guest post by Sherry Gray

Anything on the beach is going to have a certain amount of awe associated with it just by virtue of the natural environment.  But some beach hotels go the extra mile to make the most of their prime location.

Six Amazing Beach Hotels

The National Hotel on South Miami Beach, FL

The Naitonal - South Beach Miami hotel

Known for the elegance and luxury of a bygone era, the hotel sits right on the sands of Miami’s best known beach and features a unique 205-foot long infinity pool. The National was built in the late 1940s and boasts chic art deco style with all the amenities you expect in a luxury hotel.

itty bitty picture of big infinity pool

What’s to love: Style! Fully restored to its original glory in 1997, the National is loaded with charm and style.

The Sanctuary Beach Resort in Monterey Bay, CA

The Sanctuary Beach Resort in Monterey Bay

Built on the edge of The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, this luxurious resort offers the kind of unspoiled nature you’d normally have to sleep in a tent to enjoy. The isolated location of The Sanctuary Beach Resort offers stunning views of the Pacific Ocean or rolling dunes of seemingly endless sand alive with an amazing array of indigenous plant and wildlife. You can’t go wrong, either choice is simply breathtaking.

What’s to love: Put simply, raw nature. With the Marine Sanctuary just steps away, you’re surrounded by wilderness while being spoiled rotten by amenities.

The Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort just off the coast of Charleston, SC

The Sanctuary

This five star resort hotel built in 2004 is designed to be reminiscent of an elegant seaside mansion, and to fit into the landscape as if it has been in place for hundreds of years. Sweeping, Gone With the Wind staircases dominate the expansive lobby, beautifully decorated in traditional southern décor accented by antiques, lending a homey feeling of casual elegance.

What’s to love: Gorgeous, oceanfront golf. Golf Digest ranks The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort at number 25 on it’s list of 100 Greatest U.S. Golf Courses and number 4 on the Best Public Course list.

The Wyndham Hotel Galvez in Galveston, TX

Tropical pool at The Wyndham Hotel Galvez

Recently restored to its full glory, the glamorous Wyndham Hotel Galvez dates back nearly 100 years. Dubbed the “Queen of the Gulf” when it first opened in 1911, the hotel was frequented by celebrities and public figures like Teddy Roosevelt, Frank Sinatra and the enigmatic Howard Hughes.

What’s to love: Aside from rich historical background, the incredible tropical pool complete with swim up bar is a sight to behold.

The Victorian at the Beachmere Inn in Ogunquit, ME

Beachmere Inn

This beautifully restored Victorian mansion built in the late 1800s was once a private residence. Comfortable, affordable rooms decorated in Shaker style and soothing seaside color overlook a panoramic view of the beach below.

What’s to love: Wood burning fireplaces in some of the suite-style rooms for cozy evenings in.

The Turtle Bay Resort in Oahu, HI

View from The Turtle Bay Resort

Forty-five minutes away from the high density overpopulation of Honolulu, the Turtle Bay Resort is an oasis of tranquility on nearly five miles of dazzling white sand beaches. Because of its unique construction, every room in the resort has a spectacular ocean view.

What’s to love: Surfing! The Oahu shoreline is home to legendary surfing spots including the Banzai Pipeline.

You might have guessed that I’m not a huge fan of cookie-cutter chain hotels. I look for unique factors that will make my beach vacation memorable. Fortunately it’s not that hard to find a hotel full of charm, grace and elegance. They key is to break away from the familiar and search for the original.

Safety While Traveling Is Common Sense

Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, alone or with family, it’s important to think about precautions and general common sense to keep you and your loved ones safe.

Hotel Security:

1. Ask questions before you decide on your hotel.  Does the hotel have security personnel on site around the clock?  Do they have surveillance cameras?  Are background checks performed on staff?  Are staff trained for emergencies?  Any hotel worth it’s salt will have taken these steps to ensure guest and staff safety.
2. Staying alone?  Do not hesitate to ask for an escort to your room or car during off hours.  Ask for a map of the hotel and know your nearby exits.
3. Opt for hotels that use key cards.
4. When choosing a hotel, steer clear of close proximity to government offices, embassies, landmarks or religious centers.
5. Avoid taking a room on the ground floor, especially those with patio doors.  Avoid near the lobby, stairwells and elevators.  The safest rooms are between the 3rd and 7th floors: high enough to deter would-be criminals, low enough that the firemen can reach you by ladder in the unfortunate event some idiot fell asleep smoking in their bed.
6. Ensure there are sprinklers in your room.  See #5.
7. If the desk clerk that checked you in announces your room number while handing you your key card, ask for a different room.  That’s right up there with the genius customs agent who asked a friend of mine why he was carrying $4000 in cash (he was going to Vegas and some scumbags overheard the exchange – thanks customs agent, I need new pants now and a getaway car.)
8. Do not use the provided door hanger to request maid service or room service, especially if the latter indicates your meal is for one.  Call in your requests instead.
9. Use valet parking instead of venturing into the parking garage, even if it is well lit.

Laptop Safety:

10. Perform a full backup before you leave.  Nuff said.
11.Turn off file & print sharing and disable shared drives & folders before logging onto the hotel’s network.
12.  Lock your laptop in a suitcase to deter thieves.  Some people go so far as to put their electronic gear in a steel suitcase and use a bike lock to chain it to a large piece of furniture.  It may be the only thing you chain to your bed on this trip, but hey.

13. Don’t turn your back on it, ever.  Even in the middle of a presentation, hard drives go missing when the speaker goes to answer questions.

Personal Safety:

14. Know your whereabouts at all times.

15. Watch your alcohol consumption.  Being impaired in a strange place can lead to some very shady situations.  Furthermore, do not turn your back on your drink and if you do, order a new one and leave the old one.  Spending a few extra bucks to spare yourself from rohypnol – priceless.

16. Beware of overly friendly people.  Do not invite them back to your hotel room even if you’ve been laughing it up with them and they seem cool.

17. Program your cell phone with all your emergency contacts.  Besides the obvious family members, consider adding your lawyer, insurance company and your favorite bail bondsman.

Keeping the Kids Safe:

18. Before leaving: have recent pictures of the kids, ensure kids know the hotel name and where you are staying, and make plans in the event you are separated.
19. Never allow your kids to wander the hotel alone.  Besides the obvious safety factors (the pool, the workout room equipment, leaving the hotel and stepping into traffic), children are susceptible to kidnapping in this day and age of human trafficking.
20. If you’re going to use the hotel crib, check it over very carefully.  Better yet, bring your own portable crib if you can.  Hotels cannot be relied on to provide a safe crib.
21. Upon arriving, check your room over carefully as well.  Move dangerous items such as the hair dryer, coffee pot, toiletries, glasses and dry cleaning bag.  Cover electrical outlets.  Move furniture away from windows, check window latches and tie up blind cords.  Look from the perspective of your little one by crawling around on the floor.  Then, see #5.
22. Wash your hands and your children’s hands regularly.  Nobody needs projectile vomiting while on vacation.
23. Set the rules right away.  Grown ups answer the door, no one wanders off, stay together and don’t touch the mini-bar.  Stuff like that will keep your spawn safe and your amenities bill in check.

This may sound like a lot of information, but a little forward planning and a lot of common sense can make the difference between vacation and ending up sick, lost, hungover, drugged, robbed, hurt, on fire, dead, and/or childless.

The auction of the landmark Watergate Hotel in Washington DC is generating a bidding frenzy amongst developers and real estate investors. Bidding starts at $1m on Tuesday at 10.15 am at the Wisconsin Ave offices of Alex Cooper Auctioneers.

Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C.

This historic hotel - located across from the Kennedy Center and half a mile from the Lincoln Memorial – now stands desolate and abondoned to the elements, another victim of the recession which has seen hundreds of hotels going into default and being foreclosed.

Monument Realty, the current owners, have left a $40 million loan hanging around the hotel’s neck, but that’s just one part of the screw-up. The owners shuttered the hotel in 2007, and were in the process of converting the Watergate into a luxury hotel/residency complex. This $100 million makeover plan came to a screeching halt when one of the financiers - Lehman Brothers – went bankrupt last year.

Richard Nixon leaves White House

The only saving grace is the hotel’s history and national landmark status. The Watergate Hotel is famed for being the place where the Watergate burglars snoozed in 1972 before breaking into and pilfering documents in the adjacent Democratic National Committee HQ office –  a crime which  implicated Richard Nixon and forced him to resign from the Presidency.

This historic status is attracting bidders for the hotel from all over – including local developers and international luxury hotel chains. Monument Realty purchased it for $45 million in 2004, but that figure now seems too high for the auction, which could end up anywhere between $20-30 million.

(Update: July 23, 2009 - The auction attracted 1 winning bid for $25m, and the Watergate is now owned by PG Capital - the lender who foreclosed the hotel in the first place.)

Watergate Hotel photo by tvol (creative commons). Richard Nixon photo by Ollie Atkins (public domain).

by Barbara Weibel of Hole In The Donut Travels

“If these walls could only talk,” I thought as I walked into the lobby of the Linden Row Inn. I was in Richmond, Virginia for a writer’s conference and, sight unseen, had made reservations at this historic hotel at the suggestion of conference organizers. As it was located in the slightly dilapidated – yet reawakening – city center, I expected another run-of-the-mill, seedy hotel. Instead, I found eight Greek Revival row houses that have been lovingly restored and converted to a 70-room hotel.

Linden Row Inn, looking toward historic row houses

The moment I set foot in the Linden Row I was transported back to the nineteenth century, when Richmond was the capital of the confederacy. Wooden rockers line the interior balconies, wrought iron tables and chairs dot the red brick paved courtyard, and antique leather sofas and chairs in the Parlor Lounge tempt guests to while away the hours with a book and a glass of wine. Guest rooms, many with original windows nearly reaching to 12-foot ceilings, are filled with antiques and reproductions from the Victorian and Empire periods, yet the facility has bowed to modern times by providing cable TV with premium channels, coffeemakers, clock radios, and complimentary high-speed Internet access. Read More »