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Sleeping Around: Delft
DELFT, THE NETHERLANDS – You might call her the Dutch Mona Lisa.
Alone on a canvas, gazing longingly into the viewer’s eyes – little is known about the Girl with a Pearl Earring beyond the fact that the chick was a whiz with accessories.
But unlike Mona’s well-documented painter, the man whose brush begat Girl with a Pearl Earring is just as mysterious as his subject.
What’s remarkable is, despite the dearth of personal information, Vermeer’s spirit seems to lurk around ever corner in Delft.
The town itself was his muse, and it doesn’t take a stroke of artistic genius to see why: peaceful canals, elegant brown row houses and a central square that makes a man feel like an ant. Read More...
Sleeping Around: Grand Manan Island
GRAND MANAN ISLAND, NEW BRUNWSICK – As the captain of a whale watching vessel for over three decades, James Bates had season tickets to some of the sea’s greatest shows: majestic marine life, rare birds and rugged coastlines.
You know what else he witnessed in those very waters? Fishermen heaving trash overboard.
So in 1994, when Bates got his land legs and constructed a handful of tourist cabins, it was no ordinary resort. Castalia Marsh Retreat sprouted straight out of Bates’ concern for the planet.
“We can make heaven on earth or we can make hell,” he says.
It’s clear which way he’s steering his ship.
“I try to create balance. Life to me is magic.”
It’s a quaint spot, home to three big lighthouses and a bunch of miniature offshoots that people plunk on their front lawns (a vast improvement from flamingoes, if I do say so myself).
Furthermore, the pace is slow as molasses, which is a good thing if you’re looking to get away from it all. Read More...
Tootie the Cutie
BY REB STEVENSON
QUALICUM BEACH, B.C. – The year was 1943, and newlyweds Jeanne and Bruce Box were looking for a sweet little getaway.
They heard about St. Andrews Lodge and Glen Cottages on Vancouver Island, a family-run guesthouse by the sea. It sounded nice so they booked it – via telegram, naturally.
Since then, they’ve gone back to that selfsame spot every single year. Put simply: 67 years straight.
“We treated it as the poor man’s Hawaii,” says Bruce, from his North Vancouver home.
The Boxes are both turning 90 this year. But is that stopping them from renting their favourite one bedroom cottage for four weeks this summer? Not a chance.
It’s easy to see what keeps the couple so spellbound.
Situated along a pretty stretch of the Island Highway, St. Andrews Lodge greets you like a vintage postcard from holidays of yore. It consists of a main lodge building (constructed in 1938) and eight cottages that sprang up between 1939 and 1952.
Anyone who has stayed there will tell you that the biggest component of St. Andrews Lodge is actually something little.
Miss Elizabeth Little, to be precise. Read More...
My Four Minutes of Fame
It's a Shoe Inn!
Opus is known for chic, creative flair (rooms are designed around five fictional “lifestyle concierges named Mike, Billy, Pierre, Susan and Dede) while Fluevog has been an eccentric fashion icon on the West Coast for decades.
“Both organizations have a loyal following and neither are afraid of a splash, a dash or a pop here and there,” says Fluevog.
What’s more is, unlike most hotel uniforms, The Porter Shoe is not mere eye candy: guests can purchase a pair of their own from the mini bar menu for $329.
For more information, visit www.opushotel.com or www.fluevog.com
Bites of the Big Apple
To celebrate its birthday, the iconic art deco high rise is offering a deal to its esteemed peers: anyone over 80 can book a room for $80 a night up until December 26, 2010. Though this is hardly a throwback to the prices of yore, $80 is a steal considering the hotel has recently gone through a $70 million renovation and refurbishment. Connected codgers will rejoice in the fact that the rate includes free WiFi, while active seniors might choose to partake of the complimentary access to the fitness center. For more info, visit www.newyorkerhotel.com or call 1-800-764-4680.
For more information, visit www.nycgo.com.
Sleeping Around in a Church
PARIS, FRANCE - I’ve just spent two nights at a hotel with a clingy curry aroma.
At first, the 30-Euro-a-night price seems worth any nasal inconvenience. But then I discover my neighbour is a communal hallway toilet that glugs like a hyperventilating swamp monster in the middle of the night.
Therefore, my next destination - Hotel Saint Merry - is a godsend.
While the intricate dark wood sconces and exposed beams hint that it wasn’t always a hotel, the presence of carved Jesuses and Marys confirms Hotel Saint Merry was far more pious than a private house.
Some 400 years ago the hotel was part of a church. Specifically, it served as the lodgings for the resident priests. Read More...
Mhor Than a Scottish Country Inn
Story and photos by Reb Stevenson
PERTHSHIRE, SCOTLAND - A posh fish n’ chips shop, a back-to-basics cookery school, a rural tearoom, a traditional bakery, a working farm and a stylish boutique hotel: this is the mighty clan of Mhor.
Set amongst the Scottish Highlands in Trossachs National Park, Mhor is a vertically integrated tourism product masterminded by award winning chef Tom Lewis.
“We’ve got so much on our doorstep, it makes it easy,” says Lewis.
It started simply enough: once upon a time Lewis’ mom hung a sign reading “Tea and Scones” outside their pink farmhouse. Read More...
Shacking Up with Sugar
New Video: Sleeping Around in The Shining
Corresponding story runs in The Star on February 27.
And while we’re at it, here’s a sneak peak from an upcoming video/column on The Jane, an awesome and affordable hotel in NYC!
Sleeping Around: Arizona
My attitude toward them was nothing short of disdainful. And given that their current ambassador is a four-eyed doofus named Bubbles, can you really blame me?
Then, one dark Arizona night, I saw the light. It was neon light, and it illuminated the words “The Shady Dell.”
A collection of ten vintage trailers dating from 1949 to 1959, the place is a glorious celebration of mid-century modernism and a throwback to golden age of the tow-your-own hotel-room movement.
My lodging for the evening was a 1959 Boles Aero, the park’s newest addition. Upon entering, I discovered that its shiny metallic exterior was really just a big old time capsule.
Read More...
Hopping Around Fort Collins
After two nights in room 217 at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park (The Stephen King Suite), I was very pleased to slip between the sheets at the un-haunted Armstrong Hotel in Fort Collins, Colorado. I’m loving the art deco theme (see their website, I’m a big fan of the design) and fresh colours that liven up this boutique property in the heart of the old town!
Postcards from Creepsville
Shot today at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where I am working on my 5th Sleeping Around column. Want to play with me?
Another Notch on the Bedpost
Sorry I’ve been lax on the Christmas posts over the last few days, but I wanted to let you know (brace for excuse) that I’ve been busy filming my fourth SLEEPING AROUND segment here at the loverly Sooke Harbour House near Victoria, British Columbia. It’s going to be a winner! And I promise the video will be far better than my totem impression, right!
Back soon with some cool xmas recipes and such. How are your holidays going (please make my day and comment below)?
Sleeping Around in Paris
You can see the other videos in this series (Berlin and Arizona) on my YouTube Channel! Don’t forget to subscribe!
Dazzle her with Your Package
The Propsal Package costs from $2,100 US and is available from February 1, 2010 to July 31, 2010. For more information, go to www.algodonmansion.com or call 011 54 11 3530 7777.
Sleeping Around: Berlin
BERLIN, GERMANY - “Are you going to put the lid down?!”
That’s the first question friends and family lob at me when I mention that I’ll be staying in room #31 at Propeller Island City Lodge in Berlin.
Just for the record, I don’t have a cloak collection, I get my fair share of UV rays and I’m not attracted to steak done blue rare. I’m just a regular gal who loves an imaginative hotel room.
In fact, devout goths reject room #31.
“They say it’s not dark enough,” says manager Valentina Gennadis.
Perhaps they could make do with #16, a tubular room with concrete walls that evokes a mine shaft, or #42, home to two cage-beds propped up on 1.5 metre stilts.
Each of Propeller Island’s 27 rooms is so different, so surprising and so fundamentally bizarre that it’s hard to imagine anyone failing to find inspiration in the lineup.
You can barely call this joint a hotel. Propeller Island offers none of the trappings of your average Ramada. Room service, televisions and coffee makers? God no, that would wreck the illusion that you’ve just overindulged at the hallucinogen buffet. Read More...
The Big Picture: Wigwam Motel
Screw political correctness: on my recent solo road trip through Arizona (story coming soon to The Toronto Star), one of the highlights was The Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ.
The adorable concrete and steel tents, built in 1950 on a stretch of old Route 66, rent for under $60 US per night. Interiors feature the original wood furnishings and a surprisingly understated native theme. Outside, classic cars evoke the days of cowboys n’ Indians on TV and wholesome family vacations.
www.galerie-kokopelli.com/wigwam
Sleeping Around #2: Arizona
Corresponding story runs in The Star on November 28.
Sleeping Around #1: Berlin is HERE.
Sneak Peek: Sleeping Around #2
Let’s just say that the only trash I found in this trailer park was firmly nestled in the dumpster.
Coming to The Toronto Star in November 2009. Meanwhile, you can read Sleeping Around 1: Berlin HERE.
Sleeping Around in Berlin
Ooh! Ooh! Eh!
By Reb Stevenson
The next time you hear a hot n’ heavy racket going on in the hotel room next door, don’t be surprised if you detect an “eh” amongst the “oohs.”
The survey polled 12, 500 frequent travellers in ten countries. Overall, 51 per cent reported that sleep was their top priority when checking in to a hotel, but only 48 per cent of Canadians felt that way.
“Either we have different customs, or we were more truthful than others in answering the question,” says Jean-Luc Barone, General Manager of the Westin Bayshore Vancouver. Read More...
Canada: Sleep Cheap
Super chic Opus Hotels sent me an email regarding a 50% off deal. Book before August 15 and you can score a room in Vancouver for $165/night or in Montreal for $119/night. Click HERE.
Smells like Savings in Toronto
Now that the interminable garbage strike has come to an end (mine still hasn’t been picked up, mind you. I might open my own raccoon zoo soon), Toronto is desperately trying to coax tourists into spending the last of their summer vacation in the big smoke. Check out The Best of Toronto Package, which includes an overnight stay at The Sheraton Centre Toronto or Westin Harbour Castle, a top-priced ticket to a Mirvish Productions theatre performance (such as The Sound of Music), a three-course dinner at one of 14 nearby restaurants and admission to one of the following: the CN Tower, Ontario Science Centre or a Toronto Tours city bus tour. At just $149 per person, perhaps you shouldn’t turn your nose up at it.
Go to www.seetorontonow.com/summer or call 1-800-461-3333.
Summer Camp...in Downtown Toronto
By Reb Stevenson
Move over Algonquin Park, there's a new destination for happy campers in Ontario: downtown Toronto!
(Cue chorus of laughter from tents everywhere.)
Adopting a carved wooden bear as its mascot, the hotel aims to summon your best memories of summer camp -- in a less supervised setting, of course.
"It's an adult return to that free-wheeling, nostalgic feeling of long summer days," says manager Ana Yuristy.
Read More...
Homes Away from (Your) Home
Love your relatives, but don't want to live with them? Here are some local landmarks to put them up when you just can't put up with them
BY REB STEVENSON
It's summertime and the relatives are coming to visit. What joy!
Cue the barbecue, the digital cameras ... and the excuses for why they can't stay with you.
Need a few? Here are some classics: hole-riddled blow-up mattress, carbon monoxide leak, renovations in the guest room (suggesting that a jackhammer might start up after midnight is highly effective).
Once you've successfully persuaded your kinsmen that sleeping at your house is uncomfortable and/or life threatening, it's on to stage two: finding them a hotel.
But you draw a blank, because you live in Toronto. You've never been up the CN Tower, let alone stayed in a hotel `round these parts. This is only natural.
Therefore, I have created this cheat sheet to help you pair the right relative and room. Read More...
Monastery in Macedonia Provides Heavenly Peace
By Reb Stevenson
KRIVA PALANKA, MACEDONIA–With all due respect to singer/songwriter Eric Carmen, sometimes you do want to be all by yourself.
Maybe you've been jostled by too many crowds. Perhaps you've just learned – the hard way – that a cruise is not your bag. Or you're just a crusty old grump.
For me, it's the cigarettes. In Eastern Europe, where there are people there is a corresponding haze of smoke. At first, it's a novelty in a "remember the '90s?" kind of way. But after a week of swatting the air at coffee shops, restaurants and hotels, I long to retreat into a lung-friendly isolation cell.
St. Joakim Osogovski Monastery, therefore, is a godsend. Tucked away in the Osogovo Mountains near the city of Kriva Palanka, it is one of the most picturesque monasteries in Macedonia.
READ MORE....
The Big Picture: Uplifting Elevator
Tonight I’m staying in Edinburgh’s brand new Hotel Missoni, which just opened last week. It’s all funky and colourful and super stylish - quite the contrast from the drab grey architecture outside. Couldn’t resist this shot in the elevator. And yes, someone walked in while I was lying on the floor. Of course.
www.hotelmissoni.com
State of Grace
REB STEVENSON
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico–Sure, there's a beach nearby. But Old San Juan is so stacked with culture, history and nightlife that an urban Caribbean holiday suddenly seems feasible.
The blue brick cobblestone streets are still supercharged with Spanish romance, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Puerto Rico has been a U.S. territory since 1898. From the pastel-hued buildings to the salsa music that beckons from hole-in-the-wall cafes, it's clear that a hedonistic spirit reigns in these parts.
Hotel El Convento presides over sleepy little Plaza of the Nuns in the heart of the old town. You can't miss it – just look for a grandiose, colonnaded exterior that is almost ironically softened by a buttery yellow paint job.
Read More...
Tesco! Jacket Potatoes! Sheep! Ahh...
In a decorating move that’s both English and edgy, dozens of teacups dangle from the ceiling in the restaurant.
Artist Antony Gormley carefully arranged them across a 300 metre stretch of beach. Their foundations go 30 metres deep, which is handy since the tide ebbs and flows, submerging them completely at times.
The jet lag made for a hard night’s day. So, naturally, we ended up at the new Beatles-themed Hard Day’s Night Hotel. Surprisingly restrained for a place that could so easily have gone overboard (think the interior of The Yellow Submarine), this hotel is a four-star, classy homage to the Fab Four. The Lennon Suite complete with its own white piano, is the star of the show.The McCartney Suite is more like a backup dancer.
Jumbo Hostel
Dorm: $53/night
Three bed room: $204/night
Cockpit suite: $500/night
www.jumbohostel.com
Extra! Extra!
Here is a round-up of some of my work that has appeared in papers across Canada over the past few weeks.
ST LUCIA: JAW-DROPPING ACCOMMODATION
ENGLAND: A TIMBERED TOURIST MAGNET
Rye’s Mermaid Inn is uber-haunted...by Tudorphiles like me.
BOX SET! Watch my video on Rye here.
TORONTO: 37 TAKES ON COOL
MADAGASCAR: THE MOVIE 
Read my interview with writer/directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, who explain how a special trip to Africa inspired the creative team of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
Barbaric Borthwick!
After a month solid of labouring on farms through the wwoof scheme, I figured it was time to shed my Cinderella alter-ego and return to my royal roots (bet you didn’t know I was the Duchess of Delusions).
So I hauled my dirt-encrusted self to Borthwick Castle in Scotland. This 15th century fortified dwelling has been a hotel for some 30 years, and at 120 to 200 pounds per night, it’s a swanky affair indeed.
However, don’t let that price convince you that everything’s safe n’ sound ‘round Borthwick.
If you look closely at the exterior of the Castle, you will note two square towers. Between them is the chasm known in the days of yore as the “Prisoner’s Leap.” Lord Borthwick, exhibiting a playful side, held an annual sporting event for his prisoners: they would be granted complete freedom if they could jump across the 12-foot wide gap between the towers. The only catch: their hands were tied behind their backs AND their legs were adorned with a big ole ball and chain. Oh, and a cluster of spikes below ensured complete, total and utter death (as though the 100 foot drop wouldn’t do the trick).
Did anyone ever make it? “No,” assistant manager David Sinclair told me with absolute certainty.
Well, they say that the colour red actually whets one’s appetite. And so I hopped from the “Prisoner’s Leap” to the Great Hall for dinner. It seems that little has changed since the days when Mary, Queen of Scots stayed here. The Great Hall is stony and moody, rich with the complimentary aromas of the ever-crackling wood fire and the meat cooking in the adjacent kitchen.
The hostess gazed upon me with that “you’re alone, what a shame” look and sat me down with a family of four: the Wanners. It turns out that dad Kirby, mom Francine and sibs Emma, 10 and Cole, 8, are a Calgarian family who have swapped Alberta for Nice, France for a year (can you blame them? You can check out the blog chronicling their experiences abroad at www.mytripjournal.com/wannerfamily).
Cole, a smiley little chap blessed with superb dimples, tucked into his salmon with gusto. Emma settled on the chicken fingers, declaring that she would “rather attempt the jump” than let haggis anywhere near her mouth.
Figuring that if you’re going to try haggis, you may as well try it in a castle, I ordered the traditional Scottish dish, complete with neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes). I deliberately avoiding googling or wikipedia-ing haggis prior to my arrival- who needs a reminder that it is essentially organ potpourri? This ignorance served me well as - lo and behold - it was shockingly tasty!
Despite its imposing structure, Borthwick Castle is an intimate hotel There are only 10 rooms, all of which deliver that authentic castle feel. And due to conservation issues there is no television. That’s okay, you can entertain yourself by perspiring in bed as your imagination runs wild, especially if you’re in The Red Room...(cue music from “The Shining”)...
Several of the rooms at Borthwick - including The Red Room - have tiny little cubby holes (now converted to bathrooms) once known as Luggies Coves. A maid would stow away in the cove 24/7, awaiting further instruction from the tenant of the bedchamber. But one of the many Lord Borthwicks got serviced well beyond the routine chamber pot disposal, and the poor maid wound up pregnant. To avoid any claims to the family fortune, gentle Borthwick sent two guards into The Red Room, where the maid was on duty in the Luggies Cove. They dragged her out and savagely murdered her on the spot. Apparently the room was saturated with blood.
Of course, the usual compendium of ghost stories started trickling in. So in the 1970s, Borthwick Castle actually hired an exorcist. Sinclair reports that while the hauntings subsided, a mysterious feminine form appeared on the mantlepiece shortly thereafter. If you fancy a round of “magic eye,” just gaze at the picture below and try to imagine a pregnant woman lying on her back (head is on the left).
I would tell you more about Borthwick Castle but I’ve just noticed a bizarre swirl in my haggis, and it looks kinda like SEAN CONNERRY!!!!! Whoops, is he still alive? Crap. It must be WILLIAM WALLACE!!!!! Sending out a press release, pronto.