From the outside it looks like a fortress built by pirates, the inside of the hotel rooms look more like romantic honeymoon suites. I have been revisiting this Puerto Galera Hotel on multiple occasions over the past 10 years and it is impressive how the Austrian owner Paul has build his house into one of the best hotels in Sabang. It's very close to the small Sabang harbour where the bangka ferries leave for Batangas and many divers take off for their daily nitro diving tours. It's a romantic place with a great view of the bay if you have a hotel room or suite on one of the higher floors. While it's so romantic, be aware there are a lot of mosquitos (Lamok) flying around. Bring your lotion with you to avoid their painful bites. The restaurant inside the Tropicana Hotel offers great food, a bit pricey for some. If you like fresh seafood, walk 200 meters to the Sabang market to buy fresh fish and prawns. For a small charge of 50 Piso they will cook and prepare the food for you and you can take it out to eat it on the patio of your hotel room. The minibars are stacked with drinks. A perfect way to chill out the day is to sit on the patio at night time to enjoy cold San Miguel beers while observing the Sabang nightlife from a distance.
Homepage: Tropicana on Facebook
Go here: Make a Reservation for Tropicana Castle

Nightly view of the Tropicana Hotel. It's a pretty romantic place to chill out after sunset.

I was pretty happy the first night I spent inside the Sures Suites in Belgrano, a suburb in the North of Buenos Aires as I had a light flooded suite with floor heating and all amenities including fast internet connection. The next day I had to move into a rather small room in the back of the building's gound floor as the suite I originally booked was reserved for somebody else. This room as pictured above was small and dark. It could not compare to the suite they showed me when I inquired about a stay at first. The small window was facing a wall, internet speed was very slow.

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A pretty good online source for discounted online hotel room reservations. Be adviced to book at least 3 days in advance as they require this time frame to accept any booking over the internet. I have used them several times and they are very helpful. Initially, they started out with Asian hotels in Thailand, but pretty fast they expanded to offer discounted hotel rooms from all over the World.

It's awhile ago that I stayed at the Makati Palace Hotel on Burgos Street. It's conveniently located in the nightlife district of Makati with many bars along P. Burgos Street. Upon exiting the hotel one can chose from establishments such as Bottoms Up, The Bronx, Mascara, Billboard and Rogues to mention just a few Burgos bars from the strip. The Makati Palace is more of a Condotel, some of the rooms are rented out by a hotel type operation while other rooms are advertised and rented by private owners over various ads in daily papers and online media.

A colorful bed cover for this Makati Palace hotel room bed

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Mactan Island is a small Island fronting Cebu City, the main hub of the Visayan Islands in the South of the Philippines. Mactan Island is not one of those beautiful tropical islands of the Philippines, but it's close to Cebu City and it hosts Cebu's international and domestic airport. Don't expect any nice beaches! The beach in front of the hotel is not like the sandy white beach of Boracay at all. Watersports are limited to diving and jet ski. The large shaped hotel pool is the best place to take a swim. The restaurant serves tasty Asian seafood dishes and is mostly visited by tourist groups from Europe and East Asia. The hotel rooms are very basic, but offer a lot of space. Actually, they are a little bit to big for the small air conditioners that are build in. If you are a watersport freak who spends just little time in the hotel, it's a place to stay, but for the little comfort the Cebu Beach Club offers, it appears to be overpriced for my taste. I checked out some other resorts located next to it like the Maribago Blue Water Resort and liked it much better.  An outside view of the rooms entrance. The hotel building is shaped like an 'U' around the large swimming pool landscape. The rooms are aligned like a row of small houses, similar to American motels.

Unfortunately, my camera's flash light was broken, so image quality is very poor this time :-( I was upgraded to a jr. suite with a separate living room. Pretty nice room with a comfortable bed.

Back in September 2008 I had to make a short 2 day trip to Kuala Lumpur. One of the best areas to stay in is surrounding the famous Petronas Towers and the KLCC park. Most brand name hotel chains have their hotels aligned around this belt. I stayed a couple of streets off at the Crowne Plaza Kuala Lumpur. As usual I booked over the IHG website and secured a club room a day in advance. The room was very nice with ample space, open design with sliding dividers between the bathroom and the sleeping area. They offer wired internet access for a fee, but I did not check it this time as my laptop had no ethernet port and there was no wifi signal in my room. I was disappointed about the cleanliness of my Crowne Plaza hotel room. The working desk and the furniture were covered with a fine layer of dust. As I was entitled to a late check out I was very disappointed that they had moved me out of my room during my absence ignoring the DND sign on my door and neglecting the late checkout privilege. They threw all my belongings into my suitcase. Not a nice way of treating a club room customer. The lady in the club lounge reception explained it with a glitch in the housekeeping system and said she was sorry, but it did not sound very convincing. It's a pitty. This hotel is in a great location and the hotel rooms are nicely equipped, but the attitude of staff and cleanliness leave a lot to be desired imho. I will try a different hotel when returning to Kuala Lumpur.

An outside view of the Kuala Lumpur Crowne Plaza hotel on a sunny day.

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I got a good last minute deal over a website for a weekend trip to Singapore and booked The Orchard Hotel. It is situated right on the end of Singapore's most prominent shopping strip on Orchard Road. Unfortunately, they did not have the room available that I booked, so they 'upgraded' me to one of their signature rooms. Pretty tiny rooms that have great design and functionality, but they were small. The second night my more spacious club room in the other wing of the busy hotel was available and I liked it so much that I extended my stay for 6 days. Their internet connection is lightning fast. I clocked it at 3Mps. That's the fastest internet connection I have ever experienced in any hotel around the globe. My room charge included 2 pieces of free laundry a day. I left my laundry on the bed in the morning and had it back from the cleaners by late afternoon :-) That's great service. Guys who enjoy vibrant nightlife will enjoy the place because right next to it you find Orchard Towers. It's a shopping complex at daytime, but converts into 4 floors of bars and discos at night time with exotic people to watch and meet. It's a melting pot of cultures, but most of the ladies in Orchard Towers are Filipinas. A lot of fun for single male travelers who want to party all night and retreat in a first class hotel next door.

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