where they actually produce many of Bob Marley's records.  This is where the Rolling Stones stayed when they came down and worked with the Wailers.

 

The hotel has great rooms that are like tree forts with great balconies overlooking the town and the ocean.  There is a great swimming pool with a nice bar where they make tasty local libations.  ...There is a friendly cat on the premesis called Patches.

The Caves is terrific.  The whole hotel is built on top of a coral cliff with lots of caves built into it.  The water below the hotel is deep and inviting...the brave jump off the cliffs and the rest of us jump off from lower levels.  The water is that cool blue-green, warm, deep, and teeming with fish.

Inn at Round Hill is the perfect for families.  It seems like the same families return every year and become very close, including Ralph Lauren's family.  The resort has great swimming, a spa, a couple of restaurants, and good tennis.  The rooms are mediocre.

I would not recommend the Ritz Carlton in Jamaica.  It is feels like they took a Ritz from a major US urban area and plopped it on the beach in Jamaica.  Next door is the Half Moon Bay which is nice, but are short of the three I recommended.

Virgin Gorda
It has been many years since I visited this place for my old friends' Reid and Ona Hamilton's wedding.  A whole gang of us rented a house for a couple of days, but then stayed at Little Dix Bay where they got married.  Little Dix Bay is a Rosewood Resort which is kind of a good housekeeping seal of approval for me.  The hotel is strewn out over a lovely arc of beach with great snorkeling starting just a few steps into the ocean.

The Biras Creek Hotel looks nice too, but I have not had a chance to stay there yet.

London
I have only stayed at a few places in London, so do not have a comprehensive view.  The place that stands out in my mind is the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair.  Staying here one feels like they are an invited guest of some distant male member of the royal family.  The staff is very dignified and there is a butler on every floor.  The rooms are simple, but elegant.  The bar and lounge in the lobby reinforce the feeling that you are in the residence of some member of the royal family -- very understated, very British.

Edinburgh
I checked out Edinburgh a few years ago on a business trip sponsored by some friends at HP.  I ended up making a good decision after a bunch of research by staying at The Balmoral Hotel.  The outside is historic and elegant while the inside is quite modern.  There is a nice restaurant in the hotel and a fine pub next door that I would highly recommend.  From the hotel, you can walk to all the sights in Edinburgh.

Florence
One of my favorite cities in the world.  I have checked out most of the nice places to stay in Florence and the best place is The Grand Hotel, where you feel like you are a guest of the Medici family back in the Renaissance.  It is a beautifully restored 19th century building with high ceilings, grand paintings, and tapestries.  The rooms are little heavy, but they are nicely appointed.  The hotel overlooks the Arno River and is steps from the best shopping and museums on the planet.

Sardinia, Italy
If you have the chance to visit Sardinia, I recommend the Hotel Romazzino, one of a series of  great hotels in Starwood's (frequent flyer miles) Luxury Collection along the Costa Smeralda, a rugged stretch of coastline along Sardinia's northeast corner.  The top tip of the Costa Smeralda features one of those great Italian towns with unique shopping and dining options.

The Hotel Romazzino is a short taxi ride from the town.  Staying there you feel like a character in an old Alfred Hitchcock film like "To Catch A Thief."  The building is one of those whitewashed Mediterranean jobs with a cool roof.  The lobby and rooms are very simple old school Mediterranean in style.  There is a great bar in the lobby where they serve custom concoctions.  The beach is a windy (can't hear yourself think) affair, so they set up a good pool situation.  The best part are the two restaurants.  One of them is on the second floor of the hotel which offers outdoor dining overlooking the beach and the sea.  They prepare much of the food tableside and the food is some of the best I've ever had.  The other restaurant is perched between the pool and the beach where they serve a modified buffet style lunch which is delicious in that simple/fresh Italian style.



Tokyo, Japan
I have tried many hotels in Tokyo.  The best one for a weary American traveller is the Park Hyatt, perched atop a skyscraper in the Shinjuku district and featured in Lost In Translation, that movie with Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray.  If it is your first time in Japan, I recommend you stay in a hotel from your home country as you will quickly feel like the Bill Murray character in Lost In Translation and any feeling of connection to things that are familiar (like English language TV channels to watch at 3am when you are staring at the ceiling from jetlag) will be beneficial.

Try the Garden Barbeque restaurant in the garden area in the back of the New Ohtani for dinner...my old boss, Dick Harrison introduced me to this place.  Also try Inakaya in Roppongi for dinner -- one of my favorites on the planet where I enjoyed one my finest meals with my dad one night.  For more casual fare, try the Kotobuki Diner in Nishi Azabu.

Hong Kong

It has been several years since I have been in Hong Kong, but I hear it remains much the same.  Here a few of my favorite spots.

The Peninsula is the old grand dame of Hong Kong.  A British imperial gem on the Kowloon side overlooking the fragrant harbor.  It is very expensive and very formal, but if you want to live out a British colonial experience the way James Bond did in Man with a Golden Gun, this place is the best.

The Mandarin Oriental is far more understated than the Peninsula and perched opposite it on the Hong Kong side is the Mandarin Oriental.  There is a great restaurant on the top called Vong with pan Asian quisine -- one of my favorite restaurants on the planet.  The Captain's Bar in the lobby is famous for its setting in one of John LeCarre books.  If you are a cigar smoker, they have a fine cigar selection and smoking room.

Grand Hyatt:  This is a relatively newer hotel in Wanchai where I briefly lived when first moving to Hong Kong.  This is the best of the chain variety.

While in Hong Kong, make sure to visit Indochine, a great Vietnamese restaurant in the hopping LanKawiFung section of town.  I also recommend visiting Hollywood Rd during the daytime to pick up some interesting Chinese stuff.  I bought a bunch of my own furniture in a little shop on Hollywood Road.

Seoul, Korea
I have tried many hotels in Seoul and the one I liked the best was the Grand Hyatt. 

Saigon
I stayed in Saigon a couple of times.  There are hotels with more luxury and higher ratings, but to get the real-deal French colonial feel, the Majestic Hotel is the best.  I spent Christmas there one year with some friends.

Bali
This is a magical island with two great settings that all travellers should take advantage of.  First, one should visit a beach area, Nusa Dua is the one with most of the tourists/activities, but there are other quiet ones surrounding the island.  Next, one should visit the town of Ubud, the cultural center of Bali perched in the jungle amid the volcanos.

My favorite part of Bali is the town of Ubud up in the mountains.  While there, I recommend you visit the Monkey Forest where the monkeys outnumber the visitors by about a 10:1 ratio and literally sit on your lap and eat peanuts out of your hand.  Also, you should visit Antonio Blanco's house/gallery...he is a semi-famous western artist that lives in Bali and when you visit him you get a sense of how Hemingway/Gauguin might have lived their lives in far flung lands.  Spend some time seeing the sights in town alongside the other hearty tourists.

One of my favorite hotels in the whole world is in Ubud, the Amandari.  This hotel is part of what is becoming a burgeoning chain of ultrasmall luxury hotels that are fantastic:  www.amandari.com.  The rooms are small huts placed in the rice paddies that are like small classic Balinese huts, but with all the subtle luxuries you would not expect.  The pool is one of the disappearing numbers, but it disappears over a jungle valley.


Singapore
If you are going to stay in Singapore and can afford it, I recommend the Raffles Hotel.  It is a splendid colonial masterpiece very similar to The Peninsula in Hong Kong.

The only two things to do in Singapore are shopping and eating, so if those aren't your thing, you might skip it.  The best place to hang out in Singapore is in Boat Quay and Clarke Quay where you can drink and dine outdoors in a bustling atmosphere alongside the river.  There are numerous "hawker stands" in Singapore with delicious fare if your stomach is up to the task.

Bangkok, Thailand
I would recommend The Oriental Hotel in Bangkok.  It is an old school colonial hotel that perches right on top of the river where so much of the transportation and commerce takes place in Bangkok.  The hotel has all the amenities including a restaurant/cooking school that you get to by crossing the river on a Thai boat.  I stayed here with my parents who for their anniversary we gave a trip on the Oriental Express which is a luxury train that starts in Bankok and finishes in Singapore, making great stops along the way.

The Grand Hyatt Erawan is the best of the major chain hotels.

Phuket, Thailand
Although there is an Aman Resort in Thailand, I prefer the Banyan Tree Hotel.  It is an expansive campus with great rooms that are like little Thai homes with modern (yet local) luxury amenities.  Some of the rooms come with private swimming pools.  The hotel has a great pool with a spa where I took my one and only TaiChi class -- for some reason TaiChi makes me laugh uncontrollably...not a good fit.  There is also a golf course at the hotel with great caddies.

Koh Samui, Thailand
I have not been to Koh Samui in quite some time, but Baan Taling Ngam was the best place to stay when I used to visit there.  It is not as nice as the Aman resorts in this part of the world, but it is the next best thing.  ...Based on a peak at their website, it looks like they have recovered from any ill effects of the tsunami.

Mumbai/Bombay, India
Most people stay by the airport in Mumbai because the flight schedules typically get you in during the middle of the night.  The hotels near the airport know this and charge ridiculously high rates.  I recommend you suck it up and take the adventurous ride downtown to the Taj Hotel.  The hotel itself has very nice (not outstanding) rooms, but has great restaurants, good little shops, a decent pool, and a perfect location for exploring downtown Bombay.  Walking around downtown Bombay is like going back in time to the British colonial times.  There are beautiful old (and now rundown) buildings, including a beautiful university campus.  There are neat little antique shops.  At sunset, the bats come out en masse, so keep your eyes on the sky.

Bangalore, India
Many people these days have cause to visit Bangalore due to its explosion onto the technology scene.  I think the Leela Palace Hotel is the best place to stay in town.  You feel like you are visiting a freind from school who is now a Maharaja when staying there.

Udaipur, India
This town was made famous in the James Bond movie, Octopussy.  When walking around the backpacker part of town, that movie is playing in almost every restauarant and bar.  One day while I was walking through the town there was a huge parade/celebration that marched through.  I ended up getting covered with this cool pink dust the paraders through over themselves, the crowd, the elephants they ride on, etc.

The most famous place to stay is the floating (yes, floating) Lake Palace Hotel.  You get on a small boat at the edge of the lake and take a 5 minute boatride to a very small island that is 100% covered by a fabulous palace they turned into a hotel.  You really feel like you are in a maharaja's home while staying here.  I generally do not splurge for a suite or any extravagance from a room perspective because I think it is usually a ripoff, but in this case, there are a handful of rooms that were the bedrooms of the maharaja and his family that are truly spectacular. 

Rio de Janeiro
I visited Rio with my classmates from Sloan.  We stayed at the Caesar Park Hotel on Ipanema Beach which was pretty nice, but I did some exploring on my own and found the Copacabana Palace Hotel on Copacabana beach was better.  Right in the heart of Rio are two huge stretches of perfect sand where there is an abundance of activity, including hawkers, volley ball games, etc.  The Copacabana Palace is right in the middle of that action.  The hotel itself is in a colonial style.