Review of the Weaver Estate Vineyard Cottages near Alexandra, New Zealand.
Sleep
Finding a decent place to sleep can be a serious pain in the ass.
Our definition of “decent” is: clean, quiet, bigger than a small box, private, an integral (not shared) bathroom that is clean and nice, and reasonably priced for the area.
We prefer bungalows over rooms in a hotel (by bungalow, we mean a stand-alone structure containing quarters for a single guest.)
In general, we are mid-range folks. We don’t want the flash and costs associated with top-end hotels; but we also don’t want to sleep on a mat on the floor with the roaches.
In this category, we provide reviews on the places we have stayed while searching for something decent.
Hotel Montreal, Christchurch, New Zealand
Review of the Hotel Montreal in Christchurch, New Zealand.
South Sea Hotel, Oban, Stewart Island, New Zealand
Review of the South Sea Hotel in the village of Oban on Stewart Island, New Zealand.
The Classic Villa, Christchurch, New Zealand
Review of The Classic Villa bed and breakfast in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The Bealey Hotel, Bealey, New Zealand
A review of the Bealey Hotel in New Zealand.
Lake Coleridge Lodge, Lake Coleridge Village, New Zealand
Review of the Lake Coleridge Lodge in Lake Coleridge Village, New Zealand.
Hotel St. Moritz, Queenstown, New Zealand
Review of the Hotel St. Moritz in Queenstown, New Zealand.
Radfords on the Lake, Te Anau, New Zealand
Review of Radfords on the Lake in Te Anau, New Zealand.
Paradise Cove Restaurant and Bungalows, Palau
Review of the Paradise Cove Restaurant and Bungalows in Palau.
Penthouse Hotel, Koror, Palau
Review of the Penthouse Hotel, in Koror, the Republic of Palau.
Dolphin Bay Resort, Peleliu, Palau
Review of the Dolphin Bay Resort on the island of Peleliu, in the Republic of Palau.
Carolines
Review of Carolines resort hotel in Koror, Palau.
Casa Santiago, Vejer de la Frontera, Cadiz Province, Andalusia, Spain
Casa Santiago is a self-catered vacation rental inside the town of Vejer. It’s an attached, two story, three bedroom, one-and-a-half bath apartment; in the middle of a row of other attached, two-story apartments that line a narrow lane, like pretty much all the housing arrangements inside small Spanish towns. Casa Santiago has the kitchen, dining area, a half bathroom, and […]
Finca Los Borreguitos, San Pablo de Buceite, Cadiz Province, Andalusia, Spain
This is a self-catering vacation rental house in Andalusia’s Cadiz province located near a village called San Pablo de Buceite, which is seven kilometers from the town of Jimena de la Frontera. The house has two bedrooms, one with its own bathroom, and one with private access to a second guest bathroom. Both bathrooms have a shower. The master bathroom […]
Kool Hotel, Siem Reap, Cambodia
The Kool Hotel was started by the same guy who now owns the Sanctuary Villa, and the Sanctuary Villa is a great place where we stayed for a long, long time in Battambang. So, when we decided to head to Siem Reap, it was an easy decision to stay at the Kool Hotel. Our long-time association got us a reduced […]
Bangkok Airport Hotels: Floral Shire Resort and Novatel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel
The Suvarnabhumi Airport is a long ways east of Bangkok proper. It takes well in excess of and hour to transit between the two by taxi. So, if you just have an overnight layover, and don’t want to spend hours in a taxi, you are stuck with the limited hotel options near the airport. That was our situation the night […]
Chivapuri Resort, Ko Chang, Thailand
This resort is located on the southern end of Ko Chang, just a bit east of the town of Ban Bang Bao; and can be reached by walking down the beach, or by driving down a half-mile or so of sandy and muddy lane that serves as the hotel’s driveway. The accommodations are contained in a handful of buildings – […]
Kasemsarn Hotel, Chanthaburi, Thailand
The Kasemsarn Hotel is located in central Chanthaburi. The building has three floors, with the lobby and restaurant on the first floor. We got a deluxe room for 1380 baht a night. The room had a queen sized bed, bathroom with shower and Western toilet, air conditioning, and small refrigerator. It was clean and reasonably sized. There was a little […]
Bailan Beach Resort, Ko Chang, Thailand
This place is located at Bailan Beach, on the southwestern coast of Ko Chang island. The complex consists of numerous individual bungalows, an open-air reception building, an open-air dining area, and a pool. The grounds are on the waterfront. We stayed in a Superior bungalow, which is the upper tier of their accommodations. It had a double bed, bathroom with […]
Sanctuary Villa, Battambang, Cambodia
The Sanctuary is located on the northern end of Battambang. It’s far enough out that getting your own wheels is a good idea (on our first stay, we rented a motorbike from a shop called Gecko for $8 a day – which we haggled to $7 a day for a multi-day rental; on our second stay we rented a […]
Santepheap Hotel, Kratie, Cambodia
This hotel is located on the Kratie riverfront strip. We stayed in two rooms over the course of two nights. On the first night, we stayed in one of their larger rooms. On the second night, we moved to a smaller room, due to someone else having a prior reservation for the larger room. Both rooms had air conditioning, a […]
Monorom 2 VIP Hotel, Kompong Cham, Cambodia
This hotel is located on the Mekong riverfront, in a small strip of hotels. It’s a four story affair, with three grades of room. We stayed in the upper grade of room, on the third floor, which cost us US $25 a night. The room had a king bed, air conditioning, television, small refrigerator, and a usable balcony facing the […]
Sovann Phum Hotel, Kompong Chhnang, Cambodia
This hotel is located on the main highway through Kompong Chhnang (NH 5), toward the southern end of town. Because it’s on the highway, and lacks much in the way of sound insulation, it’s a pretty noisy place. The sounds of the street – people, motorbikes, vehicles, incessant horn honking – and of neighboring rooms fill your space like there […]
Auberge Sala Don Khon, Don Khon, Laos
This hotel is located on the island of Don Khon in the 4000 Islands area of southern Laos. The hotel consists of an open-air restaurant and an office building on the waterfront, and five other buildings containing from two to six guest rooms. The principal building is a former hospital building constructed during the French colonial period. We slept in […]
Inthira Hotel, Champasak, Laos
This may be both the nicest and most expensive hotel operation in Chamapasak. There are three levels of rooms. The lowest level is very nice, and located in a building cross the street (think almost-single-lane, pot-holed road) from all the hotel’s restaurant and other rooms. The highest level are two-story suites with lots of glass. They look pretty nice – […]
E-Tu Waterfall Resort, Bolaven Plateau, Laos
The E-Tu Waterfall Resort is located 800 meters north of Highway 23, at kilometer marker 35 east of Pakse. The resort is spread over a decent sized piece of land. Much of the land is a working coffee farm. The rest holds several bungalows, a restaurant structure with open-air seating, an office/reception building, and another building currently under construction that […]
Anouxa Guesthouse, Champasak, Laos
This is a not that great a place. It doesn’t completely suck, but it’s over-priced for what it is. We stayed here one night, and then bailed for much, much better – and more expensive – accommodations at the Inthira Hotel. First off, any description of the accommodations at the Anouxa as having bungalows is dead wrong. There wasn’t a […]
Laithong Hotel, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand
The Laithong Hotel is located in the eastern part of Ubon. It’s a no-kidding hotel operation in a multi-room, multi-story building. It has decent reviews in Agoda and TripAdvisor – better than most in Ubon. It’s expensive at 1800 baht a night for their “deluxe” room, which is a basic hotel room with a Western bathroom. The room also has […]
Mut Mee Guesthouse, Nong Khia, Thailand
The Mut Mee is an “our pick” in the Lonely Planet guide. After looking at a couple of other places in Nong Khia, we would agree that this might be the best thing going in this town. The Mut Mee is a compound of buildings of varying design and construction, located on the Mekhong River. It’s definitely a place catering […]
Pullman Hotel, Khon Khaen, Thailand
The Pullman Hotel is an upper-end hotel for this part of Thailand. Anyone who has stayed in a Marriott in a major US city would be familiar. The accommodations were on par with four-star standards. So, if you are willing to shell out more money than you would for most any other hotel outside of Bangkok, you at least won’t […]