Hotel Room Blog

Link: http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-2741931-10443218

A one night stay in Miami and I did not want to spend to much money. I was looking for a good location close to the airport as I was coming in from Orlando by car. The Holiday Inn Express in Hilaeah was a perfect choice. I booked it over the internet from the IHG site as usual. While they had some construction going and 826 highway was right next to the Miami hotel I had no noise to complain about. The heating and aircon worked fine. It's one of the more basic hotels that offer a decent bed at a perfect strategic location for travelers with a car. The bathroom is a bit small and the rooms just have one window, so it's more of a transit hotel than a vacation paradise. I included information about their internet connectivity speed inside the hotel rooms in the full post.

Ample parking in front of the Holiday Inn Express in Hialeah Miami. The hotel is located next to 826 highway approximately 20 minutes by car to Miami International airport

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The Clarkton is one of the few older Angeles City Hotels that keep on improving their premises with new construction and better services. Unfortunately, most other hotels in the Philippines just run down their facilities without any maintenance until they collapse. It is refreshing to see how the German management keeps a well maintained business. The Clarkton hotel consists of it's old main building, a side wing and a newly built 4 story annex in the back of the lot. The rooms are very tidy, have large custom built beds and are connected with high speed internet. I have stayed at the Clarkton many times and like it a lot because of it's remote location far away from the entertainment district on Field Avenue (they offer a free shuttle service with their Mercedes van from 6pm until 3am). It is peaceful with a great pool that can be used for swimming and is deep enough for diving. Their Panorama restaurant serves some of the best food in Angeles City including Sushi and Swiss specialities like Fondue. The dinner buffet is superb, but they also offer 24h ala carte menu with the option of room service for a 10% surcharge. I think I will always stay at the Clarkton again when visiting Angeles City in Pampanga. Besides the Oasis hotel it is the only place that offers a lot of privacy and comfort without being exposed to the noise and pollution of the bussier places of this bustling Philippine town. The only downside are the bulky and uncomfortable pillows that cause me neck pain. But that's not a problem since I always bring my own pillow when I travel to the Philippines.

Night view of the Clarkton from Don Juico Avenue on the border to Clark Special Economic Zone.

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The location of this Holiday Inn Express Hotel in Marina del Rey is perfect for travelers who want to be close to Los Angeles International Airport without being exposed to the noise and pollution of the busy airhub. It's just a 10 minute drive to the airport, 2 mins to the beach and 10 mins to the shopping centres in Santa Monica. Access to main roads and highways is easy and fast, even during peak traffic times.
The suites are designed like a cube in a cube with a bed room, a living room and a bathroom. The comfort is ok, with a nice bed and everything was fine. However, the heating was not really working well. It was always to cold so I left it running while I was out of the house, but the maid always turned it off so it was freezing cold when I came back home. I will make sure to pick a warmer time of the year for my next trip to California.
The Hotel was very quiet, had ample parking available and they even offered basic breakfest that was complimentary. Nothing fancy, but enough for a coffee and a quick bite and some fresh fruits. With a nightly price of less than 150$ it is a great bargain for LA. Most LA hotels in a good strategic location are far more expensive than this Holiday Inn Express.

A nice selction of soft and hard pillows was available for a good night sleep.

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Finally, I have finished the design of Hotel Room Blog and I am looking forward to publish new hotel reviews over the coming weeks. I will be spending 18 hours on a flight from Singapore to Los Angeles this weekend. This should give me enough time to finish some hotel reviews from my recent trips in Asia. Watch out for Reviews of the following establishments in the near future:

Orchard Hotel Singapore
Omni Towers Bangkok, Thailand
Centrepoint Serviced Apartments Bangkok, Thailand
Nova Park Pattaya, Thailand
Holiday Inn Golden Mile Kowloon, Hong Kong
Royal Bellagio Makati, Philippines
Clarkton Hotel Angeles City, Philippines

The new fisheye zoom for my Nikon camera is taking great images and I started to document more facts like internet speed for the geeks among you guys.

Link: http://www.hiharbourside.com/

This is a great Florida hotel in Indian Rocks Beach. It is located in the Tampa Bay area close to Largo, St. Petersburg Beach, Treasure Island and Clearwater Beach. As a member of Priority Club I made advance reservation and was greated with vouchers for two welcome drinks upon check in at the lobby. Now, this place ain't cheap, but it is not overpriced. You get a great 1 bedroom suite with a nice view over the intercostal waterway that separates Indian Rocks from Largo. The distance to the beach is around 300 meters and the location is quiet. It's a hotel with personality, not just a place to stay overnight. My 1 BR had a living room with a large kitchen and a bedroom with 2 queen sized beds. It was a non-smoking room.
When you think of Florida and the beaches you probably think of warm weather. Well, during my visit it was freezing cold in mid January. Their climate control worked like a charme. It heated the room as well as it cooled the place during the hot summer season.
There are small shops and a restaurant on site, ample parking is available in a garage and in front of the building.
I really enjoyed my stay. The only downside were constant problems with the WIFI connectivity. Plenty of stations would show up to connect to, but speed was slow and connections were weak and broke down every couple of hours.
I would definately stay again at the Holiday Inn in Indian Rocks. If you are interested in booking the Harbourside Holiday Inn you need to visit the website of the Intercontinental Hotel Group and enter your data into the search form.

Bedroom with queen beds

Living Room with kitchen

Garage for parking

Since I travel a lot I decided to start this hotel blog to share my experiences from hotel stays in various places around the world. I am a single male traveler who travels for business and leisure at the same time. I do value good quality hotels with attentive staff, good internet connectivity and peaceful settings.
My favorite hotel should be in a good central location, but still quiet enough to let me sleep at night. A comfortable bed with more than 2 pillows with good climate control are basic needs as well as good internet connectivity, minibar, etc. I am willing to spend a fair amount of cash for a good night of sleep in a decent hotel.
You will see hotels priced from 30$ on my blog and some that charge 500$ or more. Happy reading. I sincerely hope that my honest descriptions will help others to collect additional info for future travel plans. While I base my descriptions on pure facts, all of my experiences are unique and others may have different experiences with the same establishment. After all it is just my personal opinion that I write.
I do try to take photos from most places and will attach them to my accounts. Since I am not publishing glossy advertisement brochures my pics will be pretty normal and you will see my trash or personal belongings in some of them. I hope you don't mind :-)
If you would like to contact me, please, feel free to use the contact from on this blog or just click on the author link on a particular hotel room blog post to open a contact form and I will get back to you.