In their Jan 2010 issue, Travel + Leisure has neat categorized listings of the top 500 hotels on earth. Bushmans Kloof in Cedar Mountains Wilderness Area, South Africa  – a wildnerness reserve and retreat, was voted as the World’s best hotel.

Travel + Leisure - World's Best 500 hotels

Bushmans Kloof is about 270 kms from Cape Town, and offers a full-service hideaway with a wellness focus and a predator free sanctuary to endangered species, with 130 Bushman rock art sites and one of South Africa’s Natural Heritage Sites.  The accomodations include 13 rooms and 3 suites. 

There’s also 3 restaurants and 1 bar. For a maximum of 32 guests… Gives a new meaning to personalized service. Which is why it costs $715, all-inclusive.

The second best hotel in the world, as per T+L, is the Oberoi Vanyavilas in Rajasthan, India. At No.3 on the list is Jade Mountain in St. Lucia.

The best hotel in the US was the Inn at Palmetto Bluff, in Bluffton, SC. The No. 1 hotel in California was the London West Hollywood, while The Carlyle topped the list of hotels in New York.

Check out Travel + Leisure’s full list of 2010′s 500 best hotels here – www.travelandleisure.com/tl500/2010

Related posts:-
Travel + Leisure – London West Hollywood is America’s Best Hotel (2009)
5-diamond Luxury Hotels in the USA

Hotel Mini Bar...Mr. Bubbles anyone?

Ah, hotel mini bars. Here you can usually find exceptionally priced goodies to the tune of nuts, booze and candy. But every so often, the hotel you are staying in might surprise you. I recently came across this article from Travel & Leisure Magazine…some hotels theses days are certainly stocking some curious things.

Mirror, Mirror (Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles, California)

Get your hands on a Alice in Wonderland inspired hand-held mirror only available at the hotel.

Spray Your Mouth, Get Rid of Toxins (XV Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts)

Not too sure about this one, but apparently the FDA was since they apparently approved the spray. It’s supposed to get rid of “urban toxins.” Hmm.

Designer Condoms (Thompson Beverly Hills in Beverly Hills, California)

Designed by Alexander Wang. Enough said.

Voodoo Love Dolls (Omni Royal Cresecent, New Orleans)

This is my favorite one of all. It’s only $10! You get a doll, a bunch of pins and a manual to tell you what to do with them all. Quirky.

There were quite a few others, this is just a taste. The article reminded me that I really need to start looking in the mini bars at hotel rooms these days…provided the hotel doesn’t charge you just to take a peek!

Photo: Rick

Travel + Leisure has published their 2009 World’s Best Awards, and the awards and listings for the top hotels make for some interesting reading. The London West Hollywood Hotel in West Hollywood, CA topped the list of large city hotels (above 100 rooms) in North America.

The London West Hollywood was followed by two hotels in Montreal, Quebec – Hotel Nelligan and Place d’Armes Hôtel & Suites, in second and third place, respectively. The top 10 Large City hotels in North America, as per the T + L list are as follows:-  

The London West Hollywood

1 – London West Hollywood, West Hollywood, CA
2 – Hotel Nelligan, Montreal, Quebec
3 – Place d’Armes Hôtel & Suites, Montreal, Quebec 
4 – Omni La Mansion Del Rio, San Antonio, TX 
5 – Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas, TX  
6 – The Carlyle, New York, NY 
7 – The Peninsula, Chicago, Chicago, IL 
8 – Raffles L’Ermitage Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, CA 
9 – Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas, Dallas, TX 
10 – The Peninsula, Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, CA

You can see the full T + L list of the top 50 large city hotels here. As for small city hotels (less than 100 rooms), the Eliot Hotel in Boston, MA topped the charts, followed by the Watermark Hotel & Spa in San Antonio, TX and the Auberge Saint-Antoine in Quebec City, Quebec. Here’s the list of top 10 small city hotels:-

Eliot Hotel, Boston, MA

1 – Eliot Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts  
2 – Watermark Hotel & Spa, San Antonio, TX 
3 – Auberge Saint-Antoine, Quebec City, Quebec
4 – Hotel Bel-Air, Los Angeles, CA
5 – XV Beacon Hotel, Boston, MA 
6 – Wedgewood Hotel & Spa, Vancouver, BC
7 – Brazilian Court Hotel & Beach Club, Palm Beach, FL 
8 – Planters Inn, Charleston, South Carolina
9 – Hôtel Le St.-James, Montreal, Quebec 
10 – Mosaic Hotel, Los Angeles, California

There’s a lot more to see in the T + L rankings, including the top 100 hotels in the world, the top resorts and inns in North America, and separate rankings for the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, and other parts of the world.

The lists are published in Travel + Leisure’s August issue, available on newsstands July 24. Hotel rankings are based on the results of a readers’ survey, with ratings in five categories: rooms/facilities, location, service, restaurants/food, and value. The awards winners for 2009 are to be honored in New York City on July 21 at an awards event at the Cooper Square Hotel.

London West Hollywood photo by goalbert. Eliot Hotel photo courtesy – Eliot hotel.