Can we tell you about the places where we’ve stayed?
If you’re visiting our blog, we imagine you love to travel as much as we do. In fact, we love everything about it, and we embark on a travel adventure whenever we can — near or far.
OUR CURRENT FAVORITES :
The Dylan, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The Langham, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Templation, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Downtown Mexico, Mexico City
Ladera, St. Lucia, West Indies
AND A LOCAL FAVORITE:
Alma Hotel, Minneapolis, MN, USA
One of our favorite things about getting away is staying in hotels — all kinds of hotels. We have to admit: It’s a lot of fun to enter a hotel lobby for the first time, check in, and then — in anticipation — open the door of a room to discover what awaits us.
If you, too, are a lover of hotels, you might enjoy reading about some of our visits.
Perhaps you’ll find yourself in one of these cities or towns and want a recommendation to stay…or to stay away. We’ll tell you how we found the hotel and what we thought of it. And we’ll share any advice that might be of use.
Before you jump in to any of the links below, here are a few important things to know:
- We don’t get to travel as much as we’d like (looking forward to retirement for that), so you won’t see a new entry every few days. We add entries as much as our travel schedule allows.
- With the exception of some quick overnights, most of our hotel choices are the result of a good bit of research. When we travel, we typically arrange two things in advance: transport to wherever we’re going and hotel bookings. Beyond that, we mostly go with the wind. Because we’re hotel junkies (and, we think possibly, hotel snobs), we put in the work to find places we’re fairly confident we’ll like. Therefore, this site is curated to the extent that, with a few exceptions, we only share places we’ve stayed that we think are worth sharing.
- Beyond our musings, we’ll give you some details about the hotel, but specifics like prices aren’t here. Of course, prices fluctuate a lot, and you can easily get rates through the hotels’ websites or something like booking.com. (We do recommend booking directly whenever possible; it’s good for you, and it tends to be good for the property too.)
- These opinions are our own. Feel free to share anything here, but please credit hotelling.org.
LATEST POSTS
ALL POSTS
Asia
Siem Reap, Cambodia ~ Templation
Caribbean
Rio Grande, Puerto Rico ~ St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort
San Juan, Puerto Rico ~ El Convento Hotel
St. Lucia, West Indies ~ Ladera Resort
Europe
Milan, Italy ~ Senato Hotel Milano
Paris, France ~ Maison Souquet
Sinio, Italy ~ Castello di Sinio
Turin Italy ~ Turin Palace Hotel
Amsterdam, The Netherlands ~ The Dylan
Ålesund, Norway ~ Hotel Brosundet
Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway ~ Basecamp Hotel
Tetbury, The Cotswolds, UK ~ Oak House No. 1
St. Petersburg, Russia ~ Rossi Hotel & Spa
Mexico
Playa del Carmen, Mexico ~ Thompson House
Mexico City, Mexico ~ Downtown Mexico
United States (not Minnesota or the Midwest)
Missoula, Montana, USA ~ The Wren
Nisswa, Minnesota, USA ~ Nature Link Resort
Santa Monica, California, USA ~ Shutters on the Beach
Chicago, Illinois, USA ~ The Langham
New York City, NY, USA ~ ModernHaus SoHO
Taos, New Mexico, USA ~ El Monte Sagrado
Santa Barbara, California, USA ~ Palihouse Santa Barbara
Key West, Florida, USA ~ H2O Suites
Miami, Florida, USA ~ The Mandarin Oriental
Brooklyn, New York, USA ~ Wythe Hotel
Minnesota and the Midwest
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA ~ The Pfister
Hastings, Minnesota, USA ~ The Confluence Hotel
Madison, Wisconsin, USA ~ Hotel Indigo
Excelsior, Minnesota, USA ~ Hotel Excelsior
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA ~ Four Seasons
Red Wing, Minnesota, USA ~ St. James Hotel
Stillwater, Minnesota, USA ~ Hotel Crosby
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA ~ Celeste of St. Paul
La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA ~ Charmant
Chicago, Illinois, USA ~ Virgin Hotels Chicago
Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA ~ The Oxbow Hotel
Chetek, Wisconsin, USA ~ Canoe Bay
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA ~ Alma Hotel
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA ~ The W, Foshay Tower
Wayzata, Minnesota, USA ~ Hotel Landing
Stillwater, Minnesota, USA ~ The Lora Hotel
Etcetera
In Brief ~ new entry: June 2023
CHECKING IN…AGAIN (latest update: July 2025)
On occasion, we’ll revisit a place we’ve previously written about. It’s always fun to see how experience #2, 3, 4 stacks up to our first visit.
Maison Souquet
When a David Hockney retrospective arrived in Paris in summer 2025, we managed to get tickets and book a four-day visit to see the show. Our stay at Maison Souquet in Fall 2023 was terrific, so we didn’t even look at other hotel options for this trip. (If you’re curious about our first visit, you can read our post.)
Maison Souquet felt a litte more worn than it did on our first visit (it’s got to be so difficult to keep the lavish furnishings and finishings pristine) but even so, the hotel continues to get high marks from us. For this visit, we chose a junior suite on the 4th floor, and we loved our two Juliet balconies that overlooked the rue de Bruxelles . Even though it was quite hot in Paris, we couldn’t resist opening the French doors to let in the outside air and the sound of the city.
We also loved watching the Tour de France, which would race almost right past Maison Souquet the week after we departed.
Next time we’re in Paris, we hope to check out the newest property in the hotel group: Maison Proust in the Marais neighborhood.
The Dylan
A flight delay on our way to Northern Italy in late September 2024 meant that we would have an unplanned night in Amsterdam. While we weren’t excited about missing our first day in Como, the disappointment lifted when we were able to book the last room at one of our all-time favorite hotels, The Dylan.
The moment we walked into the entrance courtyard, we were reminded that The Dylan is special. From the guest rooms – this time we stayed in a very unique duplex room with the bedroom and bathroom on separate levels – to the service, The Dylan delivers. In our short stay, we spent time looking out at the Amsterdam rooftops from our top-floor bathroom with skylights, visited The Dylan’s garden for a drink and snacks, and reunited with our favorite concierge from two years ago who helped us with last-minute dinner reservations at Café Verlan where we found a 2001 Barbaresco on the wine list that brought northern Italy to us. Amsterdam is terrific on its own; The Dylan makes it even better.
Read our full post on The Dylan from 2022.
The Kindler
In June 2024, we checked into The Kindler Hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska, for two overnight stays a week apart. Our first visit to The Kindler was during the height of the pandemic when we road- tripped between Minneapolis and Denver (most air travel was on pause). This time, we were once again Denver-bound and stayed at The Kindler on our way both to and from the Mile-High City. We were delighted to see that The Kindler was still looking new and fresh four years later; it surely is the “class act” in Lincoln and a nice surprise in a college town with otherwise standard offerings. Even more fun, while having a drink at the bar, we realized we had met the bartender Bobby during our first stay. At that time, hotels were just re-opening, and he was one member of the skeleton crew keeping the hotel open. We were delighted to see Bobby again and pleased with our recent stay. Here’s our original post that featured The Kindler.
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