All stories about "Hotel"

The Marco Polo Hotel in Deira (the older often more interesting part of Dubai) has broken a Guinness World Record. It can now join horny hipsters and Tommy Lee. Last year the hotel played a role in the world's longest food buffet to date, but, this year, the Marco Polo Hotel took it upon itself to create the world's longest pair of wooden chopsticks. What the famous explorer and a pair of 22.5 foot-long chopsticks have in common, I have absolutely no idea. But, you know what they say about big chopsticks...big hands? Full photo of the enormous sticks in all their glory after the jump. [Hotel Chatter]

In one of the more shocking shows of hotel appreciation to date, Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx and his girlfriend, Kat Von D, star of LA Ink, have tattooed the Bowery Hotel logo on their respective arms. Yes, we're talking a hotel logo (a dandy in a top hat) applied with needles and permanent ink. The tattoo was meant to commemorate a wild night they had at the downtown Manhattan hotel. [Jaunted]

NYC's social set, at least those comfortable trekking to the Lower East Side, are going to be talking about a new hotspot this summer. At his new hotel, The Thompson LES, Jason Pomeranc will debut an eye-catching rooftop pool. At the bottom of the 36-foot pool will be a giant photographic mural of Andy Warhol. With exclusive entry, and hotel rooms running upwards of $3,500, the see-and-be-seen spot will be more Soho House than Sweet Paradise. (photo) [W]

The trend of eco-friendly hotels is moving from the wilderness into cities. Hotels like Thailand's Old Bangkok Inn aren't just maintaining environmental efficiency via their hotels, they're encouraging guests to take more ecologically friendly forms of transportation when traveling too. Top "eco-friendly accommodations" include the Apex City of London Hotel, the Ibis Porte Clichy Centre in Paris and the Lenox Hotel in Boston. [via]

Staying long-term in a hotel isn't just for writers working on their masterpieces, overweight college basketball coaches (looking at you, Rick Majerus), or Lindsay Lohan circa 2006 anymore. Whether it's because you're in another city for a long-term work assignment or you've bottomed out in Lisbon and discovered a hotel room can be cheaper than a hostel bed, you might find yourself a hotel guest for more than a month, as I did recently. But the odds are you won't be staying at hep places geared to accommodating extended residencies like the Hotel Chelsea or LA's Chateau Marmont Hotel. Lodging at a hotel short-term requires no discretion: toss your empties on the floor, puke in the sink, smear santorum on the sheets. Who cares? By the time housekeeping checks the room you'll be in Cleveland. But a long-term stint in a place meant for short-term living does require a little strategy. (photo)

This is the first installment of a new Gridskipper series called Elevator Men in which we interview the manual elevator operators at various hotels throughout the country. If you have any elevator men you'd like to suggest, please email their names and hotels to elevatormen@gridskipper.com. Our first interviewee is Hank "The Gladstone Cowboy" Hinch-Young of Toronto's Gladstone Hotel.

After the jump, where his scar came from, old Toronto cabaret laws and on the pleasure of spending 40 hours a week in a moving box.

Sir Richard Branson, he of viral FAA mocking and creepy placenta harvesting fame, is kind of wacky:

[Branson] told of his hopes to launch a solar-powered craft travelling deep into space - with passengers buying a one-way ticket. "A lovely project we're looking at is to put a giant ship in space, whose sails will unfurl and it will head into the depths of space"... As in the sci-fi TV series, the spaceship would search for other forms of life... But who would be willing to take a chance on life in space? "When I give talks, and ask how many people would be willing to go on board, there is always a small percentage of people who will"

Virgin Denied, Heading to YouTube for Revenge [Gridskipper]
Rebuffed By FAA, Virgin Takes To Future [Gridskipper]
The Race For Space [Times Online]
Outerspacephile Richard Branson Plans a Space Hotel [HotelChatter]

[Text: Omri Ceren]

Previously: Hotels In Which You Won't Find Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, Oasis Hotel: A Better Place to Stay?, Suite 5 Continentes: Sex Hotel Barcelona, I Love Love Hotels, The Evian Experience (Serena Not Included)

In our continuing effort to help you poor fools out on Valentine's Day, we're taking that love train [love train] across the Mason Dixon line to Hottlanta. Atlanta, as some know it, has a deserved reputation as a city resurgent. No, there's no Nobu yet but it's getting there. In the meantime, take advantage of Atlanta's burgeoning culinary scene and after hours spots to get your date drunk/full/tired enough to sleep with you. Or, maybe that's just our plan. Regardless of whether you're striving to find a warm body next to you or just trying to find places to treat that warm body nicely, Gridskipper's guide will show you how to get it done.

Dinner in a plow factory, jazz and Sinatra for the lonely ones after the jump.

We've been writing Valentine's Day guides mostly geared towards couples, naturally. But what about those single folk stuck in inherently romantic cities when Valentine's Day comes blowing through town like a Mary Poppins whose bitter medicine (Life is short) has no spoonful of sugar (But someone loves you) to make it go down? More than anyone else, they need a guide to keep them occupied. Paris, city of love, is a great place to be as a lover or beloved but, come V-day, each bridge is an invitation and each romantic cafe an insult. Here's Gridskipper's Guide to Flying Solo on Valentine's Day. And one more thing. if no one else, at least Gridskipper love you, kind of. Well, we like you a lot.

Since much of Sarajevo was destroyed in a two year long Yugoslavian siege in the 1990s, the modern city of today is relatively new with many of the major buildings only a few years old. Though the thought of Sarajevo tends to conjure up images of war, occupation, and massacres, it is quite a pleasant city ten years after the siege and was even named 43rd best destination city by Lonely Planet last year. The city is historically a multicultural, as Bosniak Muslins, Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats, and Slovenians and Turks have lived there in relative harmony for hundreds of years. Because of this, many different ethnicities have made their mark on the city.

The Sarajevo Winter Festival: The winter festival is major highlight for the people of Sarajevo and it runs from December to April. Hundreds of concerts, exhibitions, and workshops are held all over the city. You can see anything from a exhibition remembering the Holocaust to a classical symphony to the screening of a Bollywood film.

Cevabdzinica Hodzic: Cevapi are the most common and well known Bosnian food and you can't leave Sarajevo without having a few. They are small dumplings made with minced meat, garlic, onions, and spices. The meat mixture is grilled all together and then stuffed into a gravy filled pita. Here you can get cevapi in portions of five, ten, fifteen, and so on. A full meal costs about $10 for two people.

About half of the original population of New Orleans has not returned home, the lower 9th is still a shell of a neighborhood, and tourism has not experienced a substantial revival. With a lack of good workers and out of town visitors, businesses are still suffering. But although much of the city sits in disrepair, almost all hotels, restaurants, bars, and sights have reopened. It's a great time to visit N.O.- the city won't be crowded, prices are great, and the economy is in dire need of your money. Here is a list of our picks and notable mentions from a recent NY Times piece.

Hotels: There are 180 hotels open in New Orleans with 28,500 rooms, which is about 2/3 of the pre-Katrina numbers. The Ritz just opened this month, the Hyatt will open next fall. The average rates hover around the same $100 a night mark as they did before Katrina. The difference now is the fancier hotels have all dropped their rates to below $200.

Antoine's: The New Orleans staple is in dire straights due to the lackluster tourism and local spending. While some restaurants seem to be thriving in the post Katrina environment, the upscale old world Antoine's (est. 1840) is on the verge of closing. Locals worry that the closing of Antoine's could signal the shape of things to come.

Austin is supposedly the hippest city in America. Chock full of good Tex-Mex joints, unemployed musicians, and cacti, it's a little oasis in the hot and conservative state of Texas. Austin also boasts the flagship Whole Foods. The grocery store is more food Mecca than actual store as it has about a thousand food stations. But we digress. The nightlife and the music scene is where it's at. So screw 24 hours or even 36 hours, here's our guide to where to stay and what to do for 120 hours in Austin.

Night One
Hotel: Hotel San Jose. This used to be a historic drive-up motel. Now after a facelift, this is a legitimately cool hotel with Spanish bungalow-style rooms (a couple have porches overlooking the courtyard for $315), posters of classic blues and rock musicians on the walls, and walkways filled with crushed granite. It's a favorite of the many musicians that come through Austin for shows and the big summer festivals. Rooms from $90. Free wifi.
Music Venue: Emo's. This club/music venue features some of the best local acts in Austin and is a favorite hangout for locals. The music is mostly punk, grunge, and alternative and it is a great place for hitting on hipsters.

Night Two
Hotel: Austin Motel. Most motels we've stayed in have stains on the sheets and dubious noises coming from room next store. But the Austin Motel is not only clean and safe, it's colorful, decorated with antiques, and it has a huge swimming pool. The 67 year old motel is an Austin classic, here long before all the hip artists deemed it the coolest city on earth. Rooms from $85. Free wifi in the adjacent restaurant.
Restaurant: El Arroyo. This Austin institution (and now chain with three other locations) is a great place for real Tex Mex. That means delicious chili con queso, mole, and guac. It's perfect for the hangover you are still nursing from your night out at Emo's.

Between making it big and not making it at all there's just making it, a category most "hotel bands" fall into and perhaps one more depressing than utter failure. The bands do almost exclusively covers of songs like Tata Young's Dhoom Dhoom and Man-Eater by Nelly Furtado, coordinate their outfits and have a choreographed show. Bangkok Recorder recently interviewed one of these unintentionally ironically-named bands called The All Star Band. The band is currently fulfilling a six month contract at Novotel's CM² club. Turns out though that the Hotel Band scene is a bustling one. Other bands like Common Culture and Solid As can be found in various hotels throughout Asia. The best part of the interview though has to be the pictures which exhaust almost every permutation of poseurdom imaginable.

Music Scene: Hotel Band
Common Culture pics
CM²

Previously: Jim Thompson House: Art and Bread Pudding, Morally Diminished Blog Gives Hope, Pause, Perhaps STDs (NSFW), I Dream Hotel of Bangkok, Bangkok's Quirkiest Online City Guide, Bangkok Google Mapped, Luxx Bangkok

Little Harry Goldberg of the NYT recently crossed the Mason Dixon line to spend 36 Hours in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Personally, I think these 36 Hour features are a bit of a sham since only 19 of the hours are accounted for (The other 17 being taken up sleeping or staring at a blank wall). I'd much rather open up the Travel section to "Chattanooga: A Drug-Fueled 36 Hour Rampage" or "Chattanooga: Until You Collapse" but I ain't holding my breath. Be that as it may, Goldberg does admit, "Chattanooga is a comfortable town, the kind of place where you can go high..." Predictably he's talking about culture but essential tame nature notwithstanding, Goldberg finds some worthwhile diversions among the "'noogans" including an $9.75 all you can eat downhome cookin' joint called Bea's, 100 pound catfish at the Aquarium and a 36 Hours in Chattanooga [NYT]

[Photo: David Berkey/NYT]

Previously: Santiago Gets A Good Going To, Matt Gross Returns From His Odyssey, One Hour Museums in Paris, Tallinn Gets Gone To, Denver Going Going Gone To

Hog-tied models, half-naked Tadzios, horribly cheesy house music, turn-down service, in-room safes. There's only one place this could be: the newly opened Dream Hotel in Bangkok. Hotelier Vikram Chatwal is known for his racy hotels including the Dream Hotel and Night Hotels in New York. His Bangkok version is no different. Thoroughly bedecked in designery opulence (you know the drill: mosaics, curves, lights under the bed), Chatwal's Dream Hotel peddles the sensual like some sort of horny high-end : blunting its aesthetic shortcomings with excess zeal. But, people love it and for US$129 per night, there's nothing really not to love. Like Claire's the accessories are piled on: iPod, wifi, lounge, restaurant (serving a dish called "Man Poo"), plasma tv, etc. Like Claire's you'll leave feeling as if you've accomplished something, albeit conspicuous consumption and like Claire's, young girls will be in easy supply.

Dream Hotel Bangkok
Dream Hotel Opening [Bangkok Metblogs]

[Photo: Bangkok Metblogs]

Previously: New Vikram Chatwal Hotel For Bangkok, Night Hotel Nudes, Bad Night and Good Luck, New York is Hot?