One of Savannah's fountains gone green for St Patrick's Day
My bags are packed and I’m ready to go!
OK, my bags aren’t quite packed yet, but they will be soon as my girlfriends and I prepare to head to Savannah, Georgia for St. Patrick’s Day. Celebrating the High Holy Day in Savannah has been on my Life List for a few years now, ever since I discovered that the charming Southern town pulled out all the stops for a legendary party.
Interested in a last-minute trip?
Hotels start filling up for St. Patrick’s Day about a week in advance. But the holiday falling mid-week this year has left a few hotels with rooms available. That means there’s still time to be impulsive and head to Savannah for a notoriously good time!
3 Last-Minute Hotel Specials in Savannah for St. Patrick’s Day
Comfort Inn & Suites Midtown – literally had one room left for Wednesday and Thursday night when I called Tuesday morning. You’ll pay a little over $100 a night.
Holiday Inn Express Savannah Historic District- queen beds available for about $230 and king beds available for about $300. Wednesday night rates are a little lower than Thursday night rates.
The Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa – they are currently running a special that offers your second night at the cost of the year you were born. (For example, if you were born in 1960, you only pay $60 for your second night.) Rates for Wednesday and Thursday night are running between $279 and $319 right now.
All three of these locations are in the Historic District, which is where most of the St Patrick’s Day festivities take place. The Westin is across the harbor but provides a complimentary ferry shuttle.
How can you score a hotel room in Manhattan for less than $100 per night?
Check into one of New York City’s tiniest hotel rooms.
There’s really no such thing as a “spacious” hotel room in Manhattan, but micro-hotels like The Jane Hotel take scaling down to an extreme with rooms measuring as little as 50 square feet. Within those few feet, guests can expect to find a bed, a phone on the wall, and a shelf above the bed to store luggage. Personal hygiene must be taken care of in the communal bathroom down the hall. If you need a little more space and a bathroom of your own, The Jane offers 50 rooms that boast 250 square feet of lodging space for about double the price of the standard mini-room.
Across the island from The Jane’s Far West Village location, The Pod Hotel offers “pod rooms” in East Midtown with about 99 square feet of space for as little as $85 a night, a rate that includes free WiFi. You can get your own bathroom for just $10 more per night. While The Jane’s rooms tend to be decorated in dark paneling that could make the claustrophobic traveler feel like they were confined in the hull of a ship, The Pod’s decor is bright and modern, a better match for the “broke but hip” crowd.
The idea of micro-hotels might seem crazy, but it’s actually spreading. On April 15, the new Yotel Time Square will open in the famed tourist district and become the chain’s first micro-hotel in the United States. The Yotel rooms will be about 170 square feet and cost guests just over $200 per night. Yotel has enjoyed success with the pod-like rooms in its properties in Europe, including a location in London Heathrow’s Terminal 4.
Would you consider staying in a room with less than 100 square feet of space if it only cost you $85 per night to stay in Midtown Manhattan? I’ve certainly payed a lot more money for not much more usable space, and the size of my hotel room is rarely a major concern when I’m visiting The City That Never Sleeps.
Ever wonder how those high rise luxury hotels in your favorite big cities are built? Check out the time lapse video recording construction on the new Loews Atlanta Hotel.
The new Loews Atlanta Hotel opens in the Atlanta‘s Midtown arts district on April 1st, 2010 and promises to offer a great view from every room.
Loews Atlanta Hotel will feature 414 guest rooms when it’s completed, including 44 suites. Each room will be equipped with a 37” HD flat-screen TV, 300-thread-count cotton linens and a plush “Ultimate Doeskin” robe. Guests will also have access to in-room wireless Internet and wireless phones.
The new luxury hotel is looking to attract upscale business travelers with an emphasis on tech amenities like a wireless lobby bar. In addition to Internet access, the Loews Atlanta Hotel will have 24,000 square feet of “function space” available, estimating that it can host groups of as many as 1,580 people. Of course, it wouldn’t be a luxury hotel without a state of the art fitness center, spa and on site dining, all of which will be available under the Loews Atlanta Hotel’s roof.
While the doors won’t open to guests until April, you can check in on the progress of the Midtown hotel (and check out current Atlanta weather conditions) via webcam.
Across the island from The Jane’s Far West Village location, 
