Bellevue Seattle Bridge

Seattle, Washington is a great city, with lots to see and do. On my recent trip there, I was initially staying in the middle of downtown at the Executive Hotel Pacific, but that didn’t pan out so well. The location was great – I could walk to Pike’s Market, restaurants and shops – but the hotel was not that great. Luckily, my boyfriend was in town for a video game convention and he was staying at the Hilton. At first, we were excited because the hotel was supposed to have been booked in the downtown area – but upon checking in we realized that nope, he was booked at the Hilton in Bellevue, a good 15 minute drive away. Oh well!

The drive was definitely worth it though. To get to Bellevue, you have to cross the world’s longest floating bridge. This was a lot of fun, and it was a beautiful drive. The weird thing was that, on the drive from Seattle to Bellevue, the water to the right of the bridge was extremely choppy, but the water to the left was as smooth and calm as a pond.

This Hilton was exceptionally nice. The rooms were huge (as were the bathrooms!) and the beds were super comfy. I made use of the workout room which had every machine you could possibly need, and there was an outdoor pool that we didn’t get a chance to try. There was apparently a beauty pageant happening at the hotel when we arrived, so there were lots of six-year-olds running around with poofy hair and more makeup than I wear on Friday nights, but that’s another story.

Seattle Bay

Thank you to Ramanathan.Kathire san for the photo of the Bellevue Bridge.

Seattle Washington

Yet another wedding sent me to Seattle, Washington this summer. Finding reasonably priced hotels in this city is like climbing the Space Needle with your fingernails. The Executive Hotel Pacific was the cheapest non-shady lodging I could find, and while it was in a fantastic location, I will not be staying there again. Despite the 30% off discount on Hotels.com, the hotel was STILL over $150/night. Ouch. Secondly, the room was small, smelled bad and the bathroom was uncomfortably small and it felt and looked old.

There were some perks to the Executive Hotel, though. A Seattle’s Best Coffee is located in the downstairs lobby area, so I didn’t have to walk far to get my coffee fix in the morning. And, the location was fantastic. The hotel was only about a 10-12 minute walk from Pike Place Market, and there were plenty of good restaurants and bars nearby. The hotel isn’t close to other big attractions like the Space Needle or the Experience Music Project, though, so I was thankful that we had a car to get around in.

I disliked this hotel so much that I ended up staying with my boyfriend at the Hilton all the way out in Bellevue, a good 15 minute drive away. (He was in Seattle for a video game convention at the same time, good timing!) Now that was a nice hotel — see my next blog for my comments!

Pike's Market Seattle

Thank you to fddi1 and worldsurfer for their photo contributions.

Philadelphia Pennyslvania

Ah, Philadelphia. Home to the best cheese steaks, the Rocky statue and oh yes – a little bit of history. My boyfriend and I took our first trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this past summer, and we we really wanted a hotel that was close to all the action — which in Philly, means the historical sights and quirky shopping districts. (Thank goodness we did not choose a hotel close to either Geno’s or Pat’s, or I would still be eating cheese steaks there.) Like most big cities these days, Philly is not cheap near downtown, but we were able to find a great place called Club Quarters Philadelphia, conveniently located on the corner of 17th and Chesnut, only a few blocks away from Rittenhouse Square Park. The train station’s only two blocks away too, which was great since we had to hop on the train to New York City after our stay.

Club Quarters is one of those membership hotels, and if you belong to it you get extra good discounts on all of their hotels, but we got a great price nonetheless of about $105/night. Be forewarned – the rooms here are rather tiny…I might even go so far as to say teeny tiny. They are very clean and well-kept, but if your room is like ours, you will be sleeping on two single beds (kind of cute!), and showering in a bathroom which requires to you close the door to use the toilet. It almost felt like we were in a hostel, or camping as kids, but with much nicer furniture. The beds were so comfy though, I couldn’t believe it! Perhaps not the best choice for a romantic getaway, though if you both have long arms you can hold hands as you lie on your respective beds. In the end, the size of the room didn’t bother us at all because we like to be out and about when we travel, and Club Quarters was perfect for this, we walked to everything we wanted to see – even the Rocky Statue, which took about twenty minutes.

Now this might not tickle you like it did me, but in the lobby of the hotel, there is an automated check-in/check-out kiosk. All you need is your credit card and your keys for the door are printed out for you – you don’t even need to talk with the front desk clerk if you don’t want to. This was, as I like to say, just ducky, because I detest waiting in lines.

All in all, definitely check this hotel out. It’s a great home base for exploring Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Cheese Steak - Geno's