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Show H2 __The Salt LakeTribune TRAVEL Sunday, September 10, 1995 Right Spot to Sleep Can Addto a Traveler’s Adventure [ By Thomas Swick PORT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL Hotels never held much allure for me as places to stay. The great ‘ones fascinated more as historic landmarks, living museums,brilliant repositories of an alien glamour, and were way out of my Price range, anyway There was the Flanders in Splendid Hotels on a Trip Through Europe M-SENTINI Mytrip through Europe thi FORT LAUDEADALE $ past spring was marked Oo B sistent good luck in good hotels. g London, England: Edward Lear Hotel. Friends had raved aboutthis hotel in the one-time home of the 19th century artist and writer (The Owl and the Pussy cat) It sits in the middle of a handsome block of brown brick row houses with tall black iron fences, one block north of Oxford Street and Marble Arch. The downstairs hallways are decorated with Lear's drawings and nensense Ocean City, NJ. — the object of my first hotel crush — which rose like sculpted angel-food cake amid the pork roll and saltwater taffy. (We always stayed at the Impala, a '50s motelbuilt, literally, in its shadow.) The pcol in filled with the ocean. looked as large as a lake. Aglow to the north, Atlantic City possessed @ raj-like boardwalk of palaces before the gamblers came and blew them up Whenever 1 went to New York City as a teen-ager I would always makea stop at the Plaza to use the men’s room —- comforted by the sight of ladies in the Tea Room and amazed atthecivility that allowed me inside. (Though I did Verses. My single room was small and comfortable, with a tiny TV on a footstool, a tall window overlooking Seymour Street, and a narrow bed. The bathroom had a tub big enough to hold a small pea-green boat, thoughthetoilet was in the hall at the top ofthe stairs. At $80a notice, over the years, the slow isappearance of seating in the lobby.) ThePlaza is one of those hotels that has becomea sight, a place of touristic pilgrimage. Paris has the Ritz and Hong Kong the Peninsula, Saigon the Continental and Port-au-Prince the Oloffson. You cannot go to Nice without paying respects at the Negresco, or to Singapore without having a drink at Raffles, or even to Memphis night — with a full English breakfast downstairs in the dining room — it was a real London bargain. (Pricier rooms come with fully equipped baths.) Contact: Edward Lear Hotel, 28-30 Seymour Street, London, WIE 5WD, U_K.; tel: 01144-1-71-402-5401 you need to turn in. It is then that a hotel becomes, for me and legions of other penurious travelers, nothing morethana place te lay your head — a stable, really, an enclosure with a pillow. At least until you makethat onestartling find that gets you reconsidering the return date on your ticket. If it's a bad find — cigarette burns on the pillowcase, a dead bodyunderthe hed —- it will color your entire stay. Likewise if it’s good: Your warm feelings toward your lodging will fan out and eventually smotherthe town. The qualities that make a hotel bad or great are pretty much universal, while a good hotel speaks to more personal tastes. Whichis to say, my good hotel may not be your good hotel For me, the most important quality in a good hotelis a central location. I love being able to walk Dijon. France: Hotel Le Jac- day. Milan was in a kind of dou- Amazing what happens when you leave the metropolis. With picked up a map anda list of hotels at the tourist office. and went out fora stroll. As always in a new city, I felt a bit dazed, but I could take my time, feel my way, noth- quemart. A much bigger room with a much bigger bed and a fullyequipped bathroom, for $55. a creperie across the street and a pub — yes, they're taking over the Continent — around the corner. Contact: Hotel Le Jaequemart, 32-34 rue Verrerie 21000 Dijon, France; tel: 011- out to use the toilet every morn- The second most ing. It was alwaysvacant, cleaner thanthe one at home, and with an open dormer window that let in the sun and the sounds of the street. The staff at good hotels are pretty much immaterial, thoughif they are pleasant it is an added bonus. And, believe me, you never need a fax machine. important notably in Hong Kong — never to pay more than $109 for a room. It seems an unconscionable amount of money to spend on sleep. From there therest is pretty ba- sic: my good hotel is clean, and safe (doors that lock firmly) and, preferably, comes with windows. Though I spent a few pleasantly dark days in Stockholm once in a sort of oversized closet the receptionist warned me | would not How do you find a good hotel? Guidebooks give some direction, but youstill go in blind. I sometimes depend on them for myfirst night's stay, even going so far as to makea reservation, but after that I’m on myown. On mylast trip to Italy I diseov- want to look at. But the price was right and I thought it might be At every intersection I'd peer idea of price, though their neighberhoods didn’t quite live up to my ideal. (Caution: There is a condition of pathological perfectionism in looking for a hotel that can lead, in extreme cases, to homelessness.) After about an hour and a half I found myself in the financial district. This would have seemed an unjustifiably large amount of time to devote to looking for a room if I hadn't been simultaneously exploring the city. Jan Morris, the doyenne of travel writers, once said that the first thing she does onarriving in any newcity is wander about aimlessly, Since the neighborhood didn’t look too promising, I pulled out the hotellist (fer the first time), ratherlike a spiraling pilot reaching for his rip cord. There was one place in myprice rangein the vicinity: the un-Lombardianly named London Hotel. It was tucked away in a little warren of streets off a large boulevardthat ran down to the Cathedral. Ten minutes more of walking, and I came to Via Rovello. The sidewalk was so narrow I walked in the street. There was notraffic, and I pictured kids kicking a soc- all within easy walking distance, ered the ideal method forfinding KansasCity.... Seattle........% ing was going on anyway. I passed with relief the terminus hotels. then headed in the general directiou of the Cathedral. Montreux, Switzerland: La Rouvenaz. In this town even the hotel across from the train station would have broken my budget So i wandered down along the lake-front and noticed a sign for chambres abovea pizzeria. Myfourth-floor, $78 room was modern, bright, clean — this was Switzerland. after all — and camewith a fully equipped bathroom. Lying in bed, looking out over a moonlit, Alprimmed Lake Geneva, I had to force myself te go to sleep. Contact: La Rouvenaz, rue du Marche 1, 1820 Montreux. Switzerland; tel: 011-41-2i963-27-36; fax; 011-41-21-963- Bergmanesque.This is the advantage oftraveling alone: The hotel room is a bivouac, not a lovers’ nest. Bathrooms are nice, but they can be down the hall. A few months ago in Milan I stayed in a great goodhotel whereI hadto go quality is price. I have a rule — broken only occasionally, most I checked mybagat the station, down the side streets, looking for signs. If there was one, I'd turn in that direction and sniff around. I outof the lobby and into a swarm; I detest being somewhere on the outskirts and havingto take a taxi or a bus. The truly marvelous good hotels come with their own intimate neighborhoods — which in the United States would inelude a bakery, bookstore and bar justas in Italy it would involve a trattoria and a gelato shop. ble-sleep. 33-80-73-39-74; fax: 011-3380-73-20-99 43-94. without watching the parade of ducks at the Peabody. There comes a time, however — usually around midnight — when a hotel. My train got into Milan at 2:39 on a Sunday afternoon — the perfect time to lock. by the way, because no city is quieter than in the siesta hours of a non-working entered a few places, to get an Portland ...... Ormewary, po perce fom SIC 14 21 doy aaaprea macs. ve. Stings raed DALLAS, TX pound Trip won s10......-c12D 1 Non-refundatle 1 Day advance purchase. 3 Day ranmum stay Travel mest commence by Dec.12. SLC to Dalias most departon Saturdays only. 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