Beautiful Berlin

Back from Beautiful Berlin

This was my first trip to Berlin. Having travelled to Munich, Dusseldorf and Cologne I was expecting something somewhat different. Berlin is one of the most relaxed cities I have visited. The streets are lined with smart shops, cool cafes and restaurants.

There are plenty of interesting sites to visit including Checkpoint Charlie, remaining parts of the Berlin wall and the Jewish Museum.

The Concorde hotel is an excellent, clean, modern, quiet, 5 star hotel. The rooms were well designed and spacious. The hotel is an excellent central location within walking distance of several Berlin landmarks. The staff were friendly helpful and efficient. Highly recommended.
Unfortunately I was on a business trip, but I would definitely return for pleasure.

New York

I have not been to New York for many years. We got a great deal on expedia staying at the W Hotel so off we went.

The W group is all about style. A fantastic lobby and bar full of staff and guests straight out of the pages of GQ or Vogue. Unfortunately there is considerably more style than substance at the W. It is a clever concept take a 2 or 3 star hotel in a great location, add great interior design in the common areas, create a atmosphere and then charge 4 or 5 star prices.

Rooms at the W are divided into "Cozy", "Spectacular", "Fantastic" and "Mega" rooms. This aggressive American marketing tactic is a spectacular own goal when it comes to managing guest expectations.

Our "spectacular" room was far from spectacular. The room was really, really small. The chair that dominated a corner of the room was threadbare. The air conditioning was extremely loud. The spectacular room looked straight out onto a car park wall.

W Room type translation

· Cozy Room = Cupboard
· Spectacular Room = Large Cupboard
· Fantastic Room = Small Room
· Mega Room = Standard hotel room

All credit to the staff, when we told them of our dissatisfaction with our room they agreed to upgrade us the following night from a Spectacular Room to a Mega Room (shown in the picture above) at no extra charge.

New York was great. Our experiences included Sushi Samba which was a great and highly original restaurant. It combined South America food and music with incredible Sushi prepared in front of us.

With the pound at two dollars who could stay away from the shops ?